April 2005 Chad Beale a Total of 200,000 Pixels)
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National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior HFC onMEDIA April | 5 Issue 6 The bright and shining faces In This Issue of the future; a few of HFC’s interns from the past year. (Left to right, top to bottom) Derrick Schultz, Cincinnati; Kristina Klein, Shepherd; Greg Koch, Cincinnati; Take Your Katrina Marhefka, Cincinnati; page 2 Best Shot: David Gagner, Humboldt State; Selecting and Zach Norman, Cincinnati. Using the Right Digital Camera Planning and page Designing 5 Right, So You From the Manager Can Build it Right With the return of spring, I invariably find my thoughts turning to more than just the seasonal renewal that we are experiencing. Thinking of new approaches, new ways of looking at the routine, I am reminded of the interns that we have had over the last few Peopling the years. Students have come to us from Humboldt State University, the universities of page Landscapes at 6 Pea Ridge Cincinnati and Washington, and from our local neighbor, Shepherd University. We currently have a park ranger on a four-month detail from Pinnacles National Monu- ment. Though these people come with varying skills and interests, they all come with great enthusiasm and look at our work with new eyes. Their questions about how we do The Second our work are a constant reminder to us of how easily our assumptions become routine. page Bank Portrait We find that, as we work with them, we reconnect with our own original enthusiasms 7 Gallery and are invigorated by that process. One of our designers said to me that she wasn’t “sure who learns more, Harpers Ferry Center or the students.” One of the benefits that interns bring to HFC is their knowledge of where technology is taking us—an invalu- Typography: able asset. So as the days lengthen and the birds return, we look to these interns to be page Using NPS an important aspect of who we are and what we do as a Center. 8 Rawlinson IMI Course Opportunity — Gary Cummins onMEDIA National Park Service 1 HFC onMEDIA is produced and Take Your Best Shot published by Harpers Ferry Center. Selecting and Using the Right Digital Camera Statements of facts and views are the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect an opinion or an endorsement by the National Park Service. Digital cameras are everywhere. They have taken the con- Mention of trade names or sumer electronics industry by storm. According to InfoTrends commercial products does not necessarily constitute recommen- Research Group, worldwide consumer digital camera sales hit dation for use by the National Park Service. 53 million units in 2004, and are predicted to rise 15 percent Send questions and comments to annually over the next four years to 82 million units by 2008. Gary Candelaria either by email With so many choices of makes and models, megapixels, and at [email protected] or call 304 535 6058. To contact the “must have” features, it has become more and more difficult editorial staff email Bob Grogg at [email protected] or call to select the right camera. Once you choose a model, the next 304 535 6415. challenge is understanding how best to use it. Secretary of the Interior Gale A. Norton This article focuses on selecting the right Because digital cameras routinely cap- digital camera for use in interpretive me- ture millions of pixels with each image, Director, National Park Service dia, and capturing digital photos for use in it’s more useful to describe their sizes in Fran P. Mainella such varied media as exhibit panels, print terms of “Megapixels” (Mp), where 1 Mp publications, wayside exhibits, and web- equals 1 million pixels. A 6.3 Mp camera, Associate Director, sites. Because so many park staff are now for example, can capture a maximum of Park Planning, Facilities, and Lands taking digital photos and trying to find 6.3 million pixels in a single photograph. Sue Masica ways to incorporate them into the inter- The number of pixels you need to capture pretive media they produce – or that they in a digital photo, of course, depends on Manager, Harpers Ferry Center ask Harpers Ferry Center to produce – it’s how you will use your pictures. The re- Gary Cummins vitally important to learn some basic rules quirements for pictures used on a website about this powerful new technology. differ greatly, for instance, from pictures Editor used in a glossy publication or large Bob Grogg Pixels, Megapixels, and Resolution exhibit panel. Art Director Pixels are the building blocks of all digital Robert Clark, images. A digital photo is made up of rows Another part of the digital picture equa- Office of NPS Identity of tiny squares (pixels) that make up a rect- tion is image resolution. Resolution refers Senior Designer angular grid. An image on a web page, for to the number of pixels represented in Zach Norman instance, might be made up of 500 rows of a given physical space – the density of pixels with 400 pixels across each row (for information in the digital image. It is de- Contributors, April 2005 Chad Beale a total of 200,000 pixels). All digital cam- scribed alternately as pixels per inch (ppi) Don Branch era photos begin life as RGB color images, or dots per inch (dpi), which are both the Lakita Edwards where each pixel is either red, green or same measure. The denser the pixels are David T. Gilbert blue. Each pixel can also have a number of in a given physical space, the larger the Mark W. Johnson P.J. Lewis different brightness values, which directly image file’s size becomes. A web image Neil Mackay affects the discreet levels of tonal change that is 640 pixels x 480 pixels x 72 pixels Mark Muse that can be captured in a digital photo. per inch might be 300 kilobytes (kb) or Michael Paskowsky This amount, or depth, of information smaller. Alternately, a photo that is 8 inch The National Park Service cares contained in each pixel is known as “bit x 10 inch x 300 dots per inch might be 8 for special places saved by the depth”: a pixel in an 8-bit image can have megabytes (MB) or larger! On the next American people so that all may 256 discreet values, while a pixel in a 16-bit page is a guide for typical image sizes. experience our heritage. image can have 65,536 discreet values. EXPERIENCE YOUR AMERICA™ onMEDIA April 2005 National Park Service 2 Advantages of Image Dimensions Image Size Display Size Exhibit Size Print Size Digital Photography Pixels Megapixels 72 ppi 200 dpi 300 dpi •Rapidly emerging technol- on Web page for wayside exhibit for print publication ogy with lots of new features 640 x 480 .3 Mp 8" x 6.6" 3.2" x 2.4" 2.1" x 1.6" and capabilities. 1600 x 1200 1.8 Mp 22.2" x 16.6" 8" x 6" 5.3" x 4" 2400 x 1800 4.2 Mp 33.3" x 25" 12" x 9" 8" x 6" •You can work with images 3200 x 2400 7.5 Mp 44.4" x 33.3" 15.9" x 12" 10.6" x 8" on your personal computer. It’s important to note that some digital If you’re maintaining a website or taking •Small size of many digital cameras makes them easier cameras capture images at 72 ppi, while pictures only to document park resourc- to carry than bulkier film others save them at 300 ppi. As the chart es, activities or events, and storing these cameras. above shows, the image size and pixel images on a computer or printing them dimensions – not the resolution – are the out on an office printer, a 2 Mp cam- •You can immediately view important numbers when taking your pic- era would be sufficient. If you’re using photos as you take them to tures. The resolution becomes important your pictures for commercially printed see if you have what you only when the image is transferred to your brochures, reports, or site bulletins, want and immediately delete computer and processed for use in a print you may want to purchase a 4.2 Mp or images you do not want. publication, exhibit display, or website. higher camera. Alternately, if you need larger pictures for full-page spreads in •You can choose the size and There is an inverse proportional relation- print publications, or for exhibit panels quality of the images as you ship between the physical size of an image or wayside exhibits, you should use a shoot them. and its resolution. For example, if you 6.3 Mp or higher camera. A selection of •Images can be easily have a 4 inch x 5 inch x 200 dpi image good high-end digital cameras appears emailed, included in a publi- and you scale the image to double its size on page 4. These cameras range in price cation, put on a web page, or to 8 inches x 10 inches, the density of the from $800 - $8,000. copied to CD-ROM. pixels in the image will be spread out, resulting in a 100 dpi image – cutting the Digital Picture File Types Disadvantages resolution of the original image in half. Purchasing the right digital camera is •Good digital cameras are Conversely, if you reduce the image di- an important step, but you also need to three to four times more mensions to 2 inches x 2.5 inches, you will understand your options for capturing expensive than film cameras.