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Thinking of going DIGITAL?? - part 3 of 1 2 3

by Carol Steele Published 01/02/2000

The next thing you will need is some means of getting your images into the computer. Extremely good scanners can be bought these days and what would have cost you over a £1000 just a few years ago can now be bought for just over £100.

The Epson Perfection Photo 1200 scanner has won quite a few accolades and will scan prints, slides or negs at a true optical resolution of 1200x2400 and costs just £179. Alternatively specialist film scanners for 35mm negs or slides can be considered and both Minolta and Nikon make good examples of these.

One of the prime causes of system problems is that people often purchase computers, load Adobe Photoshop onto the computer and then blithely start working. Adobe Photoshop is a large program which will tax your system to its limits and once you start manipulation of the images the huge file sizes concerned will often bring your system to its knees. Better by far to optimise the way your system works before doing any work. When you purchase your system you can instruct the vendor to set up the hard drives in a certain way (see separate panel on preceding page) or, if this is not possible, consider getting somebody who is computer aware to set them up for you.
So, there you are, sat in front of your gleaming new computer, Adobe Photoshop loaded and ready to go - the temptation is to dive in and start scanning and manipulating your images.

Unfortunately that will frustrate and irritate you to the point of coming to blows with your new friend. Adobe Photoshop is a huge and complicated program but has the advantage of coming with one of the best manuals in the business. So take your time to read through it and all the exercises and then slowly work your way through the exercises (repeating them if necessary) until you learn how the software works. You will then be ready to start earning money from your newly acquired skills in digital manipulation.

In the next months article Carol will discuss simple retouching techniques used in the restoration of old or damaged photographs.

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Contact Carol Steele

1st Published 01/02/2000
last update 09/12/2022 14:59:52

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