GoingManual.com It's time to take control!    Home    Tutorials    Photography Forum  Photography Tutorial Introduction Part I – Gear The Camera  -  Focus  -  Resolution  -  MegaPixels Vs Print Size  -  Sharpening Semi auto settings  -  Aperture Priority (Av)  -  Shutter priority (Tv) Zoom and Focal Length  -  A Note About Sensor Size Other Camera Features  -  Viewfinders  -  Lens Hood  -  LCD screen  -  White Balance Extra Equipment  -  Tripod  -  Cable Release  -  Filter systems  -  Polarizer and ND filter  -  External Flash  -  Studio Lighting  -  Reflectors Part II – Capturing The Scene Your First Manual Photo  -  It's All About Exposure  -  The Light Meter  -  Exposure Explained  -  Controlling Exposure Creative Effects  -  Aperture and Depth Of Field  -  DOF Preview  -  Shutter speed Putting it all Together  -  ISO  -  Ap. & Shutter Relationship  -  Stop for a minute  -  So What?  -  The Bulb Setting Metering the Scene  -  18% of Everything Metering modes  -  Matrix  -  Average  -  Center weighted  -  Spot or semi-spot Taking Meter Readings  -  Expose for your subject  -  Sunsets and sunrises  -  Reflecting sun  -  Night Exposures  -  Moon  -  Green Foliage  -  Bright or White Scenes  -  Dark or Black Scenes Understanding Your Histogram  -  Flash Metering Composition Lead in The Viewer Eye  -  Point of Focus  -  Fill the frame  -  The Rule of Thirds  -  Moving Subjects  -  Print and frame Sizes Different Styles Learn by doing  -  Giving and Getting Critique  -  Portraits  -  Groups  -  Children  -  Shooting Outdoors  -  Silhouettes  -  Macro  -  Products  -  Landscapes  -  Sports and Action  -  Panning  -  Rear Sync Flash  -  Abstract  -  Long Exposures  -  Black and White A few Other Useful Things  -  Blown Out Skies  -  Neutral Density Filters  -  Polarizing Filters  -  Electronic noise You're Half Way There! Part III The Digital darkroom  -  Computer hardware  -  Card Reader  -  Printers  -  Mouse Post Processing  -  The Ethics of Altering  -  Choosing Your Program  -  Tutorials   Photoshop Tutorials   Photoshop Primer   Saving Your Image   Adding a Border   Using Levels   Using Curves   The S-Curve   Correcting White Balance   Improving Saturation   The Clone Tool   Correcting Lens Distortion   Blending Multiple Images   Black and White Conversion   Sepia Conversion   Reducing Noise   Cropping for Different Print Sizes   Sharpening   Working With RAW Files   The Gimp Tutorials   The Gimp Primer   Saving Your Image   Adding a Border   Using Levels   Using Curves   The S-Curve   Correcting White Balance   Improving Saturation   The Clone Tool   Correcting Lens Distortion   Blending Multiple Images   Black and White Conversion   Sepia Conversion   Reducing Noise   Cropping for Different Print Sizes   Sharpening   Working With RAW Files   << Part III The Digital darkroom Post Processing >> Computer Hardware Computer Hardware Your hardware requirements are variable depending on what you want to use your PC for. I have used a PIII, 500Mhz, 256 MB RAM that I paid $50 for and it was fine at processing my 8Mp files. To make life faster and more crash free, I would recommend a processor of at least 1Ghz and as much RAM as you can afford. 1GB of RAM should be a minimum to consider if you don't want your PC to freeze up when stitching a large file panorama back together. Consider a DVD burner for backing up files or an external hard drive. At the very least a CD burner is a must storing back ups. Video cards can be quite low end as you're only dealing in 2D images. Monitors are cheap these days. CRT offer better color representation but LCDs are more space efficient and gaining popularity. If you want a neat system consider a second monitor (with a second video card or a double monitor video card). You can keep your workspace in one monitor and use the other to store your image editing tools and other programs. Tip: Computers are not reliable. Back up you digital images on to CD, DVD, online or an external hard drive. Store back ups in another location in case of fire or theft. Edit: While finishing writing this book the hard drive in my external case died and is going to be very difficult to recover. I'm sure I can pay a hefty fee to retrieve the data or struggle and learn to do it myself. Fortunately most of my photos are backed up so it's not a total disaster. However I had procrastinated about backing up my most recent files and have lost a couple of my favorite recent pictures. Please learn from my mistake. This is now my new work flow. Take pictures -> Download to Hard drive -> Back up -> Edit I've also found this list of data recovery tools that might work if you find yourself in a similar situation. http://www.freebyte.com/filediskutils/ Card Reader You'll need a memory card reader to get the images off your camera. Most cameras have a USB connection but that wastes camera power and sometimes renames the images, messing with your filing system. Some PCs have a card reader built in. Check the compatibility of your card reader with the card media in your camera. Also check your printer, if you can connect your camera's card to it, it may act as a card reader. Printers Printers are of such high quality these days that you can 'develop' at home too. The cost of ink can be prohibitive though so consider the convenience and control versus cost. If you want to have a printer produce the best quality prints then consider a 6 cartridge printer instead of the usual 3 cartridge; you'll get better color and richer, tint free blacks. There are many types of printers available and most offer very good quality. Prices rise with print speed and features. Read as many reviews on the Internet as you can before purchasing and try to see prints with you own eyes. Find out how big you can print, how smudge resistant prints are, how long they last before fading, how many prints you get per cartridge on average and their replacement cost. Look for tinting in black and white monotone images too; this is caused when colors are mixed to produce black. Mouse In the past I've had to use a touch pad for image editing but I much prefer a mouse for greater control. I now use a wireless mouse for my image editing as I don't like the drag from a cable which always catches on something at the worst possible moment. Tablets are popular too and might be more suited to your style of image editing. << Part III The Digital darkroom Post Processing >>

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