Howard: : Hi Karl, having read the whole of your email, I suspect that digital : basics for many people are a damned sight more confusing than : "old-fashioned" film. Though admittedly I'm not sure what you mean by : digital basics! :-) : What would you and others regard as basic? I've been scribbling a curriculum together recently, having seen what's on offer. Recalling the curriculum for basic photography (film), it seemed that although the course I was involved with was a science course the stuff was pretty fundamental to all areas of photography. Admittedly not too many wedding photogs might dabble in densitometry, but our students certainly seemed to benefit from at least knowing about such things even if they were forgotten shortly after passing their exams ;-) here's what I've got to date as an outline.. in no particular order. I'm still pulling it apart and adding bits as I expound further into the specifics. (ignore random capitalisations ;) What is Digital photography? The Media Capture of Images Files & Types Origins in Video Origins in Barcode Scanners Printers & Scanners Algorithms General Computing Researching Computing & the Computer Monitors and Video Cards Calibration & Colour management Editors & Interpreters What is Digital photography? - discussion. Media: Floppy disks (inc Zip, LS120, LS240), Hard Disk Drives,CD's, VCD's,DVD's,DVD RAM, mmc, SD cards, Memory Sticks, CF cards Microdrives, PC Card drives, flash disks, NAND memory, optical media, magnetic media, opto-magnetic media, etc.. pros and cons, uses, appropriateness, problems. longevity, dye types. Image Capture: CCD, CMOS. AD conversion, bayer arrays, foveon sensors, monochromatic sensors & filters Data: Archiving, recovering, encrypting, protecting, steganography, media checking tools, data checking tools, data recovery tools, OS translation tools. File Types: standards, compression, licenses (eg jpeg2000), containers, image data, Editors (GUI and Command Line *)*more depth later. proprietry. Video history: Video Still Cameras (digital cameras), History, trasitions and tie-ins with Barcodes via AD converters Barcode history: AD conversion Scanners: Types - drum, flatbed, film. Transmission & reflection. PPI (DPI) resolution, actual and interpreted. bit depth, IR filtration (dust removal) Manufacter 'hype'. light sources and the effect on gamma and colour accuracy (cold cathode, Xenon, pulsed xenon, tungsten, white, RGB, continuous and discontinuous) Printers: DPI(printer dot resolution), PPI(Image reolution), Ink types, RIPS (hard & soft) , algorithms, File ypes, languages (postscript etc), Gamut. Algorithms: appropriateness, types, effects, purposes. General computing: computer maintenance, backup, archiving, directory structures, operating systems. The Internet. navigation, programs, protection (antivirus, firewalls) etc Video Cards : 2D, 3D, purposes, frame rates, gaming, rendering, colour accuracy, sharpness, compromises, settings, refresh rates, outputs (single, dual, quad, split, mirrored), bitdepth, gamut & Monitors: , Types: CRT, LCD, E-Ink, Plasma - future OLED & other. Resolutions, hardware settings and controls, Software modifications (profiles) etc , pros cons. calibration & colour management: ICC, Other. purposes of calibration. Methods, creation of profiles, Intent, gamut, creating from scratch, Colour Matched Vs subjective. Photographic intent Vs graphic intent (pantone etc). Editors: Introduction to professional software. Freeware, shareware, specific (non all-in-one) packages. researching skills, web based - keep track of new ideas, new information, new techniques and other photography related information including search tools.. search tools: search engines: google, google groups, google images, others metasearch engines: dogpile etc search 'strings', techniques and boolean searches. usenet. k
