Photo 1201 - Tools & Techniques for Digital Photography - College of DuPage
Jeff Curto | Office: Arts Center 274 | Office Hours | 630.942.2527 | curtoj@cod.edu | jeff@jeffcurto.com
Syllabus
for this course (PDF)
Below are some links that you will find useful to you in this class.
Use the pop-up menu below to jump to a link category
Scanning & Digital Cameras:
- Digital Photography Fundamentals - An excellent "introduction to digital photography" PDF from Apple. It is intended to be something related to their Aperture software, but the 47-page PDF file primarily covers how digital cameras work and how to use them.
- Scanning 101: Setting the Resolution - A really, really nice article about the art of scanning.
- Flatbed-Scanner-Review.org - Thinking about buying a flatbed? Here's a great resource
- Digital Camera Review - A nicely done site about current digital cameras
- Shortcourse - Choosing a Digital Camera
- Shortcourse - Using a Digital Camera
- Scanners and Digital Cameras - Digital Eyes - Another scanner and and digital camera review site.
- A few scanning tips - Good ones
- Megapixel.net - A nice digital camera website; updated monthly
- Out of Gamut: The High-Bit Scanning Advantage - Color Guru Bruce Fraser on why to use 36 and 48-bit scans
- Tonal quality and dynamic range in digital cameras - Norm Koren with a great explanation of digtal camera exposure
- MAC On Campus - That's MAC as in Mamiya America Corporation. This is their site devoted to the education world. LOTS of great info here.
- Digital Photography Exposure Wheel - A nice little exposure calculator
- Digital Zone System - A good description of the similarities between digital exposure and the Zone System
- Digital Camera Resource - A great guide to digital camera choices--Check out the "Buyer's Guide"
- ASMP's Digital Photography Standards - A page devoted to promoting standards for digital photography
- UPDIG - That's Universal Photographic Digital Imaging Guidelines; a "start-to-finish" primer on how to work with digital image files. This is an outstanding resource.
- Setting Digital Camera Color Space And File Format - A nice piece by John Paul Caponigro about these issues. While we're talking about John Paul Caponigro, check out his really excellent site with good technical and aesthetic info (check out the "library")
Color Management:
Color Printing:
- Apple Pro Color - An excellent introduction to the topic of color
- The Color Wiki - The Wikipedia of color! Outstanding stuff...
- Color Management - A Dutch site that has some great info. Parts in English
- Cambridge In Color - A neat page of color management and general digital photo info
- What is Paper?- Oh, sure... you thought you knew what paper was, but after this... you really will!
- Download Profiles - InkjetArt.com's page of ICC profiles for use in a variety of printers with "non-standard" (read: non-Epson) papers
- ColorVision Color Basics - Good info about understanding color
- Cathy's Profiles - Cathy makes profiles for your digital devices
- Introduction to Color Management - From Dry Creek Photo, a great intro to color management concepts
- Bruce Fraser on Color Spaces - A nice overview of wide-gamut spaces and why they are useful.
- X-Rite Systems Classroom - Great learning tools for color management
- ColorMatters This is a really wonderful site that is ALL about the art and science of color
- Color-Correct Vocabulary - Bruce Fraser presents an excellent overview of the terminology associated with Color Management
- Chromix - An excellent site that covers color management from start to finish
- Colour Physics FAQ - Got a question about color? Find your answer here
- digitaldog.net - Andrew Rodney, color guru, is The Digital Dog
- International Color Consortium - The ICC's home
- ASMP's Digital Photography Standards and Practices - An outstanding and important collection of ideas about standards and practices for professional digital photography
- Color Management in Photoshop CS3 - Jeff's "handout" on managing color (PDF) For anyone using Photoshop CS2, here's the older version of the handout that's specifically for Photoshop CS2
- Color Test Image for the "1 image, 3 prints" assignment: as a JPEG file
B&W Printing:
- B&W Digital Printing - Clayton Jones' excellent series of articles that give an overview of black and white digital printing and related issues
- QuadTone RIP - Harrington's QuadTone RIP; an inexpensive solution to B&W printing with inkjet printers
- Piezography.com - One of the standard-bearers for high-quality B&W printing
- Paul Roark - Roark had done a lot for the B&W fine print world; here's his great page of B&W info
- MIS inks - Perhaps the easiest entry into B&W inkjet printing
- Silly fun - The Rasterbator is an online resource where you can turn your image into a photo 20 meters long!
These are some (but not all) options for you for printing at an outside
service provider:
- Local:
- P.J.'s Camera - Our pals right here in Glen Ellyn (Dry Creek profiles available)
- Advanced Imaging - A lab in Downers Grove, Illinois
- Precision Imaging and Photo - A downtown Chicago print service provider (Dry Creek profiles available)
- Picture Pros - This Lombard-based print service has profiles available both on their site and through Dry Creek
- Lightbox - From East Dundee, IL; a high-quality print provider
- Helix Color Service - In our own backyard; images can be dropped at any Helix location
- Costco - Good, inexpensive prints, but you've gotta be a member (Dry Creek profiles available)
- Walmart - Get your prints from Walmart or Sam's Club (must be a member of Sam's Club to use their service)
- Target -
Yep, you can get your photographs printed at "tar-jay"
- Online:
- Pictopia.com - Professional-level color output in a color-managed environment
- West Coast Imaging - Professional-level color output. They know color management, too
- Laser Light - High-end printing service
- Nancy Scans - Nancy scans high-res and outputs BIG color prints
- White House Custom Color - High-quality color printing for photographers
- The Print
Room - Order color prints online
- Resources:
- Dry Creek Photo - This is cool; a website where you can get profiles for Fuji Frontier printers all over the US
Photoshop and General Reference:
- Basic Photoshop - Say what? You didn't take Photo 1101 like you were supposed to? Check out this PDF.
- Adobe Digital Photography Guides - A nice compendium of great resources from Adobe's John Nack
- CS3 Video Tutorials - Adobe has teamed up with Lynda.com to provide some excellent free tutorials for the CS3 suite
- Chromoholics - Former COD Photo student Thomas Fors has a very cool script that helps automate the process of calibrating Adobe Camera RAW
- The Art of Digital B&W - Nice articles from the Digital Outback
- Adobe's Kuler - Play with color with this really neat online application from Adobe
- Image Interpolation - Not enough pixels? Too many pixels? Here's a very good article from Creative Pro about the ins and outs of image interpolation. Here's another take on image interpolation that you might find useful.
- Image Interpolation for the Web - related to the above, here is an article about how to downsample images for use on the web and in email.
- Apple - Pro - Find out what's happening in the world of professional design & media here
- Digital Imaging & Photography Info - A comprehensive overview of digital imaging concepts
- Apple Seminars, Events and Programs - Apple Computer holds numerous useful seminars at its Chicago office, and most of them are FREE!
- Apple - Retail Stores - Theater Schedule - There are Apple Retail stores in Woodfield and Oakbrook Malls and at the store on Michigan Ave. They offer evening "theater" programs, most of them about software you use, or might like to learn more about.
- PlanetPhotoshop - The World of Photoshop
- The Zone System for digital photography - Ansel woulda' loved it!
- Brian Lawler's Home Page - Brian's one of the smartest guys I've ever met when it comes to printing pictures on presses
- Photoshop Actions @ Action Addiction - Actions free for the download
- Welcome to the Kleper Report - This Kleper guy discusses ALL sorts of things about the pre-press and publishing world
- National Association of Photoshop Professionals - A professional organization for Photoshoppers. Some content is free to non-members
- Black and White Digital Printing - A great series of articles about the state of the art by Clayton Jones
- The Art of Black and White - Digital Outback's take on B&W digital printing
- Photoshop Automator Actions - Got Mac OS X "Tiger"? check out these Automator actions that can help save you time with your image processing tasks
- Photoshop and removable media -Adobe's recommendations with regard to using Photoshop and removable or network storageApple "iLife" software tutorials - Learn how to use iMovie, iDVD, GarageBand, etc...
- Cambridge in Color - Some great digital imaging tutorials
- The Light's Right - Some neat-o Photoshop actions from the Light's Right Digital Studio
- History of Digital Printing - A neat article that details the early years of digital fine art printing. Get out your CSN&Y albums!
- Getting Good Skintones - Amazingly, the online photo sharing site SmugMug has a great, short primer on skin tones in Photoshop. Rule of thumb: never let the info palette's "yellow" percentage fall below the "magenta" percentage!
Tips and Tutorials:
- Improvising with Layers - Neat ideas about using Layers in Photoshop
- Designs By Mark - Mark has great tips and tutorials for Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash and more.
- Layers Magazine - "The How-To Magazine for Everything Adobe"
- Adobe Support - User to User Forums - Here you can log onto a web forum to exchange information with other Adobe product users
- PHOTOSHOP Tips & Tricks | FREE Online Seminar... A seminar-style tips site
- Adobe Evangelists - Specifically, this is a site created by Julianne Kost and her husband Daniel Brown, both of whom work for Adobe. Some wonderful tips and inspirational stuff here
- Ben Willmore's Photoshop Tips and Tutorials - Nice tutorials from a Photoshop geek/guru. Check the links at the bottom of this page for other useful tips and articles.
- Welcome to the OZONE - That's DOCTOR Ozone... great Photoshop tutorials.
- Adobe Tips and Techniques - GREAT tips from the pros on Adobe's site. You have to "join," but it's free
- Adobe Photoshop Tutorials - Right from the source; Adobe's list of great tutorials and tips
- Deke's New & Improved Web site - That's Deke McLelland - Photoshop Bible author
- Russell Brown's Web site - Russell Brown works for Adobe; he has great tips on the site
- Project Photoshop Lightroom tutorials - Excellent tutorials on Lightroom from Julianne Kost
Sharpening Tips:
- Smart Sharpen - Is it really all that smart? Check out this Creative Pro article
- Unsharp Mask - A great overall primer on sharpening by Bruce Fraser at Creative Pro
- A Sharpening Workflow - Bruce Fraser's suggestion for sharpening images in Photoshop
Imaging Publications:
- Computer Darkroom - Decent mag with a few good articles
- Digital Imaging Magazine - The ether-home of DIM
- Photo District News - PDN Online - Is this the best professional photo publication? I think so.
- PDN.EDU - Even more relevant; PDN's educational publication.
- Creative Pro.com - This is a webmagazine that caters to the creative professional. They often have great, informative articles.
- Macworld Online - Sorry, PC users; Mac publications have the BEST stuff about dealing with images and graphics. Kinda makes you wonder, doesn't it?
- Lenswork Podcast - Brooks Jensen's short and to the point musings on the creative process in photography
- Camera Position - Yeah, I feel a little funny recommending my own stuff as class support, but my podcast is about creative process and creative ideas
- Photocast Network - Some of the best photo related podcasts all gathered together; this site is a "clearing house" for the group
Image Galleries - Assignment Inspiration:
- Do You Remember When - This site is AMAZING
- Digital Imaging Competition Winners - PhotoWorkshop.com's competition winners; great stuff (slow site load)
- The Photo Review - A great photo gallery and criticism site
- Jim Brandenburg - A pretty site by a "nature boy" photographer
- Eric Meyer - Neat stuff
- Safia Fatimi - Very cool images
- Michael Zeptetello - Very clean fashion work
- Jon Shireman - Former student makes good
- Photography at About - About.com's photo section
- Landscape Photography - A nice image site
- Fabfotos - a searchable list of photo site links
- Welcome to Blind Spot's Home on the Web - A nice gallery
- ( rivertrout.com, a library of letters ) - It's a story, it's images, it's pictures...
- s|o|u|l|d|a|n|s|e + art for the soul - Like it says
- Every Picture - Really nice use of the photograph as a storytelling device. Fairly big downloads, but worth it.
- Salon.com - A really fine online magazine
- Maggie Taylor - An interesting image maker (who happens to be married to photographer Jerry Uelsmann)
- Adobe Digital Imaging Competition - The winners from Adobe's annual contest
- One World Journeys - These guys are storytellers who take field expeditions to exotic places and report back. A very cool and very deep site.
- Diane Fenster Web Installations - Diane's pictures are very cool. More can be seen at www.dianefenster.com
- ZoneZero from analog to digital photography - A mighty fine gallery of images and ideas
- I Photograph to Remember - Pedro Meyer's photographs
- LensWork Publishing Home Page - Some great image galleries in this publication's website
- Photo Eye - Photo Eye is a bookstore, but they have a great gallery of images as well
- Toby Deveson: Black & White Photography - Beautiful, emotive images
- Neil Folberg - These are really wonderful; are they real?
- Contrasto - An Italian photo site
- Dan Doerner - Bad website, nice images (once you get through all the web-dreck)
- menuez - Photographer Doug Menuez
- Sarah Silver Photography - Great portrait and fashion work
- Timothy Greenfield-Sanders - Masterful portrait work
- Pinhole photography by Justin Quinnell - British pal Justin's page of wonderfully low-tech image
- Olivia Parker - Some pictures from one of my favoirte image makers
- Abeldaro Morell - Very interesting images using a room as a camera
- Mark Tucker - A wonderfully varied set of images from a prolific photographer