Hot Shot
A digital camera can improve your library's image
Walter Minkel -- School Library Journal, 7/1/2000
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Most digital cameras cost between $299 and $999. If you can afford to spend more than $500, your options increase greatly. The Sony Mavica MVCFD81, for example, lists for $799 and includes a 3X optical zoom lens and a microphone. The Mavica also can function as a video camera, creating low-quality, 30-second videos. The Mavica series is one of the most popular digital cameras among librarians and the general public, and for good reason: it is able to save pictures directly onto a floppy disk, which can then be popped painlessly into a PC or Mac--no additional software or cables are necessary. But there are many other well-regarded, higher-end models made by Nikon, Epson, Kodak, Minolta, and Olympus that are also worth checking out. Inexpensive digital cameras--those that list for less than $500--are "point and shoot" models with few features (for example, no zoom lens) and resolutions below or at one million pixels. (The greater the number of pixels--or tiny points of color--per square inch, the higher the resolution, or clarity, of your photos.)
Whatever digital camera you finally decide to purchase, make sure it produces pictures that are at least a megapixel (one million pixels) in size; this is especially important if you want to print your images on paper. The digital camera that I tested, the Epson PhotoPC 650 (list price $299), is a good basic camera that takes high-quality photos (that are roughly a megapixel) and stores up to eight megabytes worth of images on a flash memory card that's smaller than a credit card. You can download its photos into your computer (using a U.S.B. or a serial cable) or print out the photos on paper, in a familiar, drugstore-like size: four inches by three inches. And by plugging the PhotoPC 650 directly into a video monitor, you can preview your photos on screen.
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I took the PhotoPC 650 to the beautifully renovated Brooklyn Public Library youth wing (see "Beyond Primary Colors," June 2000). There, I snapped some pictures of typical scenes that one might want to put up on a library Web site or use in a PowerPoint presentation. My favorite photo was of a row of bright new iMacs in the new technology loft. Figure 1 shows what the photograph looked like without alteration. The image is okay, but it's a little too dark. Not to worry. The current crop of digital cameras all come with image-editing software. So if your pictures are too dark (like mine) or too yellow, you can fix them. The higher-end cameras often come equipped with a version of Adobe Photoshop, the best program there is, in my opinion, for doctoring digital photos. Photoshop has a fairly steep learning curve--it isn't for the novice user--but once mastered, it gives you incredible control over your images, including being able to resize them for quick loading onto a Web browser.
The cheaper cameras, not surprisingly, offer less sophisticated software programs. The PhotoPC 650, for example, comes with an image-editing program called HotShots made by PictureWorks Technology. Since you can still enhance (or ruin) your pictures easily with a simple program like HotShots, it's always a wise idea to make backup copies of the original images before editing, just in case you make a mistake you can't undo. Figure 2 shows the quickly edited version of my photo; both the color and contrast have been improved. To see more of what image-editing software can do--including some special effects that kids will love--check out my test photos below.
If you want to put your pictures on a Web site, they need to be small in size--I mean their size in kilobytes, the space they occupy on disk (not their size in inches or pixels). If you've ever visited someone's personal Web site (or, yes, even a school or library site) and waited and waited for a huge, 100-kilobyte photo to appear, you know how irritating the experience can be. No image posted on a library home page should ever be larger than 50 kilobytes, and smaller than that is even better.
My photo of the technology loft came out of the camera at a hefty 244 kilobytes, which is way too big for posting on the Web. I used the HotShots program to resize the photo to a more manageable size, 40 kilobytes. Then, I used Photoshop to shrink the photo even further--to a faster-loading 32 kilobytes.
Before you rush out to put your digital photos online, it's important to consult your school or public library's policy regarding the use of children's photos. (If your library or school district doesn't have such a policy, it should establish one.) You, as a librarian who wants to publicize your program, should fight to allow pictures of students on your site. But the privacy rights of families should be respected, too. Many Web sites do not display students' last (or even first) names with their photographs. And parents' or guardians' signatures may be required before students' pictures go online.
But don't let that dissuade you from snapping some digital shots. Instead, follow Madeline Wood's lead. Wood, a library media specialist at Samuels Elementary School in Denver, CO, is in love with her Kodak DC290--and for good reason. Thanks to her trusty digital camera, Wood was able to photograph a first-grade program at 2 p.m. and display the photos later that same afternoon, before school lets out. "The teachers thought it was fabulous," says Wood. "They were [still] talking about it the next day."
Walter Minkel is technology editor of School Library Journal.
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Brooklyn Public Library Youth Reference Desk before and after the image was sharpened | |||
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Brooklyn Public Library Youth Reference Desk before and after it was brightened and the yellow was decreased in the photo | |||
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... plus the Tech Loft photo altered to look like an oil painting with one mouse click. | |||
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Digital Camera Destinations Chico (CA) High School Library Library media specialist Peter Milbury's photos show his high school library in action. Kodak Digital Learning Center Plus: Teachers/Leaders Kodak's Web site offers loads of great suggestions and activities for teachers and other educators who work with young people and digital cameras. ShortCourses ShortCourses advertises itself as "a complete guide to digital cameras, digital photography, and digital video," and it lives up to its claim very nicely. You may enter ignorant, but you'll leave knowing quite a bit about flashes, macros, and zooms. Vancouver Public Library Tour A virtual tour can let members of your community--even those who have never set foot through your door--see all the great things your library has to offer. ZDNet: Digital Imaging If you're shopping for a digital camera or digital video camera, this site is a great place to learn a lot about what's out there. It features reviews of models from all major manufacturers, and helps you shop for the best prices. |
