What is digital image processing

What does digital image processing mean? In the old days of film, if you wanted to process your images, you had to load the images onto a reel and put it into a tank, all in total darkness. After that you could turn on the lights and begin adding various chemicals and, keeping the temperature constant, agitate the tank to keep the chemicals mixed. Finally, you would hang up the film to dry. Once it was dry, you would cut the film, make a contact sheet, number it, and you were ready to begin printing. We will do the same here, except using digital techniques. The goal is to have your images ready for printing.

Steps in digital image processing

The simple steps in digital are downloading the image, numbering it, backing it up, and organizing your images. These are all very similar to the things done with film. First you need to download your images. This means transferring them from your memory card or camera onto the hard drive of your computer. As suggested in digital image processing under Step 3, “Selecting Equipment,” it is easier and less prone to error if you use a card reader to do the downloading rather than attaching your camera to the computer. Simply remove the memory card from the camera, place it into the reader, and watch it show up on your desktop. Make a new folder and name it appropriately. One suggestion is to use the date and a short description. If you use the date as YYMMDD (for example, 060315 means March 15, 2012), then they will automatically sort in date order.So the complete name would be: “060315- Jane beach.” If you have more than one session or location on your memory card, set up folders for each. Then simply drag the photographs from the memory card on the desktop into the various folders.

Transferring data in digital image processing

Eject the memory card from your desktop. Do not erase or reformat the card on your computer. Check that the photographs transferred okay by looking at them with your image software. You need to consider whether you want to renumber your images. Some photographers will simply use the number assigned by the camera. It might be something like “DSCF7479.” Others will change it slightly by adding letters that refer to the session, such as “Jane01-7479” (Jane01 means the first session with Jane). Finally, others will rename the images entirely to something like “Jane01-001,” “Jane01-002,” and so on. Choose the one that works best for you and renumber the images if you’d like. Many image programs, such as Photoshop, have a renumbering feature built-in. If not, there are a number of programs available for PC and for Mac that will enable you to renumber easily.