Digital Gateways #4 Old Tools :New Tools
- Visual Communication Tools
Contemporary artists continue to use tools both to communicate and to leave a record, Diane Fenster, LookListen, Digital Illustration.
The development of written language dates to the Sumerians who communicated with pictographs around 3100 BCE, (Before the Common Era)
The Egyptians used a picture writing system called hieroglyphs for many centuries, the last know was carved in 394 CE.
The Chinese first invented printing as a form of relief printing which originated with a stamp or engraved seal in the 3rd century CE. Seals were made by carving calligraphic characters in a flat surface.
· Renaissance
As the Renaissance dawned on the 14th century illuminated manuscripts from private use grew in importance. The Book of Hours was the most popular.
· Movable Type
The first books printed using movable type around 1450 used the Gutenberg printing press. The success depended on standardized western alphabet.
The Photographic Image
· Camera Obscura:
An early form of a camera which was really a darkened box with a small opening that allows light rays to project onto the back of the box, forming a small, bright re-creation of an object outside the box
· Daguerreotype
Photographic innovators Niepce, Daguerre, and Talbot are credited with the invention of photography. Each daguerreotype was one of a kind.
William Talbot developed the process of wet plate photography. He developed negatives that could be used to make multiple images and photo-process printing plates. He also invented a photogram, a process in which light passes through an object placed on a treated surface. In wet plate photography the plate had to be developed immediately.
· Graphics
By 1881 Frederick Ives developed a method of etching lines onto glass creating halftone printing plates. It became possible to reproduce photos on printing presses.
Implications:
Potentially anyone could create a photo-real image or have his or her portrait recorded. Mathew Brady recorded the American Civil War as did Timothy O'Sullivan.
Photography is still considered a form of visual truth, which is no longer a fact.
· Analog
Film based photography is analog in nature. Analog refers to a representation of a quantity that varies over any continuous range of values.
· Digital
Computerized images are digital in nature. this data is readily manipulated. What is the difference between analog and digital photography? When we examine a photograph which is analog under a magnifier all we see is a close-up of continually changing gray values. A digital photo has visible picture elements or pixels.
· Pixel
Pixels only give the illusion of continuous tones and color. The more pixels the smoother the image will be. Your work done in Windows Paint will continue far fewer pixels than those made in Adobe Photoshop. Each pixel in a digital work can be changed and manipulated.
The Digital ImageHow Does it all work?
· Hardware
Hardware is the physical component that you work with, a PC or MAC system. Printers, scanners, digital cameras and other input devices also are considered hardware.
· Software
The software, however constitutes the programs installed on your computer. We are dependent upon the software, but good software does not necessarily constitute good work or good art making. Remember some of the most interesting pieces created were created by writing computer code and not with a software program.
· Megabytes & Gigabytes
The amount of memory in your computer system. These are standard measurement units for your computers and files.
- Analog to Digital Conversions (ADCs)
· Binary Data
All computer data is created by binary data of 0 or 1 in binary code including digital data. No matter how complicated a work may be this is its structural underpinning
· Bit
A single piece of information. The smallest unit of computer memory. A single bit can represented a black or white pixel on the monitor.
· Bitmap
Each pixel on the screen represents a location in computer memory on a bitmap that has an on or off command, 1=on and )=off. Multiple bits can exist at the same level and place in complex color images.
· Byte
Groupings of eight bits is called a byte and can represent 256 different grays or colors per pixel. A full color picture will lake much more memory than a grayscale image because it uses more bits of information. Three bytes or 24 bits can render 16.7 million colors
· ROM
There are two kinds of memory in a computer. An integrated circuit chip on the computer's motherboard has a permanent memory called ROM (Read Only Memory). It holds the computer's essential operating instructions.
· RAM
(Random Access Memory) is the memory used to actively create files. When you launch an application or open a document it is loaded into RAM and stored while you work. Low RAM can mean difficultly in creating sophisticated artwork.
DVDs, CDs, Zip disks or memory chips have storage space measured in megabytes and gigabytes. There are 1,024 bits in a byte, 1,024 bytes in a kilobyte, 1,024 kilobytes in a megabyte and 1,024 megabytes in a gigabyte. Check out the file information to one of your creations and see the storage space needed to save the file. You can begin to understand that it is an undertaking to save and store artwork in files.
· Resolution
The fineness or sharpness of a screen display or computer-generated printed piece. The more memory available and thus the more pixels in the digital image. the higher the resolution is, and the clearer the image will be. The resolution of an individual file depends on what the artist designates when the file is created. For computer graphics it is mandatory that a final resolution be 150 -300 dpi (dots per inch) The resolution of a screen only does approximately 72 dpi. Because these are vary different it is a good idea to do proof prints of the image which means printing out the file to paper so it can be seen in a higher resolution.
· Visual Literacy
All art requires a certain amount of visual perception, or interpretation bye the viewer. Our psychological-physiological makeup as well as cultural and personal experiences change our visual perception and interpretation.
- Visual Language
- Similarity and Variety
How To Basics
It is important to realize your options in saving files as you begin to create artwork.
- File Formats
EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) is an object oriented format that is excellent for storing graphics of any kind.
JPEG is a compressed file format that reduces the pixels in your file to save memory. it is used for web graphics. NEVER save a JPEG over itself!!!! This causes your file to become pixilated and is known as a Lossy file.
GIF is also a file format used in web graphics. It compresses graphics without eliminating detail. This is known as a lossless file format.
PICT is a Mac object oriented file format.
PDF files are completely cross-platform and can be opened in Adobe's Acrobat Reader and can be made in Photoshop.
Naming Files
Know what you have named your files as well as where you have saved them! It is a good idea to name different versions of the same file as filename1, filename2, etc.
Assignment:
Using you own photographs or artwork, (non-digital) create initial scans or photographs and then experiment with the variations available in photo manipulation inside Photoshop to create an interesting final effect. The end result should be a artwork based on your own art work.