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Posted by: John, WB8RCR Posted On: 08/11/00 Subject: NC-20 Pictures Message Posted: Tonite I added a couple of pictures of NC-20 mods to my NC-20 page. I was more pleased with these than most, although I've been reasonably happy with many of my images. From time to time, folks ask how it's done. Here's what I do. When I'm impatient, I tend to use my wife's low-end digital camera. This lets me get pictures on the web right away, but the quality is generally poor. (See my NoPPP page for some examples - they will be replaced soon!) Once in a while I will use my magnifier to get a little closer. The basic quality of the digital camera is poor enough that the magnifier doesn't hurt much. When I use this camera, I tend to be in the shack so I end up with color balance problems as well. When I'm in a reasonably patient mood, I will take the subject outside, preferably on a cloudy (but not gloomy) day. I'll set up the Minolta 7000i on a tripod with the macro lens and use an electric cable release. When I'm thinking, I'll use f/22 or smaller, which leads to exposures of several seconds on 200 speed film. (On the NC-20 page you can see the problem with larger f stops in the first couple of pictures.) If I'm still reasonably in a hurry, I'll run the pix down to the one hour place, and scan the prints on a HP 4200C scanner. More often lately, I'll pop the film in the mail to PhotoWorks. They will scan them and put them on a CD, saving me the hassle of scanning. This is nowhere near as good as a genuine PhotoCD, but I don't think Kodak even does those anymore. Kodak's new, PictureCD is lower quality than the PhotoWorks CD, but PhotoWorks has the most annoying software in the world - oh well, pick your poison. Once I have the images (in Targa or BMP format - usualy involving some sort of conversion), I will typically work on them in PhotoStyler. I'll get the full size image, typically about 1500x1000 just how I want it, then resample it to the size I want for the web page, and convert it to jpeg with LOTS of compression. On these NC-20 pictures, the actual mods were hard to find amid the forest of components, so I masked the actual mod (in photostyler) then reduced the contrast and brightness of everything else. This lets you find the mod right away but still have context around it. So now maybe I'll get a few less questions about how!  |
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