For those on-the-go digital photographers, here are some quick tips to check out before your first or next digital photography experience.

Gear up:
Gear plays an important role for a digital on-location photographer. In addition to my cameras and lenses, my travel gear bag includes: several memory cards so I don’t have to delete pictures during the day; an Apple iBook for storing my pictures and for viewing them at night; power/plug converters to plug in my computer in hotel rooms in foreign locations; surge suppressor so my computer doesn’t get zapped; and DVDs, on which I save my pictures each night (I like to save my pictures in two places before I erase a memory card).

If you have the choice between more hard drive space or more RAM, go for the RAM. The more RAM you have, the faster your computer (and Photoshop) will run.

Pick a quality setting: RAW files take up more space on a memory card than JPEG files, but if you want the absolute maximum in image flexibility and quality (including wider exposure latitude), shoot RAW.

And don’t forget about Adobe’s Camera Raw. Many pros swear by Adobe’s Camera Raw, and two of its coolest features are in the Advanced menu: in the Lens submenu, we can reduce chromatic aberration, which can show up in a picture where different colors meet; and in the Detail submenu, we can reduce color noise, which can show up in shadow areas (and the sky), by choosing Color Noise Reduction.

If you haven’t played around with the Advanced mode, don’t wait! The Advanced features, combined with what you normally do in Photoshop CS, may give your images an entirely new look.

Set the ISO: Digital cameras let you change the ISO setting from picture to picture, from a low setting for outdoor shooting to a high setting for indoor shooting. For this picture of young artists in Vietnam, I set the ISO to 1000.

For the least amount of digital noise in your pictures, try to shoot at the lowest possible ISO setting. Also—and this is important—check the ISO setting from time to time to make sure you’re shooting at the lowest setting.
Two Photoshop plug-ins that can help you reduce noise are: Noise Ninja (www.picturecode.com) and nik Dfine (www.nikmultimedia.com).

Set the white balance: Auto white balance does a good job of making the whites white in many lighting situations but for the best results, set the white balance for the existing lighting condition. However, changing the white balance to a different setting could produce pleasing results. In these two images, notice how the cloudy white balance setting produces a more pleasing (warmer) image on the left than the image shot with the white balance set to daylight on the right.

See the light: Sure, we can correct some exposure mistakes in the digital darkroom, but why not begin with the best possible exposure? That starts with seeing the light—the light and dark areas of a scene. To avoid overexposed areas in an image with bright whites or extreme highlights, which are almost impossible to recover in the digital darkroom, I slightly underexpose all of my digital pictures by at least 1/4 stop.

Check out the histogram: Most pro SLR digital cameras offer a histogram setting, which shows the distribution of dark and light areas of a picture: Dark areas show up as “mountains” of pixels on the left, and light areas by “mountains” on the right.
For example, if you see sharp spikes on either side of the histogram, you’ll probably lose or lack details in the shadow and/or highlight areas.

Does a poor histogram necessarily mean a poor photo? No way. Here we simply created a Curves adjustment layer and pulled down from the center point to dramatically enhance the image.

Watch your power: Reviewing pictures on a camera’s LCD monitor, zooming, using a flash, and using Image Stabilizing and Vibration Reduction lenses all consume battery power. Keep an eye on your battery power and pack an extra battery (or two) so you don’t miss out on any important shots. And remember to press the Refresh button on your charger once in a while or your battery will eventually lose its ability to be fully charged.
Check out the XtremePower 20 power pack distributed by Mamiya (www.xtremepowerusa.com), which will power both your digital SLR and your laptop for several hours.

Love your laptop:
When traveling, use a hard case or padding around your laptop to ensure that you’ll be able to use your computer on-site and keep in mind that pressure on the top panel or your laptop can crack the screen.

Think Photoshop:
When you’re traveling, conditions aren’t always perfect: sometimes the light isn’t right, it’s overcast, the background isn’t pleasing, and so on. No problem; limitless enhancement possibilities await us in the digital darkroom with Photoshop, so shoot with digital enhancement in mind. These two images show how I transformed a dull shot of a tiger (taken on an overcast day) into a picture that looks as though it was taken on a bright, sunny day.

Don’t forget your CDs:
Laptop computers can crash. It happened to me. What saved the day? I had all of my software CDs with me so I could get right back to work. In addition to Photoshop CS and my other work programs, I always travel with DiskWarrior (www.alsoft.com/diskwarrior), which lets me reboot from the CD drive—it got me up and running in Cambodia.

Although I’ve never had to use it, I also travel with the SanDisk Rescue Pro CD that comes with my SanDisk 2-GB CompactFlash memory cards. I use 2-GB cards because I shoot RAW and need the space.

Turns out this simple question wasn’t so simple to answer. Because Adobe Premiere has millions of installed users, skill levels range from beginning video production students to veteran broadcast engineers. Since I didn’t have anything prepared, I ended up giving a brief description to people and then telling them to Google the word so they could research the term for themselves and come to an understanding that was commensurate with their level of expertise. Long story short, that ended up leading to more emails and more confusion for most people, mainly because there’s a lot of misinformation out there on the Web about the HDV format. This article is my attempt to clarify what HDV is and is not.

What you need to know

If all you care about is learning what HDV means for casual conversation, here’s your one line: HDV is an MPEG-2 compressed high-defi nition video format. Now this isn’t the best defi nition in the world for such a complex piece of technology…but it’s good enough for parties. In a nutshell, HDV is the new DV.

If you’re the kind of person who likes to know how something comes to be so that you can also talk about its history, here’s what you need to know: On September 30, 2003, the large multinational companies of Canon Inc., Sharp Corporation, Sony Corporation, and Victor Company of Japan, Limited (JVC) announced that they had come up with the name “HDV” to refer to the specifi cations that realize the recording and playback of high-defi nition video on a DV cassette tape. (The four companies had originally proposed the basic specifi cations for the format in July 2003.) HDV was to be a consumer high-defi nition video format. At present, there are 43 companies supporting the HDV format (including Adobe and Apple), and you can fi nd a complete list of these companies at the offi cial HDV format website, www.hdv-info.org.

For those of you who care about the more techie aspects of a digital video format: HDV is a 19-megabit-per-second MPEG-2 transport stream that records to existing standard DV format digital videocassettes. HDV is a native 16:9 aspect ratio at a resolution of 1280 pixels wide by 720 pixels tall. Supported frame rates are 60i (frames-per-second interlaced), 30p (frames-per-second progressive), 50i, and 25p. And in this case, the term “transport stream” refers to a FireWire cable (IEEE 1394), which is what you hook up between your camera/deck and your computer to transfer your video from one device to another.

Form factor

For now, HDV tapes are in the form factor of the popular Mini-DV shell. You can even use regular DV tapes (instead of expensive HDV branded ones) in your HDV camera, although some people swear you’ll experience more drop-outs if you do. However, the DV tape form factor may soon be a thing of the past; at this writing, Panasonic is rumored to be unveiling a Flash media-based HDV camera at the NAB Expo in April (see image below).

The misconception

Many people even believe that HDV footage shot under optimal lighting looks as good as the HD footage shot on a much more expensive HD camera, such as a Panasonic VariCam HD Cinema. I would respectfully disagree and argue that HDV and HD formats are not the same. HDV is a video format that uses the HD line resolution (1080i or 720p) in a highly compressed format, specifically the MPEG-2 transport stream. This creates a compressed data stream that’s small enough (roughly 25 Mbps @1080i, 19Mbps@720p) to fit on a standard DV tape. But HDV doesn’t store all of the resolution information that full-resolution HD video has to offer. Regular uncompressed HD has a resolution of 1920×1080. A similar HDV spec would only go as high as 1440×1080. That alone is a loss of 480 lines of resolution.

I like to compare regular HD footage to HDV footage the way I used to describe regular uncompressed video to the MPEG compressed footage found on DVDs. An uncompressed video file is very large when compared to the highly compressed MPEG-2 format found on DVDs, even though they can both be the same resolution of 720×480. You’ll find a similar relationship between full HD video and HDV video that has been compressed. Does DVD quality video look good? You betcha! And so does HDV footage. But it’s not quite as perfect-looking as full uncompressed HD video.

The Premiere conclusion

Which brings us back to the new HDV plug-in for Adobe Premiere Pro. Premiere is now able to handle real-time editing of high-definition video using the same IEEE 1394 (iLink, FireWire) connector natively supported in Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5. This plug-in provides direct HDV format device control and video capture without the need for additional hardware. HDV-format projects in Adobe Premiere Pro can then be delivered for high-defi nition broadcast, film prints, high-defi nition Windows Media files, and high-quality DVDs. Does it look as good as the best quality DV? No. It’s better! That’s why HDV is the new DV.

iMovie 5 and Final Cut Express HD do capture HDV natively and lay back to tape in the HDV format. Final Cut Pro 4.5 HD does not. You read that correctly. Even though it has the HD letters on the end of its name, Final Cut Pro 4.5 HD does not edit natively in the HDV format. To get around this limitation (until Apple releases an update) you can install either iMovie 5 or Final Cut Express HD onto your same system that has FCP 4.5 HD. Installing either of these applications installs the Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC), which decodes the MPEG-2 encoding performed by the HDV camera. You can then capture your footage with either iMovie 5 or Final Cut Express HD. To get the footage to work in FCP 4.5 HD, you would create a custom sequence based on the Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC) and then import your footage that you had previously captured with one of the other applications. Hopefully, you won’t have to use this workaround for very long. I imagine Apple will soon announce an update to FCP 4.5 HD (they may already have by the time you read this).

Rod “Mac Daddy” Harlan is the Executive Director of the Digital Video Professionals Association (www.dvpa.com). The DVPA Online University has more than 40,000 streaming video training fi les for all of the Adobe applications (as well as all Microsoft, Apple, and Macromedia applications). Rod can be reached at rod@dvpa.com.

The following is a step-by-step example of how I use the Photoshop Browser to handle my DAM processes after a typical photo shoot. I’ve fine-tuned my steps with keyboard shortcuts whenever possible to speed up the process. Maybe you can retrieve some ideas from my system and adapt and improve on them for your own digital photo workflow.

Image access

First, let’s pop that camera storage card into a dedicated flash card reader. Note: I don’t download images directly from the camera because it’s slow and saps camera battery life!

STEP 1

Copy all of the images into an initial image storage folder. I have a folder labeled: Images_Start, and inside this folder, I create a new folder with the project name or location. As I’m often processing images from multiple shoots or projects, using these labeled folders helps organize them until I’ve sorted, named, and culled through all of the images, at which point I move them to specific project or more permanent storage locations.

STEP 2

Launch Photoshop’s Browser (Command-Shift-O [PC: Control-Shift-O]) and locate your folder on the Browser’s Folders tab. Take a quick look at the images to make sure that they’re all visible (I usually open one to make sure the images are accessible). Next, delete all of the images from your flash card while it’s still installed in the reader. Removing the images from the flash card once again saves time and camera battery life.

Initial sort and cull

Before sorting, we’ll preset the Browser Preferences (Edit>Preferences) and click on the High Quality Previews checkbox. Next, set up the Browser as follows: Collapse the Folder and Metadata panes by double-clicking on the respective tab; enlarge the Preview; then set the Browser View menu to Medium Thumbnail (View>Medium Thumbnail).

STEP 1

Quickly sort through the Medium thumbnail views and select in sequence (Command-click [PC: Control-click]) to select images which are obvious culls—blank, really blurry, out of focus, etc. Then remove them by pressing the Delete (PC: Backspace) key.

STEP 2

Now click on the first image’s medium thumbnail to bring its image up in the enlarged Preview pane. Then, using the keyboard Arrow keys, view each image in the Preview (remember, we activated the High Quality preview in the Browser preferences). As we go, eliminate any additional images that you don’t want—other out-of-focus images, lower quality duplicates (for example, some of my bracketed images), poor expression images (such as a subject with closed eyes), etc.

I may open up a couple of images to see if I really want to toss them, but I try to maintain some discipline at this point to get through the initial sort-and-cull process.

Rotate and name images

Next, we’ll rotate and initially name the images by using the Browser’s batch function.

STEP 1

Select the images you want to rotate in the Browser (Commandclick [PC: Controlclick]), then choose Automate>Batch.

Apply a pre-created rotation action to the selected images and save the images in place. Note: I typically don’t use the Browser’s Direct Rotation tool, as I fi nd it slow and unreliable.

STEP 2

Select all of the remaining images in the Browser (Command-A [PC: Control-A]). Then choose Automate> Batch Rename.

In the Batch Rename dialog, choose the naming characteristics you want (in our example, Redrocks + 1 Digit Serial Number + extension) and click OK. Note: I’ll refi ne the names of many of these images later as I use them, but this at least creates an initial useful name.

Resize images (but no resampling)

Most digital cameras deliver images at 72 ppi with large dimensions so I resize all the pixels in my digital photos from the default 1/72" (72 ppi) to 1/300" (300 ppi) using a pre-created Photoshop resizing action. This resizes the images to reasonable dimensions. Here’s how:

STEP 1

Select all of the remaining images in the Browser (Command-A [PC: Control-A]) then choose Batch from the Browser Automate menu.

STEP 2

Apply a precreated (72 to 300 ppi) Image Size action to the selected images.

Note: It’s important that no resampling occur at this stage, so uncheck the Resample Image checkbox in the Image dialog when you create your Photoshop Resize action.

As shown, these basic DAM-related steps can be done quickly and easily. In the next issue, I’ll show you how I use the Browser to perform additional DAM-related functions, such as sorting, changing format, organizing, gathering, recording, storing, and sending images.

Taz Tally, Ph.D., a nationally known electronic publishing consultant, provides training on a wide range of electronic publishing topics, including scanning, prepress, and digital fi le preparation. Check out his books, Avoiding the Scanning Blues and Acrobat 6 and PDF Solutions, or visit his website at www.tazseminars.com.

Just recently, I got another one of those “most-asked” questions. It was from a woman who was just about to enter the graphic design market (she had some training, but no real professional experience), and she had some serious concerns about how she was going to stand out from the crowd when trying to get a job in today’s competitive market. She asked me what I thought she could do to help her stand out to potential employers.

Now, I’m not the offi cial “International Board of Design Answers,” so I can only give her my personal advice (go back to school and be a doctor), but for the past 11 years I’ve been interviewing and hiring designers for my business, so I do have some experience in crushing the hopes and dreams…I mean, carefully evaluating talent and giving these deserving young designers a chance. To my credit, I’ve found some of the most brilliant designers and layout artists in the business, including Felix Nelson, Dave Damstra, and Margie Rosenstein (okay, Felix really found Margie, but after seeing her portfolio, I did say something along the lines of “Dude, she’s the one!” so I feel I contributed on some level).

To my dismay, I’ve also been duped a few times by designers who brought in great portfolios, only to find out later that they played only a small role in the work in their portfolio (like setting the type or importing photos) and that they didn’t actually artdirect those pieces. When this happens, it’s not long (a few hours, perhaps) until the truth comes bounding forth. You give them a simple project (maybe a postcard or a simple ad to lay out) and the moment they hand it to you, you instantly know that they didn’t do the work in their portfolio themselves. Then you start to ask a few probing questions, and before long, they break and start singing like a canary (it could be the sleep deprivation, but I’m still not convinced that’s why they finally fess up). After this happened a few times, I started to hone my portfolio evaluation skills. But I digress.

So, what did I advise this young “designer-to-be” as to the one thing that would help her stand out from the pack? I told her she needed to learn the art of typography. Setting type right is an art, and when it’s done correctly, it really makes a designer’s work stand out from the crowd, especially these days when the art of typography is rarely taught outside of the big design schools. It would give her an edge that would immediately catch the eye of people who know, understand, and appreciate the art of type, such as ad agencies, publications, design shops, etc.

If she opened her own business, most of her clients would never know whether she really understood type, because they don’t understand type. Her clients wouldn’t be able to tell you why her stuff looked so good, so professional, or so much better than the previous designer they were using. They’d just know her stuff looked “right.” That’s the difference that great type control can make.

About six months ago, we were hiring for an in-house video editor position. We had dozens of applicants, but we were able to quickly weed out the bad ones from the most likely candidates by simply inserting the DVDs they had designed and taking a glance at their DVD menu layout. Their use of type was a dead giveaway. And I’m not just talking about “picking fonts.” That’s not typography. That’s picking fonts. Sometimes we didn’t even get past the DVD menu–if it looked really bad (and it’s their fi rst impression), how good could the videos themselves be? The video editors who used type right–who tracked and kerned, followed the rules of typography, knew when to add space and when to take it away, and knew how to use type as decoration and when the type shouldn’t get in the way–those video editors are “the pros,” and that’s what we were looking for–a pro.

Heck, anybody can choose a dissolve or a wipe from a list of transitions, just like any goober can choose a font. The real pros understand type’s place in the overall design. When it needs to shout, and when it needs to whisper. They understand how choosing, or combining, just the right faces can set a mood, convey a message, and change everything. If she could master this, then her work would stand out from the pack of mediocrity and she’d be noticed. People wouldn’t say, “Wow, her type looks great.” It would just be, “Wow, she’s a great designer.

So where should she start? I’d look at The Complete Manual of Typography by James Felici (ISBN 0321127307), which is considered by many to be the book on modern professional typography (it’s not a “font picking” book–it’s about setting type right). If you’re searching online, you’ll fi nd hundreds of books on typography (yes, there are really hundreds of books about typography– it’s that important).

Type is one of those things that can really draw you in, and when studying type, it’s easy to become passionate and involved with typography. I hope she takes my advice and really digs in, because if she does–and makes learning typography a priority– I do believe two things will happen: (1) She will stand out from the pack and will have that “certain something” that helps land her the better job, the better client, and the better life as a designer. And (2) with any luck at all, she’ll eventually meet a nice guy with an electric guitar.

What we’ll do in this article is design four CD jewel cases and accompanying CDs. The jewel case conveys the first impression; the CDs themselves provide the follow-up. Each must stand alone, yet both must work together.

In every case, the key to a successful second page is simplicity; the second page should be a lesser and simpler version of the first. By repeating typefaces and colors you create continuity.

You’ll face this task everywhere, not only on CDs but in books, brochures, webpages, PowerPoint presentations—everywhere that one page follows another.

Let’s have a look at four good techniques.

Repeat the Center of Interest

A beautiful jewel-box cover has been carefully cropped from a larger image. Key in this case is placement; note (below right) that the seashell’s position defines the margins containing the type. A repeated image brings built-in continuity of shape, color, and texture, and makes a fresh, bold statement. The inside is clearly a subset of the outside, yet has its own distinctive presence. Hierarchy: With a strong, central image, the rest of the layout should work in support. The easiest way to do this is to center the design, which moves the eye down the page in a straight line (right). Similarly, you want the type to recede: Set it small (smaller than you’d think), and color it gray (far right) or a light tint of the image itself, which yields a handsome, minimalist look.

When your cover has a strong focal point like this one, mask its background and bring it inside. Alone on a white canvas, it will stand out in striking relief.

Find something in the scene

If the outside is big, make the inside small. Bring something from the forest inside–a pine cone, an eagle, a rock– and you’ll create a beautiful contrast of far and near. A forest is vast, panoramic, and distant. A small object brings it close, puts it at human scale, makes it touchable. The green background is a neutral value against which dark and light type both stand out with beautiful, clear difference.

Simple alignment helps bring the outside in.

Make your own object

Draw a shape–simpler is better–atop your image, then repeat it inside. This beautifully modern look is especially handy if your cover image has no available follow-up. Cool and low-key, note in each of the designs that similarities–shapes, sizes, colors–and opposites–dark, light–work easily together. Note especially the very small type; it takes real restraint to to set your own name in 14-pt type, but the results couldn’t be classier.

Note the positive-negative use of color. Position the shape in the same place on both sides, then align the type blocks neatly to it. Be consistent and simple; note the clean, straight lines of sight.

Lift out one title

Tell the rest of a story. Here, a buildit-yourself cover grid of doors prepares the viewer for the “key” inside–a single tile lifted out and enlarged. At first glance, what you see is a collage of doors. The fun is that you can hide your message on the cover, and then reveal it inside. It’s the only image with a key, appropriately tying it to the message “Unlock your imagination.” Tint the type color to blend with the image.

Simplify with similar colors

A grid of dissimilar images is naturally complex and must be simplified. An easy organizational technique is to create one row of similar colors.	Our title row is made of images with similar colors with a few squares left empty for the words; on a busy field, such empty space really stands out.	The type color must be similar, too; words in cool blue would disrupt the continuity. To get this, just sample the warm neighboring colors.

John McWade is a designer, teacher, and author who has been at the forefront of the graphic design and desktop publishing worlds for two decades. He is founder, publisher, and primary voice of Before & After magazine (www.bamagazine.com; email: layers@bamagazine.com).