John Kirkwood explains why digital photography is becoming a marvellous facility for agents, thanks to its ability to manipulate and transmit images.
There is a temptation to see digital photography as simply an expensive way of taking pictures that won’t have the same image quality as those taken with conventional film. And because this is an emerging technology, many people have decided to wait until digital cameras are better and cheaper.
This is a mistake. Good-quality digital cameras are now available for less than £500 and offer many facilities that are unavailable with conventional photography. These include:
- the manipulation of images on a computer;
- the electronic transmission of photographs to anywhere in the world;
- the incorporation of images into Web pages;
- and the ability to check instantly if an image is suitable.
It may be true that for holiday snaps or for high-quality fashion shots the traditional film-based camera is still your best bet. But for many property applications, digital photography offers far more convenience and a wider range of opportunities.
For example, a surveyor inspecting a property hundreds of miles away from a client might do the following: photograph the building using a digital camera; download the images onto a laptop computer; edit the images using a graphics package; connect to the Internet and transmit the images; and discuss the features of the property with the client a few minutes later, while looking at the same image.
Another example is where an estate agent photographs a building for use in sales particulars. Using a desktop publishing package, such as ipublish (see EG, December 20 1997, p71) the digital images may be incorporated into a brochure, with the software handling resizing automatically. Also, the brochure may then be converted into a set of Web pages within seconds.
Digital studio set-up
The basic requirements for digital photography are: a digital camera; a personal computer; graphics software; and a colour printer. Scanning devices are available to transform a conventional photograph into digital format.
A digital camera operates in the same way as a conventional camera, except that the image is captured on a light sensitive electronic device rather than film. The lens focuses the image onto a charge coupled device (CCD), which then converts the image into electrical pulses. These are then converted using an analogue-to-digital converter. In effect, a digital camera is a form of portable scanner.
The resulting image is referred to as a bitmap file. A bitmap is a collection of bits (binary digits) that represent individual pixels. Pixels are similar to the dots used to create a printed image – a greater number of pixels provides a better quality image.
The Epson PhotoPC 600 was used to prepare this article. The camera is very similar to a conventional one and has a flash, a viewfinder, as well as zoom, macro and panoramic facilities.
The camera records a 24-bit colour image. Its 4Mb internal memory holds up to 56 standard quality images. Alternatively, users may elect to store up to 18 fine quality images, or eight of superfine quality.
The camera features a built-in colour LCD monitor for previewing and playing back pictures. Thus, unlike a conventional camera, the user may check immediately to see if the correct image has been captured.
Most digital cameras store images using flash memory. The Epson PhotoPC 600 allows users to add to the camera’s internal memory by installing an optional 4Mb or 15Mb CompactFlash Card – like carrying extra rolls of film.
Most digital cameras use a serial cable to transfer images to a PC. This is connected to a computer’s serial port, and involves transferring image information one bit at a time. Consequently, the process can be rather slow.
Some cameras provide a small computer system interface (SCSI) – pronounced ‘scuzzy’ – which is capable of faster data transfer. A SCSI card must be fitted to the PC to use this approach.
The Epson PhotoPC 600 has a serial interface only, although the data transfer is reasonably fast and images may be transferred directly from camera to printer.
Graphic applications make demanding use of a computer. Epson’s minimum specifications are on the generous side: a realistic set-up would be a Pentium 200 Mhz processor, 32Mb RAM, 6.4Gb hard disk drive, a 24 x CD ROM and an SVGA monitor. A particularly important element is the amount of memory on the computer’s graphics card. Currently 2Mb is standard, although 4Mb is required to display 24-bit colour images (6m colours) at 1,024 x 768 pixels.
In other words, if you buy a camera such as the Epson PhotoPC 600 but use a PC with the minimum specification, you will not be able to see photographs of semis for sale in all their glory.
Digital images may be viewed either on the camera, when an LCD display is provided, or on computer. Inevitably, however, users wish to produce hard copy, using a colour printer. As with so many areas of information technology, prices of printers have fallen dramatically as quality has improved.
Storage facilities
Digital images are stored on computer using a wide variety of file formats which represent the digital information in different ways, depending on the type of application: CompuServe GIF format was developed to compress the original bitmap files into a form that could be transmitted down telephone lines. Consequently, this format does not support more than 256 colours.
Another common format is Windows Bitmap (BMP). This is the default for the Windows Paint program. When a BMP image is converted into GIF format, it is compressed and, consequently, some of the quality is lost.
The JPEG file format also results in the compression of the image data. JPEG (Joint Photographics Experts Group) allows users to select the degree of compression and, hence, quality.
Many graphics packages enable users to convert easily from one file format to another. For example, PaintShop Pro handles over 27 file formats. Images taken with the Epson PhotoPC 600 are stored in JPEG format. These may be converted into GIF files, using PaintShop Pro, before transmitting them over the telephone network.
The exciting thing about capturing images in digital format is that they are so easy to edit, once they have been transferred to a computer. The editing is accomplished by means of graphics software, which provides functions like cut and paste, resizing, zooming, colour adjusting and image rotation. The opportunities to contravene the Property Misdescriptions Act are endless!
The Epson PhotoPC 600, for example, is supplied with HotShots, a set of tools for digital images. This product enables users to download images from several sources: digital camera, scanner, hard disk and the Internet. Tools include Quick Fix, which automatically analyses and adjusts images, SmartPix which corrects images according to user requirements, and special effects tools (eg make a photograph look like an oil painting).
There are many other computer graphics packages that can be used to alter and enhance images, including Adobe Photoshop , Corel Draw and Macromedia Freehand. And digital images may be used within word processing and desktop publishing packages to create smarter brochures and sales particulars. The only limiting factor is the imagination of the person using the system!
| COMPANY INFORMATION | |
|---|---|
| EPSON UK LTD | |
| Address: | Campus 100 |
| Maylands Avenue | |
| Hemel Hempstead | |
| Herts HP2 7TJ | |
| Telephone: | 01442 61144 |
| Fax: | 01422 227227 |
| E-mail: | info@epson.co.uk |
| WWW URLL | www.epson.co.uk |
| EPSON PHOTOPC 600 | |
|---|---|
| Camera type | EPSON XGA Digital Still AF |
| Sensor | 1/3″ colour area CCD 810,000 pixels |
| LCD monitor | 2 inch colour TFT |
| Storage media | 4Mb internal memory |
| Data type | Full colour 24-bit JPEG |
| Resolution | Superfine: 1,024 x 768 pixels |
| Fine: 1,024 x 768 pixels | |
| Standard: 640 x 480 pixels | |
| Panorama: 1,024 x 384 pixels | |
| Optics | Lens: 5mm F2.8 (equivalent to 36mm lens on a 35mm camera |
| Aperture: F2.8, f5.6, F11 | |
| focus range: 50cm to infinity (20-50 cm macro mode) | |
| Shutter speed: to 1,500 seconds | |
| Program Auto Exposure | |
| Shooting modes: | Self-timer: 10 second delay |
| Macro: Range 20-50cm | |
| Monochrom imaging | |
| Zoom: digital step zoom (1x, 1.3x, 1.6x, 2x, 2.5x, 3x) | |
| Panorama format image (1,024 x 384 pixels) | |
| Multi-image: 9 sequential images in a single frame | |
| Image capacity | up to 48 photos |
| Processing time | 11-14 secs |
| Power supply | Four AA alkaline batteries (incl) |
| AC adaptor | |
| Dimensions | 142.5mm x 48.8mm x 69.8mm |
