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Photo Storage and Video Editing


Analog vs Digital

  • Clocks are a good way to understand the differences between analog and digital information.

figure one - clocks, storing and editing digital photos 

  • Data in modern devices is stored in digital form, as a collection of 1’s & 0’s.

  • Analog data degrades over “generations” of copies.

figure two, storing and editing digital photos

  • Digital data is less susceptible to degradation due to copies.

  • An exception to this is when the data is stored in a “lossy” compressed format.

figure 3, storing and editing digital photos


Lossy compression

  • Some common, lossy compression formats:

    • mpeg, mpeg2, mp3, mp4 – Audio and video

    • jpg and gif – Images

  • Most modern, digital cameras use jpg by default.

  • Rule of thumb: When editing jpeg photos, avoid multiple editing sessions on the same photo file.

    • Instead, go back to the original photo, if you can.\


Taking digital photos

  • This is not the topic of today’s session.

  • I suggest you visit the website Glade Presnal shared with us (http://www.jasonrichclasses.com) and view these two presentations:

    • “Take & Share Awesome Photos Using Your iPhone or iPad”

    • “Showcase and Share Your Vacation Photos”


Converting analog photos to digital

  • A flatbed scanner is the best way to digitize your photos.

    • Many “consumer-grade” scanners available today will be good enough for most needs. Most of these will scan at pixel densities of 300 – 2400 dpi (dots-per-inch)

    • For higher-resolution needs there also are photo scanners, which have a much higher dpi capability. For example, the Epson Perfection V550 Photo Scanner ($170 on Amazon.com) is a highly-rated product that can scan at 6400 dpi

  • Rules of thumb for scanning:

    • The higher the dpi, the more space the storage the photo will take. (But storage is cheap and getting cheaper by the day.)

    • It is better to scan at a higher dpi and then scale the photo down to a smaller size for printing than to scan at a lower dpi and then scale the photo up.

    • When uploading photos for printing, your printing company may have suggestions on resolutions for particular print sizes.


Printing your photos

  • Rule of thumb: Upload your photos and have them printed on photo paper (for example, with Wal-Mart) rather than printing them on your home printer.

    • If you use plain paper on your home printer, the quality of the paper and image will be lower than a commercial print.

    • Whether you use plain paper or photo paper at home, the cost of paper + ink will be (significantly) higher than for a commercial print.

  • Check with your photo printing company to learn the suggested resolutions for particular sizes of prints.

  • For example, Wal-Mart suggests these minimum image resolutions:

    • 4 x 6: 540 x 360 pixels

    • 5 x 7: 546 x 390 pixels

    • 8 x 10: 960 x 780 pixels


Multi-Scan

  • Multi-scan is the term used to describe scanning multiple photos at one time.

    • Many of today’s scanners come with this capability built into the included software.

    • Multiple photos (perhaps of differing sizes) can be scanned in one take.

    • One photo file will be created for each photo, cropped to its edges.

    • There are a number of commercial products can split photos out of a scanned image, if your scanner software cannot do so.

    • Gimp (free) also has a plug-in available for splitting photos from a scan.


Digitizing slides

  • Most photo scanners digitize not just photos, but also negatives and slides.

    • Digital photos can be created from negatives.

    • There are trays included with or available for photo scanners that align slides and allow you to scan several at a time.

  • For folks with hundreds or thousands of slides, there are scanners with manual or automatic slide feeders built in.

    • Many of these are dedicated devices, only usable for slides.

    • Google “35mm slide scanner”.

  • Rule of thumb: After scanning the slides, examine them to see if you need to rescan after cleaning the slide.


Storage needs for digital photos

  • Most cameras today store there images on removable, SD or micro-SD memory cards.

    • Older devices or some smartphones may not have removable memory.

    • Whether the device has removable memory or not, you almost certainly can connect the camera to your computer via USB or wireless.

  • Most cameras today store there images on removable, SD or micro-SD memory cards.

  • Older devices or some smartphones may not have removable memory.

  • Whether the device has removable memory or not, you almost certainly can connect the camera to your computer via USB or wireless.

  • Current capacities for Micro-SD card include:

    • 8GB (about $6),

    • 16GB (about $8)

    • 32 GB (about $15)

    • 64 GB (about $25)

    • 28GB (about $50)

    • 256GB (about $100)

  • Your camera may not work with the larger sizes; check your user’s manual for limitations.

  • A typical 10-megapixel (about 10,000,000 dots) photo stored in jpg format ranges from 10MB to 18MB in size.

  • So, about how many 10-megapixel photos will fit on a micro-SD card (worst case)?

    •  8GB – 455 

    • 16GB – 910 

    • 32 GB – 1,820 

    • 64 GB – 3,640

    • 128GB – 7,280

    • 256GB – 14,560


Safely storing your photos

  • If you DropBox, you can install its app on your Apple, Android, or Windows phone or tablet, and then enable the Camera Upload feature.

    • This feature automatically uploads photos from your device to your DropBox account immediately after the photos are taken.

    • The photos are stored (by default) in a DropBox folder named Camera Uploads.

  • Use caution with the Camera Uploads feature!

  • If your device is connected to DropBox via your carrier’s cellular network, you may exceed your monthly data plan.

    • Thus, you may want to synch your photos manually, once you have access to a wireless network.

  • If you upload your photos to your computer, there are many options for safely storing them.

    • Keep them on your hard drive or SSD. (Not safe!)

    • Burn to CDR/DVDR/BDR.

    • Store on a flash (thumb) drive – 64GB for about $30.

    • Store on an external drive – 2TB Western Digital drive for about $90 – about 116,500 10-megapixel images.

    • Store them in the Cloud.

  • Whichever you choose, you should keep an “off-premises” copy.

  • Arguably, the safest storage solution for your digital photos is “the Cloud”. 

    • A backup service, such as Carbonite or Mozy – monthly fees.

    • Free backup services, such as iCloud, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Flickr, Picasa, etc. – data mining may occur, plus they may share your information with 3rd party advertisers. Read the fine print if concerned.


Video editing – Why?

  • Perhaps you have a video camera or a smartphone capable of capturing video.

    • Today’s smartphones can take very good video.

    • Most are capable of capturing at 720p or 1080p.

    • More and more are capable of capturing 4K video (4 times the resolution of 1080p HD video).

  • Even if you are an expert cinematographer, you will need to edit your raw video if you want it to look its best.

  • What type of editing might you do on your video?

    • Add title and trailing text.

    • Create smooth transitions between scenes.

    • Rearrange or edit out scenes.

    • Add voiceovers, soundtracks, or sound effects.

    • Add pointers or text overlays for emphasis or clarification.


Video editing products

  • In addition to the expensive, commercial products, there are a number of video editors that you can use for free.

  • In general, there will be a tradeoff between complexity of use and availability of features.

    • Larger feature set → more complex to use

    • Easier to use → fewer features

  • The product that we will look at today is less complex, but still has a good selection of features.

  • It’s name is HitFilm 4 Express.

    • It is available for both Windows and MacOS computers.

    • We will use the free version today.

    • There is a professional version, which has more features.

    • You can download it from the site https://hitfilm.com/express

  • Video editing products

  • There are a number of other good video editing packages available for free.

  • You can learn more about them at the URL http://www.techradar.com/news/software/applications/the-best-freevideo-editor-1330136



  • VideoPad Video Editor

  • Demo time!

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