Week five was about “Digital Imaging”.
It’s important stuff, it’s all about the way images are portrayed on a screen (Computer, TV, Projector etc). The types of images we covered were Bitmaps and their different image formats:
- TIFF.(.tif)
- BMP.(.bmp)
- PICT.(.pct)
- GIF.(.gif)
- JPEG.(.jpg)
There are also other formats but these were the main ones that we looked at.
A bitmap is a graphic image, also known as a raster. It is a large grid with a lot of squares to form an image. Each of these little squares are called pixels, short for picture elements.
Bitmaps are quite universal – almost any program can work with simple bitmap file formats, and they require little system overhead to properly display.
When you specify your monitor’s resolution, you tell the computer how many pixels across by how many pixels high, to define the size of the grid showing the image.
The resolution of the screen can be referred to as dots per inch (dpi). 72 dpi is the max for a computer screen. A resolution of 800×600 would be 800 pixels across by 600 pixels high, and therefore a resolution of 1024×768 is 1024 pixels across by 768 pixels high.
The next type of image format covered was the Vector.
Vectors aren’t composed of pixels, they consist of points, lines, and curves which, when combined, can form complex objects. These objects can be filled with solid colours, gradients, and even patterns. It’s point A, connected to point B by a line of some shape. The shape of that line is defined by a mathematical description. The line that defines the vector shape is referred to as the path.
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After learning about these graphic images, we had an overview of the Photoshop software, and were shown some online videos illustrating the programs uses. It is amazing how images and photos can be altered and enhanced with this program. I am looking forward to having an opportunity to use it.
When the lecture was finished, our group (A) went to a class with Margaret and put together a short puppet show as part of the creative side of the course. We had some time to put together a short theme and act it out using the puppets. I think everyone wants to be a puppeteer at some stage, so I enjoyed it although I suppose I could have done better with practice. It seemed that an element of violence seemed to be in everyone’s sketch. It may be that the Punch and Judy style of theatre is written in our psyche.
Grandad Puppet
