Digital Imaging means different things to different people. Photographers both amateur and professional have only recently become aware of the great advantages of this media. Many have still to come to terms with the advances of the technology and the mere thought of touching a computer keyboard will have them coming out in a rash.

Many images on newspaper pages have never been developed as negatives or transparencies in the traditional way. Now an image can be shot on a professional digital camera , sent down a satellite link to a computer on a desk and then on to the page on your daily paper.

That image could be changed in many ways so the idea that a photograph never lies has gone for ever.

However I am going to aim this page at the amateur photographer who has decided to ditch his/her enlarger and darkroom and go digital.

The increase of interest in the medium has brought forth a number of magazines covering a wide range of activity from the novice who perhaps has never owned a SLR to the seasoned pro and a list will be given at the end of this page

There are also separate tutorial pages, and below in Digital Corner will be number of digitally produced images. There are also a number of almost totally digitally produced images on the Digital Landscape pages in the computer graphic section. I have now bought a digital camera - a Nikon 990 and a special page devoted to digital cameras is now open. Since I first did this page I have acquired several digital cameras over the past few years the latest being the Nikon d200 .

http://www.rtfract.com/digcam.htm

In the south of the province of Anhui are the impressive yellow Mountains ( Huang Shan ). The highest point is about 1800 meters and all the way up are wonderfully shaped pines and very photogenic peaks. There are many hundreds of steps to climb to get to the top.
As you can see from the image of the man carrying bamboo this was the only way to carry supplies up. Now there may be a cable system.
The image is made up from two different images taken in the Huang Shan mountains in China. The two slides were scanned into Photoshop . The background image was colour corrected and cleaned up using the clone tool.The man carrying the bamboo was cut out using various selection tools and added to the background. Finally odd bits to the lower part of the frame with masks were added to make up the final image. The border can either be added using additions to the canvas size/add small amount- effect will depend on resolution- for square edges or select/all/modify/border/set number of pixels/fill/ - for smooth results.
Digital Corner
Here are a few examples of the effects that can be achieved in Photoshop
A Question of Balance

This is the original image taken in a dark passage in the old quarter of Honfleur a very picturesque port in Brittany, France. The original was not the sharpest of images and hadn't even been mounted but a few doses of unsharp mask helped
As you can see I first moved one of the boxes that was out of line and recoloured several of the boxes using replace colour in the image adjust menu

The background which was a bit dull was also 'repainted' without having to visit B and Q. Having
completed the stage now was the time to bring in the actor.
I searched the cat files for one that would fit the bill, added a bit of soft shadow and a further layer to hide part of the cat.

The Cat Burglar
The original shot -above left was a candid shot in Sulawesi. The cloning tool was used to eliminate the dsitracting yellow and black poles and the highlights in the background. Curves was used to improve the image and yellow added to warm the image. Crop was also used to improve the composition.
The original image shot in a field in France a few summers ago.A vertical selection from the centre was chosen as the composition .Various flowers were erased, cleaned up, copied and moved. The lighter area of the sky was filled in and darkened after the distant tree was moved. Several copies of the final layer were made and by experimenting with various blending modes reached an I liked. The final title was added by extending the image area in canvas.