Printer Evaluation Image...Purge Patterns...

Outback Photo is a great resource on digital printing. They have developed an evaluation image for the sake of testing printers and profiles. They make is available as a free download. The also have a write up on how to evaluate the results. The article, Using the Printer Evaluation Image, also has a link to download the image.

Here is a link to nozzle purge patterns. You can print these to free up stuck nozzles on a printer.

MOCAD

Some of the work currently on display at MOCAD.

Rosamond Purcell - visiting artist lecture Thursday at noon

Please join the Department of Art and the Friends of the Library in welcoming the extraordinary, internationally known photographer and author, Rosamond Purcell at her lecture to be given in the Carlson Library on the University of Toledo’s Bancroft campus. Rosamond Purcell has written or illustrated 17 books, including two books with Stephen J. Gould. She is known for her photographic documentation of natural history collections housed in such far-flung places as the University of Leiden, the Netherlands. In addition, Ms Purcell has had more than 50 solo exhibitions of her photography including: Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard (1984); the Field Museum, Chicago (1988); Bishop Museum, Honolulu, 1990; the Cleveland Museum of Art (1995); and, fall 2012 as part of Very Like a Whale: Seeming is Believing in Shakespeare, exhibition by Rosamond Purcell and Michael Witmore, Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C. This event is free and open to the public. Reception with refreshments will immediately follow the lecture. Date/Time: February 28th at 12:00 noon Place: Canaday Center for Special Collections, 5th floor, Carlson Library University of Toledo, Bancroft campus For further information please contact: Barbara Miner at: Barbara.Miner@Utoledo.edu, 419.530.8315, or David Remaklus at: David.Remaklus@Utoledo.edu , 419.530.4030

Readings on Printing - please read by Tuesday

Please read the the second part of this handout about ink jet printing. I wrote it several years ago, but the information is still valid.

Also, please read this Printing Guide for the 4800.

On Tuesday, I will provide an overview of inkjet printing and we will do some demos on dodging and burning for B&W images.

First Contact exhibition reception this Friday February 22nd from 6-9pm

GALLERY PROJECT PRESENTS: FIRST CONTACT Thursday, February 14 - Sunday, March 24, 2013 Reception: Friday, February 22, 6-9pm Gallery Project presents First Contact, a multimedia exhibit in which 33 regional, national, and international artists explore our desire to encounter extraterrestrials, our preparedness for such an event, the event itself, and its possible consequences.  Technological development has brought us to the precipice of first contact, but has humanity kept pace? Is our search for extraterrestrial life simply a search for answers to our own existence? What makes us believe that we are prepared for a relationship with other worlds when we have difficulties on our own planet? Is it our innate curiosity or primal fear that motivates us? 'Artists," wrote Ezra Pound, "are the antennae of the race." Media analyst Marshall McLuhan expanded on that idea when he wrote, "Art as radar acts as an 'early alarm system,' as it were, enabling us to discover social and psychic targets in lots of time to prepare to cope with them." If art is an 'early warning system,' then what does art about First Contact foretell? Contributors include Seder Burns, Thomas Carey, Ross Carlisle, John Causland, Debra Davis, Lynda Davis, Rocco DePietro, Zeek Earl, H.R. Giger, Brad Gieske, Clifton Harvey, Mayumi Haryoto, Dan Hernandez, Nicholas Kahn, Tanya Kazakova, Charles Lindsay, Kevin Margo, Ian Moersen, Gloria Pritschet, Simon Ray, Michael Rea, Kris Rudolph, Richard Selesnick, Sara Schleicher, Douglas Scobel, Brian Spolans, Derek Stenning, Po-Wei Su, Mike Tarr, Jacob Tebbe, Brana Vojnovic, Lynn Whitney, and Barry Whittaker. The exhibit is curated by Seder Burns, Lecturer of New Media, University of Toledo, and Gallery Project collaborator.  Image: Nicholas Kahn and Richard Selesnick, Elysium Planitia 215 South Fourth Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48103 New Hours: Thursday-Saturday, noon-9; Sunday, noon-6; closed on Monday Thru Wednesday 734.997.7012 galleryproject@gmail.com http://www.thegalleryproject.com

It's Black, It's White, Woohoo

The first thing you should do when preparing to convert your image to black and white is to first make a very nice color version of the image. Of special importance is the color correction/determination of correct white balance. Most of the methods used to convert an image to black and white are based on assigning tone based on color. If there is a color cast, then this will make it harder to make targeted edits to tone based on color.

Here is the handout that I wrote up back in 2006. It is a little dated, but most of it still applies. It covers many of the techniques that I demonstrated in class. All that is missing is the conversion available via Camera Raw and the Black and White tools within Photoshop proper.
Being a UT student, you have access to the wonderful resources that the University of Toledo library offers students in the form of online books. If you connect to the internet via a UT connection, you will not have to sign in. If you are at home, then you will have to sign in using your name and R number. I will try to remember to demonstrate how to do this in class tomorrow.

To access the online books through UT's library system, begin by going to:

http://www.utoledo.edu/library/

Go to the Quick Links section and run a search on the relevant subject matter, let's say Photoshop Pen Tool. Look over the books . You will see that most of them have an ebook icon on to the right of the listing. You will see a link just below the book title which says Connect to Electronic Resource. This will take you to the book within Safari Books Online. You will see a large blue button which says Start Reading.

Or go directly to the search by going to:

http://utmost.cl.utoledo.edu/search

Additional reading on Converting images to Black and White - please read these online books available via the library by Wednesday

Real World Digital Photography, 2^nd Edition, pp. 556-567, well written section on converting to black and white and some novel means to toning images. I used to use this book as the assigned textbook at Owens. A bit dated now, but still an excellent read.
Digital Infrared Photography, Chapter 5, we will briefly discuss digital infrared in the near future, but this book covers some interesting digital conversions to grayscale some of which are specific to IR images.

Mastering Digital Black and White: A Photographer’s Guide to High Quality Black-and-White Imaging and Printing Chapter 5, the Color to Black and White section which discusses the Calculations method of conversion.

Here are some links to tutorials on using the Dodge and Burn technique that I will demonstrate next week

Non-Destructive Dodge and Burn in Photoshop

Why dodge and burn?.

Here is an article about why you might want to Dodge and Burn.

Here is an article about using the Gradient Map method to convert an image to B&W. 

Here is an article about using the Gradient tool to make a sky darker.

Here is an article demonstrating multiple ways to split tone an image.

Here is another about multiple ways to add a Sepia tone to an image.

I will demonstrate Quadtone RIP for you one at some point in the next few weeks.

Homework

For your next project, you will create an image dealing with the notion of an individual's idea of sacred space.

Essentially, you are going to take a portrait of someone and then combine it with a photo of the space that is sacred to them. You will combine it to make it look good. The technical aspects are really pretty easy.

I would like you to follow this link and watch the video to more fully understand the process. If your camera doesn't support multiple exposure, or you don't want to combine them in camera, then you can combine them in your image editing application.

Also, shot an image to be combined for the Trichromy assignment.

You don't need to perform any editing. We will do that in class on Tuesday. Have fun!

Using Pepakura Viewer on a Mac....

UT offers a 'virtual computer' experience to allow students and faculty access to the programs and services of a UT computer lab. They call it VLab. To use it, you must download and install the Virtual Lab client.From that site, you then follow the link to launch the virtual lab. It will always be a Windows 7 environment.

You can install programs within the VLab environment. Thus, you can install Pepakura Viewer on VLab. FYI- once you log out of a VLab session, the program that you installed previously will disappear.

Pepakura Viewer is the free utility that will allow you to open up your Pepakura file (.pdo) and facilitate your models assembly. You can download it to your virtual desktop.

To access your  .pdo file you have to first save it somewhere online. You could use Google Drive or your H drive. UT supplies all its students with some space on their file server. This is always available to you as your H drive. Below is a screenshot of how to upload your files to H drive.

In summary, you can use Pepakura Viewer (or Pepakura Designer for that matter) on a Mac using the Virtual Labs service. Below is a screenshot of Pepakur Designer running on a VLab virtual computer (FYI- that isn't my Tron model. You can download it here).