Charles A. Schlosser, Ph.D.

Digital Photography & the K-12 Educator Florida Educational Technology Conference (FETC) March 19, 1999 Orlando, Florida

Marsha L. Burmeister, Ed.D.

|  Equipment | Trends  |  Classroom Application  |  Release Forms  |  Tips  |  Advantages/Disadvantages  |  Any good?  |
April 4, 2000 Update:  See "Trends" and "Tips" sections.

The technology continues to evolve.  Manufactures include Casio, Kodak, Sony, Epson, Ricoh, and Olympus.  The price structure continues to decrease in cost as features and resolution increases. Issues include cost, image quality, available storage media, and convenience. You'll find a nice overview of the concept of getting photographs into your computer here.
 

Cost  -- ranges from $300 (clearance, low end) up to about $17,000 (high end).  $400 for basic resolution, point & shoot such as the Casio. There are ‘advanced amateur cameras’ which offer moderate resolution and a wider range of features and they are between $700 & $1,000 (Sony Mavica FD81 or 81).  And the third category is that of professional cameras.  These offer the highest resolution available.  They are based upon traditional 35 mm camera bodies that have been adapted for digital photography to accommodate digital recording backs.  Prices for these “top of the line” professional cameras range $9000 to $17,000.

Image quality is important when you figure out what you want to do with the camera.  For some people, it is merely a function of what you are going to do with the image.  The problem is when you want to move from the screen to the print in a valiant attempt to replicate traditional photography from a digital image.  Sometimes… and usually… you come up short.  For example, the perfect digital photo of your child or grandchild on your computer screen may not meet your expectations for what you would have gleaned from your traditional camera.

The least expensive point and shoot cameras provide images that have about 300,000 (300k) pixels and moderate cameras such as the Mavica and the Olympus D620L have 1.4 megapixels.  The professional digital cameras offer resolution levels only slightly higher.  What you are paying for is a camera is just like what you are used to in frames per second, removable hard drives, and other advanced features.

Storage medium:  There is a wide variety ? capacity, cost, convenience, and availability.  The least expensive point and shoot cameras offer built-in storage internally (non removable such as with the old Casio).  While convenient, these cameras require images to be downloaded eventually or deleted to create space for additional images.  Cameras with removable storage media offer greater flexibility.  The Sony Mavica uses inexpensive 1.2 meg 3.5 floppy disks which can directly interface with the PC or Macintosh.  Tiny, wafer-thin (and expensive) Smart Media cards are the newest emerging storage media.  SmartMedia cards and Flash Media trade initial expense for a return in memory and convenience.

Convenience: there are two ways of looking at this.  The first is in convenience of picture taking.  The point & shoot cameras are really digital instamatics.  Take the picture ? It’s yours to do something with: no focus, no F-stops, no manual settings to fuss with.  Secondly, the convenience of use.  This can be viewed as tethered vs. untethered.  Specifically, the Sony Mavica camera creates JPG images on a floppy disk that are instantly transportable to a Mac or PC without the intervention of proprietary software. This convenience was initially unparalleled.  Now SmartMedia and Flash Media rival the floppy drive compatible digital cameras.

Cameras using smart media cards such as the Olympus D620L download their images via a cable or an assistive device (reader, adapter or card receptive printer).  Although a floppy disk adapter can expedite downloading, this is a power intensive procedure and requires an AC adapter for the camera.  Cameras using the SmartMedia cards require software for downloading and viewing images as well as (potentially) file conversion.

Two most important trends are an increase in image quality and a reduction in camera cost.  Most advanced amateur cameras are creating megapixel images (greater than 1 million pixels per image).  At the same time, costs are falling dramatically with camera prices falling as much as one third within the past year.  Both of these trends are expected to continue so if you have not yet taken the plunge into ownership of a digital camera, you should continue to look at this as an exciting possibility of an increasingly affordable technology to integrate into your classroom.  But as digital images improve in quality, they will also tend to increase in size of files.  As file sizes increase, and more and more photos are taken (after all, it is only electronic dust!), storage media will have to meet these needs.  We now look beyond traditional floppy disks to a wide variety of storage media available.  These include internal hard drives (8 gigs now rather than that 20 meg of the Mac LC), to zip drives (100 and 250 megs) and the Jaz disk (1 gig) and perhaps most excitingly the CDR  write, record, edit, erasable CD and the much higher capacity DVD.

The April, 2000, issue of Popular Science featured a wonderful article: Picture me in pixels: Next-generation digital cameras. As of this writing (April 4, 2000) the article is available in the print edition only; if its status changes, a link will be added to this page.  There were several new cameras featured as the article discussed that "digital photography isn't just about a new way to take pictures; it's about new ways to view, share, and display our phtos both at home and online." (Kirschner, 2000, pp. 51-52). The cameras discussed in the article included the Sony Mavica MVC-FD95 ($1000), the Sony DCS-S70 ($800) in the CyberShot series of Sony cameras,  the Toshiba PDR-M70 ($999), KB Gear's JamC@m 3.0 (less than $100), the Olympus C-3030 Zoom ($999), and Nicon's Coolpix 990 ($999).  You may also wish to check out the Ceiva "digital frame" ($249) that displays as many as 10 digital photos in a slide show format.  Connect the frame to the Internet and it can download a new set of photos!  There are several other frames (Sony's Cyber-Frame PHD-A55 ($899) and Digi-Frame's DF-560 ($599).  The frames use Memory Stick or CompactFlash or SmartMedia cards.  The article also mentioned the Sony UP-DP10 photo printer ($389) creates prints directly from the digital files.

Online photo  albums are a new trend.  Take a look at PhotoPoint, Kablink, and eMemories or use Zing and Photo Island to store your images online.  These sites also offer the possibility to order paper prints, mugs, cps, shirts and other items with the pictures on them.
 
 

Classroom Application: ideas, ideas ideas!

This integration of digital photography could stand alone as a topic for our presentation.  The possibilities are endless.  Of course, the use of digital photography in the classroom is the same as with all photography.  Digital photography can put the camera in the hands of the learner without the financial consequences of  wasted shots. The purpose of this list with appropriate links is designed to whet your appetite.  The session presenters thank the educators that generously shared their ideas with us via the EdTech list.

•  The First Academy  has an online digital yearbook and a "Virtual Tour" of the campus. (Thanks, D. Corbett, Orlando, FL)
• Science teachers will find many ways to integrate photographs into science fairs.  This science fair metasite will yield many ideas. (Thanks, M. Nicholson, Calgary, Alberta).  Here's a nice example of documenting a science fair.
• MidLink Magazine with links to Cool Schools, is an example of online publishing.  See also an illustration of poetry; this example is from "Electric Soup."
• ZooTrition... high school webquest project that Lake Park High School and The Brookfield Zoo team up to do a comparison study in nutrition. In this study, the daily diets of eight animals are compared to the daily diet of an average Honors Chemistry Student.  Don't miss the biographies with photos of the animals (including example of photo credits).
• As a follow-up to a field trip, have students create a brochure about the destination and include photos they took on site. (Thanks, Sue K. Nice)
• Students can create a Power Point presentation detailing particulars about their school (Thanks, Sue K. Nice).
• Illustrate classroom activities. "The Mystery of the Missing Groundhog" and "Chocolate Fever" are very creative examples. (Thanks, Frances Hinely).
• The Technology Camp in Escambia County, FL, (Thanks, Ed Seitz, Title I) is a superior example of the use of documenting student activity using digital photography.
• A physiology class can put together a dissection manual, documenting the procedure (Thanks, Eunice Jackson).
• Any classroom project can have a photographic component.  Take a picture of the student with the completed project and then assign a written summary to go with the picture (Thanks, Melody Pinkston).  These can be included in HyperStudio projects.  A take-off on the milk mustache commercials is yet another possibility (Thanks, Carole Lechleitner).   Documenting steps in labs using digital photography can then be incorporated into worksheets for a real life picture of the procedure (Thanks, Mary Oshel).  Take a photo of the student with something they brought from home to illustrate a letter sound; put these into Hyperstudio linking a card with the child's hand-drawn version of the letter and a card with a picture of the child holding the illustration  and you have a "magically" illustrated alphabet slide show (Thanks, Loren Sobel).
• Don't miss any language arts opportunity.  Make your own book with photographs as illustrations (Thanks, M. Treuil)
• Add photos to handouts, newsletters, and presentations.  Document classroom activities. (Thanks, Kathleen McKinney)
• Integrate digital photos into your units.  Create a "passport" for your students as they study countries around the world!
• No list would be complete without mentioning digital images on the school web page.  Don't miss Web66 for literally hundreds of examples!  Kathy Schrock has an excellent presentation about "Developing A Content-Rich Home page for your School."
• Still looking for more ideas?  Check out "1001 Uses for a Digital Camera" (Thanks for this clue, Karin Bell)

• Internet Photo Permission Slip -- Girl Scouts of America
• model of a Web Photo Permission Slip
• Student Photo Release Form -- International Reading Association
• Minor Model release form
• School district video/picture permission form -- a possible model
• Example of Consent for Release of Student Information

The guidelines for taking good photos with digital cameras are similar to those for traditional cameras…

1. Use the highest quality setting.  Most digital cameras offer two or three picture quality settings.  The standard quality setting allows a greater number of images to be stored in the camera because it yields smaller image files and lower quality images.  Higher quality settings yield sharper images through larger file sizes, but because of this, are able to store fewer images on a given medium.  This is analogous to selecting the slowest recording speed on your VCR.  You can record six hours of material on a two-hour tape, but the quality will suffer.

2. Shoot tight.  The great photojournalist Robert Capa said that if the photograph wasn’t good enough, it was because the photographer was not close enough.  He used a 35mm camera, his comment applies equally well to modern digital cameras.  Because digital camera images are low in resolution, every pixel counts.  If the image requires substantial cropping and enlargement, quality will be further degraded.  Shooting tight can be accomplished by moving closer to your subject, by setting the camera’s zoom lens to a telephoto setting, or both.  Either way, the photo will have more impact and offer greater technical quality.

3. Shoot horizontals and verticals.  Beginning photographers and those accustomed to using video cameras sometimes forget to shoot vertical pictures.  Some subjects such as portraits just naturally look better when photographed vertically.  Doing so will result in a more attractively composed photo, and will have less wasted space, an important consideration in digital photography, in which every pixel counts.

4. Light carefully.  Despite recent advances in CCD technology, images made with digital cameras lack the broad exposure latitude characteristic of recent color print films.  In practice, that means that digital photos made in harsh light may have empty shadows, blown out highlights, or both.  Avoiding harsh shadows by carefully composing your photos or selecting softer light sources, such as open shade or a cloudy-bright sky, will result in more attractive photos.

5. Use a tripod.  When shooting in dim lighting conditions without flash, some digital will select a very slow shutter speed.  So slow, in fact, that camera motion will result in blurry pictures.  Using the camera’s flash can help, but in some situations flash is inappropriate or prohibited.  In those cases, the use of a tripod or some other steady support will result in sharper photos.

6. Have spare batteries handy.  Digital cameras gobble batteries at an alarming rate.  This can be very inconvenient if the batteries die before you are finished shooting.  Having an extra set of batteries on hand will allow you to keep shooting.  All these batteries can be expensive, so you should consider using rechargeables, such as nickel-metal-hydrides.

7. Have extra storage media handy.  Especially when shooting at your camera’s highest quality setting, storage media, such as floppy disks and SmartMedia cards can be rapidly filled.  Having extras on hand will allow you to keep shooting.  The inconvenience of running out of floppy disks is fairly minimal, as they are readily available.  Other media, however, such as SmartMedia cards, are specialized items and are more difficult to locate.  One or more extras should be ordered and kept in your camera case.

There are several very nice tutorials online on this subject.  Kodak's Digital Photography Teachers Center is a "don't miss" as is A Short Course in Digital Photography. You may find this tutorial focusing upon traditional photography helpful.  And don't miss  "the photo highway site" which focuses upon digital photography! The NYI Digital Photo Primer is quite nicely done and if you are seeking a guide to digital photography resources, then check out Hylas.

Advantages

• Very easy to use ? point & shoot
• Images can be viewed immediately ? no wondering if they “turned out”
• No film costs
• No processing costs
• Image can be used immediately ? no processing delay
• Image already in digital format ? no scanning necessary
• Sharing/distribution of files via email as attachments easily
• Easy to edit the image ? crop, adjust color balance, etc.: software
• Prices for digital cameras continue to decrease

•  Cameras are expensive; the first photo may cost $400+
•  Low image quality vs. resolution
•  Best view: via monitor, online
•  Some storage media are expensive or hard to find
•  Print quality is printer-dependent and paper-dependent
•  Downloading can be cumbersome: cables, battery drain (power intensive)
•  Only most expensive models accept interchangeable lenses
•  Very few models offer manual settings
•  CCDs tend to be relatively sensitive to light with effective ISOs between 50 & 200

Are the pictures any good?  This question has at least two answers—the easy one and the correct one.  Judged objectively, and compared to photographs made with traditional cameras and film, images produced by digital cameras are not very good but are continually improving as we move to megapixels and beyond.  There is  usually just not enough digital information in digital camera images.  This shortcoming is apparent when images are enlarged to even moderate sizes, such as 5” X 7”.  However, digital images may be quite satisfactory for some consumers and for some applications.

Several factors contribute to digital image quality.  Chief among these is the total number of pixels in the image, and the more pixels, the better.  All things being equal, a megapixel camera will yield sharper, more detailed photos than cameras producing images of smaller file sizes.  The advantage will be lost, however, unless the photographer selects the camera’s highest-quality mode.
 

Shooting techniques:  Even the best digital cameras will deliver poor pictures if used improperly.  Following some simple camera-handling guidelines will result in better photos.

Specific applications:  Whether or not a digital photo is acceptable may depend upon how it is to be used. Digital images that look coarse or fuzzy when printed to 5” X 7” may be quite acceptable when viewed on a computer monitor as part of a Web site or an email attachment.

Personal standards.  People vary widely in their expectations of images, whether digital or traditional.  What is quite acceptable to one person may be unacceptable to another.

Marsha L. Burmeister, Ed.D.
Charles A. Schlosser, Ph.D.
Presented March 19, 1999 but last updated March 21, 2001