Tutorial Two: Digital Imaging

In this tutorial we were expected to create our own Flickr accounts and upload photos to create a photo badge for our blog (on the right up the top of the screen). We familiarised ourselves with using a tripod and a digital camera by taking photos around campus.

Here are some examples of hardware and software used to store, transfer, and manipulate digital images:

Hardware

·         Digital cameras

·         Phone cameras

·         Motion picture recorders

·         Web cams

·         Memory cards (SD, xD, MSD)

·         USB sticks/pen drives

·         CD’s

·         DVD’s

·         External hard drives

“A new technology is rarely superior to an old one in every feature” – on digital camera technology.

In school I did photography as one of my art choices. I worked with both old style SLR and new SLR cameras. The old style works with the traditional black and white film where you process and develop each photo in a dark room. The new camera was more technical, automatic, and the photos went straight onto a computer to be edited and printed. Working with the traditional film style camera I had to work more on getting the focus perfect, making sure the lighting worked in relation to the subject, and then all the technical work that goes into developing each photo. It took a lot more work but I found that I preferred the look that the traditional camera had. It wasn’t automatic so not every photo was perfect, but they each had their own look; each had their own thing to say. I found this was missing when I changed over to the automatic camera. It had a lot more features, it took clearer pictures with less effort, and they didn’t take as much time to develop, but the pictures weren’t necessarily better than those on the traditional film camera. I agree with the above statement, that a new technology is rarely superior to an old one in every feature.

With image capturing and sharing being so prevalent today, there are many ethical issues that come with it. An example of this is peoples personal photos can be leaked onto the internet for everyone to see without them either knowing or agreeing to it. Photo’s that are sent between mobile phones can easily be accessed online because they are stored in an online account that many people don’t know about. It can be an embarrasing thing when private photos sent between two people privately are exposed out in the public. Another issue that arises with images being freely shared on the internet on such sites as Facebook, Flicker, Myspace and others, is that people can take those photo’s of you and edit them inappropriately and use them against you. Images can also be used for fraud.

Digital images are being used widely in occupational therapy practice. They are used when doing a home assessment for a housing modifications; to show family members their loved one’s  progress; for educational purposes for people with a mental disability; or for assessments.