BASICS OF CREATING, EDITING, AND PRESENTING IMAGES:

1. GET/TAKE IMAGE

There are three general sources for images: digital camera (easy), scanner (harder), and off the 'net (easy).

CAMERAS: We use Sony Mavica cameras districtwide. The Mavica stores images on to a floppy disk. The floppy disk is then put into a computer and the pictures can be accessed. Some digital cameras store images on to "memory sticks". The camera is then connected up to the computer via USB (connection type) port.

OFF THE 'NET: You can take a picture from the Internet, by right clicking (PC) or holding your mouse button down (MAC) on the images (on the web site). A menu will appear to copy or save the image.

STORAGE: It is a good idea to create a place on your hard drive to save images. I often create folders inside my PHOTO folder with the date or a theme name.

1.5 VIEW THE RAW PICTURES (OPTIONAL STEP)

Graphic Converter (MAC) has a wonderful feature called "SLIDE SHOW". If you have all your pictures in one place (even on the floppy) then you can view them in an impromptu slide show (FILE MENU: SLIDE SHOW). Each image appears for a few seconds with its file name on the top of screen. I keep scrap paper next to me and write down the file names I want to save. For example I may have taken 5 pictures of my dog, but after looking at the slide show, I realize I only want picture #4. I will only deal with picture #4 for step 2.

One of the luxuries of a digital camera is that you can take lots of pictures and use only the ones that you want. No additional processing costs! Graphic Converter is on the EASTMAN server under the TSUPPORT folder. You can drag it to your computer.

2. MODIFY THE PICTURE

Almost all images need some editing. There is a wonderful piece of freeware for Macintosh called "Graphic Converter" Graphic Converter has a few simple manipulation features that anyone can use -- scale, brightness/contrast, and trim. These three basic tools will allow you to modify your picture. Generally the way it works is that you will open the picture "as is" from the digital camera (it may have some sort of cryptic name like MAC0034.jpg), adjust it, then resave it with a name that makes sense to you (i.e. horse.jpg). Keep .jpg as a suffix.

3. MAKE A SLIDE SHOW ON POWERPOINT

The first caveat -- older version of Powerpoint do not work well with pictures from a digital camera. You want, as a minimum, Powerpoint 97 on PC or Powerpoint 98 on a MAC. You can build your slide show (I recommend mapping it out first) with a photo and some word on each slide. The key commands are INSERT SLIDE AND INSERT IMAGE.

Steve Rothenberg
District Technology Coordinator
Concord NH School District
www.concord.k12.nh.us