The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Digital Sight And Sound Major Keary |
Focal Press has been around for more than fifty years and has been a leader in professional level texts on photography and cinematography. Amongst its current releases are titles on state-of-the-art digital technology in the fields of still photography, video, and audio.
These titles are aimed at professionals and students, but also cater to the interests of many computer users. That comes about because digital imaging and audio technologies are not black arts to people who have become familiar with scanned images, digital cameras, and manipulating audio files. They are reviewed here in the context of computer users who are embracing digital photography, nonlinear editing, and the application of digital technologies to audio.
Nonlinear Editing Basics
This is a small text that has been designed as a "guide for professionals and students of film and video postproduction". The typical applications, and hardware setups, described are likely to be beyond the means of ordinary users, but there are plenty of affordable alternatives that do much the same thing.
What the book does provide for the digitally-savvy nonprofessional user is discussion of nonlinear editing processes, principles, and concepts as well as useful background information. An extensive glossary and a list of "buzz words" are valuable adjuncts to the explanations of terminology found throughout the text. There is plenty of practical information, such as the value of silence, adding audio to film, resolution, and working with time code. This is not a how-to text, but, as the title says, deals with the basics of nonlinear editing. Anyone with an interest in the subject should find it a useful resource.
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Steven Browne: Nonlinear Editing Basics ISBN 0-240-80282-9 Published by Focal Press, 218 pp., RRP $68.79 incl. GST |
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Digital Imaging
Digital Imaging: Essential Skills is part of a series that is designed to offer "a highly structured
learning approach to the fundamental skills of photography". The authors are lecturers in photography
at RMIT; Mark Galer is the co-writer of RMIT's online photography courses and also one of the teachers.
The book is effectively a series of classes, or lectures, each of which sets "activities" (practical
assignments) and revision questions. It is designed for use as a course text, but at the same time is
a useful resource for computer-literate people with an interest in digital photography and image scanning.
I was quite surprised to find there is no index. The table of contents is detailed, but that is no
substitute for an index. The text is supported by illustrations of the highest quality.
It is not a tutorial on the use of equipment or photographic techniques (composition, exposure, and the
like), but focuses on the acquisition and manipulation of digital images. Users of Photoshop will
find it a valuable addition to their respective resources; the authors point out that this is not a
Photoshop manual, but they refer to that widely used package, both Windows and Mac versions,
throughout.
No assumptions of a technical background in digital imagery are made other than familiarity with
Photoshop. Readers are expected to have a knowledge of conventional photography. The book is
about to the elements - 'basics' - of digital imagery and progressively leads the reader through to
the more technical aspects of the subject. The language is direct and concise; this is not in the style
of some novice texts that rely on a casual presentation to jolly the reader along. Its directness is the
book's strength; space is not wasted on expanding explanations, thus enabling a more comprehensive
coverage than found in many texts on the subject.
An introductory chapter explains terms such as pixel, bit depth, and RGB, as well as other concepts
essential to an understanding of digital imaging.
The next chapter, Digital capture, is an excellent discussion of the "principles behind the
mechanisms of digital capture". It compares digital and traditional photography, explains how digital
capture works, and describes a range of digital cameras (including digital video) from professional to
consumer models. There is a useful, albeit brief, discussion of computer interface options.
Following chapters cover platforms and output devices (monitors, scanners, disk storage devices,
and printers); scanning and image adjustment (discusses scanning photographic images, scanning
resolution issues, file formats, and image adjustment); colour adjustment (a thorough discussion
of colour and colour management issues, how to create your own target image, and monitor calibration);
managed workflows (this is about colour management and getting "one device to accurately represent
the colour of another device"); retouching and image enhancement; photomontage (there is
a lot more to it than pasting bits and pieces together-an interesting discussion); practical montage;
and digital manipulation (layer masks, textures, and that kind of thing).
Even though this text is designed as a course text for students looking to a career in digital imaging,
it is recommended to anyone with a more than casual interest in digital photography. Good value.
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Mark Galer and Les Horvath: Digital Imaging: Essential Skills ISBN 0-240-51625-7 Published by Focal Press, 184 pp., RRP $54.95 incl. GST |
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Digital Audio Technology
This title, now in its fourth edition, has been written by a team from SONY
Europe. The back cover says that it, "explains the technology behind today's major digital audio
consumer products, including the Compact Disc, MiniDisc, Super Audio CD, DVD-Audio, MP3, and Digital
Audio Tape". That is an accurate statement. This is not one of those vendor
how good we are publications-in fact 'SONY' does not appear in the index.
Digital Audio Technology is not a text for novices. It treats its subject in considerable technical
depth for audio engineers, students of audio technology, and those enthusiasts who understand the science
underlying digital audio processing.
The book is in four main parts: Principles of Digital Signal Processing; The Compact Disc; Digital
Audio Recording Systems; and Advanced Digital Audio Technologies. If you are interested in the Nyquist
theorem, principles of quantisation, codes for digital magnetic recording, servo circuits in CD players,
and error correction, then this is the book for you. Those topics are discussed in principle and in the
context of CD, MiniDisc, Super Audio CD (SACD), DVD-Audio, MP3, digital audio tape format (DAT), and
non-tracking digital audio tape (NT-DAT), and serial copy management system (SCMS).
The text contains a lot of mathematical material and is supported by excellent graphics, which include
exploded and section views of typical equipment, schematic diagrams, tabulated data, and circuit
diagrams.
Incidentally, the specification for MiniDisc is called the Rainbow Book. You have no doubt heard
of red, green, yellow, and other coloured books. The Red Book, for example, specifies how music
is to be recorded on CDs and is an ISO standard (10149). The MiniDisc specification is drawn from three
such books (Red, Yellow, and Orange).
Apart from the professional and student audience, anyone who has a relevant technical background and a
serious interest in digital audio technology should find this of great interest. It is probably the only
book that brings such a range of information into the one place.
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Jan Maes and Marc Vercammen (eds.): Digital Audio Technology ISBN 0-240-51654-0 Published by FOcal Press, 342 pp., RRP $102.30 incl. GST |
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Reprinted from the September 2002 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
