During the January Forum, we started the discussion on Restoration of Old Photos.  Initially, we discussed types of scanners and important scanner parameters, such as resolution, color depth, and file format.  We then discussed techniques for improving tonal range, contrast, and exposure correction on old black-and-white or sepia photographs.

During our next Forum in February, we will continue our discussion on the Restoration of Old Photos.  This time the emphasis will be on color photos, negatives, and slides.  We’ll discuss how to remove color cast and improving the color tonal range.  We’ll end our discussion with techniques used to remove dust spots, blemishes, and creases in a photo.

The Digital Photography Forum is held from 6:15 – 7:00 pm on the first Tuesday of the month, before the General Meeting.   We will be meeting in Room I at the Cultural Center.  Hope to see you there. 

                                Tom Zinneman
                                tzinneman@comcast.net

We, Lee Rice and Bob Giacomo, want to introduce ourselves - as we have agreed to be your new PigSIG Leaders for the computer group. As usual, dinners w ill be held the third Tuesday of the month, at one of the many restaurants in the area. We are working with a local restaurant for the February 19th dinner but nothing is definite yet.

We will send an e-mail reminding you of the dinner, the time and the place, no later than one to two weeks prior to the third Tuesday. Please e-mail us as soon as possible letting us know if you are attending, and the number of people. The restaurants require us to provide them, well in advance, with the number of people attending. They need time to prepare for our group and to ensure our needs are met.

It is very important you respond if you are attending as soon as possible. Please send your response to either,

 Bob at pigsig1@comcast.net, or Lee at pigsig@comcast.net.

We are anxious to get started and hope you will attend. We always have a lot of fun and have attended many years. Bob & I look forward to seeing familiar faces and meeting others.

Bob & Lee

 Meeting Notice

The January General Meeting on Tuesday, January 08, 2008 will be held in the Centennial Room at the Port Charlotte Cultural Center, 2280 Aaron Street, Port Charlotte, Florida 33952.

George Whittaker will be presenting a program on CCleaner and PDF Creator, two free programs which may be of interest to you.  A summary of the programs are included below to help you form any questions you may have at the meeting.

CCleaner is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history.

But the best part is that it's fast (normally taking less than a second to run) and contains NO Spyware or Adware!
 
PDF Creator easily creates PDFs from any Windows program. Use it like a printer in Word, StarCalc or any other Windows application.

The meeting will conclude with a period for questions and discussion, followed by the 50/50 drawing and the monthly "Super Duper" Computer drawing.

Reminder: Be sure to read Tom Zinneman's  notice regarding the Digital Photography Forum which precedes the General Meeting.

During the December Forum, our topic was Understanding Exposure.  We discussed various light metering patterns available in the basic digital camera and examined the various exposure modes, such as Auto, Program, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, and various scenic modes.  The histogram, a tool used to evaluate exposure, was also discussed along with the EXIF data stored in the jpeg image files.

For our next Forum in January, we will discuss the Restoration of Old Photos.  We will start with a discussion on choosing an appropriate scanning resolution and then discuss several basic techniques to remove dust and mold from the scanned images.  We will also discuss how to improve the tone and contrast, correct exposure, and correct color shifts.

Note: The January Meeting will be on January 08. (The Second Tuesday)

The Digital Photography Forum is held from 6:15 – 7:00 pm on the secondTuesday this month, before the General Meeting.   We will be meeting in Room I at the Cultural Center.  Hope to see you there. 

Tom Zinneman

During the October Forum, we continued our discussion of some of the basic settings used in a typical digital camera. Specifically, we examined those commands found in the record or shoot menu and the playback menu. For the next forum in November, we will shift our focus to editing digital images. A typical workflow that should be used in the correction or enhancement of digital images will be presented. Although Photoshop Elements will be used to demonstrate the various image adjustments, the workflow to be discussed will apply to all image editing programs.

The Digital Photography Forum is held from 6:15 – 7:00 pm on the first Tuesday of the month, before the General Meeting. We will be meeting in Room I at the Cultural Center. Hope to see you there

  Tom Zinneman