ENG 364: Multimedia Writing

Composition Workshop 1: Taking Pictures with the Sony DSC P51

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Virtual Tour of Sony camera: http://www.steves-digicams.com/2002_reviews/p51.html

(“grab” camera and turn it around to see the back >:) You need Apple Quicktime plugin in order to do this.

Essentials: (see also "features and controls" in "Steve's Virtual Tour")

Power button indicator is a green LED next to the power switch on top.

Battery compartment is on right hand side. We’ll provide fully charged up rechargeable batts. If you wear them out, buy more. Do not discard ours. They are rechargeable. Do not attempt to recharge normal batteries. They will explode. Be sure to insert batteries with the correct polarity + and -

Monitor through the video screen, not the viewfinder

Camera / “taking pictures” mode is indicated by a green cam icon on the rotary dial on the back

Review pics mode is indicated by a triangular play icon beneath it

Mpeg movie mode is indicated by a celluloid film icon. It will fill the 64 meg Memory stick fast.

Display/LCD button toggles around three settings: LCD monitor off; LCD monitor on with display; LCD monitor on without display

Menu button toggles settings visibility in the viewfinder. Navigate through menu options using the 4 way rocker button beneath the menu button. We recommend choosing smallest image size option 640 x 480 as you’re shooting pictures to be viewed on web pages.

The 4 way rocker button includes a lightning strike icon to turn flash option on and off, but you’ll need to have Display/LCD toggled to display in order to see it. A lightning strike with a line through it means flash is off. The camera takes a few moments to recharge between flashes, and tells you it’s recharging with an orange flashing LED next to the rear viewfinder.

In review mode, scroll through the pictures you’ve taken by using left and right buttons on the rocker switch.
TO DELETE a bad picture, press menu. Delete is first option. Press center off rocker switch for delete option. To delete one picture, choose OK option by using up arrow on rocker switch. To delete all pictures press W on the W/T fader (top r/h side).

W/T (wide-telephoto) fader is a sort of zoom control, but as the camera is a low resolution old machine, zooming is not recommended at all.

Bottom lhs rear panel is location of USB and video out sockets. NB USB connectors do not fit either way up. Take care never to force a wire into a socket. AS a rule Windows XP systems will recognize your camera automatically and provide drivers for it, making uploading (sending) pictures straightforward, in theory.

 
Exercises for today:

In teams, make pictures of yourselves. Have fun. 

When we have a set, we’ll upload the pictures to a folder on the instructor machine for demonstration purposes.  Pictures are saved in JPG format.

Download (retrieve) your picture. 
   
Make a copy of the file (important: backups and sequential filenames).

Email a copy to yourself to keep a backup for your final portfolio.

Using Microsoft Picture Manager attempt to do the following:

a) Resize photograph

b) Make photograph lighter or darker

c) Crop photograph  

Now save the file again (with your alterations).

Attempt to insert the resized file into a Word document.

 

Keep all versions for yourself, along with research journal notes on what you're learning.

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