Digital Focus: Turn Photos Into Drawings
Use editing software and tracing features to convert photos to sketches.Dave Johnson
Feature: Tracing Digital Photos
I've always been in awe of pencil-and-paintbrush artists--folks who can pick up a pencil and sketch any scene in front of them or render something from memory. Me? I take photographs. But I can sometimes fool people into thinking that I have some skill with a paintbrush. How? I trace photographs using an image editor. It's easy to do, and the results can make for some really intriguing, neo-impressionistic works of art. You can use your traced images on your Web site, give them as gifts, or just have fun fiddling around. I'll show you how it's done, and I hope that you give it a shot.
It's All in the Layers
Really, there's no magical secret to digital image tracing. You simply need to use an image editor--be it Paint Shop Pro, Adobe PhotoShop, or some other program--that can make use of layers. Most programs do, but there are some elementary image editors that do not have a layers feature.
I've covered this subject before. A standard graphic image is made of a single layer. But if you add a layer in an image editor, you can draw or paint on the top layer without affecting the image underneath. Delete the bottom layer, and you're left with whatever you created on the top. It's the digital equivalent of drawing on tracing paper or onion skin.
Want to give it a shot? Load any image into your favorite image editor and then add a new layer. In Paint Shop Pro, for instance, you'd choose Layers, New Raster Layer from the menu and click OK when you see the Layer Properties dialog box (just accept all the default settings).
Trace Your Picture
Once you've created a layer, you can't see it to know that it's there. It starts out transparent, so you can see the image underneath. If you want to check on the layer, open the Layer Palette dialog box in Paint Shop Pro. (If you don't see it on screen, right-click the toolbar and choose Layer Palette.) You should see two layers: The original image is probably called Background, while the new layer is called Layer 1.
Now it's time to trace. Just grab a paint tool from the toolbar--like a brush or an airbrush--and start tracing. Using a mouse to trace is a little like drawing by nailing a pencil to the end of a 10-foot-long stick; it just isn't natural or instinctive. Stick with it; it'll get easier with time.
When you're done, delete the bottom layer: In the Layer Palette dialog box, right-click on the Background layer and choose Delete. You're left with the top layer, which you can save as a hand-drawn work of art. Here's my rudimentary attempt to trace a photo:
Tracing Alternatives
If tracing intrigues you, you might want to invest in an inexpensive drawing tablet. Tablets plug into your PC like a mouse, but you interact with the PC via a stylus, which is a much more natural drawing experience. Some tablets are even pressure sensitive, so you get more "ink" on screen as you press harder on the surface. I've tried the Genius EasyPen and the Wacom Graphire2; you may want to check them out.
And speaking of tablets, I've recently discovered that the new Tablet PC class of portables is superb for tracing tasks like this--especially when used with specially designed drawing programs, such as Corel's free Grafigo. The program has an onion skin mode that lets you trace underlying images. If you have access to a new Tablet PC, give it a try. You can download Grafigo from Corel's Web site.
Dave's Favorites: ISun Portable Solar Charger
I don't know about you, but the local power company gets far too much money from me. My house is packed with electronics, and I'm constantly charging batteries for all of my gadgets. So you can imagine how happy I was to find ICP's ISun portable solar charger, which allows me to harness the sun's power to charge digital camera, digital music player, and PDA batteries.
Coupled with the ISun BattPak, the portable solar charger lets you charge up to ten AA and AAA batteries at once--just the ticket for day-long photo shoots and vacation trips when you're not always around power sources to top off your camera.
The BattPak lets you charge your AA batteries three ways: via a regular AC adapter, using DC from your car's power port, or using the solar cells. The total charge time varies between 5 and 8 hours, depending upon the power source you choose and the number of cells you're charging.
But that's not all. After your batteries are charged up, you can use the BattPak as an ultra-long-life external power source to run certain portable devices. The package comes with a half-dozen common AC plugs; there's no guarantee that any of these will fit your digital camera, but I found plugs to fit two of mine.
The BattPak costs about $39 and the ISun portable solar charger is another $79--the combo's high price is its only real weakness. You can learn more about ISun products at the ICP Global Technologies site.
Q&A: What Are RAW Images, and Why Should I Care?
What are RAW images? My camera has this feature and I have no idea why I should use it, what the benefit is, or what to do with these images. They take up a tremendous amount of space, and they seem to need to be converted into something to even be useful.
--Renee Patterson, New York
I rarely talk about RAW files for the reasons you list in your question, Renee. They're not generally usable in their native format, and they're big. And because they're big, they take a long time to write to memory after you take a picture, and you can't fit many on a card. Since they tend to clock in around 9MB each on a 3-megapixel camera, you can see how they'll fill up a memory card in no time.
But RAW files can be useful, mainly for professional photographers. You see, a RAW file is literally the raw, unprocessed data captured by the digital camera's sensor (either the CMOS or CCD chip, depending upon your camera). Since the data is unprocessed and unfiltered, it's got a lot more color information than a "processed" JPEG or TIFF image: 30 or 36 bits, to be precise. And effects like automatic white balance haven't been applied yet, either. So you can theoretically take a RAW file and get a much better finished product by editing the original file in an image editing program before a lot of information has been changed or stripped away by the camera's processor.
Not all image processing apps can import RAW files, though. You'll need premium software like Adobe PhotoShop to read RAW files--and even then, you need to realize that there isn't a standard, so not all programs support all RAW formats. For example, Nikon's RAW format uses the.nef file extension, while Canon's RAW format uses the more logical.raw extension.
All that is confusing, I know. The bottom line is that even I don't usually mess with RAW files, and I don't think there's any need to do so--unless you happen to be shooting the cover of National Geographic.
Hot Pic of the Week
Get published, get famous! Each week, we select our favorite reader-submitted photo based on creativity, originality and technique. Every month, the best of the weekly winners gets a prize valued at between $15 and $50.
Here's how to enter: Send us your photograph in JPEG format, at a resolution no higher than 640 by 480 pixels. Entries at higher resolutions will be immediately disqualified. If necessary, use an image editing program to reduce the file size of your image before e-mailing it to us. Include the title of your photo along with a short description and how you photographed it. Don't forget to send your name, e-mail address, and postal address. Before entering please read the full description of the contest rules and regulations.
This week's Hot Pic: "Rose," by Kim C. Maynard, Eugene, Oregon
Even though I get a lot of pet photos each week, I rarely choose one as the Hot Pic. It's not because I don't like animals--heck, I have four cats, two dogs, and a tank full of fish. It's just that few pet pictures generally appeal to anyone besides the owners themselves. This week's picture, though, I thought captured something about this particular feline that most pet pics don't. Kim says that she shot this photo with her Olympus C-4000, set to macro mode.
We want your feedback! Send your comments, questions, and suggestions about the newsletter itself to comments@bydavejohnson.com. If you have a question that you'd like to see answered in the weekly Q&A, send it to question@bydavejohnson.com.
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