2007-10-03

Film & Digital

I recently got the opportunity to shoot an assignment for my PHO285 class in digital form. I still had to turn in a print in black and white, but I was definitely excited for the opportunity to do something with the digital camera, and I must say that I did immensely enjoy working in the studio, with the digital camera.

I brought both ThinkPads along. The 760CD was my subject, and the R61i was my helperPuter. I did the tethered shooting thing where RAW files are recorded right onto the hard disc of the ThinkPad, instead of shooting and gathering later. It's actually a rather nice way to get it done, since I can see the histograms of everything I'm shooting, and make a decision about whether or not I'll need to re-shoot. Add to that niceness, is the fact that the studio has amazing tripods and nice lighting capabilities, so I can do some good lighting without having to burn anything. Plus, as a result of the amazing tripods, I can do really long exposures with the aperture closed down, to get great depth of field.

Another great relief comes from the fact that I've already got the assignment done, even though it isn't due until the 9th. I may even start the next assignment early, or use some of my new extra time to go to the photo lab and reprint one of my earlier assignments.

Relieved as I may be about my Photo assignments right now, I do have to take some time to consider exactly how I've been storing my digital photos up to this point. Right now, they are on XIMETA, the 80-Gigabyte external hard disc that I formerly used as a cold storage drive. Over the summer, this drive had a few scares, so I've got most of the collection also duped over onto the 200gig drive that I intended to use as a full-drive backup for the iMac.

I'll have to take a look at that situation again, but I think I will probably get a new external drive for photos, and use the 200gig drive for full-system backups of the iMac, and then for time machine when Leopard comes out. If my understanding of Time Machine is correct then it will be a good idea to have some extra space on the time machine volume, so I can keep a full-system backup, as well as the versions of files that Time Machine is purportedly purposed for. I will also be thinking about potential backup options for the ThinkPad. I need to try out the ThinkVantage setup, because it supposedly has a function that lets you back up the entire system to DVDs, but I'm not certain of the best process for this. Sounds like a good time to read the documents.

No comments: