Photograph by George Sakkestad
Anthony Wong operates the digital-imaging workstation at Los Gatos Camera Center on Santa Cruz Avenue.
By Shari Kaplan
When digital cameras and their related technology began appearing on the scene a few years ago, Los Gatos Camera Center president Mike Moresco followed their evolution and development carefully.
A few months ago, when he incorporated the technology into his business, Moresco and his staff were familiar enough with the process to share it with customers for whom digitizing a photograph is akin to traveling to the moon.
"We found that in the camera industry, technology is changing. The trend is definitely going toward digital. Each year, I see more and more technology coming out," Moresco says.
The term "digital technology" is a broad one, basically referring to the computerization of the industry. In the world of video, for example, instead of shooting home videos with a camcorder, people can use digital video cameras that can be hooked up to a computer for on-screen editing, insertion of special effects and other features.
In photography, digital technology is an expedient and quality way to manipulate and improve photographs for use as graphics in desktop publishing or simply for family photo albums.
"It's much more than just photo restoration," says the camera center's digital imager, Anthony Wong, although most people, he says, have been coming in with requests to retouch, restore or color-correct photographs, particularly old ones.
Other projects he's worked on include business cards and composite images where several photos are blended together and printed as one, a special effect Wong says is popular in everything from photographic greeting cards to promotional posters and fliers.
As he explains this, Wong sits in front of a Power Macintosh-based digital technology workstation, which includes a large color monitor, a flatbed photo scanner, a scanner that accepts negative strips and slides, a keyboard and an art pad and pointer/pen instead of the traditional mouse.
Using the Adobe Photoshop program, Wong "erases" the wrinkles and scratches that damaged a photo of a smiling little boy from the 1950s. A special "cloning tool" allows Wong to fill cracks on the image with hues of the exact same color as the rest of the surrounding area.
When this and other photo projects are complete, Wong will use another software program--Quark XPress--to format images into the size of a frame of standard 35mm camera film. Using the Agfa Python program, Wong will then send the images to a machine called a film recorder. Loaded with 35mm film, it receives the digitized image the same way a 35mm camera receives an image when it takes a photograph.
When the film roll in the recorder is used up, the camera center's in-house photo lab develops it and prints a set of photographs just like any other photofinishing order. These photos, however, are of better quality than the originals; all the little imperfections are gone.
"If you have enough time and patience, there's so much you can do." With a smile, Wong adds: "Sometimes people say, 'Why did I spend all this money on expensive film when you can do all this [with a computer]?' "
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, October 2, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved