Production Details

Photography

All of the photographs in Postcards from Ann Arbor are my own. I use a simple Canon Megazoom 35mm camera, with no fancy features beyond a 35mm to 110mm zoom. I don't claim to be a talented photographer, although I've learned a lot from my experiences with this exhibit and others. One of the things I've learned is that digital image processing can often make up for a lack of serious technical photographic skill. But nothing can make up for a good sense of photographic design, which I'm still learning!

I used Kodak film for most of the photos, though in a few cases I experimented with Fuji film. (I found that my own preference is for Kodak, though the Fuji shots came out just as well after digital processing.) Both Kodak and Fuji films were 100 speed, and Kodak varieties included Ektar and Royal Gold.

Film developing was handled by Biomedical Communications (BMC), a unit within the University of Michigan Medical School. Once processed, BMC scanned the film directly to digital Kodak PhotoCDs. Most of these photos have never been printed on paper.

Image Processing

After the images were digitized and stored on PhotoCD, I processed them using my Apple Power Macintosh computer and Adobe Photoshop. This processing typically consisted of color balancing, rotating (if necessary), scaling, adding a border, and saving in JPEG format. I used Adobe Photoshop 3.0, and just recently heard that version 4.0 will include macros that can automate many of the things I've done by hand until now. (If only I'd known!)

In a few cases, image processing also involved cropping and significant editing, such as removing superfluous or intrusive signs or power lines. Also, some of the images used in this exhibit are digital mosaics of several smaller photos. In all cases, I attempted to remain true to the feel of the original scene, and avoided any changes that would introduce significant inaccuracies to the photos.

HTML Authoring

I do not use any so-called professional HTML authoring tools. Instead, I write my HTML code using Apple's SimpleText editor, and use my own template files to avoid repetitive work.

I used Netscape Navigator 2.02 and 3.0, and Microsoft Internet Explorer 2.1 to view my work as I created it.

And finally, I used Photoshop to create all of the navigational graphics and title screens. Some of the elements used in these graphics were digitally scanned using a Hewlett Packard scanner.