Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
Craft is just as important in making digital files as it is when doing everything
by hand—in some ways, more so. People are far less forgiving of bad digital craft
because it is so much easier to fix a digital image than it is to repair a dinged or
folded corner on a sample. You owe it to yourself to keep the focus on your ideas and
creativity, not your production.
Not having the original at hand, people judge images in digital portfolios by
two criteria. The first is image quality—sharpness, cleanness, size, and load speed.
The second is image appropriateness—whether what you've chosen to show actually
helps them judge your work.
Unlike your physical portfolio, the appropriate-
ness of your digital work doesn't depend just on its
style or subject. Some of your portfolio material might
transfer poorly to the digital medium. Be prepared to
evaluate your work twice: before you digitize it and
when you see the results of your work. No matter how
much you want a digital portfolio, trying to doctor a
terminally ill file will just make you frustrated.
On the other hand, don't do a detail-for-detail
comparison, or you'll never use any non-digital work in
your digital portfolio! You can't ever totally replicate
the experience of a real printed piece. Evaluate the
work based on how you feel about presenting this mate-
rial to someone who may never see the original.
If there is an overriding theme, it's GIGO:
Garbage In=Garbage Out. Keep each stage of your digitizing process as precise as pos-
sible. Start with the cleanest original material, and remember that bad quality can be
introduced inadvertently at every stage of digitizing and cleanup.
And don't be afraid—or embarrassed—to look for help when you need it. It is
better that your portfolio process be a learning process as well than to present a
flawed finished product.
We try to think about how the
world interacts with our work. In
showing a spread in a magazine,
I would never show the flat
“digital file.” The paper proper-
ties and the slicing and distor-
tion caused by the binding all
affect the viewer's experience.
These realities should not be cast
aside simply because the work is
being viewed on the web.
—David Heasty
If you want to learn how to use the software for digitizing your specific art-
work type, I encourage you to buy the appropriate book in Peachpit Press's
Visual
QuickStart Guide
series and to look for local workshops for training on digitizing ana-
log tapes and photographic film. Scanning has to be done right, but it's drudgery, and
it competes with paying work. If you have an enormous backlog of work to digitize,
some money to devote to the enterprise, or feel that you can handle some parts of the
process but not others, there are viable alternatives.
