TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: Using digital camera for illustrations? From:David Neeley <dbneeley -at- gmail -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Wed, 16 Feb 2005 15:00:06 -0600
Greg,
As an interesting aside, a few months ago a paper was published about
an experimental camera setup that uses four flashes, surrounding the
lens of a digital camera, that create sharply defined shadows that
constitute "drawings" of parts in a mechanical device. This, I think,
holds incredible promise for hardware documentation. See the article
at http://www.photo.net/learn/technology/mflash/merl-non-photo.html
As it happens, I was involved in a project at Xerox El Segundo many
years ago that revolved around the integration of digital photography
into hardware service documentation. (The digital cameras at the time
were very expensive and quite rare...much better today).
Several points:
1) Others have pointed out the problems with flash. More than that,
though, many of the metal colors look the same when reproduced, so the
resulting image may be "flat" and very difficult to distinguish
features in, especially if you are working for a black and white
output.
2) Professional photography suppliers have a "matte spray" available
that can reduce the reflections and glare substantially.
3) Good photo processing software will allow you to mask the
non-essential parts and make them lower in contrast and/or to "blur"
them a bit, increasing the amount to which the parts you want to
direct the reader's attention stand out in the photo. The background
items are still useful for orienting any parts being focused upon in
this case.
4) If you have the capability, use incident light rather than
reflected light to set the exposure...and try to bounce any flash off
a large card or white paper to soften and diffuse it if you need
flash.
5) With a software product such as Illustrator or Corel Draw, you may
be able to put a digital photograph as a background layer and create
line art based upon it without having to have much artistic skill.
6) All of this said, if your document is a *user* guide that does not
deal with the interior of the box, it should be fairly simple to
create a drawing of the relevant external sides, with fairly simple
shapes for the various controls and connections.
WEBWORKS FINALDRAFT - EDIT AND REVIEW, REDEFINED
Accelerate the document lifecycle with full online discussions and unique feedback-management capabilities. Unlimited, efficient reviews for Word
and FrameMaker authors. Live, online demo: http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l
Doc-To-Help 7.5 Professional: New version with new features, improved performance and reliability, plus much more! Download your free trial today at www.componentone.com/techwrlfeb.
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archiver -at- techwr-l -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Send administrative questions to lisa -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
