DIGITAL IMAGES

cameras are now available, the ones that would be useful for wildlife

photographers are still so outrageously expensive that it is beyond

most amateurs. We know of a modified Nikon F90X camera with a

digital back that uses a light sensitive chip rather than films

and it sells for Rial Omani 8,000 (approximately US$ 20,000).

Alternatively, one can transfer existing prints, negatives or

slides into digital images at a very reasonable cost indeed. Depending

on the country of residence such a digital image can be obtained

for US$ 1 – 2. We shall in this article describe the use of two

digital images, what we did to them and what tools we used to

the sun setting over the ocean. We wanted the sun to fill the

frame and have the birds fly in low over the water. We soon realised,

however, that such a picture would be next to impossible to shoot.

To get a setting sun to fill the frame would take a very strong

telephoto lens. We had a 600 mm lens and a 2x converter which

effectively made a 1200 mm lens, but even this could not make

a frame-filling sun. More importantly, the flying flamingos and

the sun would not both be in focus if such magnification was used.

In addition, there was the problem of waiting long enough till

a flock of flamingos would oblige us with their presence at sunset.

flamingos and then the setting sun without advancing the frame

in the camera. We had used this technique previously to add a

full moon to a photograph of a Little Owl (see Camera Talk in

Arabian Wildlife, Vol. 1, No. 2, 1994, p17). This technique would

not work for our flamingos in sunset photo, though. If you try

to add the sun – or the moon for that matter – in the same place

in the frame as another object the bright light of the former

will burn out and make the additional object effectively invisible.

and found two slides that looked suitable. The fact that the two

photos were taken six months and 500 km apart was no problem.

a Photo CD. The disk can hold 100 slides and they are stored automatically

in compressed form in five different resolutions. The file sizes

for slides in the five resolutions are 18mb, 4.5mb, 1.13mb, 288kb

and 72 Kb, respectively. A fairly powerful computer with lots

of memory (RAM) is needed to handle files of the biggest size.

We have a 120 MHz Apple PowerMac 9500 with 80 Mb RAM and could

easily handle the highest resolution files. Less will do, but

all operations on the photos will take more time. Alternatively,

one can choose to work with a lower resolution image from the

CD. The minimum requirement is probably a 66 MHz computer with

8 Mb RAM and dual speed CD. It is possible to have the slides

scanned in at an even higher resolution on a Pro-CD. Here the

file of the highest resolution will take up 72mb per slide! This

We have version 3.0 speeded up for the PowerMac. One can, of course,

have a professional do all the operations, but that would be expensive

and take away all the fun. We have never had any courses in computers

or in the use of Adobe Photoshop. We were able to do the manipulations

for our target picture after just two or three tutorials that

was straightened up by rotating it 2 degrees counterclockwise.

Then is was cropped to make the sun almost fill the frame and

to make it a horizontal picture. Using the 18mb file ensured that

we could enlarge the cropped picture and still have a reasonably

sharp photo. We didn’t like the colour of the sky and the water

and added a bit of blue tones. The resulting image was saved and

stored in a new file on the computer. The flying flamingos picture

needed quite a bit of change as well. First we removed the three

birds on the left that are just entering the frame. This was done

by using a paintbrush and choosing the colour by clicking the

sky just next to the birds. The paintbrush is operated by the

computer mouse and we simply painted the three birds away. Then

we selected everything in the photo that was not blue, that is

the flamingos, and painted them black as we wanted them to look

like silhouettes against the sun. The sunset file was reopened

so we had the two images next to each other on the screen. The

black flamingos were now pasted onto the setting sun where we

wanted them and the resulting image stored as our final image.

We printed out lots of these images on our HP DeskJet colour printer

and used them as our seasonal greetings cards for 1996. Here is

of digital images and composite designs. Many photographers and

wildlife photographers in particular will probably stay far away

from this new technique and label it as unnatural. Others would

accept certain manipulations, but the dividing line of what is

acceptable and what is not, is very diffuse indeed and varies

of a three-dimensional world and thus can never be the ‘real thing.’

We are so used to looking at pictures, however, that we readily

accept this and don’t even think about it. Most people would not

object to the photographer using fill-in flash or a polarising

filter to enhance colour saturation and make clouds stand out.

Again we have got used to these ‘tricks.’ But what about the use

of colour filters and double exposures? Are these acceptable?

As far as wildlife photographs are concerned, we think most people

would accept a picture – even a digitally altered one – as long

as it depicts a natural scene correctly. To use a computer to

remove an annoying piece of out-of-focus grass or the ring on

a bird’s leg would probably not upset too many. But if an animal

was digitally placed in the wrong environment we think the invisible

and we believe in a big way. We have had some scanned photos printed

out on a professional printer giving results that clearly surpassed

any photographic quality. In advertising it is already the norm

rather that the exception to use composite designs produced on

a computer. Remember that ad of a 4-WD vehicle in a most impossible

terrain without a dust particle anywhere and the wheel discs reading

the name of the car perfectly horizontally? Do you think for a

However, it would be wrong to pretend that a picture such as the

flamingos in the sunset was a purely natural one. In addition,

we think it is highly enjoyable to play with digital photos. Some

may even say that it is adding a bit of artistic flavour into