Tablet PC as a Digital Darkroom
Published: September 22, 2003
By Jerry Honeycutt
Windows XP Tablet PC Edition and my Fujitsu Stylistic ST4000 Tablet PC are now permanent additions to my camera bag. Taking my Tablet PC with me is like taking a digital darkroom on the road, one that takes the guess work out of photography.
What makes a Tablet PC any better for digital photography than a plain old laptop computer? The advantages are all about the form factor. Most Tablet PCs are light weight. In fact, they're lighter than many professional digital cameras, so you'll barely notice them in your bag. Also, proofing a picture on a tablet computer is more like holding a print in your hands than viewing the same picture on a laptop computer's LCD. Last, the pen is a more natural way to proof, edit, and mark up pictures on a computer than using a mouse.
In addition to the general advantages that adding a Tablet PC to my camera bag offers, there are some specific advantages that make this combination a real winner:
| • | Fewer flash cards—Flash cards large enough to hold a reasonable number of high-resolution photographs are expensive. Rather than buying a dozen or so flash cards, I can buy a small number of them and then dump their contents on to the tablet after filling them up, freeing them for more photographs. |
| • | Proof my pictures straightaway, after dumping them to the Tablet PC, I can decide whether any of them are redos (no more lost shots). |
| • | Immediacy—instant picture gratification. |
In this column, I'll explain how I use my Tablet PC to download, proof, and sort digital photographs and give you some tips on image editing.
Best Use of Tablet PC for Photos
Windows XP Tablet PC Edition allows you to rotate the screen so you can view it in landscape mode or portrait mode. Use whichever mode best suits your photography style. For example, if you tend to shoot a lot of portraits, configure the tablet's screen in portrait mode. If you tend to take scenic pictures, configure the tablet's screen in landscape mode.
All types of digital photography benefit from the inclusion of a Tablet PC in your photo bag, but some types are better matches than other types. For example, travel and vacation photography are two types that are well suited to a Tablet PC. They have a slower pace than sports photography, for example, in which taking the time to unload your flash cards to the Tablet PC can mean lost pictures.
Transfer Photos from Flash Card
Nothing really changes about how I take pictures just because I have a Tablet PC in my camera bag. Maybe I don't worry as much about how many pictures I take, because I don't have to worry about running out of space, but that's about it. What does change is what I do after taking the snaps. Rather than stuffing the flash card in my bag and grabbing a new card, I simply upload the pictures to my Tablet PC, format the card, and I'm ready to go again.
I don't like to use the camera's software (whether I'm using my professional Nikon or point-and-shoot Canon) to upload pictures to the Tablet PC. The software is usually clumsy and it requires a physical connection from the camera to the computer, usually a USB connection. Instead, I use a flash card adapter. These little jewels cost about 10 bucks at your local electronics store.
You insert the flash card in the adapter and then install the adapter in the PC Card slot of the Tablet PC. I also have an Imation USB flash card reader called FlashGo! that's very handy. Stick the flash card in the reader and then plug the reader into a USB port. In either case, the card shows up as a removable disk drive in Windows Explorer and the Scanner and Camera Wizard opens to help you download the pictures to your computer.
1. | Click Copy pictures to a folder on my computer using Microsoft Scanner and Camera Wizard to start the Scanner and Camera Wizard, and on the Welcome page, click Next. |
2. | On the Choose Pictures to Copy page, make check marks in the boxes for each picture you want to copy. |
3. | To rotate a picture, select the picture, click the Rotate Clockwise or Rotate Counterclockwise buttons, and then click Next. |
4. | On the Picture Name and Destination page, type a name for pictures and then choose where you want to copy them on your computer. In Figure 1, I've called the pictures Boca Raton (4-2003), and then chose to save them in My Pictures, My Pictures\Boca Raton (4-2003). Click Next to copy the pictures to your computer.  Figure 1 |
5. | Click Next, and then click Finish to close the wizard. |
Afterward downloading my pictures, I format the card to empty its contents and prepare it for use by my camera. To format a flash card:
| • | In Windows Explorer, right-click the drive letter of the flash card, and then click Format. |
I like the folder structures that the Scanner and Camera Wizard suggests. Underneath the My Pictures folder, or wherever you choose to save your pictures, you can create a subfolder with a descriptive name that gives the date and any other details you want. I prefer to use a descriptive name. For example, I name a group of pictures Ireland (7-2002). Then the wizard copies photographs from the flash card to a subfolder called Ireland (7-2002) and names the individual picture files Ireland (7-2002) Number, where Number is a serial number beginning with 001.
This organization makes viewing and sorting the photographs easy initially. When I become obsessed with a particular photo and want to work on it more, I'll copy it from this folder structure for use with Adobe Photoshop.
Proof and Sort Photos
After I've downloaded my pictures to the Tablet PC, I use Windows Explorer to proof and sort them. The tiny LCD on the back of your digital camera doesn't count as proofing because it doesn't really tell you what your image looks like enlarged. I use Windows Explorer because it's there and it's convenient—no additional program to start.
I just right-click a picture and click Preview. I can tap the left and right arrow keys to quickly preview all of my pictures. The result is that I usually shoot some of my photographs again after proofing them in Windows Explorer. All of this is possible while I'm sitting there at the site, when I still have the option to shoot photographs again.
Another favorite program on my Tablet PC is Windows Journal. You've read Charlie Russel's description of Windows Journal in Getting to Know Windows Journal. Windows Journal provides an inexpensive and easy way to mark up your pictures for cropping and other adjustments. So I can remember what I wanted to do with a photo later, I paste the picture into Windows Journal and then use pen and ink to annotate the picture, as shown in Figure 2. Later, I'll use these notes to process the picture in Photoshop.
Figure 2
Image-Editing Software
Although I can certainly use Windows Explorer to preview photographs, I tend not to use it to rotate them. I prefer to rely on Adobe Photoshop (or any picture-editing software that you prefer) to change pixels in photographs. Photoshop Elements is easier-to-use image-editing software than the full version of Photoshop. Or you can use Picture It! Digital Image Pro to quickly remove red eye and make other improvements to your photos. That's the program that Microsoft's Mike Coleman used to edit photos in A Dad's Photo Duty.
Speaking of Photoshop, the only other program that I install on my Tablet PC happens to be Photoshop. I don't recommend editing photographs on a tablet computer for a variety of reasons. First, calibrating the LCD screen on most tablet computers is rather difficult. Second, the screen just isn't large or rich enough to edit pictures well. Last, many tablet computers lack the processing power to run Photoshop well.
I do like to use Photoshop to look at photographs' histograms, though, assuming that the camera doesn't provide a histogram. A histogram tells you a lot about a picture that you don't see just by looking at it. For example, a histogram can tell you if you have enough detail in the picture's shadows. For more information about reading histograms, pick up any good book about Photoshop or consult Photoshop Help. The .pdf document, Working with Raw Image Files in Photoshop, contains information on histograms, as does the tutorial on the Computer Darkroom site.
Add a Tablet PC to Your Camera Bag
In Jerry Falls for the Tablet PC, I described the two types of Tablet PCs: convertible and slate. Convertible Tablet PCs are handy because they have a keyboard, but they are heavier and a bit bulkier than pure slates. I put a slate in my camera bag because it's very thin and it's very light. All I typically do with my Tablet PC is view pictures and mark them up using Windows Journal, so I don't mess the keyboard at all. In fact, the pen works so much better for this purpose than a keyboard and mouse that I can never go back.
How do you carry a Tablet PC and all of your camera gear? I've always had a thing for Tamrac photo bags. Whether you carry a professional digital camera like the Nikon D1X or an amateur camera, Tamrac has a good selection of bags. They have a line of digital camera bags that are perfect for small cameras, but those bags don't have space for a Tablet PC. If you're going to carry a tablet computer with your camera gear, then you'll want to look into the company's line of photo and computer-compatible camera bags. The smallest of them have room for a single camera body, a few lenses, and a Tablet PC.
Why Invest in a Tablet PC?
I'm not an advocate for spending a few thousand dollars on a Tablet PC to go with a $300 digital camera. But if you're serious about photography and have upper-level gear, then a Tablet PC is a good compliment to what you already have.
I'm not a professional photographer but even as an avid amateur, I'm far more productive with the Tablet PC than without it. I buy fewer flash cards. I see my photographs immediately and can choose to shoot them again. I can mark them up on the spot so that I can remember later how I wanted the photo to look. I know immediately if I have a good picture or not. Plenty of reasons for me to find digital photography and the Tablet PC perfect companions.
Expert Zone Columnist Jerry Honeycutt is a writer, speaker, and technologist who has written over 25 books, including Microsoft Windows XP Registry Guide (Microsoft Press, 2002). He frequently writes about customizing and deploying Windows XP.
