Using digital camera for illustrations?

[Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>]

Greg Thompson wondered: <<I have always had a technical illustrator to 
work with when I did hardware documentation. My illustration skills are 
limited so I was thinking about using a digital camera to take pictures 
of the hardware I needed to document, than add call outs to the 
pictures once I added them into the manual... Has anyone had any 
experience with using a digital camera to take pics of hardware 
components they have had to document?>>

The biggest problem with photos is that they show too much detail. 
Illustrations have the advantage of allowing you to "abstract" the 
image by presenting only the key details that you want the reader to 
focus on. You can achieve a similar effect through photography with 
careful framing and illumination, combined with clear text labels, but 
it's harder and less precise a tool than illustration would be. The 
human eye loves detail, but that detail often detracts from our ability 
to focus on only a subset of that detail.

One cool and very effective trick is to select the part you want to 
focus on, invert the selection, then reduce the intensity of the new 
selection to 75% or so. That part of the image remains sharp enough to 
provide context (i.e., where the highlighted portion fits within the 
larger whole), but prints at lower intensity so as to avoid distracting 
the viewer. The result is a clear and effective highlighting of the 
part you want the viewer to focus on without forcing the viewer to 
guess where that fits within the whole.

The second-biggest problem is how you're producing the materials; for 
laser printing, for example, you need to understand a bit about screen 
frequencies and printer resolution to produce acceptable halftones from 
photos. (Not a problem for onscreen use.) This is less of a problem 
than formerly, but still something to keep in mind. And you also have 
to decide whether color will work for all your audience, or whether 
greyscale is better.

Nonetheless, I used photos a few years back for a datalogger--PDA 
combination that my employer was selling. Our graphics guy was buried 
in other work, and we desperately needed a quickstart guide for the 
purchasers (many of whom were surprisingly computer-illiterate). So I 
put together a very simple document in the form of a two column table: 
the left column provided context and details, and the right column 
contained a labeled photo (for hardware) or screenshot (for software).

The users loved this approach--as did our development engineer, since 
he was also responsible for tech support and support calls dropped 
precipitously once the quickstart guide was available. In addition, 
since the PDA component of the system was changing frequently (as one 
Palm model was discontinued, we'd update the docs by inserting shots of 
the new model if there was any difference in the connection 
hardware--whcih was customized to fit the datalogger hardware), we 
could turn around new versions of the documentation in the time it took 
to create the standard photos. Very satisfying effort to be part of.

<<Got any suggestions for best practices?>>

Two biggies: Learn all the ins and outs of your camera, and learn the 
basics of Photoshop or whatever software you use (cropping, sharpening, 
setting white and black points, adding text labels, etc.). I 
photographed the hardware (well illuminated with a repositionable 
light) against a piece of white cardboard to eliminate distracting 
details and to provide some reflected light. The built-in flash usually 
caused more problems than it solved, but this will vary among cameras 
and subjects. It took a little experimentation to get the right angles 
and exposure, but after that, it was a quick job.

One other tip: always take multiple photos, from slightly different 
angles and with slightly different exposures. This is particularly true 
if you won't always have quick access to the hardware. You can spot 
_really bad_ photos on a digital camera's built-in screen, but at that 
low resolution and size, some will appear suitable but still require 
too much cleanup work in Photoshop. Extra photos provides cheap 
insurance.

--Geoff Hart   ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca
(try geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com if you don't get a reply)
www.geoff-hart.com


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