Common Image Formats in Digital Cameras

One of the most direct ways to capture an image is a digital camera which uses a special semiconductor chip called a CCD (charge coupled device) to convert light to electrical signals right at the image plane. The quality of the images created in this manner is closely related to the number of pixels the CCD can capture.

The most common image file formats, the most important for cameras, printing, scanning, and internet use, are JPG, TIF, PNG, GIF, and BMP.

Digital cameras and web pages normally use JPG (Joint Photographic Experts Group)files - because JPG heroically compresses the data to be very much smaller in the file. However, JPG uses lossy compression to accomplish this feat, which is a strong downside. A smaller file, yes, there is nothing like JPG for small, but this is at the cost of image quality.

TIF (Tagged Image File Format) is lossless, which is considered the highest quality format for commercial work.

GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) was designed by CompuServe in the early days of computer 8-bit video, before JPG, for video display at dial-up modem speeds.

PNG (Portable Network Graphics) can replace GIF today (web browsers show both), and PNG also offers many options of TIF too.

Camera RAW files are very important of course, but RAW files must be processed into regular formats (JPG, TIF, etc) to be viewable and usable in any way.

BMP file format (Windows bitmap) handles graphics files within the Microsoft Windows OS. Typically, BMP files are uncompressed, and therefore large and lossless; their advantage is their simple structure and wide acceptance in Windows programmes.

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What is a Digital Image?

A digital photo is made up of a series of pixels (picture elements). Most of today’s digital photos use a “24-bit RGB” system to color each pixel.

When using digital equipment to capture, store, modify and view photographic images, they must first be converted to a set of numbers in a process called digitization or scanning. Computers are very good at storing and manipulating numbers, so once your image has been digitized you can use your computer to archive, examine, alter, display, transmit, or print your photographs in an incredible variety of ways.

Pixels

Digital images are composed of pixels (short for picture elements). Each pixel represents the color (or grey level for black and white photos) at a single point in the image, so a pixel is like a tiny dot of a particular color. By measuring the color of an image at a large number of points, we can create a digital approximation of the image from which a copy of the original can be reconstructed. Pixels are a little like grain particles in a conventional photographic image, but arranged in a regular pattern of rows and columns and store information somewhat differently.

Types of Digital Images

For photographic purposes, there are two important types of digital images— color and black and white. Colour images are made up of colored pixels while black and white images are made of pixels in different shades of grey.

Resolution

The density of pixels in an image is referred to as its resolution. The higher the resolution, the more information the image contains. If we keep the image size the same and increase the resolution, the image gets sharper and more detailed. Alternatively, with a higher resolution image, we can produce a larger image with the same amount of detail.

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Types of Photography

There are many types of photography. The various types of photography make use of various techniques and the different types of photographer use their skill in their particular filed of expertise.

Photographic work can be divided into dozens of categories, many with lots of sub-categories. The following list describes some common types of photography.

1.Landscape Photography

Landscape photography shows spaces within the world. It typically captures the nature but can also focus on man-made features.

2.Wildlife Photography

Wildlife photography deals with documenting wildlife in their natural habitat. It is one of the more challenging forms of photography.

3 . Aerial photography

An aerial photograph is any photograph taken from the air. Usually the camera will be supported by platforms like fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, multirotor Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), balloons, blimps and dirigibles, rockets, pigeons, kites, parachutes, stand-alone telescoping and vehicle-mounted poles.

4.Sports / Action Photography

Sports photography is a branch of photojournalism. It refers to the genre of photography that covers all types of sports.

5.Portrait Photography

Portrait photography or portraiture captures images of a person or group of people that displays the expression, personality, and mood of the subject. The focus of the photograph is usually the person’s face, although the entire body and the background or context may be included.

6.Architectural Photography

Architectural photography is the photographing of buildings and similar structures.

7 . Fashion Photography

Fashion photography is a genre of photography devoted to displaying clothing and other fashion items. Fashion photography is most often conducted for advertisements or fashion magazines.

8.Macro Photography

Macro photography is extreme close-up photography, usually of very small subjects, in which the size of the subject in the photograph is greater than its original size.

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Types of Video Editing

With the advancement of technology digital editing became popular and flourished. There are some basic types of editing classified on the basis of the process.

1.      Linear Editing

Linear video editing is the process of editing analogue video tape. It is a post-production process of selecting, arranging and modifying images and sound in a pre-planned, ordered sequence. Most of the digital editing platforms have replaced the linear editing process. In the case of linear editing one cannot go back to the edited portion and re edit. It is a one way editing process. In this type of editing video sequences were edited by inserting new frames into it.

2.     Non – Linear Editing

In digital video editing, a non-linear editing system is a video and audio editing method that allows accessing any frame in a digital video clip regardless of sequence in the clip. The specialty of non – linear editing is the freedom to access any frame, and use a cut-and-paste method, similar to the ease of cutting and pasting text in a word processor. It allows to easily including fades, transitions, and other effects that cannot be achieved with linear editing. It is widely used in the digital video editing. Software like final cut pro, adobe premiere pro etc., are following this method.

3.     Offline Editing

Offline editing is part of the post-production process of filmmaking and television production in which raw footage is copied and edited, without affecting the camera original film stock or video tape. Once the project has been completely offline edited, the original media will be assembled in the online editing stage.

4.     Online Editing

Online editing is a post-production linear video editing process that is performed in the final stage of a video production. It occurs after offline editing. It is a form of live editing process. In digital video and film production, online editing is used to describe editing footage at the original highest-quality. 

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What are the major types of Advertisements

There are many classifications for advertising on the basis of business concerns, media and marketing strategies. These are some of the common types of advertising:

1.       Product Advertising

Product advertising communicates the features and benefits of a product to customers. Companies use product advertising when they want to launch new products, announce changes to existing products or increase sales of those products. Product advertisements must reflect the interests of the target audience. An advertiser developing a campaign for a food product would create messages and select media that appeal to a wide consumer audience. A campaign for a business product, such as a machine tool, would use media that appeal to different groups influencing the decision to buy, including plant managers, production engineers and finance directors.

2.      Broadcast Advertising

Broadcast advertising is popular all around the world. It consists of television, radio, or Internet advertising. The ads on the television have a large audience and are very popular. The cost of the advertisement depends on the length of the ad and the time at which the ad would be appearing. The prime time ads would be more costly than the regular ones. Radio advertising is not what it used to be after the advent of television and Internet, but still there is specific audience for the radio ads too. The radio jingles are quite popular in sections of society and help to sell the products.

3.      Direct Response Advertising

Direct-response advertising is a method of direct marketing whereby a product is promoted through an advertisement that lets the customer purchase directly from the manufacturer. Direct response advertising has become very popular in recent years owing primarily to changing life-styles. The convenience of shopping through the mail or by telephone has led to the tremendous increase in direct-response advertising

4.      Online Advertising

Online advertising is a form of promotion that uses the Internet and World Wide Web for delivering marketing messages to attract customers. Online ads are delivered by an ad server. Examples of online advertising include contextual ads that appear on search engine results pages, banner ads, in pay per click text ads, rich media ads, Social network advertising, online classified advertising, advertising networks and e-mail marketing, including e-mail spam.

5.      Outdoor Advertising

Outdoor advertising makes use of different tools to gain customer’s attention. The billboards, kiosks, and events and trade shows are an effective way to convey the message of the company. The billboards are present all around the city but the content should be such that it attracts the attention of the customer. The kiosks are an easy outlet of the products and serve as information outlets for the people too. Organizing events such as trade fairs and exhibitions for promotion of the product or service also in a way advertises the product. Therefore, outdoor advertising is an effective advertising tool.

6.      Covert Advertising

It is a form of indirect advertising through media. There is no actual ad, just the mention of the product in the movie. Actors using certain product like I phone, Ray-Ban, Yamaha bike, etc are examples for covert advertising. It is also known as product placement or in-film advertisement.

7.      Public Service Advertising

Public service advertising or PSAs are advertisements for the public causes. There are lots of important matters such as AIDS, social integrity, energy conservation, illiteracy, pollution, poverty and so on all of which need more awareness as far as general public is concerned. PSA’s are not aimed at financial gains. This type of advertising has gained much importance in recent times and is an effective tool to convey the message.

8.     Print Advertising

The print media has been used for advertising since long. The newspapers and magazines are quite popular modes of advertising for different companies all over the world. Using the print media, the com-panies can also promote their products through brochures and fliers. The newspaper and magazines sell the advertising space and the cost depends on several factors. The quantity of space, the page of the publication, and the type of paper decide the cost of the advertisement. So an ad on the front page would be costlier than on inside pages. Similarly an ad in the glossy supplement of the paper would be more expensive than in a mediocre quality paper.

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What are the common types of Television Programs?

Common television formats are news programs, interviews, serials, sitcoms, commercials, etc. Television program formats have undergone several changes during the past years. Many new formats and genres are experimented every day.

1.       News

Television news covers a wide range of audio and video information. Basically news is in the form of newscasts, news breaks and headlines. News programs in television include sportscasts, weather reports, film news, etc. News more than an hour or two old may be considered stale. The maximum length for almost any television news story is two minutes, normal length is 30 seconds. A television script is written in present tense. Slang and colorful phrases are avoided in television news writing. In a television news script the titles usually come before names. Abbreviations and direct quotations are avoided. Attribution should come before a quotation. Usage of punctuation is comparatively less in a television news script.

2.      Interviews

Television interviews are mainly two types; news interviews and entertainment interviews. A television interview creates more impact on the audience as the emotions and gestures of the persons convey more message than what they speak.

3.      Discussions

Discussions are common television programs these days. Every news channel conducts discussions on topics of current relevance. The discussion will be on a particular topic and the panelists participate live in the broadcasting. Usually these are live broadcasts. This can be done through teleconferencing, online communication, etc.

4.      TV features

These are non-news or news related programs on a specific subject, which is presented in a way that attracts the audience.

5.      Special events

This is the coverage of events in which audiences are interested. For example, special coverage of election results, cultural events, sports events, etc.

6.      Reality shows

These types of programs normally document actual events and ordinary people instead of professional artists. Such programs are presented without a script and with dramatic and humorous situations.

7.      Musical programmes

These are programs that consist of music videos and in some cases including a host and other programming elements.

8.     Sponsored programmes

Programs produced by individuals and broadcast through television after purchasing time slots.

9.      Soap operas

Soap operas are also called soaps or serials. These are fictional drama about people’s daily life and other issues.

10.  Cookery shows

Programs which are hosted by famous cooks, who teach people about new recipes, are called cookery shows.

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What are the characteristics of Television

The main character of television is its audiovisual nature. It is one of the important mass media devices. The characteristics of television are:

1.       Audiovisual medium

Television is a medium of moving images and sound. So it is called an audio visual medium. It is for both eye and ear. The audio and visual presentation creates more impact on the audience.

2.      Convergent media

Television combines the qualities of various media like radio and newspaper, i.e., audio, picture and information. It has the ability to converge the qualities of other media in a single platform. So it is a convergent medium.

3.      Universal medium

The television is a universal medium. Any person with a television set can watch programs on television. The ethnicity, race or color of the audience is not a factor here.

4.      Popular Medium

Literacy is not a barrier in watching television while newspaper reading requires literacy. Any illiterate can get information and entertainment from television. It is a popular medium that any type of people can use.

5.      Medium of Credibility

The television gives information in a visual form. The visuals can be more credible than the audio or print.

6.      Glamour medium

A person who gets coverage by television gets more popularity than in any other media. There is a prominent factor of glamour in television.

7.      Medium of close up

Television screen is smaller than a cinema screen. So landscape or long shots won’t look so attractive in a television screen. Medium or close up shots are more preferable for a television screen.

8.     Domestic medium / Living room medium

No one goes out to watch television. Most of the audience watches television at home. Television is a medium for domestic environment.

9.      Inspiring medium

Visuals can motivate or inspire a human being than sound or print. Television can create a new trend or style in the society.

10.  Medium of immediacy / Live medium

Television enables the audience to view the events anywhere in the world live while sitting in our drawing rooms. The video reports of a terrorist attack or natural disaster can reach the audience in seconds, through a television.

11.   Advertisers medium

Visual advertisements are more pleasing to the eyes. So advertisers give more preference for the television to broadcast their ads.

12.  Mass medium

The message delivered by television reaches a large number of homogenous audiences. Television is a major mass medium.

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Types of Television Broadcasting systems

Television broadcasting systems have changed during the course of time due to several technological advancements. The prominent ways of television broadcasting are:

Terrestrial transmission

It is the transmission of audio visual signals through transmission towers owned by television stations. The transmission is done through frequencies for transmission allotted by the Ministry of Communication. The audience can receive the signals on their television sets by using an antenna or receiver.

Cable Television transmission

It is the process of sending audio visual signals to subscribers through an optic cable or wire. Usage of optical fibre cable makes it easy to transmit signal in a speedy way without losing picture quality. Cable systems can deliver large number of channels to millions of television sets. Nowadays, cable systems can provide high speed internet and telephone calls through the same platform.

Satellite transmission

It is the transmission of audio video signals over communication satellites. This is also called Direct to Home (DTH) Satellite Services. It enables the households to receive signals directly from the satellites using dish antennas. A set box is used to convert digital signals received by the antennas into audio visual format.

Internet transmission

Internet transmission is the digital transmission of audio-visual content via internet. The delivery of television content via internet is called video streaming. Internet television is different from IPTV.

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Types of Sound Recording in Radio

There are classifications of audio recording based on the place or time of recording. They are:

Outdoor

There are certain situations where audio recording is done outside the studio. This is during the production of a vox pop, where the reporter gathers sound bites from random people on the street, or during a news reporting session. Quality of this audio cannot be pre-determined, as there are plenty of chances for noise interferences. To overcome these problems recording artists use special kind of microphones and equipment while recording outside. The noise can be corrected later in an audio studio. Boom mikes and lapels mikes are widely used for outdoor recording.

Indoor

Indoor recording is mainly used during interviews. Indoor recording may also faces problems like outdoor recording, as there are chances of noise interferences. Directional microphones are used for this purpose. The recording artist keeps the microphone closer to the subject or person to get better quality of audio. Most of the microphones are having in built noise reduction.

Live

Live recording is used for recording live music events, concerts and other programmes. The live recording process has many difficulties, like capturing sound of each and every device used. A sound mixer is used to combine the sound recorded by all the microphones.

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Types of Radio Programmes

A radio format, or programming format, or programming genre refers to the overall content broadcasting over a radio station. For the better understanding of the practical aspects of radio production, one should know about the programme and its types.

1.       Radio bulletins

Among all the spoken word formats on radio, news is the most popular. In India, only All India Radio is allowed to broadcast news. Duration of news bulletins vary from 5 minute to 30 minutes. The longer news bulletins have interviews, features, reviews and comments from experts.

2.      Documentaries/features

The documentary programme is a story of something. It is generally between 15 and 60 minutes in length. The actual length is usually related to the size of the subject and the way in which it is treated. Radio documentaries are also called radio features. A radio documentary is a programme based on real sounds and real people and their views and experiences. Radio documentaries are based on facts presented in an attractive manner or dramatically. Radio documentaries are radio’s own creative format. The producer of a documentary needs to be very creative to use human voice, script, music and sound effects very effectively.

3.      News reels

It is more usual to separate comment from the news by including it in news talks and news reels. The daily news reel of fifteen or more minute’s duration is a popular form of news broadcasting. It contains eye-witness accounts, extract of speeches and reports of other events, commentaries, short talks and interviews in much the same way as a newspaper includes pictures and feature articles.

4.      Drama

A radio drama is different from the drama which is performed on a stage. A radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine the characters and story.

There are three methods of radio plays.

- As completely self-contained plays of 60 minutes in length.

- As serial drama of 15 or 30 minute in length in which the action goes forward from one episode to another.

- As series drama, each broadcast generally lasting for 30 minutes and completing one whole episode of a continued story; the principal characters reappear in new situations in each new drama in the series.

      5.  Commercials

Commercials are also known as advertisements. A station which carries advertising obtains it either directly from an advertiser or indirectly through an agency representing an advertiser.

1.       Phone in programmes

In broadcasting, a phone-in or call-in is a programme format in which viewers or listeners are invited to air their live comments by telephone, usually in respect of a specific topic selected for discussion on the day of the broadcast. On radio (especially talk radio), it is common for an entire programme to be dedicated to a phone-in session.

2.      Quiz

Largely studio-based and in-expensive to produce, the quiz show is easily one of the most popular programmes for the family. It’s the sense of participation and involvement in the quiz questions that makes the programme very enjoyable.

3.      Music show

Music programme enjoy much greater popularity than talk shows, as is evident from the popularity of FM channels. We enjoy music for its rhythm, melodies and harmonies and above all for the relaxation it provides.

4.      Talk shows

Radio talks are not public speeches; rather they are chats with a friend who does not see you, but is nevertheless close and attentive to you. Radio talks should give an impression to a listener that the speaker is addressing him or her alone in an informal manner.

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Types of Editorials

There are various ways to write an editorial.

1.       Explain or interpret

Editors often use these editorials to explain the way the newspaper covered a sensitive or controversial subject. School newspapers may explain new school rules or a particular student-body effort like a food drive.

2.      Criticize

These editorials constructively criticize actions, decisions or situations while providing solutions to the problem identified. Immediate purpose is to get readers to see the problem, not the solution.

3.      Persuade

Editorials of persuasion aim to immediately see the solution, not the problem. From the first paragraph, readers will be encouraged to take a specific, positive action. Political endorsements are good examples of editorials of persuasion.

4.      Praise

These editorials commend people and organisations for something done well. They are not as common as the other three.

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Editorial writing in a Newspaper

An editorial is an opinion piece written by the senior editorial staff or publisher of a newspaper or magazine. It projects the viewpoint of the paper on a policy, programme or an event. Editorials are intended to reflect the opinion of the periodical and lead the public’s point of view. It can motivate, inspire, criticize or reject certain idea or opinion. A newspaper’s editorial board decides which issues are important for their readers to know the newspaper’s opinion. Editorials should not repeat the facts that are discussed in the news story. It should analyse the fact and arrive at a logical conclusion. This makes the structure of an editorial simple and readable for the audience.

In a newspaper editorials appear on dedicated pages called editorial pages. The page opposite this page is called the op-ed page which contains opinion pieces by writers who are not part of publication. However, a newspaper may choose to publish an editorial on the front page. This is done rarely and only on topics considered especially important. Such editorials that appear on front page are called ‘Front page editorials’.

Editorial writers build on an argument and try to persuade readers to think the same way they do. The language of an editorial is usually formal and persuasive as it is directed towards the readers who are already informed of the current event or issue. An editorial is similar to an essay whose title clearly identifies the issue. The introductory statement includes the writer’s view on the issue; the body provides supporting evidence and examples; and the conclusion restates the writer’s view and provides a final appeal for the reader to agree to that view. 

Editorials are written according to specialized format:

1.       Introduction

An editorial begins with a lead with an objective explanation of the issue. This may include facts from relevant sources, and quotes.

2.      Body (Summary)

Opinion of the editorial is presented in the rest of the paragraphs.

3.      Evaluation

The facts are used to give supporting reasons for the opinion of the editorial.

4.      Conclusion

Concluding the facts and opinions given above. This can be recommendations, advice or warning.

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