Document text
Making digital photography simpler photo by Drew Fleming By JOHN DARLING ASHLAND � It�s not easy to explain, let alone to retail a whole new kind of technology, but David and Aliza Vanderlip, owners of the new Sterling Images, are going for it � positioning themselves as the digital imaging barons of Southern Oregon. You may not know it yet, they said, but photographic film is dying. In its place comes digital photography, images on diskette or CD and computer printers that make prints up to poster size, with more detail, color and durability than photographic paper, all endlessly manipulable through software. BUSINESS CARD Company name: Sterling Images Product/service: digital image scanning, printing, product photography, studio rental, Photoshop software classes. Location: 1908 Ashland St. (Highway 66), Ashland Phone: 552-9579 Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday-Friday The Vanderlips face some obstacles as the world gets used to digital: Consumers think digital prints are lower quality than photographic prints (mainly because of poor prints on home printers) and they�re intimidated by the complex and rapidly changing digital technology, Aliza said. To remedy this, Sterling runs classes in Adobe Photoshop imaging software, studio lighting and photography, buying a digital camera, scanning for Internet use and creating Web sites. Classes run most days of the month, daytime and evening. Some are free; most run from $69 to $199. The Vanderlips also will come to your home or workplace and teach. Sterling has just doubled in size, creating a 550-foot studio space equipped with an array of digital cameras, tripods, backdrops and lights. It rents for $45 an hour and clients may shoot their own portraits and product photography or employ the Vanderlips. They shoot products at $8-12 a picture. "Ninety-nine percent of people are scared of digital technology," said David, "but all you have to do is shoot a studio session. Bring the family for portraits. You get immediate feedback from the digital image in the viewfinder, so you learn your mistakes right away, not when you get your prints back. And you can shoot 200 pictures till you get it perfect, then delete the other 199 shots." For snapshots, they said, it�s still easier to take your film to the one-hour booth. Digital can�t create slideshows yet, either. For everything else, commercial or personal, well, "you�ve just got to come in and see what digital can do," said David. Sterling can digitize from prints, negatives or slides, print from a digital camera card, enlarge up to 24-by-60 inches with no grain or loss of definition (digital increases definition with size), restore faded or damaged old photos, make new photos look old, create a photo-collage of several pictures or digitize and print paintings. Clients may receive their images as prints, diskette, CD or e-mail attachment. Prints can be made to look like glossy or matte photos or they can end up imitating art on museum parchment or watercolor paper. Digitized prints don�t lose sharpness at the edges and they last up to 300 years, about four times longer than photographs, David said. Promotional displays can be readily combined with lettering and copy and � a near-impossibility in photo labs � put on black background, he said. Their belief in the future of digital led the Vanderlips to make a huge investment in Sterling � $10,000 for just one of their several scanners, for instance � but, said David, "we know most individuals and businesses can�t afford to buy and learn all this themselves." The Vanderlips are forming a network of the area�s leading photographers, graphic designers and Web masters to share knowledge and business contacts, he said. "Digital is evolving so fast that equipment gets obsolete in just months," said David. "We constantly review the new developments at manufacturers� Web sites and net forum groups. "We specialize in things that don�t exist yet." Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.