Made With Adobe Firefly
Searching and Saving the Right Images
We are making an animated slideshow with images of things you like from the internet. To find images that are large enough, you need to filter out all the small ones and carefully isolate the targets in their own browser tab. To keep track of where the image was found, we paste its URL (image address) in the Comments field for the file. (There's never anything very important there already).
It is easy to forget to do one of the critical steps you will learn this week, it takes practice and attention to detail, and you may have to delete some or all of the pictures you have saved. Try not to get too frustrated by this. The information on how to do this correctly is taught in class, documented with several video tutorials and written out in the instructions here on DATAtech.studio - it's just going to take some practice and patience!
We'll follow our Word outline to use Google Images to find at least one picture for each of our favorite things. We will also be relying on the Details view of our project folder and the columns we added for Dimensions and Comments to verify that what we are adding to our collection will be useable in our project. You may need to restore these columns several times if the view resets. The Details pane must be there on the right as well, so you can click on "Comments" and paste each image's URL into that field. If Comments is not one of the details you can change, you may be able to open the file with Paint, save the image as a JPG and then delete the one that you saved first. There is a helpful video below.
Before we start
First, open your Outline on your second screen. A good way to do this is to use the tab that is already on Google Classroom (#2 on Desktop Background) and open the assignment with your final Word document. This is your guide to searching for pictures - put the number from the outline at the beginning of the filename as you save the images from the web.
Second, make sure you have the correct Details view with your two added columns visible. Then ask File Explorer to remember the Details view. Click on View, then on the Options button (last on the ribbon) like we did to remove Quick Access. Switch from the General tab to the View tab and then, Apply to Folders.
Step 1
ADVANCED SEARCH SETTINGS
We will be doing more than just a regular image search. Google provides tools to fine-tune our search so that only results for very large images are returned. We have to remember that the page of thumbnails Google shows us represent original pictures that it knows about out on the internet - they are not the actual pictures. In fact, the pictures may not even be there anymore.
Week 3 Step 1 - Advanced Search Options.mp4Tuning the Search
To make sure we aren't shown results of images that are too small to use in our video, we tell Google to only show us thumbnails of pictures it knows about that are 8 megapixels or larger, to start with. If we don't find what we need, we can lower that to 6 MP, but have to be very aware of the width and height of the image to make sure it will work.
Step 2
SELECT A GOOD IMAGE
Week 3 Step 2 - Locating an Image.mp4Choosing a Good Candidate
You will have many thumbnails to look through to find one you like. Getting the picture open on its own tab takes a few steps and is not always successful. When you succeed, there can still be problems with an image like blurriness, "noise" in the image or even things that are not appropriate for school. Learn what to look for!
Steps to Finding a Suitable Image:
Go to Google, click on "Images" and locate the settings menu. Choose Advanced Search Settings.
Enter your search word(s) - simpler is better, and no numbers for sizes there
Change the size to 8MP or larger to start. 6MP can still work, if you are careful about the resolution values.
Click on thumbnails and hover over the new, larger thumbnail that appears on the right.
Compare the resolution to 2560 x 1440. If they are both larger, it is worth continuing. There are few exceptions.
If the larger thumbnail stays blurry instead of getting sharp and clear, the actual image may be blocked.
The new thumbnails underneath the large one are NOT filtered to 8MP or larger. Don't click them.
Your next search may forget the 8MP filter. Check at the top of the screen to see if it is still in effect.
Step 3
By the Numbers
We are making a video the size of the red box. We are therefore looking for pictures that are the size of the blue box or bigger. If images are too small, we don't have any room to zoom in, zoom out or move the view around. The one exception is if the picture has to be very narrow, like a book cover. We may only be able to move up and down, but at least cover the full width of the screen.
SAVING THE IMAGE... AND ITS ADDRESS
BEFORE saving the picture, we must copy the image address so we can paste it in the Comments field.
Right-click on the image and choose "Copy Image Address" - it's the best way to get it.
Right-click on the image again, choose "Save Image As", and navigate to your Project Folder to save it.
Switch over to File Explorer and "Paste" the copied address into the Comments field over in the Details Pane. Don't forget to click "Save" or it will not remember the URL.
NOTE: Make sure the address doesn't have the word "Google" in it - sometimes we accidentally get the search term address instead of the one for the extra large image by itself.
Week 3 Step 3 - Saving the Image.mp4Saving the Image
Getting the picture into your project folder is only the first step. Before saving, you must copy the image address of the actual image (not the website). THEN you save the image and switch to File Explorer to find the "Comments" field in the Details pane. Pasting and saving the URL (image address) is essential, and images without them will be deleted.
Converting to JPG
If there is no Comments field - it is not a JPG. Turn it in to one:
Right-Click on the file and select "Open With" from the context menu.
Choose Paint from the list of available programs. Yes.. good ol' Microsoft Paint.
If it can't open the image, just delete it and find another.
If it CAN open the image, simply choose File --> Save As --> JPG with the same name in your project folder.
Now you can paste the URL in the Comments field. Delete the old file so you just have 1.
Week 3 Step 5 - Avoiding Mistakes.mp4Overcoming Obstacles
Week 3 Step 4 - Overcoming Obstacles.mp4Avoiding Mistakes
230831 Week 3 - AVIF Files and Photoshop.mp4AVIF-to-JPG Conversion
AVIF files are what a digital camera sees when you click the button, before it compresses the image into a JPG or other format. It's one of the highest quality formats, but it needs processing before most applications can use it. You can use Photoshop to Export the image as a JPG for this collection.
230831 Snip of Image Collection Details.mp4Review and Snip Image Details
This video is also attached to the latest assignment "Snip of Image Collection Details". It's the same as the last snip, except perhaps larger since there may be many images in it. I review my collection and remove some before uploading it - I made mistakes too, which is WHY it's so important to have those alternates already found and saved.