Photography on the Web
This web site began primarily about photography or, more precisely, about
photographs. It has grown from a small, unsophisticated display of poorly scanned proofs
to an attractive presentation of a larger collection of photographs that benefit from
high-quality scanning of the film itself, followed by refined adjustment of color,
contrast, density, perceived gamma... and all the other stuff that makes images sing.
The site now also includes a section on web page design and authoring,
and another section offering film scanning and digital image services
toward creating exhibition grade prints. These sections are a natural extension of my
photographic work, and I now offer my expertise and skill to others. The latest addition
is the Light Preserve Magazine.
Getting the Best View at The Light Preserve
The images here, and at many other sites, meet W3C (World Wide Web Consortium)
recommendations and will look best if your monitor is optimally adjusted. To assist
with that, I have included the grayscale rectangle below. Set the brightness and contrast of
your monitor to display the complete range from white to black. In addition to displaying the
complete range, you want to be just able to discern the inner square of the left block. Monitor
gamma issues, which affect the brightness and color balance of midtones, are another matter.
Recent global data indicates that the PC comprises 93% of the web-surfing population, and
the images on these pages have been prepared at gamma of 2.2 for best appearance to that
majority. Mac users will see brighter images with less saturated color.
Screen size, color depth and pixel quantity add more variables to
the mix. Since the presentation here is of photographic art, I have made no concessions to
systems displaying less than 24-bit color. More global statistics: displays of at least
800x600 pixels comprise over 95% of the web-surfing population. I have therefore
designed these pages with that minimum amount of screen real estate in mind.
The Presentation
Gallery images of The Preserve no longer open in new,
dedicated windows. Because Microsoft claims that Internet Explorer 8
will be standards compliant, it seems wise to make this change
before IE8 is released. Thus far, no browsers have choked on the
code previously used here for the gallery windows, and IE8 would
probably handle the code well, also. But if IE8 goes compliant, we
can hope to see all browsers eventually becoming more critical of
code errors and deviations.
I gave substantial thought to how the images would be presented
here. Most important, and easiest to decide, was image quality. Since each image has a small
thumbnail for selection, no time is lost or wasted downloading larger images of subjects
which do not interest a particular visitor. For that reason, I give quality the priority
over small file size for the larger images. But I've not ignored the file size issue, and
images will load in reasonable time for dial-up connections as well as broadband.
Many of the photos displayed here, and their thumbnail links, are in the
progressive jpg format. I've chosen the progressive format because file sizes are smaller
than the original jpg format. Some versions of the Microsoft browser that I have used do
not display progressive jpg images until they are completely downloaded,
a Microsoft quirk that completely defeats the concept of the
progressive jpg format (the operative word is "duh"). All browsers will display
the finished image in the same length of time, but MSIE users might see only a background
until the image file is entirely received. Curiously, MSIE for the Mac (not Windows!) gets
it right with progressive jpg files.
The photographs displayed at this site are not "scanned and jammed"
onto the web. They are individually adjusted for color balance, luminosity and contrast. Linked
images here contain ICC information since many systems are now capable of using that data for more
accurate color rendition. Compression levels of the jpg format are set specifically for best
results with each image.
Design and Implementation
I got started coding HTML (the instructions for content and display of web
pages) using a text editor, and I'm still doing it that way. It gives me control over how
the code is written to generate the design I want, permitting me to avoid deprecated
instructions which won't be supported in future browsers. In addition, the code I write
is generally more compact and efficient than software-generated instructions. My pages
load fast. They also load for everyone: The Light Preserve is designed so that all
navigation and content is accessible without plug-ins, javascript or active-x.
I think you'll enjoy the photographs here, and the experience viewing
them. It will be interesting to know if my favorites among them are also your favorites.
Pop me an e-mail and let me know.
