New SLC Student and Parent Tech Guide

If you have any questions that are not answered here please search this website or contact the Help Desk.

WIRELESS:
The SLC Wireless network can only be accessed while on campus.

Complete this form to access the SLC Wireless network:

http://pages.slc.edu/~support/article/wireless-access-request-form

ETHERNET:
The Help Desk suggests an Ethernet cable length of 15 feet, or longer.

JOBS:
All positions available in the Help Desk are posted on MySLC.

DISCOUNTS & RECOMMENDATIONS:
SLC has teamed up with Apple & Dell to make laptops, software, etc. available to you at discounted prices.

Click here to read our ‘Suggested Minimum Specifications for New Computers’:
http://pages.slc.edu/~support/tag/recommendations

While shopping the Apple site you will see the discounted price. While browsing the Dell site you will not see the discounted price until you check out.

Please Note – You must use the code provided at the front page of the Dell Store.

Apple Store – http://slc.edu/apple
Dell Store – http://slc.edu/dell

PERSONAL STORAGE SPACE:
Student email, Gryphon Mail, has over 7GB of storage for email, Word documents, PDFs, etc.

USB Keys or Thumb Drives, CD-R’s, and CD-RW’s, and are very popular and inexpensive media to save and transport data.

ON CAMPUS STORAGE SPACE:
Each student has 100 MB of space on the network. Files saved to your H: Drive are available to any properly configured computer on campus, or can be accessed via FTP. Files are backed up nightly.

Details can be found here:

http://pages.slc.edu/~support/tag/h-drive

WEB PAGE SPACE:
Students may use the school server pages.slc.edu for website development.

Details can be found here:

http://pages.slc.edu/~support/tag/websites

PRINTING & SCANNING:
Please refer to the following link for details on each of these items:

http://pages.slc.edu/~support/tag/printing

SOFTWARE:
The Library Computer Lab has the following:

http://pages.slc.edu/~support/article/library-pc-lab

The Heimbold Visual Arts Center lab has the following:

http://pages.slc.edu/~support/article/digital-media-lab

CONTACT INFORMATION:
Help Desk
hd@slc.edu
914-395-2460

• HP DesignJet 500 – 42″ wide-format color inkjet – classwork use only
• Epson 4800 wide-format photo inkjets x2 – matte and photo black – Photography department use only
• Epson Stylus Pro 9880 – 42″ wide-format color printer – Visual Arts and Photography department use only
• HP color laserjet – 45 cents/page
• HP black & white laserjet – 5 cents/page

Lab: 12 Mac Pros / Classroom: 16 iMacs (all 2007 models)

Software:

Audacity
Blender
Macromedia Dreamweaver
Apple Final Cut Express
Mozilla Firefox
Macromedia Flash
Apple GarageBand
Adobe GoLive
Lemke GraphicConverter
Apple iDVD
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe InDesign
Apple iMovie
Apple iPhoto
Apple iTunes
Jahshaka
Alias Maya
NeoOffice (OpenOffice.org)
Nvu
Microsoft Office
Adobe Photoshop
Apple QuickTime
Bare Bones TextWrangler
Roxio Toast
VLC

Lighting

Make sure your object is evenly, brightly lit – unless you are going for an effect.

Background

A blank white wall is a great background. In general the fewer colors in the background, the easier it will be to mask out (link) the object later.

3-D

If you plan to make a 3-D model of the object, you will need to take shots from multiple angles, minimally six: front, back, both sides, top and bottom.

Camera settings

Use the largest image size and highest quality setting available on the camera, limited by the size of the camera’s storage device. Take one picture at highest quality, and see how large the file is. Multiply by the number of shots you will need (plus a margin for bad shots) and the result is the size of memory card you need in the camera. This is not the time to compromise – you may need to upload the files in the middle of your photo shoot. There are many other camera settings – we suggest you take a photo course to learn more!

Upload the image files. Most digital cameras come with a USB cable. If you plug this into one of the DML’s Macs, iPhoto launches and you can import the set of photos. This is a good time to rotate the photos and check them for general quality, in case you need to re-shoot.

When imported into iPhoto, your images are saved to ~/Pictures/iPhoto Library/<year>/<month>/<day>/<photo name>. You can open them directly from Photoshop (or another image editor) or copy them: Option-drag-and-drop them to your desired location.

Basic scanning instructions for Library Lab Macs:

1. Double-click on the Macintosh HD icon on the desktop.
2. Click the Applications folder, then click the Photoshop CS folder.
3. Double-click on the Photoshop CS icon to open Photoshop.
4. On the Menu bar, click File, then go to Import.
5. Click the scanner name to open the Scanner Import window.
6. Click Preview. Here you can select an area to scan, change the brightness and contrast, and depending on the scanner, apply filters and effects as well.
7. To adjust resolution, color, film type, and other settings, click on Options in the Scanner Import window.
8. Click Scan.

Basic scanning instructions for Library Lab PCs:

1. Click on the Start button.
2. Go to the Programs folder, then to the Adobe Photoshop CS folder.
3. Click on the Adobe Photoshop CS icon to launch Photoshop.
4. On the Menu bar, click File, then go to Import.
5. Click the scanner name to open the Scanner Import window.
6. Click Preview. Here you can select an area to scan, change the brightness and contrast, and depending on the scanner, apply filters and effects as well.
7. To adjust resolution, color, film type, and other settings, click on Options in the Scanner Import window.
8. Click Scan.

Advanced Scanning instructions for the Digital Media Lab:

We have facilities for high-quality digitization of small, 2-dimensional images. If you need a digital image of something large or 3D, use a digital camera.  We have two slide scanners with trays to fit various slide formats up to 4″ x 5″. We also have four flatbed scanners, which can accommodate larger slides as well as paper, etc.

1. Launch PhotoShop (Dock->My Applications->Adobe Photoshop). Bring up the Scanner Import window (File->Import->scanner name).
2. Click Preview. You can select an area to scan, change the contrast and brightness, and on some scanners, apply scratch-removal filters and other neat tricks.
3. In the options of the Scanner Import window are the following settings which are of interest:

• Resolution/DPI – High quality art will need 1200dpi or greater. Lower resolution is usually fine, but remember that you cannot add data later.  Color – 24-bit color is fine for most purposes.

• Positive/Negative and Film Type – The scanners can compensate for whatever color scheme your film uses, as long as you enter the correct type.

• Note that using higher resolution or more color information will mean that your scan will take longer. If you need low-quality images soon, reduce these settings.

4. Click Scan.

While priority is given to art classwork, the Digital Media Lab is open to the entire academic community.

The Lab has 12 workstations. The Classroom (209A) has 15 student stations and a teacher station.

For more details on what we have to offer, see our equipment list and printer information.

See also: lab hours, digital photo basics, scanning.

Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Access) and web browsers are installed on all public computers. You can get your email via the web. The Digital Media Lab has additional art software installed.

In addition to the public computer labs, SLC has a number of classrooms that will accommodate computer use while teaching. For more information on SLC computing facilities, click one of the following links:

Public Computer Labs
Library Lab
Heimbold Digital Media Lab

Teaching Facilities
Library Electronic Classrooms
Heimbold Digital Classroom
Other Classrooms