Abstract

While digital camera owners are taking more photos than ever before, most of them are not printing the photos. When they do, they only print in small quantities. The reason for this is that most users share their photos online or through e-mail. While fewer people print their images at the moment they are taking them, they are saving the digital files of the photos for future use. In conducting a literature review, a good overview was acquired of the current consumer photographer's practices in taking, sharing, and saving pictures. In addition, a first experiment was set up involving college-aged young adults as the population. This first experiment focused on presentation medium-dependent differences in picture consumption, as well as consumer printing behavior regarding their own photographs. A following experiment took a second look at presentation medium-dependent differences in picture consumption. In addition, it provided a more complete picture of sharing and saving behavior, as well as an understanding of the value that observers place on conventional photographic images. The outcome of these experiments showed that most participants preferred printed images over on-screen images. Regardless of this finding, participants did not print images very often for a variety of reasons, including lack of time or money. In addition, results showed that the most commonly used printing tools included Kodak Gallery EasyShare, Shutterfly, and Flickr. Finally, participants cited Photoshop, Lightroom, and Picasa as the primary editing tools, with Facebook being mentioned as the main sharing tool.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Photography--Digital techniques--Research; Photography--Printing processes; Photograph albums--Data processing; College students--Attitudes

Publication Date

5-1-2010

Document Type

Thesis

Department, Program, or Center

School of Print Media (CIAS)

Advisor

Cost, Frank

Comments

Note: imported from RIT’s Digital Media Library running on DSpace to RIT Scholar Works. Physical copy available through RIT's The Wallace Library at: TR267 .R64 2010

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

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