AND NOW, IN GLORIOUS, LIVING.....BLACK AND WHITE???
A Review of Ansel Adams Screensaver
by Rich Cunningham
I was in my favorite computer store the other day, always on the
lookout for a new toy, and came across
a screensaver that I found unable to leave on the shelf. What set it apart
from the general run of the mill
screen savers was simple: it was in black and white!
Now, most screensavers
are designed to show colorful
patterns, pictures and what-not on our computer screen to prevent phosphor
burn in on the CRT. They show
everything from Disney movie scenes to space pictures to science fiction
fantasy. This particular one was based
on the work of the famous photographer, Ansel Adams.
For anyone who is not aware of Mr. Adams' name, I am sure that, sometime in
your life, you have seen at least
one of his photographs. His most famous pictures, in my opinion, are the ones
he made of Yosemite National Park
in California. He was a photographer for over 7 decades, and made thousand
and thousands of images. What sets
his work apart from other photographers is, I feel, that he chose to do the
majority of his work in black and
white. He did do color photography, but the majority was in B&W.
From
Yosemite, to the Grand Canyon, and
Yellowstone and the Grand Teton, he captured the beauty of the American
landscape better than any other artist.
In his own words, "Perhaps the most important characteristic of my work is
what may be called image quality".
And what image quality it is. Now, thanks to the Trustees of the Ansel Adams
Publishing Rights Trust and Time
Warner Electronic Publishing folks, these images can now be enjoyed on the
computer screen, in glorious living
black and white.
The screensaver consists of images taken during the Mural Project, a series
of photographs commissioned by the
Department of the Interior in 1941, to be displayed on the walls of the
department headquarters. This is the
first authorized collection of these photographs to be electronically
reproduced. Mr. Adams became interested
in computer and electronic imaging late in his life, and with this
collection, some of his best work can be
viewed in a new way, and enjoyed by a whole new audience.
The technical side of this program is very simple to explain. You insert
either the CD ROM or disk, and run an
install program. You select either complete or custom install. The custom
install, in the IBM version, allows
you to load screen versions tha will be compatible with your display. You can
load either 640x480, 800x600 or
1024x768 versions of the images. So if you never go beyond 640x480, you can
save space and not load the other
resolutions.
You can select the amount of time that each image is on the
screen (minimum: 30 seconds), and you
can elect to intersperse the images with quotes from Mr. Adams. You can also
password protect the program. The
screensaver runs as a Windows screensaver, so selecting it is as simple as
selecting your Flying Windows
screensaver. If you ever need to uninstall the program, it can be done by
running the included uninstall
program. With the IBM version, there is one known problem. That is with Lotus
Ami Pro, when set at 256 colors.
You may have to close the Lotus program when the screensaver is running to
avoid image distortion. There were
no known problems with the Macintosh version.
There is only one change I would like to see added to the program, and that
is the ability to use the pictures
as wallpaper as well as screensavers. Through another program, I was able to
do this, but it would have been
nice to have this feature included out-of-the-box. I would recommend this
program to anyone who is looking for
a good screensaver, and is looking for something different. Heck, even if
you're not looking for something
different, it is still a very good program to have in your collection.
Multimedia Cafe Scorecard
| Product: |
Ansel Adams Screensaver |
| Company: |
n/a |
| Cost: |
n/a |
System Requirements:
IBM:
Windows 3.1 or greater
(compatible with Windows 95),
Screen Resolution at least 640 x 480,
capable of 256 colors or shades of gray,
4MB of ram, 486SX or greater,
3.6MB of Hard Drive space minimum,
CD Rom drive for CD Rom version,
3.5 inch disk drive for floppy;
Macintosh:
System 7.0 or greater,
minimum screen resolution of 640x480,
at least 256 colors or shades of gray, 4MB ram,
68020 or greater processor,
6.1MB of hard drive space minimum
(3.8MB for screensaver, 2.3MB for
Quicktime), (Quicktime 2.0 included with purchase),
Accelerated for Power Macintosh,
CD Rom for CD version, Floppy drive for floppy version.
Breakdown:
Entertainment Value 4
Educational Value 4
Concept 5
Depth 4
Interface 4
Overall Score:
Copyright © 1997 InfoMedia, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.