Technology Info

What you need to know about preserving and sharing digital photography

Digital photography has allowed for an explosion of images and photographs to enter into our homes, computers, printers, and workplaces. However, the large burst of digital photography can also be confusing, especially when it comes to preserving and sharing digital photographs. Here are a couple of things that you need to know about preserving and sharing digital photography:

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Preserving digital photography: There are a couple of ways that you can preserve your digital photographs. First of all, you can initially preserve your photographs on your memory card. However, this is not the best way to permanently preserve your photographs, unless you plan on buying a new memory card every time your previous one gets filled up (which can be an expensive option!). Instead, you can transfer your digital photographs to your computer. Generally there is a cord which hooks up your computer to a USB port, so that the files can be transferred easily. You can further ensure that your pictures will not be lost by backing up the files on a separate disk, CD, or drive.

Physical preservation: Some people prefer to preserve their digital photographs by printing them out and placing them in a scrapbook. If you go for this option, it is a good idea to print out the photographs on an acid-free paper, so that your photographs do not yellow or distort over time.
Preservation online: There are many up-and-coming websites which are dedicated to helping people preserve their online photography. One of these organizations, called Photomax, allows people to store their photographs on their online storage space. There is a free amount of storage available for the initial free sign-up, and then people can purchase more online storage, depending on how many photos they would like to store on the website. In addition, you can also save your photographs within your email account, by either having someone email you the photos, or by emailing the photos to yourself.

Sharing digital photography: One of the easiest and most convenient ways to share photographs is through email. If you are going to share digital photography through email, however, there are a couple of things that you need to know. First of all, you should try to send your digital photographs in a compressed file, such as a JPEG file. This way, the photograph will be able to be transported quickly and easily through email. If the photograph file is too large, or if too many digital photographs have been sent in one email, the photographs might take a long time to arrive, or they may never arrive in the inbox at all! In addition, choosing a smaller, compressed file type helps to ensure that the photograph also will not fill up all the storage space of its destination inbox.
In order to shrink your file sizes, you can use either a image manipulation program like Photoshop, or you can use Windows XP. If you store your photographs in the "My Pictures" section, you can go there and look to the left to see a "Files and Folders Taskbar." Upon selecting "Email this File," you will come to a new box which is called "Send Pictures Via Email." In this box, you will have the option of reducing your pictures to a smaller size, so that you can email your digital photography with other people!
Another way that you can share your digital photography is by printing out pictures and sending them to people through the regular postal mail. You also can burn your photographs onto a CD and send that CD to someone in the mail. This is an easier option to do, if you are interested in sharing a large number of photographs with someone. It is easier to burn a CD and pop it in the mail then to spend a long time sending a few photos at-a-time in an email!

What you need to know about pixels and image sizes

Digital pictures are made up of hundreds of thousands maybe even millions of tiny squares called picture elements or pixels. Each of these pixels is captured by a single photo site on the image sensor when you take a picture using a digital camera. Your computer and printer can use these tiny pixels to display and print photographs you have taken. In doing this, the computer divides the screen or printed page into a grid of pixels; this is very much like the way the image sensor is divided. It then uses the values stored in the digital photograph to specify the brightness and color of each pixel in this grid. Controlling, or addressing a grid of individual pixels in this way is called bit mapping and the digital images are called bit-maps.

]]> Usually printer and scanner resolutions are specified by the number of dots per inch (dpi) that they print or scan. Pixels per inch generally refer to the image and display screen and dots per inch refers to the printer and printed image. On an average, monitors use 72 pixels per inch to display text and images, ink-jet printers range up to 1700 dots per inch and commercial typesetting machines range between 1,000 and 2,400 dots per inch.

Much like traditional cameras, light enters a digital camera through a lens controlled by a shutter. Digital cameras have one of three types of electronic shutters that control the exposure. The first is electronically shuttered sensors; they use the image sensor itself to set the exposure time. A timing circuit tells when to start and stop the exposure. Electromechanical shutters are mechanical devices that are controlled electronically. And then there are electro-optical shutters. Electro-optical shutters are electronically driven devices in front of the image sensor which change the optical path transmitted.

Resolution is commonly referred to as the quality of a digital image, whether printed or displayed on a screen. The quality of that image depends partly on the number of pixels used to create that image. The more pixels a digital camera offers the more detail the pictures taken will have. If you enlarge any digital image enough, the pixels will begin to show an effect this is called pixel-ization. The more pixels there are in an image, the more the image can be enlarged before the pixels begin to show an effect.

There are two kinds of resolution for cameras and scanners, optical and interpolated. The optical resolution of a camera or scanner is an absolute number, this is because of an image sensor's photo sites are physical devices that can be counted. In certain aspects to improve the resolution, the resolution can be increased using software. This process is called interpolated resolution. Interpolated resolution adds pixels to the image. To do this, software evaluates those pixels surrounding each new pixel to determine what its colors should be. Keep in mind interpolated resolution does not add any new information to the image, it just adds pixels and make the file larger.

The larger an image size in pixels is, the larger the image file needed to store it. Because of this, some cameras allow you to specify more than one size when you take a picture. You are likely to get better results with a larger image, but it isn't always needed. When the image is going to be displayed on the web or printed very small is when a larger image is not needed. Images that are going to be displayed on the web or printed very small will have smaller file sizes and you will be able to save more into the camera's memory.

What you need to know about optional conversion lenses for your digital camera

When it comes to digital cameras you can buy numerous accessories for your camera depending on what it is you want to do. You can buy different batteries; you can buy numerous memory cards, travel bags, tripods, and many different types of optional lenses. Like traditional cameras digital cameras come with a regular lenses that can zoom in or out and focus on objects, but what they don't come with are the specialty lenses that allow you to do more with your picture taking than the regular lens, these lenses are known as conversion lenses.

The original lens that comes with your digital camera has a focal length of 35mm and all other focal lengths of lengths are described in terms of 35mm equivalent.

Here are some of the optional conversion lenses that you can buy for your digital camera.

]]> Fixed Focal length:
This type of lenses does not change at all; all you can do is to adjust the focus. If you want to take a close up of somebody you are going to have to move closer to the object, but when doing that you have to be careful because the features of the object can become distorted.

Optical zoom lens:
This type of lens is a true zoom lens which means that its focal length actually changes and the zoom mechanism itself extends and retracts so that a certain image can be magnified by the lens itself. This type of zoom lens produces the best quality images.

Digital zoom lens:
This type of lenses is not a true zoom lens because its zoom mechanism does not extend and retract. Instead it has a stimulated zooms that enlarges the central portion of an image in the camera. Because the actual length of the lens does not change it can not magnify the image by the lens itself. This type of lens produces images with reduced visual quality.

Wide-angle lens:
This type of lens has a larger field of view than any other type of lenses, which makes it capable of capturing more of the scene in front of the camera by getting more of the scene that is on the sides of the image. With digital photography the wide-angle lens is different than it is in traditional photography. With digital photography the smaller sensors will turn the moderate wide-angle lenses to a standard lens, while the extreme wide-angle lenses will turn to a normal lens. If you want a wide effect in digital photography you are going to need to use something like a 12mm lenses to get that effect. But remember wide-angle lenses, whether it is traditional or digital photograph is not meant to get everything into the picture (that can cause distortion) but a wide-angle lens is designed to allow you to get closer to the object you are photographing.

Another thing that you need to be aware of when buying lens for your digital camera is that compact digital cameras won't accept interchangeable lenses like Single Lens Reflex cameras will. But many compact digital cameras will accept add-on converter lenses.

Converter lenses:
These types of lenses are for compact digital cameras and are actually pretty inexpensive, but they can extend the flexibility and capability of a built-in lens. One thing that you need to look into before buying a converter lens is that some converter lenses for digital cameras will require an adapter so that the lens will mount onto the front of the camera correctly. A disadvantage to converter lenses is that they can be bigger and bulkier than the digital camera that they are attaching to, which can make the set up annoying.

What you need to know about lighting with digital photography

There are several main things that you need to know about lighting with digital photography. Digital photography is not just point and shoot and let the camera take care of everything. While the camera is good at automatically adjusting for lighting conditions and other issues, you still need to ensure that you have proper lighting for the best possible digital photo that you can get. Lighting is one of the biggest key to the greatest possible photos-you just need to understand how lighting works and how you can use the lighting to your best advantage.

There are two types of lighting: natural lighting and artificial lighting. Learning how to use each type of lighting will improve your photos.

]]> Natural lighting is any light that comes from a natural source. A natural source is something like the moon or the sun. Obviously, natural lighting changes all of the time, depending on the weather and what time of day it is. Natural lighting is also commonly called existing light.

Artificial lighting is any light that comes from a non-natural source. Examples of artificial lighting are lamps, candles, overhead lights, fluorescent lights, and so on. If you are using artificial lighting, you will most probably need to work with your camera's white balance to find the right camera setting.

The next thing that you need to know about lighting and digital photography what a flash is. There are two kinds of flashes that come with digital cameras: an internal flash and an external flash.

An internal flash is the flash that is built into your digital camera. This flash will automatically adjust itself depending on the light. An internal, automatic flash is pretty effective as long as the subject of the digital photo is within the range of the flash. If you combine the flash with other light sources, the automatic flash can work pretty well. However, internal flashes tend to produce red-eye.

An external flash is a flash unit that exists outside of the camera. Some external flashes can be mounted on the camera itself, if your camera has a hot shot. Or you can use the external flash separately from the camera, either with a cable or by using a wireless external flash.

Here are some more terms that can help you understand lighting so that you can get the effect that you want.

Hard lighting is lighting that is focused directly at the subject of the photo. Hard lighting is what to go for if you want very sharply defined shadows.
Soft lighting is indirect lighting. Usually, to achieve soft-diffused-lighting, the light is bounced off of a reflective surface. This will make the light fall more evenly on the subject of the photo.
Three-Point lighting is a lighting that combines hard lighting and soft lighting. This lighting is good if you are shooting a portrait of someone. You will be setting up three lights.
- Point the main light right at your subject. You will add more lights because this harsh light will just wash out the subject's face and make any imperfections more noticeable.
- Add a diffuse fill light. This will cut down on shadows.
- Add a backlight behind the subject of your photo. This backlight will define the person by separating him or her from the background.
- Put the camera between the fill light and the main light.

How to take portrait photos in natural light

If you are taking a photograph of your subject in natural light, instead of artificial lighting, you will need to make sure that the subject does not have his or her back to a window. If you place the subject twice as far away from the light, then the intensity of the light will fall to a quarter of its original strength.

The farther away the light is from the subject, the higher the light needs to be in order to have good shadows on the subject. The closer the light is, the more hazy and undefined the background is going to be.

What Vista does with digital photography

Windows Vista is Microsoft's new operating system, which replaces Windows XP. When Windows XP was formed, digital photography was still a relatively new feature available on the market. Since digital photography has really exploded in popularity since that time, Windows Vista has been constructed to help accommodate digital camera users. There are many things which Vista does with digital photography. Here are a couple of things that Vista does to help make digital photography downloading and use a little bit easier:

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Downloading is easier: The new Vista includes a new wizard which will help you to download your digital photographs in an easy and efficient manner. You only need click twice to get your photos downloaded, after you have hooked up your camera to your computer. Once you hook up the camera, the AutoPlay function will appear, and you will then see the Importing Pictures and Videos box. Vista also automatically can rotate your photos, so you don't have to go through the hassle of rotating pictures that were taken upside-down or vertically. This Vista feature is really convenient and can save you a lot of extra time.

Deleting is easier: After downloading your photos, Vista give you the option of deleting the imported photos or leaving them on the camera. With the click of a check box, you can delete all of the photos that were imported! This Vista feature can also save you a lot of time, because you won't have to go back to your camera and individually delete each photograph!

Tagging: You also are able to "tag" your photographs and give them descriptive titles and names (a feature which is found in other programs like Flickr and Adobe Photo Album). This is a convenient and easy way to keep track of your photos, or just to make the photo organization a little bit more fun and humorous!

Easy finding of photos: After you have imported and downloaded all of your photos, the Windows Picture Gallery will immediately open. This is a photo organizer which is relatively similar to the Microsoft Digital Image Suite. In this program, you can use tags to see the value of your different photographs, and organize your photos according to the different tags you have made. You can also click on a tag and immediately see all of the different photographs which are placed under that certain tag. Also, instead of writing the same tag over and over for several photos, Vista allows you to type the tag just once, and then you can simply click and drag the other photos that you wanted similarly tagged over to the tag you have created. The convenience and speed of the tagging process has made the daunting task of photo organization become very easy and simple, thanks to Vista!

Can deal with large amounts of photos: Because of all of the convenient features listed above, Vista is able to work well with large amounts of photos. In addition, Vista also manages small amount of photos well. Photos can quickly and efficiently be downloaded and organized in a short amount of time. One Vista advocate mentioned that he was able to organize and tag his 10,000 photos in only one weekend! The amount of organization and work that would be required without Vista's innovations would be almost immeasurable!

Great color: Windows Vista has also teamed up with Canon to provide great color management. This will not only help in the designing of graphics, but is will also ensure a better screen-to-print consistency! So, whatever you see on your screen will look the same when it comes out of the printer!

What to look for when buying a digital camera

Buying a digital camera can be an intimidating experience. With all the different types and brands to choose from, it can become confusing. There are so many digital cameras to choose from, some with lots of options and features, some with few options and features. You want to buy a digital camera that is best for your needs and also you wallet. To do this you must first decide what you will mainly be taking pictures of, and knowing what you plan to do with the pictures you take. This information will be vital in choosing the digital camera that is right for you. Doing a small amount of research about digital camera couldn't hurt either.

]]> When choosing a digital camera knowing the exact definition of a mega pixel and its purpose would be great but not necessary. If you are like me, just hearing the word mega pixel sends me into a panic attack. It doesn't have to be that way. There are only a few simple things you really should know about mega pixels. First, a camera with a large number of mega pixels is almost always going to have a large price tag, but that the more mega pixels it has, the bigger enlargements and high quality of photos you can take. Digital cameras range from 1.3 to 16.1 mega pixels. This is where knowing what you are going to be taking pictures of comes in handy. If you only need photos for a web site or smaller prints, such as 3x5 or 4x6 size prints, a digital camera with a smaller number of mega pixels may be a good choice. If prints that are size 8x10 or larger are more of what you have in mind a mega pixel of at least 3 would be the best choice. The more mega pixels the digital camera has does not hurt anything but your wallet. But if price is an issue, a digital camera with a low amount of mega pixels will be fine, just remember to use a high resolution, and to get a quality brand with a good sensor and lens.

Digital cameras all come with some kind of memory for storage. The memory card is often times a memory card with a small capacity of space for storage. You will often need to purchase a larger memory card. This is another time when knowing what you typically will be taking pictures of will be helpful. If you will be traveling frequently with your camera, a higher capacity memory card will be useful for storing pictures until you are able to download them onto a computer. Some digital cameras may come with a memory card large enough for your needs, just remember to take the need for memory into consideration when looking at digital cameras to purchase.

No matter what you are planning to use your digital camera for, you should always take into consideration the batteries taken by the camera. Digital cameras can use up a lot of batteries in a short amount of time, which is not only expensive, but can also be inconvenient. Make sure to choose a digital camera that accepts rechargeable batteries. Many digital cameras have a proprietary battery that is designed to fit one type of camera, and often times a charger is included. Different cameras take different sizes of batteries so be sure to include that factor in when choosing a digital camera. Keep in mind you can't use your camera without batteries and rechargeable batteries will be an additional cost but a cost that is well worth it.

There are several different kinds of digital cameras that you have to choose from so take your time finding the best digital camera to fit your needs and wants, you won't regret it.

What size memory card do you need

If you own a digital camera, or if you are thinking about purchasing a digital camera, one of the questions that you are probably wondering about is what size memory card you are going to need to buy. This is an important question whose answer depends on the types of photos that you are taking, how many photos you plan on taking, and your style of photography.

Essentially all digital cameras now come with at least a little bit of memory. Most digital cameras come with a memory card along with the camera itself; however, these memory cards are most often quite small and don't have a very large storage capacity or a high speed. For example, I recently purchased a mid-range digital camera, turned it on, and discovered that the memory card included with the camera can hold a grand total of...35 photos. That's not going to take me very far.

]]> When you are looking at the different sizes of memory cards that are available for purchase, you need to carefully ask yourself how many photos you will be taking. While you can simply buy the largest memory card that you can find, if you aren't going to realistically be taking that many photos in one photography outing, you don't need that size of memory card. It's easy to simply upload your photos in between uses of your digital camera. On the other hand, if you tend to take a lot of pictures before returning to your computer, then you will need a much larger memory card so that you aren't caught without any memory.

So here are some questions that you need to ask yourself and that you need to think about when you are deciding what size of memory card you need.

What are my photography habits?
How will you be using your card? What exactly do you expect from your memory card? What characteristics do you want from your memory card?

How much storage does your camera require for each image?
Knowing how large each image file is on your camera can help you determine how large a memory card you will need. Different cameras have different sizes of image. The size of the image data file depends on the megapixel size of your camera's image sensor. The more megapixels there are, the larger the file is going to be.

You also need to look at what type of format your files will be saved in. While the majority of digital cameras will automatically save your photos to JPEG format, which compresses the size of the image, you can also purchase cameras like Canon Digital Rebel XT that can save images as either RAW format images or TIFF format images. These formats will preserve the quality of your image, but they will take up more space. This means that you will need a larger capacity memory card.

What size of photo prints will you be looking at?
If you are happy with only having 5 x 7 inch prints, or 4 x 6, then you won't need as high a resolution of photo. This means that your image quality will not be as high, but also that the size of the data file will not be as large. You can fit more images on your memory card.

On the other hand, if you will be printing larger photos, such as 8 x 10 inches, then you will need to save your images with a higher resolution and without compressing them, if possible. This will require a larger memory card.

How often will you be uploading your photos onto your computer?

The more often you upload your photos to your computer to edit them and to organize them, then you won't need as large a memory card as someone who seldom updates his or her photo albums on their computer.

What size LCD is best for your digital camera

Like everything else in the computer world digital cameras come in a variety of brands, price ranges, and many of them have a variety of features. One of the more common features with digital cameras is the LCD. The LCD is the screen that comes attached to almost every digital camera that allows you to view your photos after you have taken them, it can work in place of a view finder, and some cameras even allow you edit your pictures on the LCD. Now that you know what a LCD is used for you have probably assumed the fact that the LCD is one of the most important aspects of a digital camera because it allows you to do so much. In a way this is very true, so when you are looking for the perfect digital camera you are going to want to take the LCD into account.

]]> One of the features of the LCD that you need to take into account is the size of the LCD. Since the LCD comes in various sizes many people often wonder what LCD size is right for them. There is no easy answer to this question because it depends greatly upon your personal tastes and how and what you use the LCD for. There is no such thing as a perfect LCD size because what is perfect for you might not be perfect for somebody else. So rather than try and tell you what size LCD is best for your digital camera let's take a look at the various sizes and why one might work better than another.

On average LCD displays are 1.5 inches, but than can come smaller or larger depending on the camera and the cameras size. Most people prefer a digital camera with a LCD display of 2.5 inches or larger because it provides a better view of what you are looking at. But that is not to say that a LCD size of 2 inches is not good, it is just that a half an inch can make a big difference. The smaller the LCD display the harder time you are going to have looking at your pictures. But another advantage to larger LCD displays is that the bigger the LCD the bigger your image will be which can give you a more accurate view of what you have taken a picture of. You can also perform editing functions better on a larger LCD display than on a smaller one because the bigger screen displays more of the flaws.

Another reason that large LCD displays are good is that if you are using it as a view finder you can see exactly what you are taking a picture of and whether you need to zoom in or out. The smaller the LCD displays are the harder it is to see what kind of zooming you need to do. The larger LCD displays are also great if you are the type of person who loves to pass your camera around so that everybody can see your pictures, having the larger screen allows people to clearly see the pictures without having to squint, and possibly without having to wear glasses.

While the larger LCD displays are great for many things there are a few drawbacks to the larger LCD displays. The larger the screen is the more energy it will consume, which means you will be throwing away even more batteries or you will have to charge your batteries on a regular basis. Another thing that you need to think about is the fact that your actual picture is going to include less than what is shown on the LCD and the larger your LCD the more of your picture that will be cut off. On your smaller LCD displays about 2% of the edges can be cut off, but on your bigger LCD displays you can lose up to about 15% of the actual picture.

What post production digital photo editing software is the easiest to use

Do you want to get rid of the red-eye in your photos or crop them down to a different size? Would you like to remove the blemish on your face, or take your ex-girlfriend out of the picture of your birthday party? You can make all of these changes and much more with photo editing software! There are types of photo editing software, also called photo manipulation software, which are very user-friendly and easy to use. Here is a list of post production digital photo editing software that is the easiest to use:

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FotoFinish: Another one of the easiest photo manipulation software options that is available is FotoFinish. This program has intuitive photo editing wizards which can help you through all of the steps of the photo editing process. You can print off your photos in any size and you can also print off multiple photos on each page. The photo editing wizards can walk you through each step of the process, and can even show you how to attach your photos to emails. Web space is also available with the purchase of FotoFinish, and the photo editing wizards can also show you how to upload your photos onto your own web space!

PhotoPlus 6.0: PhotoPlus is another one of the easy, user-friendly types of photo editing software. This program offers a diverse toolkit which allows you to create a lot of different effects and perform different functions. These tools are easy to find and understand. There are a lot of export options that are available with this program as well, which is useful if you are planning on exporting or moving your files to a different location.

Apple iPhoto: If you own a Macintosh computer, this is one of the easiest types of photo editing software that you are going to find! This photo editing software comes free with iLife (if you buy an Apple computer), or you can purchase this program for a relatively reasonable price. You can automatically make adjustments to your photos with this program in a very easy manner.

Picasa: Another easy post production photo editing software is Picasa. The software is free, and it is very user-friendly! However, this program only works on Windows operating systems, so you might not be able to use this program if you don't have Windows on your computer. This program allows you to easily edit and manage your photos. It is also very easy to share photos with your family and friends with this program, because you can create albums that you can put online for them to see!

Roxio PhotoSuite: This is another program which is only available through windows, but it is a great program! It is multi-featured and gives you a lot of options for photo editing and manipulation. Even though it has a lot of features and options, this program is easy to use - you can find your way around this program very easily! In addition, you can put your manipulated photos into calendars or share them!

Adobe PhotoShop: Another fairly easy photo digital editing software program is Adobe PhotoShop. Although this program might not be as easy as some of the other ones listed above, the icons are fairly easy to recognize and understand. This program is great for editing and manipulating your photos, from cropping to adjusting red-eye! In addition, because this program is so popular and widespread, there are a lot of helpful guides and how-to lists that are available with this program. You can find hundreds of Photoshop tutorials listed online. If you want to make sure that other people can help talk you through your photo editing software, then you won't go wrong by using PhotoShop!

What optical and digital zoom mean

There are many different kinds of zoom functions on digital cameras, and it can be kind of confusing to keep the different zoom terms straight! For example, there are optical and digital zoom functions that exist on digital cameras. Many digital cameras have both digital and optical zoom features available. Here is a definition of optical and digital zoom, so that you can know what each term means:

]]> Optical zoom: An optical zoom means that the lens of the camera can move forward and backward, so that you can either close-in or pull-away from the subject of your photograph. The optical zoom is probably the most popular zoom feature that is on a digital camera. Most people use the optical zoom form, not only because it is convenient, but it also usually gets the best quality of photographs. The optical zoom is thought to produce better quality photographs than other zoom features on digital cameras, such as the digital zoom. Optical zoom options are available on most digital cameras. The zoom features usually are between 2X to 3X magnification, which is usually the standard amount of zoom that people need for their photographs. However, there are optical zoom cameras which can allow for much more magnification, with some cameras going up to 12X magnification! You should remember, however, that most photo manipulation programs on the computer can magnify your image to whatever size you want.

Digital zoom: The digital zoom feature is specific to digital cameras, and it can be found on all digital cameras. With the digital zoom, you crop a picture, and then the cropped picture is brought back to the original image size. In a sense, the smaller, cropped picture is "blown-up" back to the normal image proportions you have selected. Because it is essentially magnifying a detail of your larger picture, the image quality is not quite as good. Images that are taken with digital zoom can often appear blurry, fuzzy, or slightly out-of-focus. For this reason, it is generally recommended that people always use the optical zoom option on their digital cameras. Many serious digital camera photographers suggest that you ignore digital zoom altogether, because the quality of the image is forever ruined. Probably the best idea is to look for a digital camera which not only warns about the lower quality of digital zoom, but also allows you to turn the digital zoom feature on or off. However, if you aren't a serious photographer and concerned about the quality of your images, or if you always will be printing relatively small photographs (no larger than 4" x 6"), then you might find the digital zoom function to be more convenient and useful.

It is also good to remember that most of the features of digital zoom can be also performed in photo manipulation computer programs, such as Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator. So, if you see that a digital camera is advertising a digital zoom with 3X magnification capacity, don't immediately get sucked in to buying it! Image manipulation programs can do the same amount of magnification, and much more than that! However, if you are not familiar with digital manipulation programs, you might find it easier to just use the digital zoom feature and not deal with the hassle of trying to learn the computer program.

Therefore, the optical and digital zoom options are both quite different! Each zoom option has their own advantages, but it is generally accepted that the optical zoom is the best option for digital photographers to use. With the optical zoom option, you will almost always be guaranteed a high quality image in great focus!

What makes one digital camera better than another

A lot of the time, when people go shopping for a new digital camera, they want to know what makes one digital camera better than another? What's the best digital camera out there? Which digital camera should I buy if I want the best one?

There is only one overarching answer to these questions listed above: the one quality that makes one digital camera better than another, and the best digital camera that you can buy, is the best digital camera for you. What makes one digital camera better than another one is how well that particular camera fits your needs, your skills, and your goals as a photographer.

To figure out which digital camera is better for you than another one, there are several questions that you need to ask yourself both before you go shopping for a new digital camera and while you are shopping for your new digital camera.

]]> Questions to ask when deciding which digital camera is better than another?

How are you going to be using your digital camera? What type of photography will you be doing? Finding out which digital camera is better for you than another one depends on what you are going to be using your camera for. The type of pictures that you will be taking, along with your skill level and how you feel about photography, will help you determine what type of camera to buy. Generally speaking, the types of photographers can be divided into four different categories, not counting professionals:
- Point and Shoot photographers want a digital camera that does everything for them. The camera focuses, decides on the flash, and all of the other settings.
- Beginner amateur photographers don't have a lot of experience in photography. For your first digital camera, you need something that is pretty easy to use. This camera will let you try out different modes and settings without being too confusing. Choose a camera that automates settings, but still lets you decide if you want-to a degree.
- Serious amateur photographers are people who really love photography and are learning more and more about it. Serious amateurs are experimenting with depth of field, different exposures, how to work with color, and how to compose a picture. You need a digital camera that lets you play around with the controls so that you can figure out how you like to take pictures.
- Advanced amateur photographers have been photographing for years. You know how to work a camera, you know your style, and you know what your limitations are. You need to purchase a digital camera that allows you as much freedom to change the modes and the settings as possible. You also need a digital camera that has the best image quality that you can find.

Decide which camera best fits your different needs
Now that you have decided what kind of photographer you are, you need to choose a camera that can best fit your needs. Look at the level of control you have over the different settings. How good is the picture quality? How high is the resolution? Does the camera have the battery life that you want? Is it small or do you care if it's larger?

Here are some different digital cameras that are better for each of the categories listed above.

Advanced amateurs

Canon 30D, DRXti

Fujifilm S9100

Kodak P880, P850

Leica Digilux 3

Nikon D80

Olympus E-510, E-410, E-330

Panasonic L1 DSLR, FZ50

Pentax K100D

Sony A100R1

Serious amateurs:

Canon G7, S5IS, A710, IS

Fujifilm S6000fd, E900

Kodak P712, Z712IS, Z612IS

Leica V-Lux 1, D-Lux 3

Nikon P5000

Olypus SP-550

Panasonic FZ50, LX2, FZ8

Pentax K110D

Sony R1

Beginner amateurs :

Canon A640, A630, A570IS

Fujifilm S6000fd, S700, F31fd, F30, F40fd

Kodak Z612IS, Z650

Nikon P5000

Panasonic FZ8

Sony H9, H7

Point and shoot:
There are so many point and shoot cameras available from all manufacturers, save Leica, that it is suggested that you simply shop around for the best camera that will fit your needs and your price range.

What kind of shutter speed do you need for digital photography?

When you take on photography as a hobby there are all sorts of new terms and features to learn. One of these is shutter speed. With the growth and popularity of digital photography many potential photographers are confused about what kind of shutter speed do they need to take successful photographs? Let us begin by first examining what shutter speed really is.

]]> Shutter speed is defined as the time the shutter is held open during the taking of a photograph in order to allow light to reach the film or image sensor (that is used in digital cameras). The shutter speed regulates how much light the camera will record in combination with the variation of the lens aperture. For example: for any given exposure a fast shutter speed demands a larger aperture to avoid under exposure just like a slow shutter speed is offset by a very small aperture to avoid over exposure. For low light conditions such as at night long shutter speeds are often used.

Shutter speed is always measured in seconds. For photographs taken in sunlight a typical shutter speed is 1/125th of a second. Shutter speed changes the way movement appears in a picture in addition to its overall effect on exposure. For very fast moving subjects it is best to use a very short shutter speed. Many sports use very fast shutter speeds to capture the peak moment and freeze it in time. If the photographer wishes to intentionally blur a moving subject he or she will use a very long shutter speed giving the finished photograph a very artistic effect. For example if you want to show the passage of time such as with a running river or waterfall then you can use a slower shutter speed.

Now that you know what shutter speed how does it work with your digital camera? There are basically two types of shutters in digital cameras each quite different. Some cameras may have a plate that covers the image sensor found on the camera. The plate flips up and let's light onto the camera image sensor when you are shooting your photograph. The other type of shutter is called an iris because of the similarity in the way it works like a human eyeball. When you go to shoot a photograph the iris expands and let's light onto the cameras sensor. Either type of sensor (whether the plate stays up or the iris stays open) is still measured in the amount of time that it takes. Shutter speed is shown as measurements of fractions denoting the number of seconds.

Here is an example of shutter speed numbers, from fast to slow:
1/2000 1/1500 1/1000 1/750 1/500 1/350 1/250 1/180 1/125 1/90 1/60 1/45 1/30
The top speed of 1/2000 of a second is incredibly fast and is not a shutter speed that you will typically use. The most common shutter speeds that are used are anywhere from 1/500 to 1/60. If you want sharp photographs while holding the camera in your hands, you cannot use shutter speeds much slower than 1/60 because it's hard to hold the camera steady. Slow shutter speeds may blur motion, and you are creating motion by holding the camera in your hands. You can solve this camera shake problem by stabilizing the camera on a tripod or if your camera is equipped with image stabilization. It is also important to note that most digital camera display the shutter speed in a single number. For example if you are using the shutter speed 1/750 than the display will most likely only show the bottom number of 750. Most digital cameras can be set to shutter priority mode. In this mode, you set the shutter speed and the camera automatically selects the aperture so that the photograph has the right exposure. This is just one of the many ease of use features that digital cameras now have.

What kind of digital photography software do you need

If you are a budding digital photographer, one of the questions that you are probably asking yourself is what kind of digital photography software you need. There are really two important components to digital photography: the digital camera itself, and the editing software that you use to edit, store, and organize your photos.

There are a number of different digital photography software options available for use. Some of these digital photography software options are free, while others are not free. There are a number of different digital photography software options that are designed for particular tasks, while there are others that are meant for use by either beginners or by experts.

]]> You should shop around and try out different digital photography software options to find the one that fits your own needs, that you find easy to use, and that lets you do what you want and need with your photos.

Digital photo editing software for beginners. If you're just starting out with digital photography, and you don't need anything really advanced, then you can just get a basic digital photography software. A basic digital photography software will have basic editing features like sharpening the picture, cropping your picture, rotating the picture, getting rid of red eye, and basic color change and correction.
There is a good and inexpensive photo editing software called Ulead PhotoImpact. Free digital photo editing software options include the basic Adobe PhotoShop program and Windows' standard photo editing program. You will also want to look into using Picassa, which allows you to post your photographs online.

More advanced digital photography editing software. If you need more than just the simple and basic options for digital photography editing listed above, then you will want to look into other software options. Examples of these more advanced and complex digital photography software options are Corel Painter and Adobe Photoshop CS-the version that you must purchase. Advanced digital photography software options will be accordingly higher priced than the basic beginner software.

Here are some very good digital photography software options. Many of them are in between the basic beginner programs and the more expensive advanced programs.

Adobe Photoshop Elements. This Adobe Photoshop software is in between the basic free version of Adobe Photoshop and the advanced Adobe Photoshop CS. It allows you to get rid of red eye and adjust the color balance and mixture on your photos. You can also organize and share all of your digital photos.

Picassa: Lately, Picassa has become one of the most popular ways to edit and organize digital photos. This program was developed by the makers of Mozilla Firefox, and shares many of its user friendly design factors. Picassa allows you intermediate editing powers, and also lets you organize and share your photos online.

Ulead PhotoImpact: Ulead PhotoImpact is a great photo editing program that includes wizards that easily explain how to edit your photos, add special effects to your photos, and create graphics. If you are a beginner, then this will be a good investment.

Jasc Paint Shop Pro: Jasc is one of the most popular photo editing programs. This digital photography software allows you to edit your photos in a number of different ways, gives you options for adding special artistic effects, and lets you touch up your photos.

What is new in digital photography?

The market of digital cameras has encountered an incredible increase of market share over the past few years. Photography can be viewed as an art form. This is a great way for the photographer to express what he sees and share his work and creativity to the public.

]]> The digital camera, like any electronic device, continues to come up with new and better ways to take pictures. Some digital cameras are made to allow users to take incredibly beautiful photographs with a very high resolution with a touch of a button. More and more photographers prefer to use a digital camera over a film camera. Many companies are responding to consumers who want a camera that's easy and fun to use and that allows them to preserve their family memories. Also, they offer a better choice of what they can do with their pictures by improving the quality of the images with high resolution. The digital camera offers different people of different levels to achieve what they need and want.

The newer digital cameras allow the consumer to send reduced size email pictures with lots more clarity and visibility. They also offer menu options where you can edit your picture from the camera without the need of a computer. It can adjust the brightness of your dark pictures, detect and correct red-eye images from your camera. Other fun features give vibrant and sharp images and also allow you to take pictures either in landscape form or portrait. Camera sizes have decreased dramatically as well.

Until recently, professional and serious photographers have used film photography as their main choice because of its high resolution, telephoto zoom lenses, fast shutter speeds, and the ability to take many pictures rapidly. But lately, digital photography has advanced to the point where photographers in many professions, including studio photography, have included digital cameras in their arsenal, or use them exclusively. Good quality, affordable consumer grade cameras are now available for around $500 which rival film camera resolution. For action photographers, one of the complaints about digital cameras has been the time it takes between snapshots. This is one of the things that has improved dramatically in digital cameras. In fact, many models of digital cameras, including cell phones, can also double as digital video recorders. In this way, an action photographer can advance the video frame by frame and choose the best frame as a photograph. The ability to adjust the aperture shutter speed, and to manually focus the camera have long been abilities of good film cameras, and digital camera manufacturers have known that in order to win over the serious action photographer, they have had to solve these problems as well.

One of the advantages of the digital camera lately for the professional photographer is the decrease in price of flash memory chips and portable storage devices. This inexpensive storage makes taking thousands of pictures much easier than trying to keep track of many rolls of film. All of the image files are date stamped, searchable, and the results of the photo are instantly viewable on the camera's display. A newspaper photographer, for example, would be able to quickly choose the best pictures, without developing them, and upload them into the newspaper's network quickly and efficiently.

For the photographer who would like to print the picture quickly without using a computer, there are many picture grade pictures on the market where you can hook or dock your camera directly to the printer. The real news is in how inexpensive these devices are. The real cost is in the paper products and ink.

As digital cameras continue to gain market share over film cameras, we can expect to see more and more interesting and exciting innovations in digital photography.

What do mega pixels really mean when it comes to digital cameras

When you hear digital camera you may or may not think of mega pixels, but mega pixels are an important part of the digital camera. It is true the more mega pixels a digital camera has the higher the price is to purchase the digital camera. Mega pixels range from 1.3 to much, much, higher, such as 14 to 18, and many times the bigger the mega pixel, the better. Now what exactly does mega pixel mean, digital camera images are made of rows of colored dots that make up a rectangular grid to produce the whole picture, these dots are called pixels. In digital cameras each pixel is either red, green or blue. The pixels can have a number of different brightness values, usually 256 in screen displays, but often 1024 or 4096 in camera images. Because digital camera images are generally larger than this, it is more convenient to refer to their sizes using the term mega pixels (mp), where 1 mp = 1 million pixels.

]]> The number of mega pixels you need is going to depend on what you are going to do with the pictures you are going to take with your digital camera. If you are going to just view your pictures on a computer screen or simply want them for a web site, you will need a fewer number of mega pixels. If you are planning to print 8 x 10 prints from the pictures you take, you will need and want a larger number of mega pixels, a minimum of 3.5 is recommended for printing 8 x 10. As mentioned before, the more mega pixels a digital camera has the more it is going to cost you, but it doesn't hurt to have more mega pixels than what you need, as it leaves room to grow and you may also explore the options of printing high quality photos for your friends and family.

Now if price is an issue, a digital camera with a lower mega pixel can often times do a nice job, just remember when taking pictures to shoot at a higher resolution.

Another factor of great importance that has to do with mega pixels when it comes to digital cameras is memory. Most digital cameras come with some kind of memory card to provide storage. Usually they come with a small capacity card. Often times you will need to purchase a larger memory card for your digital camera. It would be wise to purchase a card that will allow you to save at least 50 pictures; you may even want a memory card that allows you to save even more. The number of pictures you can save in the memory space will depend on the image size. Higher mega pixel cameras produce larger file images, so they fill your memory up faster. If you travel frequently you may want a memory card that allows you to save a large number of pictures, this will be helpful when you are not able to be near a computer to download all the pictures you have taken.

The zoom feature may also be an important factor when it comes to digital cameras. There are two different types of zoom, there is the optical zoom and the digital zoom. The optical zoom refers to magnification within the lens itself when you zoom in or zoom out on the subject. In other words, the lens adjusts forward and backward just like with a film camera. Optical zoom does not diminish the quality of the digital photo. Make sure your digital camera has a powerful optical zoom capability, if you like to use the zoom feature when taking pictures. Digital zoom doesn't change focal length. Instead, as you zoom in closer, a smaller and smaller portion of the digital sensor is used to record the digital photo. This lowers the number of pixels in the photo. If you zoom in too much, when you make a print from the photo it many times will lack clarity and sharpness.

These are just a few important factors when it comes to digital cameras.