Film or digital? Digital or film? The debate rages on.

Unfortunately, due to the film manufacturers phasing out of film, the debate is about to be decided in favor of the “Digital” crowd. And photography is going downhill in a hurry!

Now, before all you digital fanatics order a hit man to pay a visit to my house, let me explain that I have no problem with digital. In fact, it is the indisputable future of my profession. I believe it can help us learn to be better photographers, and in the long run, it may save money too!

But, those very points are also our potential downfall.

The first thing everyone tries to pound into our heads is that by “going digital” we save money on film and developing. Rather than drop $6 or $7 dollars for a roll of film, we can shoot as many shots as we want and just erase the bad ones. Rather than paying $15 for developing and printing, we just print them ourselves with our computer and printer.

Ok, let’s talk cost.

If you don’t mind seeing your gorgeous sunsets, kids portraits, holidays and special occasions as a two inch thumbnail, digital is for YOU!

A cell phone with photo capacity, or a cheap – low end camera will work admirably.

But, if you actually want to SEE your photos and try to enlarge them, you’re going to end up inventing a whole bunch of brand new curse words. (As photographers, we can be very creative!)

It won’t take you long to dump that camera and go back to the camera store.

Enter the high end camera…

I have several high end film cameras. (Nikon F4’s and F5’s.) To go digital as a professional, I need a high end camera. Actually, I need two of them so I have a spare body in case one breaks down during an important assignment. The photo capacity of my cell phone just won’t do.

When comparing prices, I found the best digital cameras run about TWICE what I paid for my film cameras. I imagine the cost ratio is about the same when comparing medium level film and digital cameras.

The good news is, the high end digital photos ARE as good, but they aren’t any BETTER than film. It appears that I’d be spending a ton of money to get – what I’ve already got!

We won’t even get into the fact that you need a good computer, a high end printer and $700 worth of Photoshop. (Have you priced printer ink and photo quality paper? – WOW!)

I’d have to shoot a LOT of pictures before the savings will pay for a camera. But to be fair, sooner or later the film savings would offset the costs and start saving me money. If nothing changes!

What I mean is…

I shot my first professional photos over 16 years ago with my trusty F4. Just last week, I used it again! The SAME camera! It’s in my camera bag right now! Question – if I bought a top of the line digital camera today, do YOU think the technology will still hold up in 16 years? How about 16 months? How about 6 months?

Sorry, saving money is NOT the reason to go digital.

The next benefit to going digital is the ability to see the photo immediately. If you don’t like it, simply hit delete and try again. After all, you don’t even have to consider cost.

We’re developing a whole generation of photographers who will shoot thousands of pictures just to get a handful of good ones. How does that old saying go? “Even a blind duck finds a kernel of corn sometimes!”

They aren’t learning photography. They are learning – save or delete.

The problem is, eventually they get a few dozen decent shots. They forget about all the deleted ones and start to think they’re pretty darn good! So they go pro.

Big mistake!

Weddings are the first target of almost everyone turning pro. Let me ask – would YOU want a “blind duck” photographer shooting YOUR wedding? Or someone who learned the hard way – paying actual money for every mistake.

Weddings are the worst way to start out a photo career. Fortunately, ANYONE can make money selling their photography AND, with just a little experience they’ll eventually get good enough for weddings – if they only know a couple tried and true marketing strategies – see the resource box below.

Being able to immediately see your photos is truly the BIGGEST and perhaps ONLY reason to go digital.

The immediate feedback will take your photography to levels you would have never dreamed. If you only drop the shotgun approach, slow down and look at each picture with the question in mind – “How can I make this better?” If you approach every session thinking it will cost you a dollar each time you press the shutter button in no time you will be better than 75% of all the photographers out there.

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Digital photography is made easier if an understanding of the different terminology is understood. There are many areas to list, with the basics listed here:

1 MP camera – This is a camera that can shoot an image which is made up of one million pixels, which are used for the number of pixels in an image and the number of sensor elements of the camera.

Aperture – The opening that lets light travel to the camera’s interior where the sensor is placed. An important element in most optical designs, it is deliberate to prevent saturation of a detector or overexposure of film.

Digital zoom – The process of blowing up a part of the picture by increasing the size of pixels in the image. The function that is performed within the digital camera leads to a loss of picture quality. Similar in some cameras to cropping the image, but the image is physically the same in location and size.

JPEG – The term used to describe the standard compression of a photographic image. This compression ratio was fixed by the Joint Photo Experts Group to reduce the picture size. It is not well suited for line drawings and other iconic images, due to its type of compression. The PNG and GIF formats are used for these or their reduction would lead to a considerable loss of picture quality.

Megapixels – An image that is made up of one million pixels, or used to express the number of sensor elements of digital cameras, or the number of display elements of digital displays.

Memory – A solid state electronic flash memory data storage device. Also, non-solid memory card that do not use flash memory.

Optical Zoom – The ability to vary the focal length and lens magnification, as opposed to a prime lens which has a fixed focal length.

Pixels: The single points in a graphic image. They can be reproduced at any size without the appearance of visible dots or squares. The word pixel stands for “(PI)cture (El)ement, with the common abbreviation PIX for PICTURE”. Having a numerical value between 0 and 255, each pixel is made of three-color channels.

Pixel Count – This is the number of pixels that go into making each image.

PPI – This is the acronym of “pixels per inch” and describes the picture quality. Used for distinct meanings in the printer field, as the ppi is a measure of the printer’s resolution of dot printing. The higher the number of pixels per inch the better is the picture.

RAW/NEF – An uncompressed photographed image file that contains minimally processed data from the image sensor of a digital camera or image scanner. The RAW picture format has been introduced by Canon. Nikon calls this format as NEF.

Sensor – An image sensor consisting of an integrated circuit consisting of an array of pixels. Each one contains a photo-detector as well as three or more transistors. Also referred to as the digital strip that receives light. It performs the same role that the negative does in the conventional camera.

Shutter Speed – The duration for which the shutter is held open when taking a photograph to allow the light to reach the imaging sensor. The time for which the shutter remains open (exposure time) is determined by a timing mechanism.

TIFF: A file format for storing images, photographs, and line art. Originally created by Aldus, jointly with Microsoft for use with PostScript printing. Used highly with high color depth images, along with JPEG and PNG. Abbreviation for “Tagged Image File Format”. There is no loss of information in this format yet the file sizes are very large.

White Balance – A digital camera needs to find a reference point which represents white. Other surrounding colors will be calculated on this point. Many digital cameras feature automatic white balance, where it calculates the best-fit white balance. A digital camera normally has settings for sunlight, shade, electronic flash, fluorescent lighting and tungsten lighting which need to be adjusted before shooting.

About the Author

Check out http://www.digicamland.org/ for more articles on digital camera zoom and digital camers.

Having the most expensive digital camera with all of the latest bells and whistles is only half the battle. Even the best digital cameras can only take as good a picture as the information they are given. So if you subject is heavily backlit and you have not used a flash or you have used strong spot lights that are not diffused then you will end up with a poor quality photo. That is exactly why digital photography is an art form instead of a science you must learn to manipulate and master a wide variety of elements other then just the camera. Of those elements lighting is one of the most crucial. With out proper lighting and understand how to get it your digital photos will never be that great.

Have you ever seen digital photos that seem to blur and indistinguishable? There are a lot of cases like this. Even if you try and edit them using Photoshop or any other software, you cannot seem to get the desired lighting you want.

This is because you have not considered having the proper lighting when the photo was taken. You were thinking that the camera and its features will be able to do that for you. Yes it can. But they may not reach your expectations.

The secret to getting that perfect picture is to do it right the first time. By doing it right, it simply means that you need to think about how well or bad the lighting is in the process of taking the photo.

Below are some of the natural sources of digital photography lighting that will make your photos look terrific.

1. After sunrise and before sunset.

It is during these times that photography is at its peak. Meaning, photos turn out great when they are shoot after sunrise and before sunset. Why is this so?

This is because the orange color that appears in the sky during these times adds to the colors that your digital camera is capable. Most of the time, some photos appear dull and unrealistic when they are printed because of the representation of the colors when it is printed.

The color of the environment can add a sort of brightness to your photos. In addition, it will make it easy for you to edit them on your computer once you feel that you want to put in some combination in the natural setting of the picture.

2. Sunlight.

Sunlight is one form of lighting that is very effective once you know how to modify your shots. Keep in mind that you are not capable of altering the brightness of the sun or the shadows that it can create on your photos.

It is up for you to choose the best position wherein you can make the most of the light that is emitted by the sun. Work them to your advantage. Try on different angles and see if they look perfect once frozen.

You can also make the most of the drop shadows that is created by the sunlight. Just make sure that they will not blur your photo. Fro minor adjustments, you can just edit the photos straight from your computer.

Shooting digital photos is not only about having the most advanced digital camera. It is also about looking for strategies and techniques that will benefit your shots. Try to shoot your photos with the perfect lighting and you will see that you do not need to edit or add some more colors in them.

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Let?s begin with the concept of digital photography. Digital photography is not much different than the ordinary film photography. The main difference is that in digital photography the camera uses digital memory device much like in the computer. It could be a memory stick, flash memory or other media. Some camcorders even use DVDs to store the captured information.

No matter what memory media you have, the results depend on the quality of the camera itself and other things such as resolution, lenses, brand or technology. However if you want to take better pictures with your digital camera, you have to follow some basic rules of photography.

These rules are not well known by ordinary people, so I hope that this article will help you a lot in the progress of teaching yourself ?How to improve your photos like the pros do.?

1) Use optical rather than digital zoom.

Digital zoom as opposed to optical zoom is just a technological simulation of optical zoom. That means the camera uses special software to enlarge the image, which is the same as if you use your digital software on your computer.

In optical zoom, camera uses the lenses to bring the image closer. And that is the one you should use. You should avoid using digital zoom at all. If you ever need to use digital zoom, better do it on your computer, with your favourite image editing software. At the end you?ll have much better results with your image.

2) Move in closer.

Almost any shot will look better if you take two or three steps closer to your subject. When you do that and fill the entire frame with your subject, it will make a terrific difference to your photos. Why does this work? With less clutter in the image, there?s less to draw the eye away from the main subject of your photo.

If you can?t get close enough when you?re taking the shot, you can zoom in later using photo editing software. Just crop out everything except the subject?s face and see what difference it makes.

3) Take much more shots than you need and erase them.

One of the best advantages of digital cameras is the ability to erase your photos. We?d be mad not to use this feature to the fullest extent. We all know how the professional photographers do their photo sessions. They make shot after shot without thinking and after that they choose the best ones. The average percent of the best shots is about 20% from a hundred shots taken.

And if you think about it, it makes perfect sense because you can?t expect to make a perfect shot from the first time. My advice is in every half an hour of shooting, review your most recent pictures and erase any that don?t make the grade, or you have better versions of.

4) To use a tripod or not?

When speaking of tripods many people don?t like it because they are heavy to care and are pretty big. But no doubt it will help sharpen your photos. When you use a tripod your camera stands still on the top of it. There are tripods with just one leg called monopods. They are not as good as tripods but they are much lither to carry and will improve your pictures much more than if you?re just using your hands.

If you don?t like to carry with you anything except your camera, there is a simple trick that many people don?t know. Instead of a tripod you can use any other horizontal surface that is still. Surfaces like rocks, chairs, cars, anything could do the same work as a tripod. But be careful not to damage your camera, though as cameras have tendency to slip and brake when put on chairs, rocks etc.

5) Why should we use flash during the day?

It is a fact that professional photographers use flash much more often than amateurs. But why is that? Let?s imagine that you want to take a picture in a very sunny day. Most people never think of the flash in such conditions. The truth is they should. The reason is when you try to shoot a bird swimming in the water for example, the water is reflecting the sun. The camera is fooled by the bright surroundings and the subject appears very dark at the end.

That is not the effect we want so by turning flash on you will reduce the shadow areas of the image and make it much more pleasing. You?ll see the difference for yourself, when you take two same shots with and without a flash.

If you are really interested in digital photography, you can visit author’s website, which is dedicated to hand over free information to amateur photographers. Visit http://www.digital-photo-secrets.net