Eric was finally able to buy a digital camera. Though the price of this was very affordable, the delay was caused by other priorities, which also needed to be dealt with.

The reason why Eric decided to get a digital camera was to see if it was possible to shoot the same images as those seen in the magazines or in the newspaper. This may just be a hobby and not full time but this person wanted to learn and be just as good as the experts.

The first thing that Eric did is being familiar with all of the functions of the digital camera. The individual can make the adjustments or let the machine do it in order to get a clear shot.

There are no limits to the number of practice shots that need to be taken. This is because a digital camera has a huge memory, which can hold up to 300 pictures in one session. When the individual is ready to take real shots, the old ones can be deleted.

Another technique to be just like the pros is to observe proper lighting when taking a shot. Some pictures will look better when a flash is used while others need to be adjusted to get a night shot. Digital cameras have this feature, which are not available in the old 35mm cameras made many years ago.

The individual should also know when to zoom in or out. There are two important factors such as the number of people and the type of background. The focus must be on the subject with the landmark or whatever is behind as the accent for the shot.

A lot of photographers both professional and amateur shoot with the model in the middle. Some have noticed better pictures when this is done with the subject on the side, which may work depending on the location.

The techniques in shooting just like the pros can be self-taught. There are also books and magazines available but it will be better if someone critiques the pictures by participating in a seminar or in a contest. The objective isn?t to win but to improve in the skills already learned by the individual.

The person can concentrate on taking great shots especially when there is no need to worry anymore about buying a roll of film or developing.

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This information is Copyright January 2006 by http://www.santaclausca.com and Loring Windblad. References for this article include the author’s personal knowledge and experience. Additional information references with first article. This article may be freely copied and used on other web sites only if it is copied complete with all links and text, including this header, intact and unchanged except for minor improvements such as misspellings and typos.

OK, you have read my article Digital Photography: The Basics, and checked out all the references above and their good information, and you are ready to decide on your new camera. The final pieces of choosing your digital camera are determining just what you are going to use the camera for and how much money you have available to invest in your camera. Your considerations should be 1) your purpose for using the camera, 2) quality of product (particularly the lens), 3) megapixel rating of the camera and 4) buy the best camera you can afford.

Are you really ready to buy just yet? Well, maybe, then again, maybe not? Your overriding consideration for this purchase must be quality of image. Almost equally of importance is your intended use. Are you going into photography as a professional? As an amateur? To make video records? Still image records? A combination of still and video? How much local processing will you be doing on your pictures – i.e., color corrections, readying them for internet use, putting them into just libraries or creating presentations with them? How many pictures will you be taking at a time; i.e., how much memory will you need for your camera before you dump the pictures onto your computer?

Do you need a video camera which will provide JPG stills? Do you need a video camera which will provide both JPG stills and MPG video as well as regular video? Do you need a still camera (JPG) which will provide you AVI or MPG video clips? Or do you need a professional quality SLR which will provide JPG still images only?

Simply saying “I’m going to get the best, most expensive, digital SLR I can find” doe not mean this camera will meet your photographic needs. What if you want, or need, both digital stills and digital video? Check both of my video presentations at http://www.santaclausca.com. Note the sound problems in the first one which has partially been corrected in the second one.

First, I am no longer involved in professional photography except coincidentally. So I guess that means “Yes, I am involved in professional photography” – at least as far as the above link goes, with my Santa Claus work. We started with my wanting a good quality 35mm SLR when we got married. And I replaced it with a better one a few years later. Then we decided we wanted to add video, and got a high-end JVC VHS camcorder, one of the new smaller ones. A few years into that and we decided to go with digital video. We went with a Sony TRV 140. It gives us Digital Video on Digital 8 tape; it also provides us with JPG still images in the 640×480 range at about 125 kb each and 15-second video MPG, both on the “memory stick”. However, the “quality” of the still images is the equal of a 2 to 4 megapixel still camera which produces images in the .6 to 1.2 megabyte range.

This was such a great improvement over the VHS camcorder that I purchased a second Sony TRV 150 a year later, which is even better in some respects. Image quality is very high. We can make a video and take still images without interrupting the video at all. We can make 1-minute long video MPG directly on the memory stick with the JPG images. And with our new computers we can take the video output directly off the camera and onto our computers in a digital video format.

I added a cheap Mercury 3.1 mp digital camera and it was nice but overall very unsatisfactory, and very slow recovering from taking a picture and getting ready for the next picture. I found a discontinued Minolta 2 mp digital camera for a reasonable price that actually took better pictures, had a 3X optical zoom lens (the equivalent of 35mm to 135mm lens on a 35mm SLR) and was not so slow on recovery and readying as the Mercury. It was also less susceptible to blurring if you did not hold it perfectly still – a better shutter action.

Later I found on an eBay auction a Fuji 2.2 mp digital camera which I accidentally won high bid on? Hah! That’ll teach me to play around with bidding on my account before I know what I’m doing. It could have been a financial disaster but I knew the price of the camera retail ($299) and the price I bid ($150) and I actually got a pretty good deal. Particularly when there were 9 others of the same Fuji model and none of them went for under $220 each.

I have learned some differences between my Minolta and Fuji. These include 4 AA batteries for the Fuji and 2 AA batteries for the Minolta. This boils down to a brighter flash and better flash results from the Fuji over the Minolta. It also makes for slightly less lag time moving from one function to the next and a faster shutter time (less delay) when you take a picture. The resultant pictures are about 865 mb compared to 675 mb from the Minolta. But if I need audio on the AVI video clips the Fuji does not provide it. I have to use the Minolta for audio tracks on the video clips.

I’m actually very satisfied with both cameras, and with the two Sony digital video cameras as well. And while the digital still image quality from the Sony jpg’s is very high, the 125 kb size does not allow printing of anything larger than 4″x6″ while I can print very satisfactory 8″x10″ pictures from both the Fuji and Minolta cameras. I have two 256 MB SD memory sticks for the Fuji and Minolta digital cameras, each of which provides about 285 pictures. Nice for trips somewhere. And I have a 128 MB and 64 MB chip as well.

As to the Sony video cameras, they do come in handy. We do most of our picture taking with the Memory Stick and JPG/MPG pictures and video clips. This is a lot of fun and makes for nice memories. A few times, however, I have been called upon to take videos of presentations, 1-2-3 hours long. The Sony video cameras come in very handy for those, too. But on trips or traveling around, my sweetie usually carries the Sony while I carry the digital and film still cameras.

We actually chose the Hi8 digital format when we purchased our Sony cameras a few years ago; were we to make the same decisions today we would simply go with the straight digital format instead of Hi8. For the Sony’s, we have two 64 MB memory sticks for the TRV-140 and we have two 256 MB memory sticks for the TRV-150. If we did no video clips at all the 256 MB memory stick would give us almost 2000 jpg images and make a standard 1-hour-per-tape home movie at the same time. Three hours of video plus 2000 still pictures would cover a very long trip.

However, when I really need versatility and the highest quality possible, I continue to use my 35mm Minolta film camera. It takes about 20 mp of digital picture to equal the quality of the 35mm film results – and we aren’t there yet. The last I checked we were at about 12 mp for digital quality. So I still shoot a lot of film; I just process it anymore by having it put right to CD in digital format, with no prints. I usually start out any trip we take with 10 rolls of 35mm film of the finest grain I can get by with – ASA 100.

So lets take one final look at the “image quality” question. 125 kb from the Sony, as high quality as the lenses are, simply does not compare to 675 or 865 kb from the Minolta and Fuji still cameras. Nor do they compare even remotely to the 925 kb pictures I get from the film. And that’s a bone of contention for me because 2 years ago my film pictures came back at about 1.5 mb each; then all of a sudden a couple of years ago they started coming back at 1.1-1.2 mb and for the last year plus they are in the 900 kb range? The quality is still good, but we’re dealing with pixels here rather than film grain.

If you have any kind of angled surface – i.e., any angle not either vertical or horizontal – you will have a low-resolution result. The reason is that pixels are squares. When my film (dots of color) is converted to digital (squares of color) I lose the higher resolution capability of dots to produce angled and curved lines.

OK, you say, I’ve got 8 megapixels. That gives me much better resolution than your 2.2 megapixels? Well, yes it does but not near as good as my film camera provides! Nor good enough to make 18X24 or 24X30 prints. 12 megapixels still only gives us high quality at 11X14 or perhaps 16X20. The reason is that as the little squares of color become visible they tend to blur the edges of angled and rounded objects whereas the dots from a film negative tend to keep those same lines sharp. So even though the film gives me higher resolution, the conversion to digital format costs me some resolution.

There’s one more important factor that goes into this matter before you decide on your particular camera needs. This is the difference between optical zoom and digital zoom. Let’s say that you get a camera with 3X optical and 4X digital zoom and they “sell you” on this model because it is “effectively 12X zoom”! And well, yes, it is “effectively 12X zoom”! But just what does that mean? Not all that much.

The optical zoom part is the only important factor. Typically a 3X optical zoom on a digital camera would give you a lens that corresponded to 35mm x 135 mm focal length on a 35mm camera – i.e., wide angle to short telephoto (actually what used to be known as a “portrait” lens). What the digital feature actually does is not enlarge your image but enlarge your pixels. This actually reduces the quality of the resultant picture because it is reducing the total number of pixels per square inch in your final product. The other downside of digital zoom is that you must put your camera on a tripod and make sure you don’t jiggle it when you snap the shutter – otherwise you will definitely get blurred pictures.

As you can see, choosing your camera or cameras to fit your needs is not all that quick and easy and may actually involve owning more than one camera. Maybe several cameras. But for your still image work you should choose a camera that has at least 6X to 10X optical zoom (totally disregarding any claims for digital zoom) and 4-5 megapixels or larger image. Also, make sure that the camera has a mike pickup for digital video sequences. You don’t need to use this capability but you can’t use it if you don’t have it.

So now you have your cameras and you need to know what to do with the pictures? Well, see my next article, Digital Photography: Using Windows XP (to manage your digital pictures).

About the Author

Loring Windblad worked as a freelance photographer for more than 20 years. He and his wife presently own and regularly use 1 VHS camcorder, 2 digital 8 camcorders and two digital still cameras. His latest business endeavor is at: http://www.santaclausca.com

Being a rather traditional amateur photographer for the last number of years I have to admit that I wasn?t too thrilled when digital cameras came on the scene. Little did I know it but all of that was soon about to change.

Many of the earlier ones were clunky, sporting poor quality lenses. In general, early on, digital cameras just left a bad taste in my mouth. I initially use them to share pictures of merchandise I selling with other people around the globe.

Although I started to find digital cameras useful I still found them awkward and lacking the precision of a film camera. As time and technology marched on, however, my outlook on digital photography began to change. Digital camera models emerged with greater resolution in the high numbers of megapixels, which was initially unheard of. Needless to say, however, these fine instruments were priced well outside the reach of most any amateur photographer.

Let?s fast-forward to today. High megapixel models can be found for under $300 is absolutely amazing. I haven?t ventured out in purchased one of those models yet. Actually, I?m still toying around with my 1.2 megapixel digital camera that I bought some years ago for right around 500 dollars.

I originally purchased this 1.2 megapixel digital camera to use to take pictures of products I was selling and place those pictures on eBay. It?s very simple to use, and believe me even though it was somewhat cumbersome it was still a lot easier than using a scanner to digitize actual photographs of products taken.

One year while on vacation, I decided to take the digital camera along with my regular photography rig. I found it so convenient, and so easy to use, that I started to find myself getting hooked. I finally took a leap of faith and decided not to be a photography snob and give digital photography a fair shake. Before I knew it I was taking some pretty artistic photographs with my simple digital camera.

What happened next surprised even me. I loaded the files of the digital photos into my computer and then clicked on each one just to get a glimpse of what they look like. Even with my simple 1.2M pixel camera the pictures exploded on the screen, and I was then forever hooked on digital photography.

So if you?ve been fighting the urge to explore digital photography I?d suggest that you get off the fence and give it a try. You?ll be very glad that you did.

About the Author:

For more information on better Photography as well as great Photography, tips, tricks, and techniques visit MaxPhotography.info located at http://www.maxphotography.info

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DISADVANTAGES OF BECOMING A DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHER

If you have been a ‘film photographer’, the first and biggest disadvantage is the cost of new cameras, at least. If you are already computer literate, and have a good computer with some kind of imaging software, good. But if not…well, I sorry for you, eh! Add all that expense, too. And if you’ve been a medium format photographer as I was, you’re not only going to need new cameras, but new lenses, too! With computers and imaging software, even without printers, you have a large investment to look at.

On the up side of that startup expense is all the money you’re now going to save by not having to buy film and pay for processing and proofs.

There is the time element that comes with a “digital workflow”. You, or someone is going to have to upload your images to your computer to edit. Then color correct, retouch, and anything else you want done to your images. And especially at first, it is quite time consuming as you follow your learning curve.

In my humble opinion, these are the only aspects of digital photography that can be called disadvantages. And then there’s the argument that “Digital has taken away business from professional photographers”.

The argument goes that it is now so easy to take your own photographs, for whatever purpose and at such low cost, that companies are taking their own photographs for their advertising needs, and people are taking their own, or their friends family photos. And that this is taking business away from professionals.

There really can be no argument against the truth of this statement. It is easy to take pictures. And, really, it always has been since the invention of the “instamatic camera”! Anybody can aim and push the shutter release button. And that will make a picture. It’s been that easy with film cameras since the 1960s. So, what’s the difference now?

I don’t know this for certain, but I bet that when automatic film cameras first came out, there was a small dip in business for a variety of pro photographers. Why? Because it was so easy now for anybody to take a picture! And I’m equally sure that some people who got a camera actually got good at making photographs.

In reality, though, if you want professional quality photography, you need to have the photography done professionally! There’s a lot more to it than point and shoot. And I believe that eventually the novelty of ‘easy’ digital photography will wear off, and the more educated and critical people will take their photography jobs to professionals.

About the author: Stan P. Cox II runs a Portrait and Commercial photography studio in Honolulu, Hawaii, and has been a professional Hawaii photographer for 31 years. This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

About the Author

About the author: Stan P. Cox II runs a Portrait and Commercial photography studio in Honolulu, Hawaii, and has been a professional Hawaii photographer for 31 years. His web address is: http://www.ParamountPhotography.com.

Have you ever imagined to capture all those treasured moments of your wedding ceremony in your own camera, I mean digital camera? Stop imagining, for digital cameras have made way to your wedding party to turn your world around. The quality of photos by digital cameras simply speaks for themselves. And beyond that, with digital wedding photography, couples can save their pockets by doing away with the wedding studio for the wedding proofs.

There was a time when the brides and grooms could do nothing but wait for weeks or even months following the wedding for the films to be developed. But things have changed now as digital wedding photography can bring pictures the very same day without much trouble.

The best part about digital wedding photography is that even amateurs can click photographs without having to compromise on the quality of photos. That reminds of the quality of digital pictures. The pictures are simply as good as it gets. You shouldn’t be surprised, as many professional photographers have taken to digital operations too.

Interestingly, you will come across three types of wedding photography namely photojournalistic wedding photography, traditional wedding photography, and artistic wedding photography. Photojournalistic wedding photography or better known as candid wedding photography is all about documentary style wedding photos. Traditional wedding photography is poised to take only formal photos whereas artistic wedding photographers tend to add a bit of their artistry in their photo shoot.

If you are to venture into digital wedding photography then you must follow some of these winning tips. Always make sure that you hold the background into consideration before taking your photos. It is the most commonly made mistake you definitely want to avoid. What amateur photographers tend to do at times is focus on the subject leaving behind the negative space and the surroundings. The best you can do is finding a place where subjects are free from clutter and obstructive backgrounds.

Mind you, the glares from spectacles can bring about an intense spot in your photo hence ruin it. All you need is a bit of adjustment without having anyone remove his or her glasses.

You can snap some fabulous photos at the reception. This is where the cutting of the cake, the throwing of the wedding bouquet and many other real life moments come into picture. Make sure that all the colorful wedding accents fit into your photos. You should know that digital cameras fabricate colorful photos, so why not chance at the colorful d?cor of the wedding party. Now, if all of this is not enough then there are scores of good books out there that can teach you to film weddings as it should be.

Digital wedding photography with its manifold advantages is all that you need to take you over the edge on your wedding extravaganza.

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Digital photography training courses typically cover a wide range of topics. Not all courses are created equal, however, so be sure to investigate a course before you jump in to make sure it will meet your expectations.

The cost of a digital photography course can also vary significantly. You can try local colleges to see if extension courses are offered in your area to fit your schedule. Your cities community center might also be a resource for finding local training options.

A typical digital photography training course begins by teaching you all about your camera. Photography terms like aperture, exposure, f-stop, focal length, and depth of field that may be foreign to you will be explained. Once you understand the terminology, most courses move on to help you understand the specifics of your camera.

If you want to really ease into things, you can easily find free digital photo classes online. These training courses can easily be fit into anyone’s busy schedule and the low cost means you don’t have to make a big commitment.

Most people shoot with their camera in fully automatic mode. This is usually fine if you are after “average” pictures. But to really use your camera to it’s full potential, you’ll be taught what the different modes of your camera do and when to use them. This is the point at which the digital photography training course begins to get fun.

Of course, there is lots of experimentation. One of the biggest benefits of digital photography is that you don’t have to wait for pictures to be developed before you can see the results. When you take a picture you can see the results instantly. This is great for learning the effects of different techniques and settings.

Most digital photography training courses also cover methods for digitally editing your pictures using popular photo editing software. You’ll also want to show off your new skills and digital photography knowledge to your friends and family. So, sharing your pictures is usually covered, as well. After completing your digital photography course you’re sure to take great pictures.