Digital Photography For Beginners
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Digital photography is different from traditional photography because the digital pictures are stored in the form of pixels. If you’re not sure what pixel is, here is a brief definition of one:
“A pixel (also called a Picture Element) is a small graphical square which in combination with thousands of other pixels form a digital image”.
The more pixels in a digital image, the smoother and clearer it will appear.
This is also called the resolution and is probably one of the most important factors in deciding the overall quality of the picture.
If this is your first time shopping for a digital camera, it’s worth familiarizing yourself with the other common terms like optical zoom, digital zoom, resolution, white balance, night vision, USB 1 or 2 Connectivity etc.
When you are selecting the right digital Camera it is sometimes difficult to decide which exact model to choose with all the different variants available. These are the most important variables to consider:
- Resolution of the camera, which usually defines the detail and clearness of the picture. Normally this is measured in megapixels.
- Lenses such as Carl-Zeiss Lens which is a very good lens. There is still a variation in optical quality between lenses - you’ll often notice this towards the edge of photos, especially at higher zoom levels.
- Digital zoom: this is where the camera uses software rather than optical zoom. Don’t worry too much about this as your image manipulation software will be able to do much the same thing.
- Storage media: different types storage media are available today like Smart Card, SD card, Memory Stick Pro etc. A bit like with hard disks in the earlier days of computers, the more storage you have, the better.
- Computer connectivity: ideally this should be easy and there should be a USB cable with your camera or you should check that your computer can read your camera’s memory card directly.
Digital photography is, without doubt, more versatile than traditional film-based photography. It also provides you with more control over the output.
For example, if you don’t like the picture you have just taken, you can delete it at any time.
Moreover, you now don’t need to carry older and heavier film-based cameras. New digital cameras are as light as 250 grams. Or even come built into your cell phone.
Purists will say that a digital camera still doesn’t beat a film based camera. If you’re thinking of making giant enlargements, this is possibly still the case. But for everyday use, digital beats film hands down nowadays.
Then you’ll need to think how you are going to print your best photos. An ink jet printer is the cheapest to purchase but they get expensive to run. Lasers are cheaper to run but don’t give the gloss finish that we’ve come to expect from photos.
Another alternative is to use a dye sublimation printer (some of the Xerox printers use this technology) which melts its ink onto the page. These come closest to the look and feel of traditional photos without the need for special paper. When you’re next upgrading your printer, think about this option. They cost about the same to run as a laser and are just as fast.
If you only want a few of your photos printed, there are services locally and online who will print out your shots on regular photo stock.
Get more help on learning digital photography here.
