Digital Cameras Start the Process

Digital Cameras have a similar appearance to film cameras and the basic “point and shoot” process of taking a photo seems very similar. However, that is where the similarity ends. Digital cameras record and process images very differently than film cameras.

I. Pixels ... Drowning in millions of Pixels

Digital cameras record images by converting what it “sees” on to tiny square pixels. These pixels enable your PC to process, enhance, and print photos. Digital cameras are distinguished by how many millions of pixels they use for a photo. For example a 3 “megapixel” camera uses approximately 3 million pixels for each photo. The higher the number of pixels the better quality.

The Above chart indicates which printed photo size is of good quality based on the pixel rating of digital cameras. In some cases even the lower pixel size camera can produce acceptable results at larger sizes than the above chart indicates. The higher the number of pixels does produce a higher quality photo at any given size. It is not very noticeable at the 4 X 6 or 5 X 7 sizes, but can be noticeable at the larger sizes. Also when you crop a photo you are in effect increasing the size of that portion of the photo. The image quality of a cropped photo will be better with a higher Meg camera. For most home and family photo uses, digital cameras with 4 -6 Megs are very acceptable.

II. Memory Card .. The digital “film”

All digital cameras utilize “memory cards, or “memory sticks” to record photos. The information on these memory devices is later “downloaded” to either your PC for processing or is used by a retail outlet to produce photos for you. These memory devices are removable. digital cameras come with a memory device already installed. They are removable so you can take them to a retailer or use them in a memory card reader to transfer your photos to your PC. You may want to consider purchasing one or more additional memory cards to provide for a reasonable number of photos. The chart below indicates the photo capacity of five common memory device sizes in Mega Bytes (MB) and their photo capacity for each camera pixel size (Meg).

Digital Camera Operation Basics

Start Here:

Mode Settings:
You can safely use the following mode settings for the appropriate photo

Menu Items

Other Functional Controls:

White Balance - This compensates for “color temperature” changes - i.e. Incandescent lighting, fluorescent lighting, use of flash indoors. White balance is normally handled automatically, but can be adjusted for more extreme conditions. It will eliminate or reduce “color cast” problems. Experiment with this feature before using it in important situations.

ISO - This has about the same affect as the ISO settings for film photography. As an example “200” film for outdoors, “400” film for indoors, etc. The ISO is set for you in the automatic setting and the other “mode” setting listed above. However, there you may need to set this manually for more extreme situations. Experiment with this first.

RAW - This is a method of a digital camera recording an image without the camera making adjustments for lighting, color balance, etc. The raw image is an alternative to a JPEG photo most commonly used. RAW images take up much more data space and must be specially handled by photo editing programs. Many cameras cannot record in “raw”. This shouldn’t be used until you have a lot of experience with digital editing.

Digital Photo Editing Software and References

Basic Photo Editing …. Picasa 2 – can be downloaded free from Google

1. For common photo corrections and enhancing: crop, lighten, darken, sharpen, better contrast, color change, tinting, etc.
2. Contains an “organization” feature to keep track of photo folders by date and major subject. Good “find” features.
3. Supports an e-mail feature and has a good printing process.

More advanced Photo Editing .. Adobe Photoshop Elements --- $59 - $89
(The 5.0 version was announced recently and will ship first week of October, 2006.
This will be compatible with the 4.0 version).

1. Has advanced editing and enhancing features – same as basic above but more controls on light, dark, color corrections, layers, blends, filters, selections, etc. Has many of the features available in the Adobe full Photoshop program.
2. Can process photos in the “raw “ mode. Can also produce sophisticated slide shows and other output formats such as calendars, gift cards, albums, etc. This program is recognized as the primary one to use to produce “digital scrapbook” pages. The printing process allows for a wide range of formats and sizes.
3. The organization feature of Elements provides for coding photos by subject matter and the photo date is automatically included. “Finding” photos from even a very large collection is relatively easy.
4. This program is well supported by Adobe and several web sites, booklets and training sites are available (see below for some of these listings).

References:

Picasa – There are no “official” manuals. There are some reference materials on Google’s web site.

Photoshop Elements - Some of the many books available:

Internet: www.Photoshopelementsuser.com

Training: Hale Center in Dunedin offers classes (on computer) for both Picasa and Photoshop Elements. Both are 4 week classes, 1-1/2 hrs each week. Instructor: Bill Smith. Contact: Hale Center at 298-3299