Basic Digital Photography Guide
Digital cameras can be confusing, this basic guide to digital cameras hopes to give digital newbies some basis to use in deciding which digital camera is best for them. Before buying a digital camera, a good idea is to know the basic terms like white balance, pixel, ppi and dpi, what do they mean and how do they affect photo quality. Know the difference between optical zoom and digital zoom, storage formats and camera interface technologies.
Pixels
Digital photos are made up of small squares - pixels, many millions are used to form a digital image.
Pixel Count
Pixel count is the number of individual pixels that go into making each image, it can vary between 1 million (1 Megapixel) to over 14 million (14 Megapixels). A million pixels is known as a MP, 1MP digital camera has 1 million pixels and so on. Most popular consumer digital cameras have between 2MP and 5MP.
Aspect Ratio
The aspect ratio of a camera is the ratio of the length of the sides of the images. A traditional 35mm film is 36mm wide and 24mm high and so has an aspect ratio of 36:24, expressed as 3:2. As normal computer monitors have an aspect ratio of 4:3 most consumer priced digital cameras also use a 4:3 aspect ratio for their images.
Sensor Size
Sensor size is much more important in traditional photography and although listed on most specification sheets for digital cameras it is no longer relevant to digital.
Digital Zoom and Optical Zoom
Most digital cameras have both optical and digital zoom. Digital zoom crops the image, then enlarges the cropped image to fill the frame this can lead to a significant loss of quality, only use it as a last resort, by using almost any image editing program you can achieve the same result.Optical zoom works just like traditional zoom lens on any film camera, once changed the lens focal length is altered and magnification is zoomed. As a result photo quality stays the same throughout the zoom range.
JPEG, TIFF and RAW
The size of the photo image depends on the pixel count and so file can be big and so they are compressed without a significant drop in quality. File type JPEG (Joint Photo Experts Group) reduces file size with little quality loss at low conversation rates, the higher you go the most quality you lose.
If you want to keep quality and have less care over storage space then TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) is the option for you . These keep all the original information, but at the cost of much bigger files.
RAW formats fall between the last two and a supplied by the manufacturer of your camera.
Display And Printing
PPI stands for "Pixels per inch" and is used for printing, not video display. A rate of 320 PPI is the highest number that you need anything above that you do not see any improvement in image quality.
DPI stands for "dots per inch" and is for printers, and not digital photos, a setting of 360 dpi usually looks just right. DPI is a measure of how finely spaced the ink is on a print.
Memory
There are many different memory cards used for digital cameras.
Compact Flash (CF) - The original digital memory card. The technology is moving so fast that anything written here will be out of date, check with your local store for best prices and memory size.
There are many other types of cards but compact flash is the best unless you need something specific again check with your local supplier.
Digital Camera Interface
Now connect your digital camera to your computer or television and start working on those photos.
USB 2.0 - A development of USB but much faster - up to 480 megabits/second. USB devices can connect directly without software installation, most digital camera will supply a USB 2.0 with the camera.
Buying a Digital Camera
The sky is really the limit when buying cameras. From as little as $50 or as much as $10,000, it all depends on what you want to use the camera for. Do your research online and at stores and take your time before making your choice. You may wish to rent the model that you like first to get a feel for its operations before committing to buy it. Things to ask.
- Is the camera affordable?
- Are all the features necessary?
- Will this camera work for what i want it to do?
- And again can i afford this camera?
Be honest with yourself about what you need from a camera and set a budget and stick to it. Do your research online, read magazines and talk to your local photo shop.
Even at the cheap end of the market your camera will probably cover the most of the bases in fact most consumer level cameras shoot perfect photos in 90% of situations. The most important thing is to have fun and take great photos.
Resources
Pixels
Digital photos are made up of small squares - pixels, many millions are used to form a digital image.
Pixel Count
Pixel count is the number of individual pixels that go into making each image, it can vary between 1 million (1 Megapixel) to over 14 million (14 Megapixels). A million pixels is known as a MP, 1MP digital camera has 1 million pixels and so on. Most popular consumer digital cameras have between 2MP and 5MP.
White Balance
With a digital camera you can pick your white balance to suit your location, so that white looks white, not yellow or blue. The digital camera automatically sets this for you, but you also have total control over the settings. Try experimenting with the setting to see the results.
Sensitivity
Most digital cameras have auto sensitivity settings, and the digital camera will pick from ISO 100, ISO 200 and sometimes ISO 400, this depends on the light level and the mode in which the camera is operating.
Aspect Ratio
The aspect ratio of a camera is the ratio of the length of the sides of the images. A traditional 35mm film is 36mm wide and 24mm high and so has an aspect ratio of 36:24, expressed as 3:2. As normal computer monitors have an aspect ratio of 4:3 most consumer priced digital cameras also use a 4:3 aspect ratio for their images.
Sensor Size
Sensor size is much more important in traditional photography and although listed on most specification sheets for digital cameras it is no longer relevant to digital.
Digital Zoom and Optical Zoom
Most digital cameras have both optical and digital zoom. Digital zoom crops the image, then enlarges the cropped image to fill the frame this can lead to a significant loss of quality, only use it as a last resort, by using almost any image editing program you can achieve the same result.Optical zoom works just like traditional zoom lens on any film camera, once changed the lens focal length is altered and magnification is zoomed. As a result photo quality stays the same throughout the zoom range.
JPEG, TIFF and RAW
The size of the photo image depends on the pixel count and so file can be big and so they are compressed without a significant drop in quality. File type JPEG (Joint Photo Experts Group) reduces file size with little quality loss at low conversation rates, the higher you go the most quality you lose.
If you want to keep quality and have less care over storage space then TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) is the option for you . These keep all the original information, but at the cost of much bigger files.
RAW formats fall between the last two and a supplied by the manufacturer of your camera.
Display And Printing
PPI stands for "Pixels per inch" and is used for printing, not video display. A rate of 320 PPI is the highest number that you need anything above that you do not see any improvement in image quality.
DPI stands for "dots per inch" and is for printers, and not digital photos, a setting of 360 dpi usually looks just right. DPI is a measure of how finely spaced the ink is on a print.
Memory
There are many different memory cards used for digital cameras.
Compact Flash (CF) - The original digital memory card. The technology is moving so fast that anything written here will be out of date, check with your local store for best prices and memory size.
There are many other types of cards but compact flash is the best unless you need something specific again check with your local supplier.
Digital Camera Interface
Now connect your digital camera to your computer or television and start working on those photos.
USB 2.0 - A development of USB but much faster - up to 480 megabits/second. USB devices can connect directly without software installation, most digital camera will supply a USB 2.0 with the camera.
Buying a Digital Camera
The sky is really the limit when buying cameras. From as little as $50 or as much as $10,000, it all depends on what you want to use the camera for. Do your research online and at stores and take your time before making your choice. You may wish to rent the model that you like first to get a feel for its operations before committing to buy it. Things to ask.
- Is the camera affordable?
- Are all the features necessary?
- Will this camera work for what i want it to do?
- And again can i afford this camera?
Be honest with yourself about what you need from a camera and set a budget and stick to it. Do your research online, read magazines and talk to your local photo shop.
Even at the cheap end of the market your camera will probably cover the most of the bases in fact most consumer level cameras shoot perfect photos in 90% of situations. The most important thing is to have fun and take great photos.
Resources
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