Knutsford Photographic Society
Knutsford Photographic Society #Introduction #Batteries #File Format #Manipulation Software
#Megapixels #Memory #Personal Preference #Resolution
If you are thinking of buying a digital camera, here are some quick tips ....
There
are several different types of memory media out there. Make sure that the media
for the camera you choose is readily available. Some cameras even accept
multiple types of media. Also, remember to get at least a couple of memory cards
when you buy your camera. You may think it will be easy to just upload your
photographs each time you use your camera. In reality, though, that won't be as
easy as you might think.
The
more the merrier. Simply put, the more Megapixels per image the camera has, the
better your resolution (and the bigger the memory card needed). It makes a big
difference when you want to print off those larger sizes like an 8x10. Get as
much as you can afford.
Examine
carefully the kind of batteries required for the camera. If the camera requires
one or more of those expensive lithium batteries, you can quickly go broke
keeping you camera operational at $10 to $20 per battery especially if you use
the flash and the built-in view screen frequently. You will find a camera that
accepts rechargeable batteries a big plus.
When
you are looking for your new camera be sure to get a demonstration on how the
camera uploads to your computer. Some cameras are as simple as plugging in a USB
cable and taking the images directly off of the camera just like you would an
external hard drive. Others may require you to use special software or even
special hardware to move your images to your computer.
Those
are the most important elements. The rest is pretty much personal preference.
Things like zoom, auto-focus, date/time stamping and red-eye reduction all
depend on your needs. (By the way, red-eye reduction is usually just a gimmick.
Red-eye is caused by your flash reflecting off the retina of the person that you
are photographing. To eliminate the red-eye effect, the camera's flash would
have to be significantly
above or to the side of the lens.)
Whether
you take digital images directly off of your camera or scan them in, there are
some things to consider before just dropping them onto your website:
The
standard resolution for the web is 72 dpi, however, that is not the ideal
resolution for printing. Most digital cameras will output your images somewhere
between 72 and 150 dpi. In talking about size above, we kept everything in
standard video resolution at 72 dpi. If you want to make a much sharper image
available for printing you will want to bump up the resolution on your image to
at least 300 dpi. This will make for a much better printable image. Keep in
mind, it will also make for a much larger file to download (at least 4 times
larger).
The
size that comes directly from your camera is usually not going to be the size
that is ideal for the web. For example, my digital camera captures an image that
is 2240 pixels by 1680 pixels at 72 dpi (i.e. dots per inch) which is way too
large for practical web use. Translated into inches, that would be about 31
inches by 23 inches. Once you have your digital image be sure to reduce the
image to a size that is ideal for your purposes. When I put pictures up for my
family on my personal website, I usually make the image size something around 4
inches (288 pixels) by 6 inches (432 pixels) at 72 dpi.
In
order to make the viewing process much easier for your web visitors, you will
probably want to always make a smaller thumbnail version of all of your images.
This will allow the visitor to quickly and easily "thumb" through
several images on a page to find the one or ones that they would like to see
larger. Generally, thumbnail images are between 100 and 150 pixels wide but
there is no set rule for this. Do whatever works best you.
The
file format that you choose to save your digital images in greatly determines
the file's size. Most digital cameras will output their images in either TIFF or
JPEG format. While TIFF files have a great quality of resolution, they are
definitely not the most efficient format for web viewing. Digital photographic
images on the web are almost always in JPEG format. JPEG's are the best for
photographs because of their ability to accurately display the millions of
colors that can be present in a photograph while at the same time compressing
the image data to keep the file size as small as possible. Other file formats
like GIF's and BMP's are best suited for graphics and artwork that don't require
high color standards.
Obviously,
in order to make all of the changes talked about above you will have to own some
sort of image manipulation software. If you are using Windows, the pre-loaded
Paint software package will take care of most of you basic needs like resizing
and saving to different file formats. If you need something that allows you to
make more than just basic modifications then you might consider a
consumer-oriented package like Adobe's PhotoShop Elements or Microsoft's Picture
It!. If you need still more power then the mother of all photographic software
should be your choice, Adobe's PhotoShop.