Options For Storing, Retrieving And Viewing Your Digital Photographs

Writen by Ron Donnelly

If you’re just starting out with a digital camera, or you are considering buying a new camera, and you like what you’ve heard about digital photography, you probably have a few burning questions about the technology. What replaces the film? Do you need a computer? What process replaces getting your pictures developed, and how can you store and view all your photos without having to print them off? This is a short guide that will answer these questions, and give you an idea about what your options are as far as storing, retrieving, and viewing your digital photographs goes.

When you take a picture with an optical film camera, you have a shutter opening for a fraction of a second, exposing photosensitive film to the light which is projected into an image by the lens, onto the surface of the film. The film stores a negative color impression of your image. Later it is “fixed” then developed into a “positive” true color photograph in a dark room (or these days, a compact machine which performs the same task.) When you’re done, you get a copy of the fixed negative, and the true color photo. The principle of digital photography isn’t much different. A microprocessor-controlled photosensitive microchip-wafer is programmed to become receptive to light projected onto its surface by a lens for a fraction of a second. The chip then digitizes that image into a sequence of tiny colored dots, called pixels. This information is stored as a numerical sequence, which is then recorded to the camera’s “memory”. This is the important part. A camera usually has a small amount of “on board” memory, sufficient to store somewhere between 15 and 100 photos. The amount of space that a given photo takes up on the memory depends on a number of factors, but quite simply, the more detailed a digital photograph is, the higher the number of dots used to produce an image is, and therefore, the sequence of numbers representing those dots is longer. So, a high resolution digital photo takes up more digital space in memory.

The great thing about digital memory is that it can be written to, and read from not hundreds, but hundreds of thousands, or even millions of times, without wearing out. Because cameras only have a relatively small amount of on board memory, removable memory cards, termed “flash cards” have been developed to store larger amounts of data. While your camera may store 15 or 20 high resolution photographs on it, flash cards can store between a couple of hundred, and several thousand such images, depending on the digital capacity of the card, and the photo quality. A flash card is a thin wafer, between roughly 1/32″ and 1/8th of an inch thick, and usually not much larger than an inch square. There are several different formats of these cards in common use, and they make up the bulk of common image storage devices. These include: Secure Digital; CompactFlash (1 and 2); Memory Stick; MultiMediaCard; xD-Picture Card; and SmartMedia. All of these are usually abbreviated to their initial capitals. Of these, SD and CF are the most common.

You may have heard that all computers speak in 1’s and 0’s before, and this is true. The standard unit for measuring digital data is “bytes”. For the purposes of this exercise, 1 byte is always equivalent 8 “bits” which are either a 1 or a 0. So a sequence of eight 1’s and 0’s is 1 byte. This is a very, very small amount of data. On a computer, a byte is only enough information to store a single character, such as the period at the end of the sentence. To make things easier, we work in kilobytes kB (1024 bytes), megabytes MB (1024 kB), and gigabytes GB (1024 MB, or 10243 – that’s 1,073,741,824 bytes!).

To give you an idea of scale, your medium or low resolution photographs on your camera are probably somewhere around 500kB, and your highest resolution photos are probably around 2.5MB. Commonly available flash cards range in size from 64MB, 128MB, 256 MB, 512 MB, 1 GB, 2 GB, 4 GB, 5 GB, 6 GB, and a few 8GB flash cards have recently been released. This means you could store more than 3000 very high resolution photographs on an 8 gigabyte flash card, no larger than an inch square! The smaller cards are much more cost effective, with a 512MB flash card being between $10 and $20 new. The 8GB ones are closer to the $250+ mark, and represent the pinnacle of miniaturized consumer-grade data storage. And for one final trivial point of reference, computers these days come with hard disk drives ranging in capacities between 80GB, and 500 GB, which makes your computer an attractive option for storing your photos.

If all that didn’t make a lot of sense to you on the first read, don’t worry. It’s a subject that gets more complex the deeper go in, and people devote their lives to its study. The beauty is that you don’t need to fully understand it to use it effectively. For a handful of dollars, you can store many hundreds of images. You can reuse your flash cards almost indefinitely. They will eventually get a scratch or crack from the friction of being removed and used, and they are very sensitive to static electricity, so eventually, they will fail. For this reason, it might be a good idea for you, or a friend with a computer, to back up your photos onto a more resilient medium such as a data CD or DVD.

This brings us to the next point: Do you need a computer? The short answer is no, but it helps. Fortunately, the market has developed whole product ranges for people who wish to remove the computer from the equation altogether, recognizing the demand that existed for such options. These days you can buy high-resolution printers for the home capable of producing photos almost as good as what you can have developed at the pharmacy, that plug straight into your camera, or have an on-board card reader. If you have a particularly nice photograph you want professionally printed, most photo developers have facilities to do just that. All you need to do is bring in the flash card or camera that the image is on. What a computer does offer you is a convenient way to edit and sort your collections. You can still view your photos on the camera itself, and most cameras are capable of plugging into your television, thereby allowing you to go through your photos like a slide show.

Never before have we had the ability to store so much information so easily. There is a huge range of options for storing your photos, and if you most like the idea of a sort of digital reusable film, capable of storing hundreds or thousands of photos, then you can pick up a small handful 512MB flash cards, and have a photo album so big you could never fill it. But if you do, never mind: I hear there’s a 16GB Microdrive on the way …

Ron Donnelly is editor of the digital camera site, buying-guide-for-digital-cameras. You can visit the site at http://www.buying-guide-for-digital-cameras.com

Photo Copyright Concerns

Writen by TJ Tierney

Copyright in most works of art, which includes writing, photography and digital images occur as the work is created. To put it as simply as possible, the second you click the shutter button, the resulting image belongs to you.

No formal registration is needed in more that 140 countries in the world, to receive basic legal protection. But regardless, if you do feel that you don’t understand certain legal points, you would be well advised to speak to your legal advisors.

Although the law protects your copyright from the moment the shutter is released and there is no other formalities to be observed, I would strongly advise that you mark every single photograph with the word “copyright” followed by your name, or use the international copyright symbol followed by your name: © – TJ Tierney.

Don’t write on the original image; if you’re using slide film write on the white plastic border. If you are submitting original prints to a magazine photo editor, state that the images are subject to copyright on a cover letter.

When you do sell an image understand the reproduction rights. If you agree to “single reproduction rights” you are granting the magazine or publisher rights to use the image once. If they decide to use the same print in a few months time, you’re entitled to further reproduction fees.

It would be wise to state in a cover letter when submitting images that reproduction fees are negotiated before use.

Don’t ever sell your images as “royalty free”. You may receive an “ok payment”, but the publisher that has paid for the royalties can sell your images to whoever he wants; and you won’t receive a single cent.

If in three months time you see an image that belongs to you on the cover page of some magazine; and know full well that they are in breach of your copyright, don’t be afraid to send them an invoice, adding on a little extra for their cheekiness. Let them know that you know the law and that if the payment isn’t received by a certain date that further action will be taken; you’ll have a cheque in the door within a few days.

TJ Tierney. Award winning Irish Landscape Photographer. If you are looking for more tips visit Photo tips. To view some of his images visit his on-line gallery: Pictures of Ireland.

Get the Perfect Exposure – Every Time!

Writen by TJ Tierney

Did you ever get back a fresh batch of film, only to be disappointed in finding out that you got back wash-out boring images.

The problem is that you didn’t expose your film properly.

Whether we use a digital or film camera, we need to be able to calculate exposure properly. But first, we need to understand how the aperture and the shutter work together. We also need to know how film handles light, and the relationship between film light sensitivity and f/stops.

Lets take a quick look at the main elements.

Aperture and f/stops: the aperture is an opening in the centre of the lens through which light passes. The amount of light which passes through an aperture is indicated by f/stops. The lower the f/stop the more light that passes through the aperture. Opening up one full f/stop doubles the amount of light entering the camera. F/4 admits twice the light of f5.6.

Shutter: the shutter is a mechanical device that controls the length of time that light is allowed to act on the film. Each time you open the shutter by one, we double the light, when we close down the light by one we half the light. Opening the shutter at 1 second allows twice the light as that of a

A Digital Photo Shooting Session of Airplanes in an Air Show

Writen by Ziv Haparnas

A few weeks ago I went with my friends to see an air show. The schedule was packed with acrobatics and many types of planes. The highlight of the show was the blue angles with their jets doing dangerous routines. I took my camera hoping to capture some good digital memories of that show.

I took my digital SLR camera to the air show. I put it in my special camera bag alongside an extra battery and lenses. I used an eight mega pixels DSLR with a 100-300mm zoon lenses.

I decided to shoot as many photos as I could knowing from my experience that in such cases the rule of big numbers works very well – shoot as many photos as you can and you might be able to find a few photos which are really unique. So when the airplanes started to fly around I pointed my camera at them and from that point on I watched most of the air show through my camera’s viewfinder.

I set my camera to automatic continuous focus. I had my finger holding the shutter button half way down most of the time while I am moving the camera to track those fast flying airplanes. I could hear the camera’s motors working hard moving the optical components in the lens back and forth to keep the focus right. I also set the camera to burst mode so whenever I decided the composition was worth shooting a photo it actually shot a fast sequence of four photos. The idea behind that was first to get more photos to choose from – with fast flying planes these four photos were really different from each other – and second to maybe be able to capture some motion in a sequence of photos.

As time passed my hands got tired from holding the camera and my stable grip was not as stable anymore. Unfortunately I did not bring a tripod – and probably I would have not used it even if I had it since it is hard to track airplanes flying above using one especially when you are with thousands of people walking around you. When I looked at the photos that evening I saw the results of my tired grip – the later digital photos were not as sharp and steady as the earlier ones.

When I saw the results of my work my reaction was to go and get those fancy lenses with an image stabilizer built-in them. There are two types of image stabilizer one that moves the sensor and one that actually uses gyroscopes in the lens to move a floating optical element that compensates for shakings. The latter is more expensive and provides better results. I saw some people walking around with the Canon image stabilizing zoom lens I am not sure how effective it was for them but it sure did look impressive.

There are also drawbacks to using image stabilizers and actually some of these drawbacks are very relevant to my air show photo shooting. Moving the camera erratically to track an acrobatic airplane can confuse the image stabilizer that can detect that movement as being unwanted shakings and try to compensate for it. If I had an image stabilizer I would have had to use different practices when shooting my photos like trying to pan the camera on one axis and at a more or less constant speed.

Overall I was able to choose some great photos of airplanes flying around doing acrobatics very close to each other, airplanes with some birds flying in what seems to be in the photo as very close proximity and other digital photos of airplanes in different situations. These will serve as good memories of that air show and as a lesson for getting better equipped in my next air show digital photo shooting.

Photo Printing Made Easier with DPOF

Writen by Ziv Haparnas

There are many ways to print photos. For example you could download the photos to your computer choose the ones you like burn them on a CD and take them to a printing service. DPOF makes such photo printing easier – here is how.

DPOF is a standard that was introduced by a consortium of camera and printer manufacturers. The goal of DPOF was the make photo printing easier and faster.

DPOF stands for Digital Print Order Format. The goal behind DPOF was to make the process of choosing which photos to print and printing them much easier and faster. If your camera supports DPOF then you can choose the photos you would like to print and the number of copies directly on your digital camera. This data is also known as the print order and is saved in the cameras memory card (the same memory card where photos are saved) in special files. Later on you can take the memory card with the photos and the DPOF data to any printing service that supports DPOF and it would automatically print the photos based on the DPOF print order data. Alternatively you could plug the memory card to a photo printer that supports DPOF and print all the photos that you chose with a single push of a button.

DPOF can do much more than just specify which photos to print and in how many copies. You can also specify additional information such as a photo title text, photo orientation, print paper size and more. Other useful information can be added: your contact information and your camera settings when taking the photo. All that information can make printing easier – for example you can drop off a memory card with any printing service and they can know exactly which photos to print, in how many copies on what paper sizes and in what orientation. They also have your contact information where they can reach you when the prints are ready or if there is any problem.

Not all cameras support DPOF and the ones that do support DPOF vary in their level of support. For example the simplest support would be for choosing which photos to print and in how many copies while more advanced support would be for enabling other data such as title photo title text, paper size, contact information and more.

DPOF was extended to support more than photo printing. Examples of new features enabled by DPOF: you can choose photos to be emailed as file attachment. The usage is very similar to choosing which photos to print but instead of printing the photos when you plug your memory card to your computer special software reads the DPOF data and emails the photos you have selected to the designated email addresses. Another feature is slide show or photo projection: the photos you choose can be replayed as a slide show on a computer or be projected using a photo projector. For example you could plug the memory card to a projector that supports DPOF and with one click play the slide show of your choice.

And lastly – some PC software allows you to define any custom action to be executed on the DPOF data. For example the software can be told to “copy all chosen photos to the hard disk and discard the others” or to “print all chosen photos, copy them to the hard disk and then create a backup of them on a CD” – this is a great way to automate some photo processes and can save time.

DPOF is not a must have feature but a good option if you want to save some time and make photo printing easier. Many cameras support DPOF but most users are not aware of it and are not using it. Check if your camera supports DPOF and learn how to use it to your benefit.

The Immature Photographer

Writen by Eric Hartwell

I like to think that I am a bit more mature now. Don’t we all? I’m not sure it is really true, perhaps it’s just a change of perception.

Thinking back, I was very naive and, yes, immature in the past. My first camera was a Zenit E. It weighed a ton but it took photographs. After I had bought it and loaded the film, I set about taking photographs.

I didn’t stray far. No further than my house really. The result was a hundred or so pictures of my cat, the garden vegetation and any human that dared to come near me.

I felt on top of the world. I had made it at last. When, a few months later, I set up a darkroom in my bedroom, I felt that my talents were complete.

Only ther weren’t. because my pictures lacked sparkle and charm. They suffered from overexposure, underdevelopment and poor composition together with every other possible photographic mishap you could name.

I couldn’t see it then, but I can now.

And so the trend continues. I convince myself that I am open minded and certainly can see and appreciate the superb works of others. But I still wince a little when constructive criticism comes my way. I laugh it off and take it full on in the face of course, but inwardly, I seethe. A bit.

I don’t like to be told the best way to do things because I think I know it. I have read books and gone on courses. I even teach photography. But I still find that others can improve my images. I just don’t always agree with their efforts.

Although 30 years on from my Zenit E, I still retain the skeleton of that same immaturuity that blighted me then. I guess it will be with me till I die. I just won’t really notice it.

Eric Hartwell runs the photography resource site http://www.theshutter.co.uk and the associated discussion forums as well as the regular weblog at http://thephotographysite.blogspot.com

Five Tips for Steady Cameras

Writen by Tyler Ellison

Few things are as difficult to watch or as nauseating to experience as shaky camera work. Home videos of vacations and family events are notorious for this and that is why they get taped but never watched. The difference between steady and shaky footage has nothing to do with the camcorder and everything to do with the videographer. The following list of five essential skills will improve any video if applied during the shoot.

One: Hold the Camera with Both Hands

Some people think it is cool to operate cameras with just one hand. I believe the manufacturers are doing you a favor by freeing up a hand not so you can use it to eat a candy bar, but so you can use it to steady the camera. Two hands are always better than one. It sounds obvious and simple yet every time I go to record a public event I always see folks holding the camcorder with just one hand. Stop acting like an amateur and hold the camera with both hands. Your audience will thank you, maybe not verbally, but will appreciate your effort.

Two: The Correct Stance

People are lazy, especially during long shoots. If you have the job as videographer you had better not be leaning your weight on just one leg. Stand with your feet approximately shoulder length apart with your body weight balanced between both legs. This stance is proven to improve stability in all physical activity and it definitely applies in this case as well.

Three: Electronic Stabilization

Once again, the manufacturers are trying to help you out. If you are shooting without the use of a tripod then turn the electronic stabilizer on, but be sure to turn it off when you put the camera back on the tripod. This technology has improved greatly in the last few years and makes a huge difference in the final shot.

Four: Avoid Zooming, Get Closer

The wide angle is doubtlessly the most stable setting. Zooming make the camera much more reactive to the slightest movement. While holding the camera in your hands this includes up and down as well as side to side. Many zooms are digital now and I frown upon its use. Only use optical zoom! Digital zoom only enlarges existing shots which start to pixelate and the quality plunges. If you can get closer without zooming, this will keep the angle wide and will stabilize your shot.

Five: Just Use a Tripod

The professional’s best friend is the tripod. There is no shame in using one. Tricky movements should be attempted with a counterbalance system like a Glidecam. Most shooting, however, can be accomplished with the use of a tripod. Use it. It may be a little bulky to carry around but that is the difference between the amateur and the professional. Don’t be lazy. Take a tripod and use it as much as possible.

I Find A Photography Goldmine, A Closet Full Of Camera Equipment

Writen by Steve McArthur

I was going through one of our closets looking for something. It was a closet that I normally don’t go into because all it has in it are towels and bathroom stuff. I happened to look up on a shelf and I saw an old tan leather case which I knew contained some of my wife’s old camera stuff. Years ago, before we met, she was involved in photograhy.

She used to take pictures of weddings and special events and then take orders for prints. She had totally forgotten what type of camera equipment she had.

Well, being the curious sort that I am I took the case down and laid everything out in the floor. I was shocked, she had a goldmine of all kinds of photography equipment. I found two Pentax 35mm film cameras. Plus, all different kinds of lens. I found a telephoto lens that will go up to 300mm and a 24mm wide angle lens.

There were several other lenses in between. If only I could make them work on my digital camera I’d have it made. Well, I guess I’m going to have to take some film pictures now that I have access to all this equipment. A little more study required, but I’ll bet it will be worth it.

Steve McArthur
www.PhotoZoomy.com
Camera Equipment
Photo Editing Software

Photography – The Bride’s Elegance

Writen by Michael Russell

The elegance and style of bridal portraits should evoke the natural beauty of the woman in the bridal gown, rather than have the look of a replaceable head pasted onto a wedding dress. Capturing detail in the gown is important, but it shouldn’t override the person wearing it. With this in mind, approach the bridal formals by doing a number of poses, including a full-length shot, a medium shot with and without bouquet, and a head and shoulders shot with the veil.

When doing a full-length shot, pick up the train of the gown slightly and let it fall naturally. Don’t cut the gown off at the bottom of the image – let it be a curving design element. Also, don’t fuss with the gown other than giving it a delicate flow; too many times gowns are made to look like elaborate braids that twist and snarl around a bride’s feet.

The bouquet is an excellent prop for bridal formals. It should be held slightly above the waist in a natural, graceful way. Remember to have flowing lines in both the body and the dress and to have the arms bent in such a way that no hard angles or horizontal lines intrude on the grace of the picture. If the hands are showing, “break” the wrist for a flowing look. Also, don’t have the bride standing flat-footed, facing the camera squarely. Instead have her bend her body naturally, shifting her weight to one or the other leg.

Avoid the “passport” look and watch for a diamond design created by head, body and arms. If you use the bouquet in a medium distance or close-up shot, put it in focus if the bride is looking at it. Let it go slightly soft if it’s just being used as a design element or splash of color in the lower part of the frame.

One of the chief sources for an unacceptable bridal portrait is the burnt-out look created by the gown reflecting too much light in comparison with the rest of the tones in the picture. This may cause under-lighting on the subject’s face, but in order to get good skin tones in printing, the detail in the dress is lost. Be very careful with your lighting ratios.

One way to avoid the problem is to keep the main source of light away from the bride’s gown. Have the woman turn to the side and have her head turn in toward the light source.

If you’re using artificial light, feather the light across the subject rather than have it blast directly on to the gown.

Most bridal formals benefit from the use of a light vignetter or diffuser on the lens. The veil at the top of the frame and the gown or bouquet at the bottom serve as beautiful borders. Slight diffusion might also be desirable, depending on the light source and the subject. Natural light through diffusing curtains can create an excellent light in which to shoot bridals, although you should be careful of too strong a light source.

If the scene seems to have too much contrast, move the bride further away from the window, thus decreasing the intensity of light striking the gown.

Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Photography

How To Photograph Babies & Toddlers – Indoors & Out

Writen by Amy Renfrey

Digital Photography is one of the best and most fun activities to do. And this especially applies to children. And the younger, the more your digital photography really means something. Your digital photography almost becomes a necessity when you have children and want to photograph them. But just how do you get the ‘ideal’ digital photos of toddlers and babies? And how do professional photographers do it? What’s their secret?

Firstly the number one secret is to create an environment whereby the young child is playing, or is feeling happy and relaxed. This can mean setting up lots of toys at home on the living room floor, or if you are in a social situation (Saturday afternoon bbq for example) then perhaps interacting with other children or their own activities are the base starters for getting beautiful digital photos of your children.

Secondly you need to address lighting issues in digital photography. This applies to digital photography with toddlers and babies especially because they move (in artistic photographic terms) so fast. Let’s talk about this, because this is a really important point.

At home, you will be faced with indoor lighting. Indoor lighting in digital photography and toddlers and babies is a little tricky, because the kids move fast your shutter may not give you good, clear pictures because of the low light. To compensate for the low light inside the flash might cause a problem- it might be too bright and distracting. And the point is not to distract them- you want as relaxed and natural as possible. A bright flash going off in their small eyes can be overwhelming.

Make sure you have as much light as possible. Turn the over-head light on, place them under a window with sunlight coming in, and even use a standing lamp if necessary. Then adjust the shutter to a setting that allows for fast movement. And use the flash only if you have to.

Digital photography outside is not so bad, but it does have its problems too due to hard light. In case you are unfamiliar with the term, hard light means harsh, sharp sunlight that creates dark shadows, leaving a stark contrast between light and shadow in the one digital photo. In this case it can feel like its impossible to get any even, balance light over the scene.

Here’s a pointer to combat this:

If your child is outside with the sun behind them playing on a rug, for example, you’ll find the camera makes them look too dark, or the light around them blaringly bright. In this case you can let the camera create the darker shadows and use the flash on a low setting so the flash can fill in the darker areas. This is commonly known as “flash-fill”. It’s just a word meaning the flash lights up the shadowed areas. In an outside situation the flash won’t be as bright or distracting because it won’t feel as intense to the child, but do try to not over do it.

Last, but most definitely not least, you’ll need to work out what type of picture you want to create. If you want a fairly emotional picture that shows how beautiful they are, then decide on a fairly close angle. This means filling the frame. “Filling the frame” is a word that simply means; “don’t have any irrelevant, things in the photo that distract the eye.”

So there are a few things to think about with your digital photography. If you want to know more how to get clear digital photos with lots of sharp detail just go to www.digitalphotographysuccess.com