BCI Photo Club
Choosing A Digital Camera
Digital Cameras
Digital cameras have become more than simply replacements for 35-mm cameras, however. They can be used for taking videos as well as still photos by upgrading the camera’s memory card to increase storage capacity, allowing them to replace the old VHS recorder as well.
While enjoying significant popularity on their own, digital cameras have also become integrated within a large number of other hand-held tools, such as PDAs and cell phones. Technology now allows these devices to incorporate a digital camera within them, making the use of both devices much more functional and convenient.
Many brands of digital cameras are available today with a wide range of features. All the big camera names of the past, Kodak, Nikon, Canon, etc., offer everything from 35-mm to digital products. Even companies better known for the computer products, such as Panasonic, Sony, and HP, are now offering digital cameras in their product lines.
Digital Camera Considerations
Digital cameras differ from conventional cameras by having a small LCD screen, sometimes including a viewfinder. This screen is similar to a TV screen, allowing the user to better see the picture before snapping it. Some have screens large enough to include much more of the subject and background than has ever been possible before.
Instead of film, these devices have slots to hold a memory card or “stick.” The amount of memory available within any device can be measured along a range of megabytes to gigabytes, depending on how much you’re willing to spend. Getting a camera with more memory means spending more money, but the extra storage capacity can be worth it.
Another feature to consider before purchasing is the type of battery used. While some units feature disposable batteries, the more expensive cameras use rechargeable batteries for longer energy life. Disposable batteries typically wear out quickly, while a charger is generally bundled with those cameras using rechargeable batteries.
Another consideration when considering which model to purchase is how the pictures are downloaded. Most digital cameras have a USB port to allow easy connectivity to a computer, but some require removal of the memory card and using a reader to download pictures into a computer.
Digital Camera Features
Those considering purchasing their first digital camera should at least know the basic features of an individual camera before spending a lot of money. While snapping a picture is basically the same in all cameras, there are many other features that will influence your decision. The number of megapixels used when taking a picture should be among the top concerns. Megapixels represent the number of pixels, or dots, that make up the picture. The more pixels used in a photo, the greater the clarity will be. Cameras that utilize a greater number of pixels are capable of producing better resolution over a larger image, but these pictures require much more memory space for storage.
Another important feature to consider in a digital camera is the zoom feature. The terms to be familiar with are optical zoom, which utilizes a moving lens and brings the image forward to make it appear closer, and digital zoom, which is used to crop and stretch the image. Most digital cameras have two-zoom capability.
The last feature this article will discuss is the durability of the camera’s case. Many buyers don’t consider this as important, but camera cases made mostly of plastic are relatively fragile. Some camera cases are made from a combination of metal alloy and plastic that is more durable and can sustain more jarring without allowing internal damage, although neither option can guarantee your camera’s safety. It’s better to spend a little more for a case that will better protect your investment.
Lighting For Digital Cameras
Digital photography concerns photographs in hundreds of thousands, or millions of tiny square picture elements, “pixel.” Computers and printers use these minute pixels to display photograph images. It’s compared to a painter who dabs small bits of paint on subject he expressed in canvas.
Determining color and brightness is processed thru number-value counts of grid pixel from the digital photograph prints, after computer divides the screen and print page into grid pixels. Controlling grid of each pixel this way is bit mapping, and “bit-maps” are the produced digital images.
Purchasing a digital camera starts to digital photography. Hundreds are available but the best digital cameras run down to a few top feature cost brands, guaranteed to produce best quality results with complete lighting kits.
Combining passion in portrait photography skills, computer software applications, and digital technology completes the elements of digital photography. Putting into photos the perfect touch of light distribution and color is essential to a successful print copy.
Taking pictures in most cases does not focus on the subject always. It’s up for the photographer to apply a situation best suited to time and place of photo sessions.
Manipulating control of lights is done either ways: under the direct heat of the sun, or in the interior of a closed dark room. A seasoned digital photographer can do both, finishing photos of standard quality.
Capturing Light Effectively
1. Direct Sunlight – The mid-day sun creates shadows immediately underneath a certain subject. Set some modifications to control bright sunlight in facing the reality, you can’t move the sun from its axis.
Dark shadows that bounce beneath developed the harsh “raccoon” image on the subjects’ face, an ill effect-results of the whole process. If it can’t be avoided, placing a reflectors underneath the subject’s chin, takes instant neutralizing effects of unpleasant shadow, could lighten intensity.
Other reflectors could cause eyes to be watery. Recourse is to use a white poster board also providing enough light to the shadowed face. Avoiding direct sunlight and be devoid from eye squinting that destroys beautiful facial expressions, is a shift to some shaded place with likewise shaded background. Bright backgrounds could result on the iris’ automatically turning the subject to silhouette form in effort to compensate the bright effect of the sun.
2. Orange Color – The hues of dawn and near twilight, best “peak setting” in photography. For best results in lighting about digital photos, do your shooting just after sunrise or just before sunset (at daytime and dusk, Orange disappears), when the color of orange around makes everything look better.
Your computer represents the dark room in digital photography, mediating to take the tasks necessary on adjustments you wish to achieve of images input after photograph sessions.
Necessitates cropping, working on brightness, contrast, and color adjustments. You can add special effects in frames and shadowing to create a unique dimensional appearance, taught in multi-task image editing software.
