digital photography basics

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Digital Photography Basics – The Three Must Know Secrets To Taking Amazing Pictures

April 19th, 2011

If a picture is a thousand words, a great picture is a million. Pictures can capture life’s most precious moments. As you probably know, digital photography in particular has become the method of choice for photographers because of convenience, more advanced technology, and lesser cost in film and developing. Like any learned skill however, there are a set of basic skills that one must master to be able to capture those great moments. In this article we will explore three digital photography basics you must learn to taking amazing pictures.

The first basic is: know your camera controls. Just like a carpenter needs to know his tools to be able to know which one to use for a particular job, so does a photographer need to be familiar with and know the controls of his camera. The first ones you need to know about are the shutter speed, aperture, and the preset camera modes. Your owner’s manual is the first place to learn about these controls, where they are on your camera and how to adjust them.

The shutter speed setting determines how fast the shutter of your camera opens and closes. The slower the speed the more time your digital sensor is exposed to light and vice versa. The aperture setting works with the shutter speed. It’s an opening inside the camera lens that you can set to control the amount of light that passes through the lens. The bigger the opening the more light passes through. The smaller the opening the less light. The aperture along with the type of lens you use and the distance of your subject to the lens also controls the depth of field. This is the setting you will use to get those nice looking blurry backgrounds for portraits or sharply focused landscape shots. The preset camera modes are modes programmed into most cameras for specific type shots. The shutter speed and aperture are automatically selected in those modes so that you only have to turn a dial and point and shoot. These modes are convenient when starting out or when you don’t have much time to set up a shot.

The next skill to master in photography is composition. Like composing a piece of music, composition is how you compose or put an image together. The decisions that you will have to make that affect composition are things like depth of field, which was mentioned previously, where to center your subject, using an imaginary grid to frame a shot (also known as rule of thirds) to call attention to specific areas of a picture, taking the shot vertically or horizontally, or having the subject look at the camera or away. This is a skill that with time and practice will allow you to develop an “eye” for composing a shot and in short time you will be able to skillfully put amazing pictures together.

The last skill we will be covering is lighting and color. This particular skill is what either makes or kills a shot. Lighting is the most important aspect of photography. As a matter of fact, photography is just the recording and capturing of light. Therefore, it makes sense that how we control the amount of light and how we add additional light when needed, is crucial in capturing those timeless moments. The first thing to understand when it comes to lighting is your camera’s light meter. This tool in your camera takes into account your shutter speed and aperture and tells you what amount of light will reach your camera. With this tool you can determine whether you need to under expose (decrease the light) or over expose (add light) to your image. You will need to use the light meter in conjunction with the shutter speed and aperture speed to set the exposure that you want for a particular shot. Other tools to control the lighting available to photographers are reflectors and fill flashes. With these additional tools you have everything you need to control the light in your image and turn an otherwise average photo spectacular.

When you learn the basic skills of photography you will position yourself to learn more advanced photography methods. By learning about camera controls, composition, and lighting, and applying them you will be well on your way to creating amazing pictures that you and others will enjoy for years to come.

By: Kay Porter

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Tags: Cameras

Learning Digital Photography

April 19th, 2011

If you believed that learning digital photography would be hard or take years to master, I am here to tell you that neither idea is true.

This editorial will show you some basic tips that should prove that learning digital photography techniques are quick and simple. Also, your photographs will get better from the very first click of the shutter.

This first tip positively proves why learning digital photography is so simple. It is used in art in general, not only for photography. Do not let its simpleness fool you, it is very powerful. This simple tip has refined my photographs the most.

This tip is known by the phrase “the rule of thirds”. Most people and I am included, will take a photograph and the subject is in the center of the frame. To create a better photograph, move the subject off center.

Here is how it works, look through the view finder and with your mind, create a tic, tac toe grid that divides the screen into 9 equal squares. If the subject is centered on one of the four places where the lines intersect, the photograph should improve greatly and have stronger composition. I call these the power points. Believe it or not, it is that easy. And you thought that learning digital photography would be hard.

One more issue that I use to have, similar to putting the subject in the middle of the photograph, is the angle. This tip requires rotating the camera. Rotate the horizon to turn it from flat to angled.. If you want to make the photograph more interesting, you should tilt the camera and “boom” the picture has more character. What angle you ask? Try it at a lot of varied angles and see which one is best. Remember that every photo is unique.

When taking pictures using a tilted angle, it creates an off balance effect and shows something that they were not expecting. It takes the real world and distorts it slightly. It surprises the viewer.

The most important thing that I stress about learning digital photography is practice. Similar to learning to play an instrument, the way to get better is to practice.

These are a few simple tips to help make learning digital photography simple and fast.

By: Russell Roberds

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If you believed that learning digital photography would be hard or take years to master, I am here to tell you that neither idea is true. Do you like learning digital photography tricks? I have written even more articles to help your photography technique.

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Tags: Digital Photography Techniques

Digital Video – Basics

April 18th, 2011

Digital technology has significantly altered the way video is shot, processed, and edited. Standard analog video signals consist of smoothly varying voltage levels that closely mirror the original image. Digital technology, on the other hand, divides a signal into tiny segments of time and measures the quality of the signal within each segment. The segments and their measurements are expressed in binary digits, a complex series of positive (one) and null (zero) values. Binary digits are more easily processed than analog signals and can be copied without the generational loss of quality that occurs with analog signals.

Nowadays, is almost common knowledge to all digital video enthusiasts that digital technology in video often depends on converting analog signals to digital signals. Analog-to-digital converters and digital-to-analog converters accomplish these functions. Graphics may thus be created in the digital domain and integrated into an analog system.

There are four primary digital formats in use. Like analog video recording, digital video can be either component or composite. The D1 recording format, developed by Sony, and Ampex digital format, called DCT, both have separate Y, R-Y, and B-Y portions (component recordings). The D2 and D3 formats, developed respectively by Ampex and Panasonic, feature composite recording. Since the composite signal requires less processing, D2 and D3 are less expensive than D1, but D1 offers superior quality and is ideal for effects and graphics work. If all the editing equipment is kept in the D1 digital domain, hundreds of generations of copying can be performed with little signal degradation.

By: Willis J. Watson

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Willis J. Watson is a freelance writer since 2006, living in United States and he writes about his great passion…digital photography for about 4 years. If you want to read more informations about Digital Sports Photography and also read more reviews about Youth Sports Photography, you can check out his websites.

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Tags: Voltage Levels

Photography: Digital Cameras

April 18th, 2011

Taking photography as a hobby is as easy as picking up a camera and starts shooting but getting the camera before one can actually start can be pretty much a tough task. In simple terms, it will all come down to what one wants to do actually. What taste does a person have! These are some things which should be clear before one can start thinking about a camera. One easy way can be borrowing a camera from a friend or relative and playing with it for some days, going out and just taking pictures, to get a feeling for it and try figure out what he or she wants to do. But still, this might not come easy.

A digital camera is just like an analog camera but with a electronic photo-sensitive sensor instead of a film. It has a lens in the front with a sensor behind it, some mechanism (mechanical or electronic) to show a live picture to the user(so he/she can she where is the camera pointed at), some electronics for controlling the exposures and shutter speeds and settings and some buttons and controls to set these available settings.

There are literally thousands of digital cameras on the market nowadays. Tens of brands produce hundred of models. Cameras can be generally divided into two classes,which are:

Compact SLR (Single Lens Reflex)

A compact is any small, usually pocket size digital camera. It might be fixed focal length or might have a zoom, have an eye piece or may not and so on. They are small in size and can easily fit in a pocket. They have an advantage of size over the SLRs but they are generally very incapable. To a normal person their pictures might seem of very high quality but a trained eye will really tell how good the pictures really are. These camera, depending on the make and model are very limited with functions and options, e.g. an external flash cannot be normally added to a compact flash. Later on we’ll learn that an external flash is a necessity for low light photography and the on-board or built-in flash in not enough.

As its names suggests, everything on the compact camera is also compact, even the lens and the sensor behind it. The sensor is an analog component and as its size becomes smaller, the noise level it gives out on its signal becomes higher, they are inversely proportional. And this is one of the reasons, pictures from a compact will seem of low quality, they seem to have higher noise levels. If the camera is used in darkness, the camera will try to amplify the signal, as it does that it also amplifies the inherent noise in the signal which results in usually worse quality pictures in the dark. The lens on a compact suffers from the same size problem i.e. it has to be small to fit in the smaller camera body and it becomes harder to produce high quality optics in that size also. Plus when the lens is smaller, lesser amount of light will fall on the sensor, which then requires slower shutter speeds or signal amplification by the sensor.

SLR cameras on the other hand are bigger in size mainly because they house a prism to redirect the light through the lens to the optical eye piece. There is a mechanism inside it, which allows the light to fall on the image sensor when a picture is being taken. SLR are bigger in size and they house bigger, higher quality image sensors. As the sensors are bigger in size they produce lesser noise even when the light is low. SLR cameras provide much more manual settings and options for photography. External flash units can be used, a variety of lenses can be uses for different purposes which in case of the compact would not be possible. But this all comes with a price tag and some weight on ones shoulder.

In general, compacts vs. SLRs is a give and take situation. One would have to think about what he or she wants to do actually. Photography with a compact is fun but with an SLR its on completely different level.

By: Muhammad Sohail Khan

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Muhammad Sohail Khan
BE, MScEE
http://www.url-boost.com

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Tags: Exposures

Learning Digital Photography – Basic Tips

April 17th, 2011

You do not have to spend a fortune on the most sophisticated camera available. In fact, it is quite possible to take great pictures with an average digital camera. However, one area that should not be skimped on is media card.

It is a good idea to get the largest media card you can afford, as this will ensure that you never miss a shot. Typically, if you have a 3 mega pixel camera, it is advisable to use a memory card of at least 256MB. A 4 mega pixel camera, on the other hand, should have at least 512MB of memory and if you have 6 mega pixels or above, you should consider a 1GB media card.

In some situations, it may be prudent to invest in other pieces of equipment, such as a tripod. Of course, in the majority of circumstances tripods are a cumbersome nuisance. However, if you can afford to spend a little extra money, it is possible to find a lightweight, compact tripod that can be easily placed into a bag or even a pocket.

Tripods are particularly useful when taking shots of landscapes, flora and fauna. So, whether the tripod is a necessary part of your equipment will depend on your interests.

When it comes to taking digital pictures, be aware that you do not have to stick to the default or auto setting on your camera. In fact, this setting will not always produce the best shots.

Therefore, it is advisable to experiment with your settings regardless of the conditions. In other words, try using the flash outside even on bright days, check out the effect that using a cloudy setting has on the tone of your pictures. Try to remember which shots were taken with which settings, so you will be able to compare and contrast.

Remember that a large part of what separates mediocre photographs from great photographs is composition. In other words, where your subject is positioned in the frame, what is in the background of the shot, what is in the foreground etc.

However, this does not mean that the composition of your photographs has to be complicated. On the contrary, sometimes simplicity really is best. The best shots have something interesting and eye-catching about them.

When learning digital photography, the most important thing to remember is to take photographs and lots of them. The best way to discover which setting work best and how to capture an interesting composition is to practice.

One of the best features of a digital camera is that you can easily delete those shots that didn’t work out, so you’ve got nothing to lose by experimenting.

By: Joan Yankowitz

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You can easily grab our handy FREE Top Digital Photography Questions Guide, which will help you with many of your digital photography questions. Just Click Here.