Learning digital photography basics can help you take way better picturs FAST! Digital nature photography combines the best of the enduring beauty of the great outdoors, with the instant ability to see your image in the blink of an eye. What would have taken us days using film, takes only seconds with digital. You can even trash your mistakes, and not worry about wasting film.
I remember a few years ago when I got my first digital camera. At the time it was state of the art – a 3 megapixel Olympus 3030 Zoom! Wow.
Back in those days, point and shoot cameras were really the only option, because digital SLRs cost tens of thousands of dollars. But with the rapid advance of this technology, inexpensive and highly refined digital nature photography is now accessible to almost anyone who has the desire to get out in the open to capture those fleeting flashes of Mother Nature at her best…and worst!
So don’t be disappointed. If you’re looking for clear, easy to understand information about how to get the MOST from your digital camera, to learn the digital photography basics first, to take those heart-rendering photos, you’ll find it all here.
If you are just starting out, and wondering about megepixels, zoom, and how to e-mail and print your photos, you’ll find hundreds of easy, techniques among the digital photography basics right here.
Most everyone I talk to, from folks buying their first ever camera, to seasoned pros, have tons of questions about the weird word of digital nature photography.
In fact, I was at a seminar last week, with a whole room full of professional photographers, and every single one of them, that I spoke to, had questions, problems, concerns and fears about digital photography.
As a professional, digital changes everything! How do you deal with “negs,” what is “ethical” with respect to the degree of manipulation of a scene? How to adapt your workflow to ensure maximum productivity?
From integrating production methods into your workflow, to how big you can print, this section of the site covers most everything you ever wanted to know about digital photography basics to master digital nature photography.
It is tremendously exciting advancement for us all and the digital format opens us a whole new array of possibilities for CREATIVE photography, especially nature photography.
My mind is always racing as I think of new places to photograph, new ways to manipulate the images and new opportunities to share my experiences. Sure there are disadvantages to digital too, and we’ll cover them here as well.
Helping to Take the Byte out of Megapixels!
What you really need to know about megapixels – digital camera basics
In film photography, tiny particles of a chemical called silver halide are embedded in the film on an emulsion. They turn colour when exposed to light. So your final film image is made up of very fine specks of this silver stuff.
Instead of film, images in a digital camera are captured on an electronic sensor – the CCD, which is short for charge coupled device. (Some newer cameras use a device called a CMOS, but more about that later!) The CCD is contains light sensitive elements (pixels) that capture your image and store it on a memory card or "digital film" as some people call it.
The sensor/CCD is responsible for two very important aspects of your final photograph – the angle of view and the size of your final image.
Typical CCDs are smaller than 35mm film, so HOW you see your image through the lens or viewfinder will NOT be the same as with a 35 mm camera. The area of coverage in your photo will be different than with a 35 mm camera, and because the sensor is smaller in a digial camera, your image may not be as crisp when you enlarge it to an equivalent 35 mm size.
So you can now understand how critical a part of the digital camera the CCD can be!
More Digital Photography Basics: Resolution, Pixels and Image Size
The most important thing for digital photography basics is the CCD size, or in techno talk, “resolution.” This is just a fancy term for how detailed an image you can get from the CCD sensor. CCDs come in an assortment of sizes. This size will influence the quality of your images, so depending on what the main purpose of your photographs will be, you’ll want a CCD that can deliver.
Of all the digital photography basics, Resolution is what causes everyone the most confusion. This is where the MEGAPIXELS come in. Megapixels tell you how big the CCD is. You’ve seen cameras with 3 megapixels, 5 megapixels, 6.1 megapixels and some now even consumer level cameras have 10 or more megapixels! Basically, the bigger the number of megapixels, the higher the resolution, and the more your photograph can be magnified (printed) without seeing any degradation.
For example, if you are only going to use your digital camera to take photos to share with friends and family over the Internet or on the Web, you won’t require a huge CCD with lots of megapixels. To view great quality pictures on a monitor, your resolution only needs to be about 72 pixels per inch (ppi), so you'll need fewer megapixels.
But if you want to blow your photos up to 11 X 16 to frame and hang on your walls, you’ll need a bigger CCD for more resolution (more megapixels).
Easy as pie, right? Right!
Digital Camera Resolution: Demystifying the Hype
Digital Camera Resolution Explained!
While analyzing any camera, one of the most important qualities of a photograph that a person seeks, is digital camers resolution. This word itself needs a brief discussion before progressing onto its implication upon a digital camera.
This is a word that seems to almost every new photographer as a nightmare. With all the myths and irrelevant information circulating all around, this is quite common.
This however is an effort to clear those misty myths and provide good information for everyone. Without any complexity, generally a photograph, either viewed on the screen or printed, is composed of infinitesimal dots (called pixels). The greater amount of these dots that can fit per inch of space, the smaller the dots and the sharper the image. This is the basis of understanding ... resolution!
Considering an image at 100 dots per inch that is one square inch in size. It is comprised of 100 X 100 pixels. Now changing this image four-times to four square nches. This image is quite clear. Now the same 100 X 100 dots exist, but with only 25 dots per inch. The appearance becomes grainy.
This is the factor know as resolution that determines this quality of image. Hence it can now be interpreted by any person what the importance of resolution is and where it is required in the filed of photography.
While purchasing a digital camera, resolution is a very important factor to take into account when settling upon buying a particular one.
Digital camera resolution comes in as megapixels. A megapixel is composed of one million pixels. The greater the number of megapixels, the greater becomes the standard of quality of the photograph or picture.
As a standard, one megapixel is the minimum bottom line below which a digital camera must not be usually purchased. This is a general decided value for any amateur photographers also, and the exact value of higher megapixels is not a concern for people who do not intend to print the photographs.
In an effort to scrutinize the pixels in an image out of sheer anxiety, a person can magnify the display in a photo editor, like a little magnifying glass, and they become very much visible!
Digital camera resolution decides the ultimate the future of the hard copy of a photograph being taken, whether a digital camera or a conventional camera. A print from a high-resolution photograph hallenges anything produced from a chemical film camera.
However a low-resolution image print of a photograph is quite appalling with fine details and restrained color transitions absent resulting from too few pixels. Thus digital camera resolution can spoil an entire effort to freeze a memorable moment.
Thus it is so vital. As a general rule a minimum of 200 pixels are required for each linear inch of a print. However, some printers get better results with 300 pixels per-inch of resolution.
The above discussion has brought into light a lot of relevant information regarding resolution and its application in the digital camera and photography. Also in the concluding lines it can only be stated for digital camera ... resolution is the real soul!
About the author: Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.snapjunky.com.
- This article was printed with permission from Alexandra Morrison, who is a professional nature photographer, digital artist and publisher of the Nature-Photography-Central web site.
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