![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
The Paradigm: Going Digital
As you might imagine the paradigm shift from traditional film-based photography to digital is rapidly creating new opportunities to learn and grow. The photography industry is moving at an incessant pace, and digital cameras sales have surpassed their film-based cousin at an alarming rate each year. On January 16, 2004, Eastman Kodak announced it would end its sales of film cameras in the United States and on June 15, 2005, Kodak announced it will discontinue production of black-and-white photographic paper by the end of the year as it continues its transition to digital photography. Soon digital cameras will hit critical mass and film will only represent a minute segment of the industry. Traditionalists are disappointed, and amateur and advanced film photographers alike are pondering the inevitable question - how can I learn this new digital camera technology in shortest amount of time? The differentiator between a traditional 35mm film camera and digital cameras is how the pictures are captured, processed, and stored. A conventional camera exposes an image on a roll of silver-halide coated film. A digital camera captures an image on a photosensitive silicon computer chip called a charged couple device, also known as a CCD. The camera converts the image captured by the chip into digital data and saves it in a camera's memory as a digital photo. These photos can then be copied onto your computer's hard drive where you can email, edit, and save them. ASSESS YOUR INTERESTS The immediacy of digital is quite satisfying and may present you with opportunities to photograph subjects that perhaps you had not thought of due to the financial constraints of film and development costs prior to taking on this new digital experience. It is important to assess what peaks your interest, i.e. sports, nature, medical, macro, people and lifestyle, etc. Brainstorm and narrow your equipment selection to suit your current and future photographic needs and budget. CAMERA SELECTION Just as with traditional film cameras, digital cameras come in two offerings: point and shoot, and digital single lens reflex (DSLR). Both types of camera use flash memory cards ("digital film") to store images and are immediately available for viewing through the camera's rear liquid crystal display (LCD). Point and Shoot Point-and-shoot cameras are extremely affordable and remain popular in current market conditions. These cameras are easy to use, give outstanding results, and for all practical purposes are compact. Point-and-shoot cameras mainly offer a limited feature set, offering mostly automatic features such as: auto flash, auto exposure, and the camera selects the shutter speed and aperture for you. Family gatherings and vacations are ideal for point and shoot cameras. The corporate world also uses point and shoot cameras for company newsletters, web sites, and business functions. Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) Digital SLR cameras offer photographers the ability to use interchangeable lenses and accessories, which give the photographer greater artistic control and flexibility. DSLR cameras allow photographers to visually check image sharpness and composition. The effects of changing lenses, changing exposure values, and viewing the camera's histogram are immediately visible in the LCD viewfinder and/or eye viewer. There are many advantages of using DSLR digital cameras. They can handle a variety of lighting and focusing situations unlike point and shoot cameras. DSLR cameras offer optical zoom as opposed to just digital zoom, which essentially crops pixel data and will add unwanted noise to an image. IMPORTANT TIPS ? Look for cameras that can save files in RAW. Saving your image as a RAW file will provide you with a higher quality image to work from in post processing. Images shot in RAW remain uncompressed, unlike JPEG images. Through repetitive opening/closing of JPEG files image -- image degradation occurs. ? Equally important is finding a camera with a minimal amount of shutter lag. It can be rather frustrating with some of the point and shoot cameras available when there is a long lag between clicking the shutter and the camera taking the shot. Choose a camera with a large buffer memory. This allows a number of images to be continually snapped before stopping to allow them to be downloaded and processed. ? Digital camera quality and the size of the created images are continually rising. As a general rule you will need at least 1800 x 1400 pixels (2.5 mega pixels) to print up to 6 x 4 inch with good quality. To date recommendations include the Canon Rebel XT (8.0 Mega Pixels), Canon EOS 20D, Nikon D70 and so on. Based on the previous tips, there are two resources that will enable you to read professional reviews as well as real-world user feedback on various types of digital cameras presently available in the marketplace. Steve's Digicams http://www.steves-digicams.com and Digital Photography Review http://www.dpreview.com DIGITAL FILM: FLASH MEMORY Manufacturers of cameras ,namely Canon, Olympus, and Sony use memory cards that are usually not compatible with one another. Canon uses compact flash cards and/or IBM micro drives. A micro drive is similar to a compact flash card, but it was formerly recognized for its larger capacity. Olympus uses an xD Picture card and smart media card, and finally there's Sony. Sony uses a memory stick. File formats generated by flash memory for digital cameras are RAW, TIFF, JPEG (pronounced 'J-peg'). RAW being a memory intensive format uses several megabytes of data on a memory card and does not compress the image at all. Both RAW and TIFF are known as 'lossless' file formats because compression algorithms are absent, thus giving the photographer more pixel data and better image quality. However, since RAW is not as widely recognized as JPEG in the photography marketplace, special conversion software is necessary to convert images from RAW to TIFF or JPG. Some camera manufacturers include RAW conversion software with their higher end point-and-shoot and DSLR cameras, but it is not as great as some RAW applications developed by cutting edge companies such as PhaseOne, a Danish company that markets an outstanding product called Capture One DSLR. It is made specifically for photographers that wish to process RAW files. For a complete primer on flash memory cards, visit the following links: Primer: Flash Memory http://www.steves-digicams.com/flash_memory.html Finally, once you determine which camera you plan to use, there are peripherals you might want to consider to round off your purchase. First, if you intend to take a lot of family photographs and wish to print photographs for friends and family, then a color photo printer is a must. There are low-to-high end printers. Get something in between. Needless to say, the printer is only as good as the paper you print your images on. Read the manufacturer's recommendations and check the online forums on dpreview.com to learn who is having success with a particular brand of paper. Interestingly enough, another peripheral that will save battery life on your camera is a compact flash card reader. It plugs into your USB port and permits you to download your images by inserting a memory card in it. This is preferred over downloading from your camera/cable because your camera's battery juice will quickly render your camera's battery dead, especially if you are downloading several hundred photographs. The memory card reader acts as an auxiliary drive. Just make sure you get a memory card reader specifically made for your type of memory card and that it can handle a high capacity card such, i.e. 4GB (Gigabyte) flash card. In closing, it is important to determine your budget for all of your photographic needs before you start spending. Whether a hobby or soon to be home-based business, your photographic equipment can quickly add up in price. It is not uncommon to spend thousands of dollars after the digital photography bug bites you. Ryan Shapiro is a freelance digital photographer based in Germantown, Maryland. His most recent clients include Kerrigan Media International and Harvard Graduate School of Education. You may reach Mr. Shapiro at: http://www.digitalstockpro.com
MORE RESOURCES: Can Harman Phoenix II Beat Kodak in Film Photography? The Phoblographer Our go-to lenses for wildlife photography in 2025 Live Science Why Are We Doing Film Photography Again? Fstoppers Arles photography review: have photographs lost their power? Financial Times ‘Funny Business: Photography and Humor’ Review: A Lighter Lens at the Phoenix Art Museum The Wall Street Journal Saint Xavier Photography Students Go Off the Grid — and Into the Gallery Southwest Regional Publishing I will never find home: A Sudanese photographer’s wartime journey The New Humanitarian Book uncovers WWII era photographer’s treasure trove Las Cruces Bulletin The 4 Best Sony Cameras for Travel Photography The Phoblographer Another round of 4-H photography judging in the books Southeast Iowa Union HARMAN Phoenix II Announced: The Rebirth of Bold Color Film DIYPhotography The life and times of Dennis Morris, the man behind some of music’s most iconic photographs It's Nice That Why the PolarPro Warp Filter Save Photography from AI The Phoblographer The Rise of China in the Photography World The Phoblographer 6 Photographers Unveil the Hidden Realities of Depression The Phoblographer Box Factory exhibit features upcycling, photography, poetry The Herald Palladium Military first as woman appointed to lead senior men's rugby team after Inter Service triumph Forces News Photography Exhibit at Naugatuck's Whittemore Memorial Library PrimePublishers.com Open for Business: Morgan Spry Photography KOLO | 8 News Now Dianne Rozak talks photography, birds and the Marblehead Lighthouse with park visitors thebeacon.net The Gear You Need to Take Epic Travel Photos, According to a Professional Photographer Sunset Magazine Art Beat: iPhone photography Pierce County Journal The Elusiveness in the Shots of Andrea Jean Varraud Collater.al Magazine Shiho Fukada National Geographic Charlie Stein: Life Without Art Sleek Magazine ‘I was censored for a long time’: the woman who photographed Chile’s sex workers and dissidents The Guardian SHUTTERBUGS--"Blur/Obscure /Distort: Photography and Perception" at the Norton Museum of Art Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art How can a photo be abstract? In new exhibit, four photographers weigh in Lookout Eugene-Springfield Take advantage of these 6 Maine hidden gems in your smartphone photography The Portland Press Herald The First Photograph Ever Taken (1826) Open Culture The photographer’s eye The Inquirer and Mirror Gabe Rene Photography launches photo rescue project dailytimes.com Marin resident photographs pets for personal cause Marin Independent Journal Wellcome Photography Prize 2025: When photography meets science, health and the human experience Yahoo Photographer Guy Harvey to host talk on ‘Fairfield Iconic’ exhibit Southeast Iowa Union Are You on the Social Media Platforms That Offer the Best Online Experience for the Photographer? Fstoppers Photographer Paz Errázuriz — a view from the margins of Chile Financial Times Photography exhibit is a celebration of biodiversity Bucks County Herald newspaper DIVE’s Big Shot Living Together – THE WINNERS! DIVE Magazine “Dark Clarity” Photography by Tobias Meier L'Officiel Austria Ron McQueeney, Longtime IMS Photographer, Dies at 80 Indianapolis Motor Speedway Oppo and Hasselblad extend their mission to redefine camera phone photography by promising the "next generation of mobile imaging" Digital Camera World London Wellcome Photography Prize 2025 The Killeen Daily Herald Celebrating Humanity, Stubbornly, at Europe’s Photography Mecca The New York Times Review | When photography was born, fascination, obsession and danger followed - The Washington Post Review | When photography was born, fascination, obsession and danger followed The Washington Post National Motorsport Week Photography Competition Winner… Motorsport UK Is Sigma Working on a Dedicated Lens for Bird Photography? The Phoblographer LA Is a Paradise VICE Let Inga Tell You: How a family of inept photographers helped spur a lifelong passion San Diego Union-Tribune What our photographers saw on Wednesday, July 16 Inquirer.com These Portrait Photography Presets are Simple to Use The Phoblographer The 4 Best Travel Photography Cameras to Purchase in 2025 The Phoblographer Photographer, Florist in Benefit for Preemies The SandPaper Pick Your Own Flowers & Photography June 28-Frost Collegiate Times reFocus 2025 Color Photography Winners Redefine What It Means to See in Full Spectrum DIYPhotography Spirituality, Nature, and Performance Converge in Victoria Ruiz’s Vibrant Photographs thisiscolossal.com Visual warrior: Greene uses photography as a truth-teller The Circle News |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
RELATED ARTICLES
Creating Personalized Photo Calendars About Personalized Photo Calendars:Photo Calendars are 12-month, wall-hanging calendars that you can create using your own digital photos and captions. As you customize your own photo calendar, you can start the calendar on whatever month and year you wish. CCTV Camera Tip: Apply Simple Common Sense when Picking CCTV Cameras and Lenses Get a good face shot: Use Higher quality cameras at entry areas.Doors, gates and other entry areas need a good quality, high resolution camera to record a good 'face shot. Black & White Photography Photography is a diversified field of creating a spectral variety of art. It is a specialization that deals with different experimentations with colors, however it is also a fact that only shades of black and white can also do wonders in this zone of creative art. Better Photos with Your Digital Camera Everyone has a digital camera today and we all take a lot of photos. But if your photos still have trees coming out of your father's head, mom has red eye, and your beloved pet is never facing the camera then here are some tips to help you take better photos. Imperfect Photos And How You Can Fix Them So your picture came out less then perfect. Blemishes or wrinkles, red eyes and wrong color balance - you can fix it all without having to learn or pay for Adobe Photoshop. Digital Zoom Versus Optical Zoom The digital camera is but a technological advancement of the conventional analog camera. And thus every component of the analog camera must have been upgraded or changed to bring in some improvisations. Kodak CX7300 Digital Camera Quality digital cameras are becoming affordable for just about everyone these days. Kodak's entry into the low cost end of the market is their CX7300 3. Where to Find Cheap Disposable Cameras There are many kinds of disposable cameras. All disposable cameras are already inexpensive, but there are some that are even more of a bargain than others. Basics of Photography Understanding light is one of the very basic principles of learning to be a photographer. When you have a group of people in front of you with smiling faces ready for you to say 'cheese' or if you are taking a shot of a scenic area, the most important consideration is the light factor. Underwater Photography: The Wonders Under the Sea The world of photography is an amazing one. It's been with us for quite a while now but it is constantly changing. Photography 101 Part 3 ContentEven if you feel that you already know what kind of photography you like to do, it's always a good idea to try your talent at different aspects of photography.Pictorial, this is a general term but it applies to any photographer who's goal is simply to create beautiful photos. Photography Business: Taking Baby Photos - for Professionals & Families Babies make the best and the worst subjects to photograph. They are the best for two reasons, people are more tolerant at looking at baby photos, as well as the fact that babies are not aware their image is being captured, and therefore they do not tend to put on the "camera face" so typically used by elder children and adults. Entering the World of Digital Video Cameras Gone are the days when you would need to employ a professional to take a video for your business projects. Whether you need it to provide training to your employees or students, you can do it yourself with the help of a digital video camera. Digital Camera Printers The digital camera is not meant only for capturing images and storing them on the computer memory disks. The real effect comes from the hard copy of those fantastic images taken by the users, that is the printed photographs! In order to get the printer copy of the images a very important device necessary is the printer. To Camcorder Enthusiasts: What Does Reality TV Really Mean? - Great News for the Camcorder User! Reality TV is experiencing an upsurge in popularity and its presence has conditioned the public's acceptance of a number of things: That lead actors being trained and polished 'performers' is no longer a necessity. Camcorder movement. Types of Digital Cameras If you are in the market to purchase a digital camera, you have surely seen several different types of cameras. It isnt exactly clear what the differences between the types are, and it can be confusing trying to choose the digital camera thats right for you. The Advantages of Underwater Camera Housing You will need an underwater camera housing to keep your valuable camera dry. This is a very important piece of equipment. The Benefits of Underwater Digital Cameras Underwater digital cameras are fun and easy to use under the water and great above the water as well. Use your underwater digital camera in all kinds of weather, for many activities and in a variety of locations that could be either wet or wild. What Should You Look for in a New Camera? These parameters are discussed at 2 levels: -Based on degree of functional use of available features -Based on the type of photography you want to attempt -->Based on degree of functional use of available features A person who is happy with his or her camera model usually responds with the following words of praise. 'Incredible ease of use' 'User-friendly controls' 'Intelligently and thoughtfully designed' 'Excellent value for money' 'Light and compact' These are the kind of terms that you will come across from camera owners who are satisfied with their camera models. Start Up a Travel Photography Business Too many people have the idea that being paid to take photographs of exotic places is the ideal job. It may take years of effort to be paid by magazines such as the National Geographic, but are there better ways to become a travel photographer. ![]() |
home | site map |
© 2006 KeralaClick.com |