Many point and shoot digital cameras offer both digital and optical zoom. These two often confuse the average camera buyer, until you know what you’re looking at.
Optical zoom works much like the zoom lens on a 35 mm film camera. It changes the length of your camera’s lens and draws the subject closer to you. The optical zoom keeps the quality of the picture. Digital zoom works differently. It simply takes the picture and crops it then enlarges the part that is left. It causes the quality of the photo to be reduced, sometimes greatly.
What this means in terms of output is you may have a larger view of an object with the digital zoom, but chances are your image will become unfocused. Details will become lost. It is actually best to turn off the digital zoom feature of your camera if possible. This will prevent you automatically zooming in too close as the digital zoom is often an extension of the optical.
There are a couple of things you can do if you want a closer view of a subject but want the quality of your picture to still be good. Try moving in closer when you take the picture. Often only a foot or two will do the trick. If this isn’t possible, you can set your camera to take a picture at its largest file size. This will result in a photo that can be cropped to include only your desired subject, yet allow for an image that is still clear.
Digital zoom has its place. It can be used if the only destiny of your photo is the internet. Photos online can be a much lower quality in the camera and still appear acceptable when sent through e-mail or posted on a web gallery. If your goal is printing, however, seek a camera that has a greater optical zoom and turn off the digital zoom. Your pictures will be better in the end, even if they are not as close up.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Black And White Digital Photography
There are several ways to achieve black and white digital photography. With black and white digital photography, you are bringing the end user back into a period of time when life seemed a lot simpler. Many digital cameras come equipped with a function to take these types of photos. If your digital camera does not support this function, you can still change your photographs into black and white with software programs.
You’ll want your black and white digital photography to look its best when you are finished. A technique that can help you get the best image out of your digital photograph is through image manipulation. You may find it better to convert your eight-bit colour images (which are usually jpegs) into 16-bit colours first. This is important because an 8-bit RGB can be the same as a 10-bit grayscale.
You can find information all over on the Internet to help you with your black and white digital photography. These resources can be found in everything from websites to magazines. Coloured pictures can look truly beautiful as a black and white display. You will usually have to convert your graphics, because although there are options with digital cameras, there are no true black and white digital cameras.
Correct the Colourcasts
An important part of black and white digital photography is correcting the colourcasts. These are caused by bad lighting, but you can use software such as PhotoShop Elements to make the relevant changes by using their editing applications. The Imaging Factory is also software that can help you to easily convert and fix lighting areas in your graphics to get the best look with your black and white digital photography. If you want to turn your graphics into black and white digital photography, you can step into a completely new dimension in photography. You can work through an endless array of projects right from your own computer.
You’ll want your black and white digital photography to look its best when you are finished. A technique that can help you get the best image out of your digital photograph is through image manipulation. You may find it better to convert your eight-bit colour images (which are usually jpegs) into 16-bit colours first. This is important because an 8-bit RGB can be the same as a 10-bit grayscale.
You can find information all over on the Internet to help you with your black and white digital photography. These resources can be found in everything from websites to magazines. Coloured pictures can look truly beautiful as a black and white display. You will usually have to convert your graphics, because although there are options with digital cameras, there are no true black and white digital cameras.
Correct the Colourcasts
An important part of black and white digital photography is correcting the colourcasts. These are caused by bad lighting, but you can use software such as PhotoShop Elements to make the relevant changes by using their editing applications. The Imaging Factory is also software that can help you to easily convert and fix lighting areas in your graphics to get the best look with your black and white digital photography. If you want to turn your graphics into black and white digital photography, you can step into a completely new dimension in photography. You can work through an endless array of projects right from your own computer.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
10 Tips To Better Photography
Taking a good photo isn’t as hard as you may think. You don’t need the most expensive camera or years of experience, just 10 simple tips.
Enjoy!
Tip 1 - Use All Of Your Available Space
Don't be afraid to use all the space in your photo. If you want to take a picture of something, it's ok for it to take up the whole shot with very little or no background showing. Keep distractions out of your shot
Tip 2 - Study Forms
This is a vital aspect to photography. Understanding forms in your photos. Don't see an object, see its shape and its form and find the best angle to photograph it from. Don't just walk up and shoot...anybody could do that. Form is all around us and I highly suggest you read as many books on it as possible.
Tip 3 - Motion In Your Photos
Never have motion in your photos if you are photographing a still object. If there is something moving while you are trying to photograph a stationery object, your photo won't turn out anywhere near as well. Also never put a horizon line in the center of your frame (unless your planned photo is art...because you can always break the rules, for art).
Tip 4 - Learn To Use Contrasts Between Colours.
Some of the best photos have shades of white, gray and black. You can take great shots with just one colour on your subject, but the contrasts between colours in a shot is what makes you a great photographer.
Tip 5 - Get Closer To Your Subject
This is one of the biggest mistakes most photographers make, not getting close enough to their subject. Get up close and personal, and close the distance gap. You can always reshape and resize a good shot but you can't continue to blowup a distant object.
Tip 6 - Shutter Lag
Shooting action shots with digital camera's can be tricky due to shutter lag. What this means is, when you press the button to take the photo, it can take up to a second for the shutter to take a photo, by that time what you were photographing would have moved on or somehow changed. This means you have to compensate for shutter lag by predicting what your subject is going to do and taking the photo just before it takes the action you want. More expensive digital cameras don't have this problem.
Tip 7 - Pan
If you are taking an action shot and your shutter speed is slow, pan with the object. Follow through with the subject, from start to finish and one of those shots will be a winner. You have a better chance of getting a good shot if you take more than one photo.
Tip 8 - Continuous Shots
To pan as I suggested above you will need a camera that does continuous shots and doesn’t need to stop and process after every shot.
Tip 9 - How To Take Fantastic Night Time Shots
Night time shots can be spectacular, almost magical.... if done right! If not they can look horrible...really horrible. Without adequate lighting, even good camera's can turn out crappy photos if the photographer doesn't know what he or she is doing.
Tip 10 - Study Your Manual
If your digital camera has a special night time mode, read the manual and follow their instructions on how to use it properly.
Enjoy!
Tip 1 - Use All Of Your Available Space
Don't be afraid to use all the space in your photo. If you want to take a picture of something, it's ok for it to take up the whole shot with very little or no background showing. Keep distractions out of your shot
Tip 2 - Study Forms
This is a vital aspect to photography. Understanding forms in your photos. Don't see an object, see its shape and its form and find the best angle to photograph it from. Don't just walk up and shoot...anybody could do that. Form is all around us and I highly suggest you read as many books on it as possible.
Tip 3 - Motion In Your Photos
Never have motion in your photos if you are photographing a still object. If there is something moving while you are trying to photograph a stationery object, your photo won't turn out anywhere near as well. Also never put a horizon line in the center of your frame (unless your planned photo is art...because you can always break the rules, for art).
Tip 4 - Learn To Use Contrasts Between Colours.
Some of the best photos have shades of white, gray and black. You can take great shots with just one colour on your subject, but the contrasts between colours in a shot is what makes you a great photographer.
Tip 5 - Get Closer To Your Subject
This is one of the biggest mistakes most photographers make, not getting close enough to their subject. Get up close and personal, and close the distance gap. You can always reshape and resize a good shot but you can't continue to blowup a distant object.
Tip 6 - Shutter Lag
Shooting action shots with digital camera's can be tricky due to shutter lag. What this means is, when you press the button to take the photo, it can take up to a second for the shutter to take a photo, by that time what you were photographing would have moved on or somehow changed. This means you have to compensate for shutter lag by predicting what your subject is going to do and taking the photo just before it takes the action you want. More expensive digital cameras don't have this problem.
Tip 7 - Pan
If you are taking an action shot and your shutter speed is slow, pan with the object. Follow through with the subject, from start to finish and one of those shots will be a winner. You have a better chance of getting a good shot if you take more than one photo.
Tip 8 - Continuous Shots
To pan as I suggested above you will need a camera that does continuous shots and doesn’t need to stop and process after every shot.
Tip 9 - How To Take Fantastic Night Time Shots
Night time shots can be spectacular, almost magical.... if done right! If not they can look horrible...really horrible. Without adequate lighting, even good camera's can turn out crappy photos if the photographer doesn't know what he or she is doing.
Tip 10 - Study Your Manual
If your digital camera has a special night time mode, read the manual and follow their instructions on how to use it properly.
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