The Art of Digital Photography
The Art of Digital Photography
We are living in a world that is forever changing because of our technology. Cell phones, computers, microchips in everything, and mobility are the sign of the times. Even the arts are constantly changing due to technology. Just consider this, we have gone from drawing with charcoal, to painting with color pigments, to film photography, and now digital photography. The visual arts have come a long way, haven’t they?
People have used a variety of ways to capture the images of life and to freeze time. Technology is continuously improving and making it easier and easier to create works of art. Can you even imagine what the next evolution of visual art might be?
Digital photography is not as simple as point-and-shoot
Skill is required to make a good digital photograph. Even though some people will think a digital photograph can be edited after it has been shot, they don’t realize how much work it takes to properly edit an image. Sure, we may thing technology has advanced to a point where a person can do very little to make a great photograph, but you still have to know what your doing with tools at hand, such as your editing software and camera.
There are three T’s required to truly master the art of digital photography
Time, Talent, and Treasure
Time – you cannot become an expert overnight. It takes time to learn all there is to know to make great photographs. Even a protege with the talent of a genius has to train to hone their skills.
Training yourself in the art of digital photography is kind of like sharpening a knife with a whetstone – it may be time consuming and painful, but necessary.
Talent – You will need some inherent talent to truly be a master of the art of digital photography. You must have, or develop, an eye for subject matter that makes a great image. Or else you will be mediocre at creating digital photographic art.
Proper training will enhance the inherent talent that you already have and sharpen your skills.
Treasure – Actually, “cash”, but that’s not a word that starts with the letter “T”.
You will have to have the right tools to be a successful digital photography artist. That means investing in the right equipment
Of course, buying the right equipment will test your resolve because few things are more scarey than spending large sums of money on an unproven interest. Once you have made your investment in the art of digital photography there really is no turning back.
One last thing
It may seem like the art of digital photography takes a lot. But to be truly successful at anything requires love, and love requires sacrifice. Just keep that in mind as you pursue your interest in digital photography.
Further Reading
- Learn Digital Photography Now
- The Art of Digital Photography
- A History of Photography from Daguerreotype to Digital
- Learn Photoshop in a Day
- Trick Photography & Special Effects
- Digital Cameras: The Essential Buying Guide Edition
Digital Fashion Photography
Digital Fashion Photography
Digital photography has made it possible for just about everyone to capture perfect moments in their lives easier and better than ever before. With the improvements of shutter speed, resolution, and ISO, make photography easier and more convenient for beginning and professional photographers alike to capture good images. Additionally, image editing software, like Photoshop, make it possible for anyone to be creative and produce artistic photographs.
Digital photography has become a great benefit to businesses online and offline. Digital stock photography images can purchased online for various prices depending on licensing rights. The stock image can then be processed using Photoshop, or a similar image editing program.
Nowadays, digital photography has become a boost to the fashion industry. Digital fashion photography is very different than shooting footage for TV or taking still photos with film. Digital fashion photography presents more challenges.
Ultimately, capturing every detail on the catwalk is the purpose of digital fashion photography. Fashion photography focuses on the stunning models wearing the most fancy, impressive, and extreme outfits. It’s purpose is to capture models outfit in a way that it gains acceptance in the fashion world and to gratify the fashion designer.
Fashion photography
Just as fashion designers, the digital fashion photographer needs to be at ease working in the high end world of beauty and glamor. Obviously, the photographer has to come up with the fashion’s best images.
Ten digital fashion photography tips
- Keep both your lens and your mind focused
- Always have your camera with you and ready to use
- Understand your objective
- Relentlessly work the opportune moment
- Envision designing an interesting and creative image
- Shoot each model at various angles and distances when possible
- Create visual contrast by using selective focus to blur parts of the image
- Organize your subject
- Emphasize interesting lines and shapes
- Create an impact on you audience by presenting an image full of good information
Three characteristics of a successful digital fashion photographer
- Use of proper lighting techniques
- Pay attention to color harmony – Use backdrops the emphasize the tint and color of the outfit being photographed. When in doubt, use gray and/or white backdrops.
- Your artistic view – Your audience may not see your images the way you do. People will tend to pay attention to the model, not the background. But the background and model need to connect to each other.
Further reading
10 Digital Photography Tips
10 Digital Photography Tips
You have probably heard people say something like, the better the camera – the better the pictures. The reality is, great images can be made using any camera. It has much more to do with the skill of the photographer than it does with the camera. Likewise, if you don’t know how to use a top of the line Nikon professional camera, you likely will make a lousy picture.
Below are ten tips to aid you in taking professional photographs using your digital camera. Practice these and get the most out of your camera.
1 – Warm up the white balance
Set your white balance to “cloudy” for shooting sunny portraits and landscapes. That will increase the yellows and reds making a warmer photograph.
2 – Use a polarizing filter
A polarizing filter comes in handy while creating general outdoor images. By minimizing unwanted glare and reflections, images made with a polarizer have richer colors, and greater saturation. The maximum polarization is seen when the light source is 90 degrees to the subject.
There are two things you can do if your camera is not able to receive filters.
- First, use polarized sunglasses. Just hold the glasses as close to the lens as you can without the frame obstructing the image. Consider popping the lenses out of a pair of sunglasses to keep with you camera just for this purpose.
- Second, use a square creative filter like those produced Cokin
3 – Flash for outdoor portraits
Also known as “fill flash” mode. This mode tells the camera to set the exposure for the background, then adds enough flash to light up the subject. Wedding photographers use this technique to make the bride and groom pop.
You can achieve the same effect manually by setting your exposure for the background. Then take the photograph with you flash turned on. Some experimenting will let you know if you need to manually dial down your flash power by a one or two stops.
For a relaxed composition, place your subject in the shade and use the flash. Having the subject in the shade instead of direct sun light will minimize squinting.
Fill flash will also allow you to use the sun as a rim light, giving a halo effect on the subjects hair as well as helping to separate the subject from the background.
Just remember not to stand too far away. Most built in flashes have a useful range of ten feet or less
4 – Macro mode
Surely you want to look at all the small details in your surroundings, but you don’t want to get down and lie on your belly. Maybe it’s time to explore macro photography
Just use your macro mode. Look for the close up symbol which is usually a flower on your mode select dial.
You camera’s macro mode gives you a shallow depth of field. Allowing you to concentrate on the part of the scene you want to emphasize, letting the rest become a soft focus. Also known as “selective focus”.
5 – Watch the horizon line
Some photographers get a little disoriented when composing their shot. That is, their pictures seem tilted, or bowed inward.
This is just a matter of practicing. Try using the frame of the viewfinder, or LCD display, as guides for horizontal and vertical lines.
For example, there is a structure in you scene that you know is vertical, perhaps it’s a building. Before releasing the shutter, take a moment and make sure the wall of the building is parallel to the left or right frame of your viewfinder.
6 – Massive memory card, or not
You must have memory cards
It comes down to personal preference. Even though you can buy extremely large memory cards it is my choice to use cards just large enough to hold 200 to 300 images in the RAW format. My reasoning is if a memory card fails, and they all will eventually, I won’t lose and entire weekend or vacation worth of images.
7 – Don’t always shoot with maximum resolution
If you have limited memory, shoot the images you know you will be emailing or just making drug store prints (4” x 6”) out of in lower resolution. Then you will have the memory for the shot the you will want to print in a larger (8” x 10”)
But shoot with maximum resolution if you have the memory. Memory is relatively cheap and there is no reason to risk missing the opportunity to make a large print from an unexpected gem of a photograph.
8 – To tripod, or not to tripod
Tripods are bulky things and people don’t like to use them, or carry them around.
But nowadays there are ingenious alternatives to the old style bulky tripod. The line of UltraPods manufactured by Pedco
9 – Self timing FUN
Another feature on nearly every camera that is seldom used is the self timer. This is a key feature for the phographer who wants to be in his own family and group portraits. Also handy for making self portraits.
By using the UltraPod’s velcro strap
A self timer can also be used to trip the shutter after your hands are away from the camera, minimizing camera motion (vibration) during long exposures.
10 – Intentional blurring, or long exposures
Typically, an exposure of one second or longer is used to create the effect of water flowing. For those long exposures you need to find streams and waterfalls located in shady areas, or photograph them very late or very early before full daylight.
One way to manipulate the light is to use a polarizer, or a neutral density filter, to darken the scene, allowing a longer exposure.
This technique can minimize the distractions in the background of a portrait. Of course, your subject has to remain fairly still or they will blur too.
In closing
People get curious when they see a photograph created by a photographer using some ingenuity and creativity. They’ll ask, “What camera was that what with?”
Wouldn’t it be humbling for them to learn that you used an everyday point and shoot camera?
Learn About Picture Perfect Photographic Prints and Digital Enhancements
Learn About Picture Perfect Photographic Prints and Digital Enhancements
Certainly, the latest trend in the photography industry is digital photography. Digital photography and imaging is the easiest way to take a picture and enhance it. Since film is no longer used in the picture taking process you have the option of keeping your good photographs and deleting the bad ones right in the camera. Digital is also the easiest way to convert good pictures into interesting pieces of art.
Like other technologies, digital photography has grown in leaps and bounds since they it was first developed. The introduction of digital cameras brought incredible conveniences to photographers where anybody who has a digital camera can capture and upload images to their computer and share their pictures with their friends in moments.
There are several digital photography services available through the Internet that offer photographic restoration, retouching, editing and enhancing, imaging, and other digital services. Although these companies cater to professional photographers they offer their services to photography hobbyists too.
One reason the number of people using digital cameras is increasing exponentially is because it is so easy to take a picture and edit it the way you want. Of course not all of our photographs turn out the way we envision the scene in our mind’s eye. Digital enhancements become very useful then.
Digital Enhancements
Digital enhancement are the easiest way to make your photographs look their best by adjusting brightness, contrast, color saturation and correctness, white balance, image sharpness, and many other photographic characteristics. You can also edit the size and shape of the final image by cropping and resizing.
Digital enhancements provides the opportunity to modify your photographs to be the best image it possibly can be. You can make the enhancements your self using imaging editing software like Photoshop, or the services of a digital photography company. When you use an image editing program you will usually want to save your picture in JPG (JPEG) or GIF format for printing and distributing electronically. the TIFF format is lossless. You would also save you editing work in the program’s native format, PSD is Photoshop’s format.
There are many innovative ways to improve a picture that are possible due to digital technology. The digital services that are offered through the Internet can be used by digital photographers at any skill level.
Digital prints, compared to tradition prints made on photographic paper, are longer lasting and fade resistant. Editing and printing digital photographs can be done with home printers. These prints are proven to last long, unlike film based printing.
Get the most from what digital photography has to offer. To get the best quality images use the digital editing and enhancement services provided by the online professional photographic printers.
Image Editing in the Cloud
Image Editing in the Cloud
Pretend you are vacationing in a foreign country and you have taken a spectacular photograph with your UberMax 15 megapixel camera that you want to upload for your friends and family to see back home.
You decide to use a computer at an internet cafe near your hotel. You take you memory card out of your camera and get ready to email the image. This is when you realize just how large 15 megs is. There’s no practical way to email a 15 meg image. Not only that, you also learn that the computers at the internet cafe don’t have an image editing program. So your can’t crop, resize, or compress your photograph either.
Does this mean you have to wait to get home first?
Of course not, that would make this posting way too short!
Now that broadband internet connection are virtually everywhere many websites have come along that allow you to upload and edit your images in the cloud.
Free online image editors
Phixr (pronounced “fixer”) has a number of tools for editing, like converting to sepia tone, adding borders, red eye removal, and even optical character recognition (OCR). Phixr has agreements with other websites, like FaceBook and LiveJournal, allowing you to upload you image to them after editing. However, Phixr does not store you images, they will be removed within 6 to 12 hours depending on if your a guess or not.
Pixenate, also known as PXN8, has many features, is very fast with just a two click upload, has an easy workflow, and the ability to upload to your Flickr account after editing. Pixenate says this about itself, “Pixenate is the photo editor of choice for photo printing and photo sharing businesses.”
Resizr offer a free and an inexpensive premium service ($19.99/yr, or $1.67/mo). Resizr offers all the usual tools for simple editing, and an extremely easy way to resize your image using a slide control.
Two other free editors worth mentioning are the Online Image Editor and Cellsea. Both offer free basic image editing capabilities.
Further reading
Techniques for Lighting, Shooting, and Image Editing
Now it’s your turn
Use the comments section below to add to the list of online editors, or to tell us which one you use.
Removing Red Eye
Removing Red Eye
A common problem with flash photography is that demonic look people get with what we call the Red Eye Effect. It happens when we take a picture with a flash in low light. Because the person’s pupils are opened very wide due to the low light, there’s nothing to stop the flash of light from traveling to the back of the eye and reflecting off of the retina. The retina is predominantly red and the red eye comes from that reflected light. Interestingly, the same effect happens with animals as well. However, with some animals the reflection is bluish instead of red.
Red Eye Reduction Mode
Some camera manufacturers have engineered a “red eye mode” to help minimize this effect. When the camera is in this mode there are two bursts of light. The first is a low powered pre-flash which causes the dilated pupils to contract quickly minimizing the amount of light reflected from the retina. Then the main flash fires to capture the image. However, this will only minimize the effect. This also may cause the subjects to blink or turn away after the pre-flash, unaware that their picture has not yet been taken.
Editing Out the Red Eye
If the red eye is captured on your image, you can try to correct it in post production with a photo editing program like Photoshop which has a red eye correction function. Otherwise, you can fix it manually by enlarging the red eye on your screen and painting it out with the brush tool, or by manipulating the color.
Avoiding Red Eye
The best solution is to avoid red eye to begin with. You can do this by insuring the subject is not looking straight at the camera. Or, if you do want the subject making eye contact with the viewer, use an off camera flash to minimize reflection off the retina.
Because red eye is a product of flash photography, take some time and learn more about flash photography
Six Steps Toward Learning Digital Photography
Six Steps Toward Learning Digital Photography
In our society of instant gratification we want to learn to be great digital photographers faster than ever. However, learning digital photography well can only be done if you apply basic principles of good ol’ fashioned photography. Digital cameras are just tools for capturing images and there is no real way of learning digital any faster than you can learn basic photography. However, by applying these six fast and easy photography principles you will be well on your way to learning digital photography quickly
1 – Carefully choose your subject
The subject is the centerpiece of your image. Be certain you identify and focus on a suitable subject for what you are trying to convey. The subject must be clearly identifiable in your image, meaning the viewer has no doubt about what you are photographing. If it’s not, then your picture is below average.
2 – Understand and use the Rule-of-Thirds
Mentally divide your viewfinder into thirds, both horizontally and vertically. Now, imagine where those dividing lines cross. The points where the lines meet are the sweet spots, this is where you want to place your subject. If the horizon is visible in your picture place it so it runs along one of the imagined horizontal lines.
3 – Get up close to the subject
Usually it is the subject that you want to remember in the scene you are photographing. This is especially true about photographs of family and friends. Therefore, get as much of the subject into the frame as you can and fill the frame with the subject.
4 – Remove the clutter
Be sure you don’t have tree limbs or telephone poles growing out of the head,s of your subjects. Remove from the scene anything you don’t want to remember it twenty years. This includes trash cans, clutter on the ground, signs in the background, or heaps of leaves and grass clippings.
5 – Photograph from different angles
Experiment and find an angle that presents your subject in a uniquely and with an interesting look. Try to shoot from a position that is higher or lower than your subject, so the camera is looking down to, or up at the subject.
6 – Shoot from different viewpoints
This is more than just taking photographs from different angles like tip number five above. This includes moving all around your subject. Step in closer, move further away. Here you move around your subject while looking through the viewfinder looking for a position that gives the most interesting image.
Putting it all together
Pick a subject for your photograph and capture it in fifty different ways or more. Photograph it from every which way. From the left to the right, from very high to very low, from front to back, even from directly above it. Change your viewpoint by moving in close and shooting from every which way again, then move out and do it all again. Try shooting from you back, and then your stomach. Tilt the camera left and right so the horizon is diagonal in the viewfinder.
That may sound like too much to do, but when you try it you will see it can be done fairly quickly. Browse through all the photographs you have made and you’ll be surprised at what you can do. You will amaze yourself, friends, and family with the unique angels and points of view you have captured.
By following these six principles of photograph your skills will improve quickly and dramatically
More Resources
Digital Camera Focus Modes
Digital Camera Focus Modes
Although the least expensive and simplest point and shoot cameras only offer one mode, auto-focus, or a fixed focus, most digital SLR cameras offer three or more modes of focus. These are typically called manual focus, auto focus, and continuous auto focus. This article will briefly discuss all three.
Manual Focus
During manual focusing the photographer is making all the decisions, the camera’s electronics has nothing to do with it. The lens is focused using a focusing ring that is around the lens, or by pressing buttons to focus the lens in or out.
Manual focus gives the photographer complete creative control
Single Auto Focus
During single auto focus the camera focuses automatically for a single frame, or shot, when the photographer press the shutter. Typically pressing the shutter release button down half way locks the focus, and pressing the button all the way down captures the image.
This is the mode that most photographers use regularly, it’s perfect for photographing static (or nearly static) objects
Continuous Auto Focus
During continuous auto focus mode the camera works to keep the subject in focus as its distance from the lens is changing. Just as the mode implies, the camera is continuously focusing.
This is the mode to choose when you are photographing action
By pressing the shutter release half way and moving the camera so you can follow the subject in the view finder, the camera will continue to keep the subject in focus until you fire the shutter.
Summary
As with all the other features on your camera, each focusing mode has it’s pros and cons.
The first thing to do to take advantage of each focusing mode is to learn how they work and what situations they were designed to be used in. Then, experiment photographing using each of the modes with different types of subjects to learn how your camera behaves. After you do that you will be able to choose the best focusing mode instinctively for every photographic situation.
Please use the comments section below to share your focusing tips with us.
Tips for Still Life Photography
Tips for Still Life Photography
There are many areas of specialization in photographer. Beginning photographers will often start with still life photography and learn about the other areas like portrait, wedding, pets, etc., as their skills grow. People who are new to photography can learn to use light and shadow at a slower pace with still life subject instead of trying to pose children or the family pet. Artistically speaking, a still life is the expression photographer’s “self” through inanimate objects.
This post is a brief discussion of some of the many attributes of still life photography
Control the Light
The first thing to consider in still life photography, as well as every other type of photography, is your lighting conditions. You will want to start with just one light source coming from one direction so you will be able to cast some shadows as well as properly light your subject. The shadows will help to give your final image some three dimensional qualities. You will also need to consider the quality of your light, meaning soft or strong (and harsh) lighting. The harsher the light is the greater contrast the contrast between the shadows and the lighted areas of your image. Reflectors are often used to modify the light and “bounce” some light in to the shadows. The most pleasing lighting is often side lighting because it creates the greatest contrast between light and shadow on you subject. Learning to use a single light this was will help in the rest of your photography too, think about outdoor photography, there is a single light source we call the Sun.
Control the Colors
In still life photography you have total control of color, just as you do with lighting. When choosing subjects for your composition you will want to look for contrasting colors and still retain a natural look, such as green mint leaves with a yellow fruit like lemons, or autumn leaves with squash and pumpkins like you see in a cornucopia. The harmony of colors is what you are looking for to create a pleasing picture.
Be Abstract
In still life photography can be abstract photography, be as abstract as you would like to be. You can select two objects that do not relate to each other and create something that is visually interesting. Maybe you find a piece of fruit that’s been cut to be visually interesting, like a wedge cut from a piece of cantaloupe. What your final image means will require some thought from the viewer. Each of us sees art differently and interpret it through their our own unique view of the world. Never change your vision or stop working to improve your abilities as a photographer based on what the viewers of you work think.
Variations
You can use the same objects in various arrangements and a variety of backgrounds to create unlimited variations of theme. Learning to avoid clutter while creating contrast (visual, color, light vs. shadow, texture, etc.) is the key. The rules of composition such are a good starting point for placing your still life objects. Consider creating a pattern with your objects using “the rule of thirds”. The process of setting up your various shots will lead to the right arrangement for expressing your own vision.
Summary
Often still life photography is thought to lack depth compared to other types photography. But it can be used as develop your skills to be a better photographer in general. Creating your arrangements indoors or outside is just one way to make images you will want to show off or give to your friends and family. Learning to control the lighting, color combinations, and varying the arrangement of your objects will generate many, many, unique scenes to capture.
Nearly every magazine that uses photography uses still life pictures. For example, home decorating magazines use still life photography all the time to show the details their articles are about. With all the choices in photography, it takes a special eye to arrange objects creatively and light them creatively to create a still life image for commercial use. Once you develop your talent and feel confident with your work you could start a lucrative business providing still life images to media outlets. Look at the ”Photographers Market” for ideas on selling your photographs to magazines.
Are you interested in learning more about still life photography? Check out the training programs offered on this site.
Learning About Color Cast and White Balance
Learning About Color Cast and White Balance
A lot of people are not aware how a light source impacts their photographs until they see the final print. Then they wonder what makes it look so different from the scene they remember capturing.
That’s because light has a temperature measured in degrees Kelvin. And different light temperatures create a color cast on our photographs. As an example, a candle is around 1500 K, a basic incandescent light bulb ~3400 K, and the flash on your camera ~5600 K. A photo taken with a light bulb will look a little yellow/orange, a flash will look like regular daylight, a florescent bulb will give an ugly green/purple hue on you photos unless you set your camera up correctly. So if you are really interested in keeping the color of the skin of the people in your photographs normal you will have to pay attention to white balance.
Using a film camera would require using filters to compensate for this color cast. But white balance is a standard feature on today’s modern digital cameras. Today, cameras have a selection of preset white balance values (auto, daylight, cloudy, florescent, incandescent, snow, beach, manual, etc.). With the exception of scenes with large areas of one color, like the beach or a snow field, the camera’s automatic white balance is usually pretty accurate.
There are two easy ways to correct white balance if the scene is too difficult for your camera to interpret correctly. One is to use the manual white balance setting on your camera if available and set your white balance for the scene. The other is in post production using software.
Using manual white balance is preferred and takes the least amount of time because you just have to set it once for your shooting conditions and your digital camera does the compensation for you on every photograph you take. You just have to remember to change your white balance when the lighting conditions change.
The other option is using your photo-editing program. Depending on the sophistication of your editor you may be able to adjust many photographs at once in a batch, or you will have to adjust each image individually which may take a lot of time depending on how many pictures you have to edit.
Each camera manufacturer has their own way of setting manual white balance. If you are interested in using the manual white balance of you camera you should take the time to read the manual.
Any one of the training programs advertised on this site include white balance training. Check them out.
What about you, any white balance tip or tricks you can share?
Photography’s History
Photography’s History
Do you know the origins of modern photography?
Even though digital photography is here and we are using less and less film, lighting and other techniques started in the 1820′s. Niepce and Daguerre were the first to use modern photography. They made a chemical compound out of silver and chalk on a glass plate that would darken when it was exposed to light, creating a negative image of the scene.
Starting with the old, or early, cameras we have seen as props is western movies that used glass plates we have progressed to manual cameras that used film. Film capture a reverse image (a negative) on a sheet or roll to be developed in a darkroom. The photographer had to set up their shots with manual cameras. They had to understand film speed, aperture, shutter speed, and how to measrue or approximate the amount of light. All of that took time and was expensive which meant you had to be a professional photographer to create a good photograph..
The aperture is what regulates the amount of light that is allowed to pass through the lens, it is measured in f-stops. Sharp focus and depth-of-field need to be considered when adjusting the f-stop. The proper f-stop has to be used to avoid over or under exposure and blurring.
Shutter speed measures how much time the medium (film or digital) is exposed to capture the image. When there is not enough light coming through the lens the shutter will have to remain open longer. If the exposure is too long the subject’s motion, or a shaky hold on the camera, or both, will cause blurring.
Things changed dramatically when we moved from the manual camera to modern cameras. Cameras became lighter, exposure (shutter speed, aperature, light measurement) became programed by setting the film speed on the camera.
Digital cameras are the latest evelution in photography. We are now able to take pictures without the need of film or the darkroom. We can see the picture on the camera’s LCD screen imediately after taking it. Now we can send a photograph to anybody with and email address and internet access and use a home printer to make our prints. Photography has progressed from a select few who were able to make a photograph to virtually anyone on the planet. Photography is now an art form that anybody can participate in.
That is not saying professional photographers are a thing of the past. Not at all. High quality, professional, photographs are still in great demand. Knowledge of light is still essential when working with digital cameras. An understanding of the techniques used in the past will only assist you in capturing the perfect image using your own digital camera.
Photography originated from just a few people, but anybody can see where the art and science of photography has led us.
3 Things to Learn About Digital Macro Photography
3 Things to Learn About Digital Macro Photography
People have always enjoyed looking at things from unusual perspectives. Often we will find something new in a familiar object when we see it from a different point of view, or focus on a portion of the subject instead of the whole thing. That may be part of the reason both photographers and their viewers are fascinated by digital macro photography.
Red Bug
There is no doubt that digital macro photography is an art form in its own right. It takes an artist’s genius to capture some aspect of life out of an ordinary, everyday, subject. After all, that is what art is. No piece of art contains all of life’s truths. It is only a depiction of the world through the artist’s eyes. When we look a digital photography taken from a macro point of view, we are sharing the perspective of, and making a connection with, the macro photographer.
Digital macro photography is not easy to do well. There are many considerations to make to create a great photograph. Here three important factors to consider when working with macro photography:
1 – Skills
Do you have the technical skills for macro photography?
Do you have the photographer’s eye for images with a universal appeal to the people that view your images, your audience?
In macro photography you are magnifying your scene just as you are when you use a long focal length. Because of that, the slightest camera motion will blur your photograph. So you also need to be able to hold your camera still, or be very comfortable working with a tripod.
You will have to be a master of your camera’s controls to capture the image as you want it to appear in the final print or image. Yes, you can edit in imaging software, but the more you can do in camera the less post work you will have to do.
Some people seem to have a natural talent for macro work. But it’s still important to develop your craft through classes and workshops. Digital macro photography is about presenting your subject in unique way. But like all art, your viewer (or instructor) may see your photographs differently than you do. That’s good; a fresh pair of eyes can’t hurt.
You might like one of the courses advertised on this site.
2- Equipment
As with anything, you will need the proper tools to express yourself with macro photography. Even though you can find equipment that supposes to be useful for all types of photography, the best results will come from the equipment that is designed specifically for macro work.
For example, using a bellows will give you more creative control than just a macro lens or extension tubes, and much more creative control and image quality than macro filters.
3 – Subject
Penney
Just about any subject will be more interesting when viewed differently. But some things are just more interesting than other things. The most interesting subjects are those that you don’t know a lot about. The more the object can show that is beyond what the naked eye, the more likely it will make a great subject for digital macro photography. Take the time to choose the subject of your macro photography wisely and you will be greatly rewarded by your final print or image.
Photo Credits
Red Bug, flickr.com/anpas69
Penney, flickr.com/NickLawes
Learn about Straightening and Cropping
Learn about Straightening and Cropping
Think about an important picture you have, maybe of your extended family, all your siblings, parents, grandparents, cousins, and so forth. Now think about how that picture doesn’t look level, like maybe the lake in the background looks like it wants to pour out of the photograph. And maybe there is something (or someone) on the side of the picture you don’t want there, like a rusty car or some other kind of blight that make the photo look bad.
Not to worry, you won’t have to get the entire family together again to make a new picture. All you have to do is learn a little about straightening and cropping in your image editor to set things right.
Cropping and straightening use to be done during the printing process before digital photography came along. The photographer would adjust the enlarger, magnifying the image enough to put the unwanted element off the printing paper, or move the easel holding the printing paper in a way that horizontal and vertical lines would be parallel to the paper’s edges.
But now with digital photography and image editing software it has become very easy to straighten and crop your photographs before you print them. And if you have old photographs that you want to crop and straighten you just have to scan them. Then work with the scanned image in your editing program just like any photograph you have taken.
All of the popular image editing programs use a grid for a guide. You can rotate your image and line up the vertical and horizontal lines to the grid, insuring they are parallel to the edges of the final print.
Popular editing programs, and even the not so popular software, come with a cropping tool. Generally, you would select the area you want to keep by drawing a rectangle around it and everything outside of the rectangle is cropped (deleted).
One thing to remember when you straightening or cropping, or any kind of editing, is to keep a copy of the original file just in case.
Learn About Dodging and Burning
Learn About Dodging and Burning
Dodging and burning are options in a quality photo editor. But these are methods of manipulating a photograph invented many years ago by photographers in their darkrooms.
Burning
Burning is a technique to add more detail to a portion of the image. The photographer would make a normal print then create a mask, often just using his hands, to block off a large area of the image. This adds a little more exposure time to the area of the print that is not blocked off.
Dodging
Dodging does the opposite. Dodging subtracts exposure time from an area of the final print. This technique uses a small “flag” to block light. The “flag” is usually made from a piece of stiff paper, like construction paper, or from thin cardboard, and is attached to something long and thin such as a small wooden dowel or section from a wire clothes hanger. The “flag” is waved over the area that is to receive less exposure.
Putting it All Together
So you add exposure to an area of the final photograph by burning, and reduce exposure be dodging. This is not the same as brightness and contrast, which affect the entire image.
There are tools in photo editing software like Photoshop for burning and dodging. Photoshopuses a brush tool to mask the area of the image you want to manipulate and the software will lighten or darken just that area the way burning and dodging would in the darkroom.
Dodging and burning are tools that let the photographer balance their picture. Maybe everything in your photograph is perfect except the sky is overexposed and the shadows are too dark. Using Photoshop in post production you can reduce the exposure of the sky by dodging, bringing the color back to a normal range, and increase the exposure of the shadows by burning allowing more of the details to show.
A History of Faking Photographs
A History of Faking Photographs
People started to manipulate photographs nearly as soon as the first camera produced the first photograph.
The famous portraiture of Abraham Lincoln standing with his hand on his desk is a fine example. In the 20th century it was discovered that his mole was on the opposite side of his face. A photo of Congressman John Calhoun of North Carolina was found, Calhoun was in the same pose. Someone had put Lincoln’s head on Calhoun’s body in the 1860’s; Photoshop wasn’t created for another 120 years or so. The Lincoln/Calhoun fake was distributed throughout the Union!
Photo of Lincoln's head on Calhoun's body, and the original Calhoun photograph.
Because of the long exposure times required by the cameras during the Civil War, staging photographs was more popular than editing them. Due to the slow films many “action” shots were staged by the war photographers during the Civil war.
During the early 20th century there were photographic postcards that showed their subjects (fish, insects, and crops were often the subject) as being larger than life. The photographers did this by merging two pictures into a single image. Sort of a dark humor arose during the Dust Bowl years. The photographers would make the fruits and vegetable look huge. Presumable the irony was the joke.
The Soviet leader, Josef Stalin, famously edited out his comrades who “ceased to exist” after falling from favor. There are many examples people standing next to Stalin were simply painted over.
Modern magazine and newspapers fake their pictures too. During the OJ Simpson trials Time and Newsweek each used the police mug shot on their magazine’s cover. Time magazine chose to edit the image to make it look darker and more menacing than the original. Photojournalists have also been caught editing their images to make them more sensational, like adding smoke to a battlefield to make look more destructive than it really was… if it bleeds it leads.
Faking a photograph is more than just posing the subject in a scene. The motivation is to create visual lie designed to deceive the viewer.
Learn to Control Contrast and Brightness
Learn to Control Contrast and Brightness
There are only a few elements that go into controlling exposure in photography. The lens aperture (f/stop), speed of the film (ISO), duration of the exposure (time), and the quality of the imaging sensor. During the editing process, also known as post production, the exposure can be adjusted further using the controls for contrast and brightness.
The amount of light in a photograph is called brightness. The longer the exposure, the wider the aperture, or the higher the ISO, the brighter the final image will be. Virtually every photo and imaging editor has a brightness control. Adjusting the brightness control will change the photograph being edited just like taking the photograph with a higher or lower f/stop would.
Too much brightness will cause your image to washout. The contrast control will help prevent washing out the photograph. Contrast is the range from the blackest black to the whitest white in the image. Contrast control changes how bright the brightest area is and how dark the darkest area is. This will compensate for the changes the brightness control makes. It is important to learn how to use contrast and brightness together during the editing process.
Seldom does an entire photograph need to have its contrast and brightness corrected. Usually there are just some areas that need to be corrected. Such brightening the shadows to see the detail, like the face of a person who is backlit by the Sun. With film in a darkroom this was called dodging and burning. Now, with digital editing programs like Photoshop or GIMP you can learn select the area of interest and edit it to perfection.
Photo Editing Software for Free Online
Photo Editing Software for Free Online
There are many photo editing programs available besides Adobe Photoshop. Some of these programs are free and can be found online.
As beginning photographers we may find that the software that comes with our cameras is enough. But as or skills grow we will want to learn how to better edit our photography in post production. There are a few programs that you can buy for less than $100, like Photoshop Elements. However, there is a fairly wide selection of editors out there that are available for free as freeware or open source. Here is a round up of a few of the better program that are available for free.
Freeware means the program is available for download and is free to use. But when a programmer makes the code for the program available for others to edit it is called Open Source.
GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is the most sophisticated of the free programs that are available. GIMP rivals Adobe’s Photoshop in editing power. Unlike a lot of freeware and shareware, GIMP does not have any spyware or advertising. Another great thing about GIMP is all the third party manuals and books that are available.
Paint.NET is the name of both the program and the web site. This program is more comparable to Photoshop Elements than it is to GIMP or the full Photoshop program. It uses layers and has many editing features and tools. It is a very nice program overall that is simple and intuitive.
Picasa is a free program offered by Google. Even though Picasa’s editing tools are not as extensive as GIMP or Paint.NET, it is a good editing program. It is very good at organizing your images and keeping albums.
Flickr also offers some editing features. The downside to Flickr is you have to be online and it does not have as many editing tools as the previous programs do. Still, if you are primarily shooting for the internet Flickr may be all you need.
There are a few more programs worth mentioning here:
Photoscape is an easy to use photo editing program.
Pixia started in the support of anime.
Picnik is a bare bones online editor.
Learn the Differences Between Digital and Optical Zoom
Learn the Differences Between Digital and Optical Zoom
You will find many cameras offer the option of digital and optical zoom. It can be confusing for the average person shopping for a digital camera until they learn the difference between digital and optical zoom.
Digital zoom.
Optical zooms function just like a zoom lens does on a film SLR. The lens physically changes it focal length by extending or retracting. At the same time it moves the internal optical groups to maintain focus and image quality. This causes the subject to appear nearer of farther away from you. Optical zooms maintain the photographic quality of your image.
Digital zoom uses your digital camera’s processor to crop the center portion of your image after you have taken it and enlarges that cropped image up to the size of the camera’s sensor; the size of the original image. Essentially, your digital camera is doing the same thing your photo editing software does when you crop and enlarge an image. This causes the reduction in the photographic quality of your image. You will lose detail in the picture. The greater the magnification of the digital zoom the worse the image quality will be. It’s usually better to not use the digital zoom feature if you don’t have to.
To avoid the problems of digital zoom you can move closer to your subject. Sometimes just moving a few feet closer will make a tremendous difference. You could also set you camera to its highest picture quality setting maximizing the amount of data the camera’s processor has to work with.
Digital zoom is not all bad. If you intend to share you images on the internet or via email then digital zooming may be okay for you. Images online can be lower quality and still look good. But if you plan to print your photographs you will be better served by using a camera with higher optical magnification (zoom) and not using the digital zoom.
Possibly the best solution is to never use your cameras digital zoom and only use your photo editing software to make enlargements. This way you will be able to see the degradation of the photographic quality and choose the image quality that is acceptable to you instead of being stuck with the results of your camera’s processor.
I would like to hear from you, my readers. Please share some of your experiences with digital zoom in the comments section.
Photo Credit.
Digital Zoom, flickr.com/noelzialee
Selective Focus, or The Blurring of The Background
Bird with blurred background.
By manipulating the depth of field using the proper combination of aperture, shutter speed, and focal length, you can capture an image where the subject really stands out by causing the background to be out of focus. This is called selective focus.
Wildlife and sports photographers use the technique of selective focus often. If wildlife photographers did not blur the background of an image of bird and left the leaves and branches in focus, the bird would lost. Similarly, with all the action on a football field, and the people in the stadium, selective focus is used to make the athlete stand out in a very cluttered and colorful environment.
There are photo editing techniques you can learn to blur the background, simulating selective focus.
First you would select the subject of your photo using one of the selection tools of your image editing program, like the “Lasso” tool in Photoshop. Then “Invert” your selection so that the background is now selected. You will also want to work with the “Feathering” option to optimize how soft or sharp the edge of your subject is. Feathering is a matter of personal taste.
Next you would use the “Gaussian Blur” filter. Gaussian Blur is an algorithm designed to mimic the blurring caused by selective focus. Try different settings in this filter until you get the effect you’re looking for. Often it is more pleasing to the eye to blur the background so that it recognizable but out focus.
Panning Cyclist
Panning is a related blurring technique. Panning is achieved by tracking a moving subject with the camera while you take the picture. Done properly the subject is in focus and the background is blurred horizontally. Panning gives the image a sense of motion too.
Your photo editing software calls this “Motion Blur”, or “Radial Blur”. By using radial blur your subject will appear to be moving across the background.
Photo Credits:
Bird with Blurred Background, flickr.com/gusjer
Panning Cyclist, flickr.com/zoutedrop
A sign of blogging progress
This is just a quick thank you to Nichola at Scrapbook Bytes. Scrapbook Bytes has a monthly photo contest and Nichola referenced my post “Learn to Photograph Your Friends Candidly”
You can read about their photo contest and click through to some posts by others on candid photography.
Thank you Nichola. I hope you can find more useful posts for your readers here as this blog grows.
Learn Ten Tips for Better Photography
Learn Ten Tips for Better Photography
Capturing a good photograph is a lot easier than people think. It does not require an expensive camera or a lot of experience. Just take the time to learn these ten photographic tips and apply them to your own photography. Oh, you have to have fun and practice too.
1 – Fill the Frame
When you compose your photographs try to fill all the space in the viewfinder that is available to you. This minimizes the background and other distractions around your subject.
2 – Study Shapes and Forms
Understanding shape and form is fundamental to all visual art, including photography. Learn to study shape and form to see the most flattering angle to photograph you subject. Shape and form is everywhere. This is a subject worth studying more about.
3 – Motion
Learn to avoid all motion when photographing a stationary subject. Your photograph will be less impressive if something is moving while you are capturing something stationary.
4 - Color Contrast
Color Contrast
Some of the most dramatic photographs are shot in black and white, also called monochrome. It’s the contrast between the colors in your image that makes your subject stand out. Imagine a bright beach ball contrasted with the sea, sky, and sand.
5 - Get in Close
This tip goes hand-in-hand with tip #1 above, “Fill the Frame”. A common mistake is not being close enough to the subject. It’s fairly easy to resize a well taken image. However, you cannot enlarge a picture with a distant object without compromising image quality.
6 - Shutter Lag
Shutter lag is the time between the moment you press the shutter release and the shutter curtain trips to capture the image. The more higher end cameras have virtually no shutter lag. The greater the shutter lag becomes an issue when you want to shoot subjects that are in motion, like action shots. So you will have to anticipate where your subject will be and press the shutter release while keeping shutter lag in mind.
7 - Panning
Panning
Is the technique of using a slow shutter speed and following your subject as the subject moves across the scene. Done correctly the subject stays in focus while the rest of the frame is streaked from the camera’s motion. This is a way of showing motion in a still image. It’s best to take multiple shots in a series it betters your chances of getting a well panned photograph.
8 - Continuous Shooting
Back in the days of film you would have needed a motor drive for your camera to shoot continuously – the camera takes pictures as long as you’re holding the shutter release down. Now, virtually all DSLR cameras have a continuous shooting mode. Learn to shoot continuously to capture a series of action shot, like a baseman running and sliding home, or to take the multiple shots while panning that is described above.
9 - Night Time Photography
Night Time
A well done night time photograph is very nearly a magical thing to see! Most images that look like night time shots are actually taken just after sun down while there still plenty of available light. The trick is to expose for the lights that are turn on in building and under expose the rest of the scene. Under exposing the twilight sky will render it much darker than it really is.
10 - Read the Manual
Seriously. Today’s digital cameras are pretty complex pieces of equipment and every model has it’s own characteristics. Read the manual to learn the tricks of your specific camera. The leading camera manufacturers even offer their manuals electronically online. Consider downloading a copy to put on your lap top or smart phone so you can have easy access to it in the field.
What about you, do you have any photography tips you want to share?
Photo Credits:
“Color Contrast”, flickr.com/25133826@N04
“Panning”, flickr.com/velsfi
“Night Time”, flickr.com/andrewrennie
Learn the Type of Digital Files
Learn the Type of Digital Files
There are a great many digital file types to choose from. What is the best file type for you?
RAW
The native format that digital cameras, mostly DSLRs, use. RAW is proprietary; meaning Nikon RAW is not the same as Canon or Sony RAW. The downside of being proprietary is that a given photo editing program cannot read every version of RAW that’s out there. However, this is getting better with time and plug-ins for the more popular editing programs are available. The benefit of capturing your images in the RAW format is that the image is not processed. This allows the photographer the most control afterwards in post-processing.
JPEG (JPG)
JPG is possibly the most popular file type and is very common for web applications. When a photograph is saved as a JPG it is compressed. The compression process causes some loss of data, which means some loss of picture quality. Each time you save the image you will lose a little more data and the picture will be degraded just a little. It takes many generations of saving the file before it’s noticeable to the eye so don’t let that stop you from using the JPG format. JPG is well suited for emailing and uploading to the web and prints can be made too.
GIF
The GIF format has been around much longer than JPG and is not as powerful. The GIF format is also a data compression format, but GIF files are limited to 256 colors, compared to the JPG format that allows for tens of thousands of colors. The strength of the GIF format is when an image has large areas that of the same color. Because of the limited number of colors and the ability to have transparent backgrounds, GIFs are well suited for line drawings and logos.
PNG
The PNG format can be thought of as an improved GIF format with a lot of the functionality of GIF but not limited to 256 colors. Additionally, PNG does not lose data during compression so picture quality does not degrade either.
TIFF
The TIFF format is the most popular format that does not lose data during compression. It is very like that if your digital camera offers something besides JPG and RAW it will be TIFF.
PSD and PSP
Many image editing programs use their own proprietary format too. For example Photoshop’s native format is PSD while Paintshop Pro
uses PSP. These formats are fine for use within the editing programs, but not for long-term archiving.
Learn About Megapixels
Learn About Megapixels
If you believe advertisers, the number of megapixels is the deciding factor of the camera’s power. Just like with a computer’s memory or hard drive, “the more, the better”. The marketers would almost have you believe all the other camera features are not nearly as important.
Lens Quality
Lens
For example, lens quality is much more important than pixels. A poor quality lens will cause you photographs to look soft, maybe a little out of focus regardless of how many megapixels you have.
Printing
It’s after the images are out of the camera that the number of megapixels become important. The number of megapixels is a fairly good guide to how big the final print can be. Think of pixels as dots, as you enlarge an image dots move apart. Eventually the pixels, or dots, are far enough apart that they become visible and the picture quality starts to break down.
Generally speaking 4 megapixels is good for a 5×7 print, maybe a little bigger depending on what your subject is. A 3 meg picture will look great on your computer’s screen or a 3×5 print, maybe 5×7 but no more or the pixels will become obvious. Five megapixels is the minimum needed to print at 5×10.
Enlarging and Reducing
Various Size Prints
Photo editing programs do a better job at reducing images than they do at enlarging them. There is more to enlarging a picture than just making the pixels larger. The program interpolates the image and adds pixels. Interpolation mathematically guesses the color the added pixels need to be.
Photo credits
“Lens”, flickr.com/jeremy_vandel
“Various Size Prints”, flickr.com/revdancatt
Learn To Photograph Your Friends Candidly
Learn To Photograph Your Friends Candidly
It’s a lot of fun taking photographs of your friends when they have there guard down because it gives the pictures a little more emotion.
Singing Man
Candid photography is more about capturing the moment instead of the more traditional planned and posed sitting. Many news articles and human interest stories you see in magazines and your local newspaper are candid shots. Making a candid photograph is not as easy as it looks. However, there as some photography techniques you can learn that makes a candid picture much more than a snap shot of your friends.
It’s important to keep an eye on your friend when they’re attention is on something else. Then train your eye to see what Henri Cartier-Bresson calls the “decisive moment”. You need to stay alert for the right moment to unfold and also keep the composition of the final image in mind. Your camera has to be set up to capture the image before you even know what the final photograph will be. The best way is to have your camera pre-focused on your subject and the exposure already set.
It wouldn’t make much sense to use a flash to capture a candid photograph, would it? I mean, using a flash would ruin the mood of the scene. After the first image was taken everyone around you would become aware and conscious of you and your camera. So good quality natural lighting is very important to candid photography. Unfortunately, you may not get the light at the angle that’s the most flattering for your subject. To be a good candid photographer you need to be aware and learn the best angle of light for the moment that you’re capturing.
All Smiles
Candid photography’s purpose is to capture those moments when a person’s guard is down and their emotions are showing. Even though a quality camera, good lighting, and the lighting are important to capture the moment, it is even more important to be observant. The photographer’s eye is trained for observing. They will continuously scan the scene. Whether that’s a crowd, the landscapes, or another setting looking for that decisive moment. Their camera will always be ready to bring to their eye to frame and capture the candid subject. You will find it harder when you are trying to capture a candid of your friends because they will know you and what you are up to, and they will be more engaged with you making it harder to capture them off guard.
To photograph your friends candidly you’ll have to get their attention off the fact that you’re carrying a camera because some people will pose for the camera and others will become shy and turn away. Your friends, everyone around you really, will act naturally if they don’t think they’re going to have their picture taken.
Studying the scene, keeping your camera with you and ready, and knowing basic photography skills, and your reaction speed, will help you get the best candid. Since posing and turning away from the camera ruins the candidness of your photograph it’s often better to make profile images. In profile (from the side) the subject is less likely to see the camera because they will be looking straight ahead. So positioning yourself to the side and just a little forward may help you capture the image you’re looking for.
Candid photography is very rewarding style of photography, it’s also one of the most frustrating styles when your friends are conscious of what you are doing, and learning to photograph your friends candidly can be one of the most difficult photographic skills to learn. But in the end it is worth the effort.
Photo credits
“All Smiles” – flickr.com/m3umax
“Singing Man” – flickr.com/soylentgreen23
Learn How To Photograph Babies
Babies Playing
Learn How To Photograph Babies
Nothing will make a parent as proud as showing pictures of their cute new baby. We all enjoy viewing photographs of babies as well. So if you have a little one, keep your camera handy and share those baby pictures. The more photos you have the more fun it will be showing to your friends and family. Learn hot to make better photographs of your precious little one by following these tips.
Always be Ready
Any moment your baby will do something that’s entertaining, or does something for the first time. And you’ll never know when that will be, so keep you camera close by and ready all the time (charged batteries and film or memory cards). You may want to keep multiple cameras around your home. Also, considering keeping a disposable camera your diaper bag or your car to insure you’ll always be ready for that once in a lifetime moment.
Candid Shots
You will learn the most adorable photographs of babies are the candid. Candid pictures are more natural looking and relaxed than more formal looking posed picture. You can make memorable images of your baby sleeping, smiling, taking a bottle, even napping. Since babies notoriously do not cooperate when posing them it’s often easier and much more fun taking candid pictures of them. Take photos of all parts of the baby, like the chubby little fingers, feet, or their tiny toes. Those photographs will make sweet reminders of the young age and small size. Using a zoom lens is a great way to capture candid photos of your baby at a distance, like from across the room. Obviously, the more natural looking the photographs the more fun they will be to view. Capturing kids doing what they do when their adults aren’t looking make the best photographs. Using a zoom is a great technique to use because your baby won’t be distracted from you being there.
Black and White
Little Hand
Making the images of your baby black and white or sepia will produce some adorable pictures. Most digital cameras now have setting to capture in both black and white, as well as sepia. For the most part, when you shoot (or convert with editing software) to monotone, what your baby is wearing isn’t as important, because there is no clashing of colors.
Shoot a Lot
Shooting a lot of pictures increases your chance of capturing a great photograph and the more you handle your camera the better you will become at using it. Learn to shoot a lot of photographs of your baby doing the same thing. You might capture 20 images of your baby playing with a toy, but maybe only one or two are good enough to print or email to friends and family. The more images you capture the more there is to choose from.
Don’t Just Make Photographs
Lastly, do something with the photographs you take. Often people will not develop their film for months, or never. Or they won’t have their digital pictures printed. Babies grow and change very quickly. Make a weekly effort to print and share you photography. You don’t want to lose irreplaceable photographs, so if you’re shooting digitally, be sure to back up your pictures often. Failing to back up has happened to many photographers and is quite a loss when all those precious moments are gone for ever.
Photography Credits
“Babies Playing”, flickr.com/whiskeytango
“Little Hand”, flickr.com/makelessnoise
Learn How To Choose Memory
Learn How To Choose Memory
Does the size of your memory card matter? No, not to your camera, but maybe it does to you. It might be the difference between running out of memory and capturing that photograph you really want.
CompactFlash Memory
Before you decide what size memory card to use consider how many photographs you typically shoot at a time. The needs of an occasional shooter who captures family events will be different than a travel photographer, who will be different than a fashion magazine photographer. You also have to know the size of the file your camera will need to store your images. Smaller files obviously take less space than larger files. Some cameras will let you save RAW and JPG versions of the same image. So you have to think about your photographic style and how your camera stores pictures on its memory card.
A small camera, of a camera phone, that shoots three or four megapixels should do fine with a 128MB or 256MB memory card. If you’re shooting with a newer DSLR that captures images at 8-15MB you would be better served using 2-4GB memory cards.
You might think it’s more cost effective to buy just one card with the most capacity, say 16GB, instead of a few lower capacity cards. Well, it is more cost effective, but you risk losing a lot of photographs when your memory card fails, gets lost, or is otherwise not usable.
Using Ritz Camera
as a source and Lexar as a typical medium priced CompacFlash memory card, this is what you would pay:
4GB = $50, or $12.50/GB 8GB = $71, or $8.88/GB 16GB = $120, or $7.50/GB
You can see there is money to be saved by buying the 16GB CompacFlash. Only you know your tolerance for this kind of risk. Personally I use four 2GB CompacFlash cards with my 8MB DSLR, each card holds over 200 RAW format images.
Now it’s your turn reader. What size memory card do you use, and how did you decide to get that size?
Photo Credit
“CompactFlash Memory”, Sam Catchesides