Digital Photography 101

Digital Photography 101

If you have access to a computer, you can take advantage of the latest wave in photographic technology, the digital camera. Even if you don't have a computer you can use a digital camera, but a computer definitely helps. The essential piece of equipment is the camera itself. They are available in a variety of styles, so pick the one that appeals to you.

Keep in mind that you'll be paying more for a high- quality digital camera. Cheaper versions are like cheap traditional cameras--they're all right for quick snapshots, but you shouldn't use them for important pictures. Mid- priced cameras can yield terrific results, especially if you want to use them to post your pics on the internet.
As a rule of thumb, go for a high number of pixels. For a beginning, 3 megapixels is plenty. But the quality of the lens must also be high, or else the pixels won't matter.

Generally speaking the well known brands make good digital cameras, but the market changes so fast you need to look at a few online reviews.

Digital photography is a huge trend, and even those who did not know much about traditional photography are jumping on the digital bandwagon. Why? There are three main reasons: digital photography is cheaper, encourages creativity, and give you more freedom:

1) Digital photography is actually cheaper in the long- term than traditional photography. After you pay for the camera itself (as well as any ink and paper you may need to print out photographs), the cost is minimal.
Traditional prints are incredibly expensive, and we've all learned that most rolls of film include at least a few pictures we wish we hadn't taken. But with digital cameras you can just delete bad pictures and focus on the ones that are good. Also, most people generally don't even print out digital pics--they beam them around the globe via email or by posting them on the web.

2) Creativity. This is a main selling point for many people. With traditional cameras, you had to shell out more money to get your prints blown up, cropped, or fixed. It was almost never worth it. But with digital cameras you have the ability to go in and become an artist, cropping out whatever looks ugly, creating a better color saturation, and so on. It's easy, even for those who are new to digital photography.

3) Freedom. With the old style of photography, you were constantly worried about "wasting" film. But digital cameras have given us the freedom to snap as much as we want, without censoring ourselves. It is so easy to take many photos, and you can always just delete any that come out badly. And whereas we once had to take rolls of film just to ensure that we'd get one good shot, today we can simply snap away and look at the camera screen to be sure we got a great pic. This is obviously much cheaper and much less wasteful.

Having read the above, keep the following in mind:

Use your digital camera as a chance to experiment. Once you spend money on a camera, you will find that you become free to experiment to your heart's desire. Look at new objects, shoot details that you would not have wasted film on before, and so on. Be adventurous, because that is how you will wind up with great pictures.

Learn to use your photo software properly. It might take a bit of time reading the manual or working through online tutorials, but it really is worth it. Understanding what to do to improve your shots after they have been taken will mean you can show your shots to their best, and get murmurs of approval from all around.


Professional photographer Deborah Kilgaron helps other people follow her path through her website " www.rpphotography.com
Raising Profile Photography. Visit the Raising Profile Photography online community at http://www.rpphotography.com to sample Deborah's methods.