How to Master Digital Photography?

Everyone seems to have digital camera these days--but do they all now how to use them, or are they stuck on the basics

Digital cameras can cost from a few dollars to complicated SLR models costing over $1000. Have you seen the manuals for these? You either have to have an IQ of 150 or be under 12 to fathom them out.

Why Go Digital

So why would you buy a digital, as opposed to your trusted film camera? Well, firstly there's cost. Although digitals are relatively expensive to buy initially, the running costs are minimal. No more spending on processing, replacement films, enlargements etc. Plus the waiting time involved. With digitals the pictures are saved electronically. This means they can be transferred to your PC/laptop, sorted, edited, printed, cropped and so on. Not only that, you can see your picture as soon as you've taken it, and, if it's no good bin it.

How does it work?

As already stated digital photos are stored electronically. They use a language that can be understood by computers. This is called Pixels. Digital cameras capture pictures using a sensor known as CCD. This is formed with thousands of light sensitive sensors making up each pixel. A million pixels is called a mega-pixel. The more mega-pixels in a camera the better the picture. As each MP captures light when you take a photo, the more there are the higher resolution attained. This means pictures can be enlarged without going out of focus or becoming grainy.

What to look for

As already stated, as a rule of thumb the more mega-pixels the better. Other things to consider include a zoom lens. Optical lenses give better quality than digital. LCD [display size] in my opinion the bigger the better, so you can see your pictures easily, decide which to keep and show them around. It is also a good idea to make sure that your purchase is compatible with your PCs and printers software. Now all you have to decide is which camera to buy--a pocket size one so you can take pictures in an instant, an SLR for those really professional photos you might need, or maybe you'd be happy with one of the ones that are built into cell phones, these days.