Designing Web Success

The first step to getting great digital photo prints, is to make sure you use a good quality digital camera.

Digital photos are gaining popularity over traditional film photos because of the features and convenience associated with the newer technology. In some cases it’s even more cost effective to print your own photos at home instead of taking them to a developer or sending them in.

Here are some words of wisdom for making great digital photo prints at home.

There are really 4 key components to a great printed photo: Image, Printer, Ink, Paper. Each is part interrelated therefore equally important for success.

The image is the starting point for a good photo. There are many different camera models out there, but in general, you will need at least 3.2 megapixel picture taking ability. Some snazzy digital SLR cameras have 8 megapixels or more. The camera should always be set to the highest resolution while taking the shots just in case you want to make enlargements later on.

Image transfer is crucial! Do not just throw the highest pixel image at some paper, you may not be happy with the results.

Sometimes, too high of a pixel count will create unsightly jagged color transitions in your photo and waste a lot of your ink and time. Too few pixels and the photos will turn out very “grainy”. It’s usually best to stay within the 200-300 pixels per inch range.

This chart may help you determine your appropriate photo sizes.

Print Size : Good Results (200 ppi) : Excellent Results (300 ppi)
========================================================
4×6 inch … 800 by 1200 px (~1 mpx) ….. 1200 by 1800 px (~2 mpx)
5×7 inch … 1000 by 1400 px (~1.5 mpx) .. 1500 by 2100 px (~3 mpx)
8×10 inch .. 1600 by 2000 px (~3 mpx) …. 2400 by 3000 px (~7 mpx)
11×14 inch . 2200 by 2800 px (~6 mpx) …. 3300 by 4200 px (~14 mpx)
16×20 inch . 3200 by 4000 px (~13 mpx) … 4800 by 6000 px (~29 mpx)

Legend
========
px = Pixels
mpx = Megapixels
ppi = Pixels per inch

(data compiled from PC World.com)

For example, if you had a picture taken with a 1.5 Megapixel digital camera, a 5×7 inch print is probably the largest size print that would work. Anything larger than a 5×7, may not look good.

However, if you had a picture taken with a 14 Megapixel camera, you should be able to print out a 11×14 inch print with excellent results (300ppi), or a “good” looking 16×20 inch print at 200 ppi.

In addition to the digital camera image, there are a few other components that go into making good quality digital photos you’ll want to be aware of: Your printer, the ink cartridges you use, and the quality of the photo paper you use. Each component factors into your end result.

Bob Stephens is director of operations for ASAP Inkjets. ASAP Inkjets offers ink cartridges & toner at up to 80% below retail. Signup for their free newsletter for tips & discounts at: www.asapinkjets.com/ or email: subscribe@asapinkjets.com

There are so many types of digital camera printer on offer that finding the right one for your personal and business needs can be a very daunting task. However, there are a few main points to consider when choosing a digital camera printer that will help make the process a little easier.

It isn’t necessary to have a high-resolution digital camera printer to make great pictures. The higher the printer resolution you use, the more pixels you’ll need in your original image file to produce a decent size print with your digital camera printer. The actual file size (in pixels) of the image from your camera, divided by the printer resolution (in dots per inch), determines the final print size. So, if the image file size is 1,478 x 1,280 pixels, and you print the file at 163 dpi with your digital camera printer, the final print size will be 9 x 7.8 inches.

If your digital camera printer resolution is 300 dpi, then you will have a higher resolution with more dots per inch laid down on the paper but a smaller print size. It is therefore important to ensure that you have the image file size to support the resolution of your digital camera printer.

The price of a digital camera printer is lowering whilst the quality is increasing. If you choose the right digital camera printer you can have your own photo lab, greeting card designing and sign making department with just your digital camera, some software and a printer.

The aim of having a digital camera printer is to produce photographic prints that look as close to real photographic prints as possible. This type of digital camera printer was once very expensive to buy and run, but technological advancements and competitive pricing have made them much more accessible to the average buyer. Ink-jet printers are now available that can produce excellent prints and a near photo-quality printer is much easier to find for people with a small budget. You will probably want to have a digital camera printer with a scanning feature built-in. If you want to produce same-size scans of photos you don’t need scan resolutions higher than 300 samples per inch for the scanner.

Your digital camera printer should also have the same interface that you already have on your computer. So if you have USB, then get a digital camera printer with USB, a Firewire printer if you have Firewire or a SCSI printer if you have SCSI. There should be no need to buy a digital camera printer that requires a different interface to the one you already have on your computer or it will cost you more to upgrade if necessary.

Steve Gargin is the administrator of digital-camera-reviews.helper-guru.com/camera-digital-photography-wedding/index.html which is a great website dedicated to giving free advice on Digital Cameras.

Nokia, as everybody knows, is presently 1 of the earth’s greatest fabricators of handsets and this is compared with other dominant competitors for example, Samsung & Motorola (amid others). Nokia design mobile telephones for each and every main sector and back in 07 they were voted the most valuable global brand. Their commodities fall into four various sectors - mobile phones, multimedia, networks & enterprise solutions. Nokia can offer an enormous range of mobile phones to you.

The hand-set revolution headed by Nokia seems to be irrepressible. The stocky bricks made in the nineteen nineties for example, the Nokia 2110 that was almost 236 grams have currently been swapped with light-weight, and fine sets for example, the Nokia 6282 that comes in at a mere 115 g or what about the Nokia 7380 that weighs a mere 80 g. The phones all have the very latest in communications jiggery pokery coupled with well founded fashion sense.

Deciding on a phone was a simple activity still, considering the products possible to each of us today, it becomes slightly harder. Consumers will often buy their mobiles with the thought of various features, - could it be a statement of fashion an object which makes someone look spiffing - or might it be only for the advantages that the telephones these days offer, for instance, e-mail & WAP, etc.

More technologies are also consolidating in Nokia phones to provide the customer the possibility to communicate with more than only speech. Nokia phones which include cameras are also becoming commonplace as is the facility to produce videos and beam them to friends and buddies through multimedia messaging. You should furthermore get full color video on every one of their mobile devices and in excess of 1/2 are available with the facility to show WAP info (pages adjusted only for the smaller screens on your telephones). Also obtainable is the cell phones which have radios & MP3 facilities just for listening to your tunes. The cost of their phones range from 0 up to a few hundred pounds, it mostly depends about what one desire.

Nokia, as was said, continues to be the the earth’s #1 builder of mobile devices, even though some reckon that Nokia’s top spot might be under pressure specifically by Sony Erickson. Even so, Nokia now have the advantage of years of experience in telephone assembly & has incredible loyalty from its regular consumers along with with their reputation only for reliability & user friendliness.

As new technologies become even more vital in today’s mobile devices, the space between Nokia and all of its competitors will become extra obvious.

Have you already mastered the art of taking photos without ‘red-eye’ syndrome? Are there some pictures that you know you should have turned out a lot better than they did? It happens to all of us - even the expert photographers.

Here are five tips to help you move from beginner to master of digital photography, whether you’re using your cell phone or a point-and-shoot camera to snap shots.

Compose Carefully

One of the most basic digital photography tips is to pay attention to what’s in the frame of the viewfinder. Fill the frame. Nothing but blue sky, for instance, behind a single subject throws off the proportions of the photo and decreases interest. You can also turn the camera sideways to see if a vertical photo might have more impact than a horizontal shot of the same subject.

You can also try positioning your subject off to the side, rather than in the center of the photograph.

Take Great Close up Photos

Your digital camera has a “macro mode” - think of it as a super magnifying glass. An extreme close up of something like flower petals can bring out textures that you never knew existed, and will add excitement to your photos. Play with this feature, you will find dozens of ways to use it to enhance your pictures.

Buy a Tripod

Digital cameras are prone to blurry photographs if your hands shake even a little bit. Several companies manufacture light, portable, inexpensive versions. Digital photography tips like this can save you hours of frustration and preserve otherwise perfect shots.

Get Active

Take your shot from the top of a teeter-totter, off the side of the boat, or standing on your head. Thinking outside the box can really pay off in unexpected ways. You will truly get once in a lifetime shots by adding a bit of creativity to your thinking.

Take a Class

Are you still hungry for digital photography tips? There’s nothing like practice to improve your photography - except practice plus experience gained by learning from a pro. You can find photography classes online, at your local recreation centers, and community colleges.

Becoming an expert at digital photography takes time; you won’t become a professional photographer in your first week. Just keep trying new methods each time you use your camera, and before long, your friends and family will be admiring your newfound skills.

Gerri Stone publishes photography tips for beginners, and information for all types of photographers at Discover Photography.

For the real travelling businesswoman out there, the handiness to connect up and employ the devices back at the office is a major plus. Now available in a large amount of the Nokia hand sets on sale today are Business Phones. These clever bits of high-technology make it possible for you to receive your data through browsers & e mail any of your clients and coworkers. In fact, your business phone performs in much the same way to your notebook does, except it is much less than half the size.

Nokia, as they say, is all about connecting people. Nokia also know that transportability makes firms healthier. Mobility gives one the facility to collude and carry out business outside the conventional work places and times. Nokia provides a broad assortment of business handsets. Each and every one of the devices is targeted at different types of customer.

Looking at their business range Nokia make four contrasting makes of business handset. These are communicators, smart phones, messaging sets and mobile hand sets. Nokia business hand sets support solutions like Nokia Intellisync Wireless Email. Nokia have done some research and was discovered that workers using wireless carried out an average extra fifty five mins. of work per day. This is suspected to increase to eighty mins. extra productivity per day Christmas 2007. Another advantage of employing their Business devices is that they might save you money for your firm or yourself as you’ll not depend on two discrete hand sets - folk can have all they need in a single device.

Nokia’s phones are excellent for businesses & for professionals. All hand sets have great designs, they’re all very compatible and don’t forget very easy to use, once you’re accustomed to them. The email abilities are brilliant with support from Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Microsoft Office 97, 2000, 2003 & XP plus it works with zip manager & Adobe Reader. One are able to send & receive emails throughout chatting on the sets but also they are able to access the current calendar and the contacts details. The e mail function can also function in off-line mode which means one are able to read & write e-mails when the network is down.

Even though the business phones provided by Nokia are not all exceptionally petite, what people need to remember is the sets are great dimensions considering what they do. Nearly all the hand sets have a full featured keyboard with back-light, a large landscape screen along with a simple one press feature to access your e mail . You can find whatever business phone you need at Nokia.

A business hand set is not going to suite everybody but for the improvements it provides to users who’ll make use of all the facilities, its surely going to make their lives easier.

Digital Imaging is a process where an electronic photograph, scanned document, or image is converted into a series of electronic dots called pixels. Pixels is an acronym for “picture elements”.

After the image is converted, or digitized, it is stored on a memory storage device which may be a hard drive or some sort of electronic storage device such as a memory stick. The pixels are stored in a compressed format to save storage space.

As each pixel is being created it is assigned a color value, called a tonal value, of black, white, shades of grey, or an actual color. These pixels must be processed by a piece of software in order for them to be called up and viewed as an actual image later.

Traditional cameras capture images onto film while digital cameras use an electronic chip known as a Charged Coupling Device (CCD). The CCD is actually a grid of miniature light-sensitive diodes. These diodes convert photons (light) that strikes them into electrons (electrical impulses). The technical name for these diodes is ‘photosite’. The brighter the light is that hits the photosite the stronger the electrical charge is that’s produced.

After converting the photons into electrons, a mini-computer, located inside of the camera, reads the stored electrical value in each photograph. Then a built-in analog-to-digital converter turns the stored electrical value into a digital value. These digital values are then stored on the cameras memory storage device. When these digital values are recalled by software, and displayed on a screen, they reproduce the image that was originally captured by the camera or digital input device.

The digital image that is created by the CCD is huge. It’s far too big to be easily stored in the relatively little amount of storage space that’s available to a digital camera. Accordingly, the camera’s computer compresses the image to make it smaller.

There are two basic methods for achieving this compression. The first method takes advantage of repetitive patterns in the image. For example, if you are taking a picture of an airplane that is flying in the sky, a lot of the picture will be a chunk of blue sky. The camera recognizes that there are multiple parts of the image containing the same digital information, so it only records a small piece of the sky. Then it simply creates a map to tell it where the rest of the sky belongs. When the picture is ultimately displayed the sky appears exactly the same as it did in the original image when it was first captured. The only difference is that the overall storage requirements were reduced thanks to the camera’s clever mapping techniques.

The other method uses a procedure called irrelevancy. This methodology automatically removes digital information that is not visible to the human eye such an infra red light.

Digital imaging is amazing yet we have only started witnessing the revolutionary changes that are yet to come.

About The Author

Warren Lynch has been shooting commercial photography since 1979. Clients include Several Regional and National accounts. Sign up for”The Digital Dose” and receive his tips every other week for FREE! http://www.photopheed.com.

contact@photopheed.com

Perspective

One of the most interesting features of wide-angle lens is the capability to stretch perspective. What do I mean by that? I mean that when you look through a wide-angle lens, it seems that the distance between objects has extended. The objects that were not so distant could appear too far away. And the proportion of objects dramatically increases, so the one that close to the camera look enormous, but those, which are father away almost disappear in the distance.

The wider the angle the shorter and stronger the difference in the sizes of the elements in the photograph. If we think of two parallel lines that stretch out away from the camera, these two lines will visibly merge at some point. This is a point, which I would call perceptive vanish point for wide angle lens. What do I mean by that? Well, theoretically at this point and beyond (at this distance from the focal plane) all elements would be represented as a dot or not visible at all. For normal lens (of in reality) this vanishing point is somewhat farther from the focal plane then for wide angle lens.

What do those two vanishing points mean (for normal and wide angle lens)? They mean that the wide angle lens reduce the actual (visible) distance to the vanishing point. Which results that our brain, when judging the distance and sizes of the objects in the photograph, assumes that the distance to the vanishing point is the same as with normal lens (i.e. reality). But this assumption makes it to stretch the perspective recorded in the image to the normal one.

Making it big

Let’s take for example a simple situation, where we have two kids, which should be of similar size. The girl is playing closer to the camera while the boy is watching several feet farther. We make a shot with a wide angle lens. What effect the lens would bring here? First of all compare the size of the girl and the boy. The boy probably would be two-three times smaller than the girl, while in reality their somewhat of the same height. OK, the perspective added its effect and make the boy seem smaller. But in the reality the boy is not that far away. On the photograph I it could seem as 15-20 feet (5-7 meters) between the boy and the girl, actually only a few feet separated them at that moment. So here you see the first effect of the wide angle lens - stretching perspective.

And I should say that there is additional benefit for a photographer in this. Because the girl appear to be bigger than the boy she becomes the main subject without any doubts or additional thinking, we just assume it by judging the relative sizes of subjects/objects in the frame. It means that with wide angle lens its much easier to focus viewer’s attention on the primary subject - the size matters. If we consider the relative sizes and how it reduces the significance of the objects/subjects that farther away from the camera, we can say that the other elements of the photograph (not the primary one) easily become the background for our primary subject. And this trail of thought leads me to a conclusion that by using wide angle lens we can separate the subject from the rest of stuff in the image by making all other elements to become the background. It looks like we push all other elements farther away from the camera and pull the subject much closer to the camera.

Though there is one side thought, it may not always be possible to get close to the subject and enforce that distance between elements in the photograph. It only works when you are very close to the subject, otherwise the use of wide angle lens will have the opposite effect - it will blend your subject in with the rest of the elements of the photograph. And sometimes it may even worsen things, such that some insignificant object on front plane becomes almost huge and draws a lot of unwanted attention. That’s why there are limits to this techniqe, as always.

Seeing a lot

So, by pushing the subject farther from the camera we blend it with background. But what if we need to include a lot of the scene? What if there is no single subject? Let’s say there is a vista or a big room full of people (some kind of event) and we want to get everything into the frame. Well, again the wide angle lens could be your choice, because the name of that range says it all. Wide angle means that you can fit a lot of stuff into the image.

Though when you put a lot of stuff into the image everything becomes small and less significant. And then the emphasis shifts to the overall “wow effect”. When the quantity of elements and their relation to each other play more importance, than qualities of a single element, this mix of many elements becomes the primary subject.

Wide angle lens help when there is a limited space and you need to jam a big subject into the picture. One of the examples is the interior design photography. Let’s say we have an assignment to take photographs of a kitchen, which I had some time ago. In my case I had plenty of room to move around, the kitchen was for a show, not for real purposes. But there are times when the space is a great issue, then the only choice is to use a wide angle lens, if you are not focusing on the details and need the overall view of the room.

Dynamics and distortion

Sometime ago I’ve taken a shot of a man sitting on a car. It was taken with “a hidden camera”, I just pointed the camera at the man from the waist level at pressed the shutter. The lens, of course, was the wide angle one - at its widest angle. The legs of the man were closest to the camera, and the head is most distant. How was it represented in the photographs? My first answer would be the disproportion of the man, his legs seem much bigger in relation to his whole body than a person usually would have. That is one of the the distortion effects which I wanted to point out. It relates to the “Making it big” issue covered earlier in this article. The body parts of the man, which are closer to the camera (in our case those are the legs) appear to be bigger than his other limbs, which are farther away. Such a distortion sometime may add a funny look to a portrait or highlight specific features of the subject. You probably have seen many images taken with a fish eye lens - the lens that cover 180 degrees and with most distortions. The first example that comes to my mind is a picture of a dog, which is sniffing the camera. The nose of the dog has the size of the dog’s head, which makes it so funny.

The other effect of distortion is that straight lines that cross the frame may appear not that straight. The farther from the image center the line crosses the frame the more it will be bent by the optics. Sometimes with fish eye lens it seems like a couple of lines create a circle around the lens. That’s how strongly a distortion can affect the scene in the photograph.

But we have not talked about the dynamics. Where are the dynamics in the photograph created with a wide angle lens? In my mind the dynamics in all aspects described above: the stretch of perspective, the differences of the subjects, which are on different distances from the camera, the unreal proportions of known shapes and forms and the distortion of the straight lines (or any other usual and known graphic elements).

Getting personal

Among those technical aspects of the wide angle lens, there is one, which adds its own appeal to me. Considering that you are using the lens to take photographs of a person, you are bound to come closer to the subject. Coming closer, huh? It means that most probably the person would notice you and your camera, which will almost touch him or her. And if your are noticed by the subject, then the attention will be turned at you and all the activities or interests that kept that person busy and made him/her interesting for you will be forgotten for a little while. And the scene, which you were hunting for, is gone. It seems like you are loosing the advantage of a candid shot and are left with a posed one.

Not at all, if you stick just for a few more minutes and spend some time around the subject, the person would be bored with you and shift his attention to some other, more interesting activities or objects. That’s the moment we have been waiting for - we are close and unnoticed. And the time which we spent waiting for that we made an invisible connection with the subject. We learned about some personal side and probably made some impressions and conclusions. All those small things count, they will appear in the photograph, it will create that personal touch and add the mood to the photograph, which is based on the photographer’s understanding and impression of the subject. I consider this side-effect of the wide angle lens one of the important aspects. And even if the subject is a simple rock laying in the grass, we will have to pay more attention to the rock and by doing so we cannot escape a deeper impression. This personal connection makes as think more about what subject we select to include into the frame and what we know about it, what we want to express, which is the core of photography.

Technical stuff

There are a few technical things that you may need to know when using the wide-angle lens. Here is the short description of those (I am not that much into technicalities):

• Lens Hood and Flare - because the lens covers a very wide area there is a great chance that the sun could mess with your image. To overcome this small problem most of the lens are supplied with a lens hood. The hood creates a protection from the sun, but there are two things that collide: the lens is created to allow view as much as possible and the hood tries to provide a protection from the sun. These two concept are somewhat contradictory, so one of them should give in, and that’s why the hood for wide angle lens is not such a good protection after all. So, it’s your job to watch for the flare and it may be useful to use some other objects (such as a sheet of black card) to protect the lens from the sun rays.
• Polarizer - with polarizer you have two concerns. One of them is that the simple thickness of the metallic rim around the glass may cause vignetting. The other one is the unevenness of the effect, which is partially depends on the all those various reflection angles that these lens will let through. If we take for example the sky, the best effect will be when the sun and the camera are at 90 degrees to each other. Though the lens cover a lot more of other angles, where the angles will vary from 45 to 135 degrees. As well I noticed that even without the polarizer the lens saturates the sky more than any other type of lens.
• Depth of Field - the design of the wide angle lens and its optical constraints make the DOF wider than with any other lens. It’s very hard (almost impossible) to have a shallow DOF with such lens, so look for other ways to simplify background (such as framing).
• Sharpness - if you have a wide angle zoom lens than you may notice slighter less sharpness at the very wide angle, especially with the widest aperture. That’s another design constraint, which very hard to avoid as I understand (almost any wide angle zoom lens has this drawback, even the best lens).
• Vignetting - some lens (especially of cheaper price range) may have dimness in corners at the widest angles and apertures. You may want to check this issue before buying the lens.

Roman Zolin
Friendly photography with a smile

Visit http://www.romanzolin.com for more photography and photoshop related articles.

Digital technology has grown by leaps and bounds and in turn, camcorder cases have come a long way. In order to keep up with the digital world, camcorder case manufacturers have made their products technology as well as user friendly. Modular camcorder cases, like those made by M-Rock are created with incredible craftsmanship that make it a long lasting product and have the most features for the money. M-Rock creator Michael Rockwell thought of all the crucial details when he created his line of camcorder cases. Just check out some of theses incredible features.

On the exterior the camcorder cases come with a protective weather jacket, and a triple protection system consisting of a rain-flap, zipper, and front buckle. The cases also have two large belt loops to attach to the waist, or shoulder straps to attach to the back or chest. The cases also have three exterior pockets that allow for easy access to camcorder equipment, and come with bungee straps that can carry other gear like umbrellas and tripods.

The interior of M-Rock camcorder cases is extremely well crafted to provide optimum protection. M-Rock uses thick closed-cell foam, plastic paneling, and a water resistant rigid outer structure to ensure a rigid configuration. The interior is lined with an ultra-soft non-abrasive felt to protect delicate components. Camcorder cases are also available with an optional U-shaped padded lens cradle that can be placed anywhere within the case.

These features are included in all of M-Rock’s 15 different sizes and styles of camcorder cases. The modular system allows all of the smaller cases to be attached to any of the larger case. A rigid Velcro system attaches the cases together or to the modular belt with an extremely secure attachment.

M-Rock backs up all their products with a lifetime warranty on workmanship and materials. Their products are long lasting and will protect camcorders and camcorder equipment for years to come. Modular camcorder cases can change the way filmmaking is done, and act like a virtual assistant.

Angela Oliver is an author for www.M-Rock.com, maker of the most multi-functional and user-friendly camcorder cases. Visit M-Rock today check out their complete line of unique and high quality modular camcorder cases.

Is there a ‘Way’ of photography?

Photography is amorphous; it is all things to all people. For me, photography is a celebration of life. Some would say, ‘That guy has too much time on his hands.’ However, you can only start with yourself, and reveal your own hopes and aspirations through your art. If there is such a thing as a ‘Way’ in photography, I would say it is defined in the phrase: ‘To be a pilgrim through the visual world’. That is how my good friend Uranta puts it. I like that, I like it a lot. It implies an integrity of outlook, a dignity and depth of purpose that I believe should always be invested in one’s creative perceptions. I also like it because it goes beyond photography; you don’t have to know anything about cameras to be that pilgrim. However, photography can certainly help in focusing one’s awareness, to develop an inner eye through which the beauty of the seen world is transposed and revealed.

Photography is at once practical and mysterious. See something that interests you. Click. Take the picture. It can be as simple and perfectly workable as that. However, if you aspire to remain in a visually perceptive consciousness, things happen on another level; you start to understand Henri Cartier-Bresson’s evocative quote: ‘Every circumstance has its defining moment; the good photographer will be aware of it before it happens.’ It sounds strange - pretentious even - but good photographs do seem to quietly present themselves. In certain situations one can just feel there is a fine photograph nearby. Sometimes the backdrop is there, but an element is missing - you don’t know what it is yet, but often if you simply wait, something will happen that will complete your untaken photo. Eyes need a distance, but they also need a place to rest, a touchstone that draws the photo together or complements the whole; perhaps someone moving through an otherwise still place, or a small and bright object in a vast space, or maybe a point of stillness in a busy scene.

On the other hand the heart will have its way - the concept of the well-composed photo may be confounded by our feelings about people, places, and events. We would all rather have an ordinary photo of someone or something special to us than an amazing photo of something or someone we have no feeling for. My Scottish gran was an exceptional person with rare qualities. My favorite photo of her is a small, faded, tattered snapshot I took when I was sixteen - it has no artistic merit whatsoever but remains one of my favorite photos.

Which is better- digital or film?

For convenience, editing, speed, control, web, email etc, the answer has to be digital. For quality, color and ‘presence’, then I would say film. In my experience, a good negative scanner and a well-exposed negative, with careful post-processing, will give better results than digital. It’s not all about resolution; it’s also about quality of color and subtleties of tone. Digital images often seem to have an inherent ‘flat’ feeling to them. The best quality of all is from a projected slide, it really is the closest you can get to the original view. However, the ‘original view’ may not be what you want.

The other problem with digital photography relates to some of the points mentioned in the answer to the first question. Rather than honing one’s visual and technical skills to the point where the photo is realized at its most perfect moment, with hundreds of images now available on modern memory cards, there is a tendency to just take lots of photos. We all do it, and it doesn’t make us better photographers, it just tends to make us more obtrusive and intrusive. At grand events we go into overdrive, snapping and chimping - even taking photos just to check the exposure level! I am the worst culprit here, and ‘fess up to the fact. The only plea I have in my defense is that I refuse to put any camera into drive mode, whereby one holds the shutter and it just keeps taking pictures continuously. I salvage a little dignity by at least taking each photo individually! It’s surprising how much more careful and considered our digital photographs become when we only have a few possible images left on the memory card! Then we frantically start chimping to see what we can delete to make more space so we can just go into digital overdrive again! What a game! Digiots, aren’t we just? Digital idiots! You have every right to laugh at us! Until you get your first digital camera that is, and you become a chimper yourself!

On the plus side, digital cameras do make the process more sociable - the joy of sharing with others the photo just taken. It may be also be that people are relying on you to take a good photo of an unrepeatable event, and in that case the digital aspect helps in ensuring you don’t let people down. The control aspect is important. Anyone who has had their negatives lost or damaged by a lab will appreciate the relative security of the digital image. The other great thing about digital images is that they can be copied without loss of quality. You could, on the other hand, see this as a curse: the uniqueness of a single negative or slide is lost, and that which was once totally original has become endlessly duplicated, each replication identical to the first.

What makes a great photographer great?

I read something today that made me chuckle. ‘A great photographer is someone who doesn’t show you their dud photos.’ There is truth in that. Photography, being so easy and accessible, is very enchanting. But after a few years you look back on your previous output and wince. A while ago I went through photos from my first few years with a camera. While patiently looking through several thousand slides, prints and negatives, deludedly thinking, ‘Ah, let me once again peruse these pearls,’ I came up with only thirty competent photos, of which just five were good enough to print! In the end only one of these got enlarged, which is the picture of a clown waiting for a bus. I do even have some ‘issues’ with that one picture, but it’ll have to do, as they say.

My photography got a lot better once I started working in black and white. I took far fewer photos, knowing each one required darkroom time - but the ones I did take had a considered and thoughtful feeling about them, helped by the fact that I was able to work on them in the darkroom to get what I wanted. I don’t actually think you have to go through all this bupkas to produce great photographs as though it is some arcane art form for which you have to suffer! I just try and make up, with patience and determination, what I lack in talent!

I would say it is difficult to produce consistently good photographs without a thorough technical knowledge of your camera. You also need an ongoing awareness of composition, tone, form, and the way light works. To get the photo you want time after time, you need to be able to visualize the way you’d like it to ultimately look before you press the shutter. The photo you really want may be very different to what is actually there. It is that ability to take what you see and change it into what you can imagine that defines the photographer as an artist: the sum of experience condensed into a heartbeat. For all that, whatever you do to the image afterwards will not turn a poor photo into a good one.

For any serious photographer then, I would say that the original image from the camera is just the starting point. The darkroom or the editing program then become the tools whereby you actually begin to resolve this image with your original vision for the photograph. Whatever way you work, in the end your picture is just a set of shapes and colors on paper or screen. First of all these have to work together as an abstract arrangement. Underneath the illusion of the subject matter of great photographs or paintings you will invariably find a coherent balance where all the elements of form, tone, and light come together in harmony. I guess it’s a classic idea of visual aesthetics, and if you aspire to it your photos can only improve.
For all that, there are photographs that are haphazard - where the subject matter is so powerful in its immediacy that it renders irrelevant all the rules about what is or isn’t a good photo. One of the reasons that I like Henri-Cartier-Bresson so much is that he had the rare ability to combine both aspects; to capture a seemingly ordinary and random event in an exquisitely balanced and resolved way. His work shows a real mastery of visual synchronicity. It also reveals that in some way perfection can be found in the simple events of everyday life, if you know how to see them. To ‘see’ like that you really have to be fully alive in each moment. That is the exhilaration, the joy of photography - and for me that is where photography and spirituality meet.

Pavitrata Taylor works as a teacher in a London primary school and in his spare time is a keen photographer. He occassionaly writes but usually prefers to let his pictures do the talking. This article was originally written for Inspiration Letters at Sri Chinmoy Centre

Today, while you go shopping for ‘feature-rich’ digital cameras physically or on the Internet, often you will find manufacturers running out of their ways, telling “this camera takes great pictures.” And which snap taker of our times will fail to equate ‘great pictures’ with great resolutions? Well, with today’s 3, 4 or 5 megapixel digital cameras offering the flexibility of digital zooms, storing high-resolution images on their memory cards and an LCD panel that shows 100% of the subject, you will get digital images of superb quality; whether you want to print posters or put your images online.

With manufacturers recognizing a market for simple, sleek and sophisticated cameras in all pixel categories, today you can find basic point-and-shoot digicams, with resolutions typically ranging from one-megapixel at the low end to six-megapixels in professional-grade equipment. And here, the bottomline is, the more pixels a camera has, the sharper the images it produces.

With today’s manufacturers realizing that the buyers actually intend to match their purchases with the specific needs of the camera at a price that best suits them, they have also come up with many midrange models that feature lots of adjustable focus, exposure settings and several flash/picture modes (like portrait, landscape, nightmode, etc). Clearly, more sophisticated models require more time with the manual, and prospective buyers should know that there’s a learning curve involved with such cameras. As a whole, while you go for buying one for yourself, you’ll learn:

• How to use camera functions to the best of their capabilities

• How to select and use accessories to enhance your shooting experience

• How to use the digital cameras to create great images

• How to spark up your images (using the most popular image editing software: Adobe Photoshop7). Very recently, however, Webshots.com, the premiere online photo community website has introduced free online courses to teach buyers the technicalities of digital image touch-ups/reworking, creating stunning web pages and rich media websites with their digital images.

However, in order to choose the right camera–one with the right picture resolution at the right price–you’ll need to figure out what you’ll be doing with it. For example, if you are a casual snapshooter, interested in taking photos that you can e-mail to friends and family, post on the Web, or print in sizes smaller than 8×10 inches; a 2-3 megapixel will suffice.

There are lot of these models introduced by Kodak Eastman company (Kodak EasyShare CX6200, Kodak EasyShare CX6230), Canon (Canon Powershot A75), POLAROID (Polaroid PDC2050 2.1 MP Digital Camera), stressing on the fact that these are easy enough for the whole family to use and small enough to take anywhere.

On the other hand, to shoot onsite or in the office, photographs for product-ads and publicity in print and on the Web with professional-looking results without hiring a pro, a business user will find 3 megapixel cameras great.

Again, someone with the frenzy to buy the newest, shiniest toys to impress friends and business associates with the latest technologies and coolest features will find 5 megapixel cameras really ‘cool’. Among the latest feature-rich cameras in this category, you’ll find Sony’s stylish, pocket-size Cybershot DSCP100 digital camera offering an amazing 5-megapixel resolution and a wealth of photographic features normally found on full-sized, high-end cameras. On the other hand, Panasonic has today revealed the new Panasonic DMC-FZ20 with five megapixels, an improved body design and an improved processor (the “Venus Engine II”), promising better performance, improved image stabilization and image quality. Canon Powershot G5 5 Megapixel is also a smash hit with the resolution-junkies.

Expert photographers and reviewers have time and again said that as much as they would like to give a one-word answer to one asking how many megapixels would be fine for him/her, this one happens to be of the trickiest questions in digital photography.

A final answer by experts: For any images you plan to print or retouch, 3-megapixel resolution and higher should be okay; web and e-mail-only photos should be fine at resolutions below that. For prints 8×10 or larger, one should look for digicams with 4-megapixel resolution or higher. And last but not the least, for displaying or printing pictures at smaller-than-actual-pixel size, resolution doesn’t matter much. Instead, in that case, one should opt for the camera with the best color.

However, in spite of the experts’ verdict, the fact remains that the craze for high resolution digicams soars higher every day. With the enthusiasm of camera nuts willing to pay huge amounts for their photographic toys, 8-megapixel cameras launched by Canon (Canon EOS 20D) are having a good market in the western countries. Lori Grunin, a photo-columnist of Webshots.com, however, says that these cameras appeal to relatively specialized groups within the entire photographic market.

Before buying one, identify whether you are one of them.

Lopa Bhattacharya is a content writer/developer working for various overseas corporate website projects, CD-Rom presentations, brochures, flyers and other communication materials). Has worked on numerous SEO copywriting projects on varied themes ranging from travel, hotel industry, photography, web design and software development to US-based clubs and network communities. Was previously an editorial associate for the news, culture and entertainment portal based on the life and times of Kolkata.