Setting
up your digital camera.
Read
the book that came with your camera and remember where you put it. There is always good reference material
there.
Go
through the settings. I suggest Setting
for the best resolution, it may use more memory and battery usage but you will
have a lot more picture to use in the future.
Turn off the date feature unless you really want that to be on all your
pictures. You cannot remove it but you
can always add the date after you transfer your pictures to your computer. Leave any settings at the default unless you
understand what they are for. Go to the
camera web site and get the latest drivers.
Learning the limitations of your digital camera. & Comparing a digital camera to a 35mm camera.
With most affordable digital cameras there is a
built in flash. It is not very strong
and your book will tell you how far it is good for. It is not like a 35mm camera where the flash you buy will go
farther. But there is a trade off in
space. Digital cameras are smaller,
lighter and more convenient. In a 35mm
camera every shot is permanent. With a
Digital camera you can easily delete any shots you don’t want. In a 35mm camera each roll is limited to 36
pictures and then you spend more money for more film. With a Digital camera you buy an 80.00 256 meg card and 200
pictures later you dump into the computer and ready for more. In a 35mm camera if you need an 8x10 the
same day you must take the picture, go to a 1 hour lab, bring the picture home,
scan the picture and then print it with all the defects and dust that got onto
your negative at the 1 hour lab and then in the scanning process. With a Digital camera you take the picture
load into the computer, crop and adjust the picture to your liking and print
it. It saves time and money and the
results are almost identical.
Learning how to use the different settings on
your digital camera.
There are many different settings on a digital camera. Some are set only once. Some you set every time you turn the camera on. Some you might want to set differently due to changing conditions as you shoot.
One of the most important one that you have to set when you turn your camera on
is the setting of what you are shooting.
Is it bright? Is the sun in front or in back of your subject? Is in
indoors and will the flash be rude to the person you shooting?
The inside of the camera is like the inside of your
eye. There is also a shutter that is
like your eyelids and an aperture that is like the pupil of your eyes. Your eyes are totally automatic and
constantly adjusting to the changing light and circumstance. The camera tries to be that good but we must
help it along.
One of the helpers is the flash. It is small and good for most general
occasions. There is a sweet spot where
you are far enough away and not to far away to take a good picture. There are settings on the flash, usually
auto, fill in and red eye reduction.
Taking great pictures within your camera's
limitations.
We covered the small flash power it is a small limitation. When taking group shots be sure that all the subjects are the same distance from the camera, or those closer will be washed out with light and those farther will be very dark and those in the middle will be just right. Again we are at the read the book part to find out how far the flash goes. After you have the proper distance from the camera you can use the zoom feature to fit every one in. If this still does not work try an outside area with a good north light facing the group. We also have a slow shutter speed and shutter lag. With a slow shutter speed it is important to get as much light onto the subject to cause the camera to use a faster shutter speed, if this is not possible a good cheep tripod works just fine. Shutter lag is something you will have to play with. A child sliding down a sliding board is a good practice to learn how to use this limitation. Use the fill in flash anywhere you can it compensates for back lighting and stops the under the nose shadow when the sun it high in the sky. Learning how to get the most from your camera is FREE. Taking practice pictures and deleting the bad ones cost nothing. Taking more pictures than you need at a family reunion is great as you look through them and find out whom you missed and accidentally got anyway. And it did not cost you any more. Don’t use the digital zoom. You will get better usable pictures by taking it at maximum optical zoom and cropping it later.
There is a chart on the last page with some suggestions to try while experimenting.
There is a great web site Kodak.com There are a
lot of ideas there.
Transferring pictures to the computer.
There are many ways to transfer pictures to the
computer. CD, floppy, memory card,
direct cable and printer dock is most of them I think, nothing is static when
it comes to computers. Mine has an
option to upload the pictures into a directory and name that directory with the
date I transferred the pictures.
Cropping and Sizing pictures.
Cropping your picture is easy and hard to do. Its easy to use the programs to crop but
sometimes hard to crop to a perfect size fill the preset picture size for
framing. When sizing a picture be sure to
keep the aspect ratio at a constant so your picture does not come out
distorted. When you open the initial
picture check the size that it is. It
may not be what you really want to use.
Adjust the size to what is reasonable such as 8x10 at 300 dpi and save
it with a name that you can relate to the picture. Always keep the original picture unchanged.
Adjusting the brightness, contrast and colors of your pictures.
Play with your photo program. Try different settings. Go through each menu item and see what it
does. You cannot hurt the picture;
remember you are not working with the original. If you totally mess up the picture close it and start over. Nothing lost and no money spent.
Adjusting the resolution for different uses of your pictures.
For Email I suggest a size of 3x5 with 72 dpi is
great. Unless you are high speed
Internet both ways then go ahead and send a big one if you like.
Printing at 300dpi is just fine. The printers have 1200x1200 or more and that
has nothing to do with the picture resolution.
That is their dpi for shading the different colors.
Saving your pictures for future use.
Always save any work you do in that good 8x10 at 300 dpi format. I prefer .tiff but .jpg will do if you turn off all the compression. Write a couple of CD’s with your important photo shoots on them.
Printing your pictures.
There are so many different types of paper for inkjet printers it is
confusing. For best results I have
found the name brand paper for the printer to be superior. I have tried generic and different name
brand paper; they are fine but not as good as the ones recommended by the
printer manufacturer.
Photo paper is expensive if you waste it and not if
you don’t. Plan your printing. Cut your paper to 5x7 or 4x5 and print only
how much paper you need. It is a great
waste to print a 4x5 picture in the middle of an 8x10 and then cut it out. Or
keep a selection of paper ready at all times.
I keep 4x6 and 8x10 in the best grade and 8x10 in the economy photo
grade.
Setting up your printer for best picture printing.
Read the printer manual. Make sure you have the right ink cartridges installed and they
have plenty of ink.
Go through all the setting tabs before you print the
picture. Check them all. Set for the right type of paper. Set for the right resolution. If in doubt use some of those ¼ sheet cut
outs 4x5 and print the same picture at different settings. Might seem wasteful
but will save you much time and money in the future. Go to the printer web site and get the latest drivers.
|
Setting |
Auto |
Action |
Night |
Distance |
|
Take pictures At all the settings See what they can and cannot do. |
Good for general Picture taking in regular situations. Average shutter speed Average depth of field Use with auto flash Use with fill flash |
Good for well lit action shots. Fast shutter speed Poor depth of field Use with fill flash |
Good for night And available light pictures where flash might be rude. Slow shutter speed Poor depth of field |
Good for distance Keep flash off |
Shutter
speed = How fast the eye of the camera opens and closes.
Depth of field = How much is in focus in front and
behind of the center object.
Available light = Using whatever light is there to
take the picture.
This is mainly my experience with photography after using a digital camera for
14 months and using 35mm cameras for 33 years.
The WWW has many sites on picture taking. Most important is learn by doing. Photography is fun and there are NO mistakes. (except for dropping the camera)