Digital Photography 101
If you own a personal computer you are already on the way to becoming an expert in digital photography. (Actually, you can dabble in digital photography even if you don’t have a computer, but that would make it a bit harder.) You will definitely need a digital camera, of course. Pick one that suits your needs and sensibilities—they come in all shapes and sizes!
When buying, remember that the cheaper cameras are usually like cheap traditional cameras – okay for snaps but not much else. But you can get really good results with reasonably priced cameras, particularly if you want to show them on a screen or the Internet. In general you want a reasonably high number of pixels in a new camera – 3 Megapixels should be enough for beginners. More pixels is not always better, since the quality of the lens and so on still matters.
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.
There is no doubt that digital photography is big. People who tried traditional photography and gave up are finding digital photography really rewarding. There are a few reasons for this, the main ones being cost, creativity and freedom
1) Cost. In the long run, digital photography is cheaper than the analog equivalent. Of course, you’ll need to consider the camera itself, as well as the price of ink and paper if you wish to make prints. Also, you’ll need to have a computer, or at least access to a computer. But the cost of getting prints professionally developed is so sky-high—and so many snaps turn out badly—that digital is cheaper. And before printing you can check on your monitor to see which pics are good—and which should get deleted. No more paying for rubbish snaps! Moreover, many digital camera users post their pics or show them to friends via email without ever printing them out.
2) Digital cameras give us a great amount of creativity. Traditional photography took away our own control—we had to pay professionals to crop, enlarge or reduce. But with digital camera software we can take care of all of those things for ourselves. You can crop, change colors, and much more. Software makes it easy to do all these things.
3) Digital photography frees us from the constraints of traditional photography because we aren’t using up rolls of film. Instead of having to change the roll every 24 or 36 shots, we can shoot away with abandon, and without worrying about the cost to develop all these shots. And we don’t have to wait until the film is developed to see if we got good pictures. We can simply look at the screen!
Now that you know the above, consider the following:
Be willing to experiment a bit. Once you spend money on a good digital camera you can stop worrying about all the cash you’re wasting on film—so give yourself the freedom to experiment and just feel things out. Lay on the floor, take pictures at crazy angles, shoot from far away, zoom in incredibly close, and so on. Take pictures of anything and everything that interests you, as this is the best way to stumble across fantastic pictures.
It’s not just the camera you’ll need to experiment with, however. Learn how to utilize the accompanying software, too. Reading through the manual or taking the computerized tutorial is well worth it—you’ll see an improvement in your pictures as well as an increase in your ability to fix them after the fact. The people you show your snaps to will certainly be impressed!

About The Author

Professional photographer Deborah Kilgaron helps other people follow her path through her website Raising Profile Photography. Become one of Deborah’s students – visit the Raising Profile Photography online community at http://www.rpphotography.com.

Over the past years, technology has been continuously evolving and it has brought about improved graphics, artworks and printing. Newer breakthroughs in technology have also made printing affordable and easy to use.

For photographers too, printing has been made very easy and consultative. More photographers have switched from the old style to the modern enlarged printing with the use of digital inkjet printers.

With the modern use of digital cameras now taking into effect to make perfect digital shots, photographers no longer have to go through the process of scanning of the negatives from the pictures taken This is the one of the main reasons more photographers have switched over to the digital age technology. Digital image printing is developed in corresponding software such as PhotoShop, CorelDraw and may other types of software. However, among them all, Photoshop is the most commonly used software application to meet the demands of clearer and precise digital prints. In fact, it has now become difficult for photographers to sell the equipment formerly used in the darkroom.

With the growth of printing technology, new issues have also sprung up, such as whether digital printing is really as aesthetic and long lasting. Critics wonder if digital printing can contain the same level of output as that of traditional images. For others, printing in inkjet printers is akin to imitating the original as they are printed with the use of ink, while the traditional method contained natural mixture for photography purposes. Nevertheless, even with the advancement in digital photo printing, a number of people still appreciate the old technique of printing.

In case you’re wondering about when the debate of digital printing over traditional was sparked off, it started with doubts over the long-lasting effect of inkjet prints over emulsion printouts. Critics have questioned if inkjet prints can endure the exposure longer and maintain their quality. However, some have proven that the traditional prints have not lasted as long and have slowly been fading in time as well. This observation strengthens the belief that no image can withstand exposure for a long period of time yet. Given that the developments in digital technology are ever increasing, questions and issues regarding its performance have been lessened for it has played its role well till date.

Inkjet prints have greatly contributed to giving an eventual effect in the uniqueness of images. The technique of inkjet printers involves spraying a number of tiny dots onto the paper, making the image sharper and more defined. This is perhaps a simple example of how the new printing technology has played its part of contributing to creativity and has now defined its own field of artwork.

The acceptance of inkjet prints has been quite unpredictable so far. In some exhibitions and art galleries, inkjet print designs are easily allowed, whereas some follow strict rules against the display of such prints. Alternatively, some designers still prefer the traditional emulsion prints to be part of their artworks. For those who rely on digital printing, the choice is based on practicality and reverting to the traditional technique is not longer financially viable. Digital printing has also made enlarging of prints and images much easier than traditional printing. It has been suggested that in time, when digital printing will continue its rise in the world of technology, many will make the switch over from the traditional method to the digital one.

The use of digital printing requires refinement in art skills, and accuracy and precision should be followed and maintained. To enhance printing abilities, the aid of Photoshop, or similar types of software can prove to be very useful for acquiring spectacular prints.

Cyan And Magenta Explained Moving on to ink cartridges used in printers, anybody who has purchased these cartridges would know that there is no blue or red ink. Cyan certainly looks blue and magenta definitely looks red—but have you ever wondered why they simply don’t call them blue and red instead of cyan and magenta?

Here’s the explanation—both monitors and printers use different ways to produce colour. While a monitor is a light source, printers are light reflecting. The only common ground between the two is something known as dithering. It is the process of approximating a colour that cannot be displayed with uniformly dispersed dots of other colours.

This technique assigns differing colour values to adjacent pixels, thereby reducing the contrast between dots of different colours or shades and generates a more flowing, natural impression. When viewed from a distance, these colours seem to blend into a single intermediate colour. Dithering is similar to the half toning used in black-and-white publications to achieve shades of grey.

Coming back to the discussion, both monitors and printers use primary colours; however, a monitor uses primary additive colours red, green and blue, while printers use the primary subtractive colours cyan, magenta and yellow. In both cases, the primary colours are dithered to form the entire colour spectrum. Dithering breaks a colour pixel into an array of dots so that each dot is either made up of one of the basic primary colours or intentionally left blank to create white.

Cyan and magenta are in fact old printing terms for blue and red, but since some form of differentiation is needed between the additive and subtractive spectrum, cyan and magenta are here to stay!

About the Author

John Sollars is the managing director of Solar Electronics, which are both ink and pc peripheral suppliers based in Shropshire, UK. To access a comprehensive online shop of original and re-manufactured printer inks please visit http://www.mega-office.co.uk

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