Creative Art & Photography » professional photographers

Which format should you use to store digital photos taken with the Canon PowerShot SD950IS 12 1MP

admin — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 21:23:09 +0000

Old cameras captured photos on film. Digital cameras however capture photos on memory in the form of digital files. There are many file types each with each own unique format. Here is an explanation about a few common digital picture file formats.
When you take photos with the Canon PowerShot SD950IS 12 1MP each photo is saved as a digital file on the digital camera memory and most likely is later transferred to your computer. Like any other computer file digital photo files can also have different formats. Every computer file is comprised of a long series of bits and bytes. A file format is a description of the meaning of those bits and bytes or in other word a file format explains how the file should be read and interpreted. If you like you can compare a files and file format to writing text. When you write a sentence you basically type a series of characters. They are meaningless unless you know that they are in a format called English and that specific combinations of characters have certain meanings.
There are a few common formats for storing digital photos each with its advantages and disadvantages. Usually digital cameras like the Canon PowerShot SD950IS 12 1MP let you choose which format you would like to use. The first big difference between format types if the compression method used if at all. But first lets quickly review what compression is and what it is needed. A digital photo is a collection of pixels. Each pixel represents a tiny portion of the whole digital photo and has a color and intensity attribute. Usually pixels are stored in true color as a three bytes triplet. Each byte represents an intensity of one prime color. Mixed together they provide an exact color and intensity representation of that pixel.
The size of a digital photo file depends on the resolution in which it was taken also known as the number of mega pixels. The number of mega pixels grows as cameras get more advanced. A common 8 mega pixel camera generates eight million pixels for every single digital photo that you take. That is quite a lot of pixels and with 3 bytes per pixel storing each digital photo will consume 8,000,000 pixels times 3 bytes = 24,000,000 bytes also known as 24 megabytes. This is a very big file. It will result in having less space on your camera memory card for storing photos, it is hard to process, slow to send over email, slow to upload to a web site and so on.
Fortunately there are efficient way to store digital photos that consume much less disk space. In every photo that you take there is some redundancy and inefficiency. Compressing a digital photo is a method that removes redundancy and details that are considered not important or not noticeable by the viewer. In our previous example a 24 megabytes digital photo file could easily be compressed to consume only 3 megabytes with hardly any noticeable quality degradation.
The compression method described above is also known as lossy compression since some information although hardly noticeable was lost. There are other compression method with are known as lossless and which create a compressed file that can be uncompressed to exactly the original file. They are however less efficient and can not achieve such high compression ratios to convert a 24 megabytes file to a 3 megabytes file.
Most cameras allow you to choose between two photo formats, compressed or RAW. Raw format is simply the uncompressed version of the digital photo and it consumes a lot of space. Professional photographers use RAW format as it provides better quality when processing the photo later on. For all other photographers a compressed JPEG file is a better choice. Digital cameras like the Canon PowerShot SD950IS 12 1MP also let you set the compression ratio. The higher the ratio the smaller the file but at the same time the more degraded the quality of the compressed image.

Author Info:

Visit Canon PowerShot SD950IS 12 1MP for more information about this and other topics. This article can be published only if the resource box including the backlink is included. Jacob Georgeson is a writer. Mr. Georgeson writes about hobbies and business topics.

Storing digital photos taken with the Canon PowerShot SD1100IS 8MP Old cameras captured images on film. Digital cameras to store...
Do you need a 7 megapixel camera like the Canon PowerShot SD1000 If you are reading this then there is a good...
How To Set Your Digital Camera To Save The Best Photos! Your digital camera will save your photo files one of...

Learning About Photography By Enrolling In A Class

admin — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 01:31:48 +0000

Using a camera is very simple. The person will just look through the lens; point it at the subject and then click on the button.

The results of doing this are very different for each person when these have been developed. The individual might notice that the image was too bright, too dark or blurred.

These are the common mistakes when the individual does not know the proper way to use a camera. Professional photographers call it an art and the only way to be good is to take the proper lessons.

Students who are taking up journalism have this as one of the subjects as part of the curriculum. If the person is majoring in another subject in school, this can be taken as an elective. Those who left school years ago can also enroll in the class for a semester to learn everything about photography.

Most classes require the student to have a camera. The person doesnt have to get the model that costs a $1,000 because there are variations selling at half the price.

The first thing thought by the instructor will be to know each part of the camera. The individual should know this inside and out to be able to maximize the use of this device.

The next part will be teaching the students to shoot using the camera. Some instructors will tell the class to go out and take some shots first.

Everyone will have a chance to critique the pictures when these are developed. Some consider this the only way for people to learn what mistakes have been committed so it can be avoided in the future.

Some schools still teach the students how to develop pictures in a darkroom. Though many professionals have decided to have this done by someone else or switch to digital cameras, these are things that the person should know about photography.

The cleaning and proper storage of equipment is another matter that has to be discussed. This will ensure the equipment is in good condition each time it is brought out when shooting a subject.

Learning about photography in class is fun. This can be taken as a hobby or be used later on should the individual want to pursue this as a career.

It is never too early or late to learn how to use a camera. This takes some open mindedness on the part of the student to do this right.

Author Info:
Low Jeremy maintains http://Digital-Photography.ArticlesForReprint.com. This content is provided by Low Jeremy. It may be used only in its entirety with all links included.

Things To Consider Before Enrolling In A Photography Class Although photography largely involve an eye for beauty and a...
Photography School Learning How To Choose The Correct One There are many people who want to make photography as...
Digital Photography Class – Cracking The Photography Code Don’t roll up your eyes and groan at the mere...

Digital Photography Thru An Amateurs Lens

admin — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 00:30:20 +0000

If you haven’t taken your first digital photograph, or even heard of digital photography, then I really must congratulate you. You are truly a contradiction. Since your reading this article, you must be browsing the web, yet you still haven’t heard of digital cameras. Apart from the computer itself, and perhaps the cell phone, photography has been more revitalized than practically any other industry in the digital universe. During it’s early introduction, it was reviled by professional photographers, as being a sub par and mediocre technology. In other words, the picture quality was pathetic. However, Like any high tech toy these days, it has matured at an alarming rate, and the cries of mediocrity have been gagged and silenced. Everyone, even a multitude of pros engage in the sinful passion that is digital photography.

Digital Delights vs Digital Dystopia

Not to say that aren’t a cornucopia of complications to overcome in this new digital wonderland. And hardly the least of these is the managing of the overflow of new pictures you now own copyrights to. It seems that being cheap little buggers, is a genetic trait of most human beings. Way back in the old days, when taking pictures actually meant buying real film with real cash, we were very judicious in what pictures we took. Now that digital photography allows us to endlessly reuse those overworked little bits on our memory sticks, we click, snap and shoot every cute, furry, adorable thing that comes into range. Once are hard drives are crammed with a gazillion of these images ranging from dubious to heirloom quality we really start to worry. What happens if our hard drive makes that klunk-grind-klunk-kratch sound that next time we boot up our pc? Or . . . however will we find that one really priceless picture we’re looking for, in that wasteland of hopefully-forgotten digital visions? Gotta have backups folks. And really you must get more organized. It’s that simple. And hey, while your at it, dump that crappy and boring old screen saver of flying toasters, and crappy windows logos, for your own maniacal barge sized load of digital pictures on your hard drive. Why not at least view your images on your own pc periodically before your hard drive commits digital Hari-Kari.

Revenge is the Ultimate Panacea

Of course there are many more creatively satisfying tactics for dealing with all this digital photography abundance. All those free picture sharing sites that allow us to inflict our photographic genius on other unsuspecting travelers of the net. You upload your pictures in varying sizes, and mediums of presentation. Yes, the already tortured world really needs to see a slideshow of my 4 year olds magnificently produced, directed and choreographed version of the Teddy Bear Picnic. As harmless as this strategy may seem, it’s effectiveness is not ruthlessly devoid of passion. Of course why just settle for a inner feeling of joy, when you can turn all those pictures into hard cash. Start a picture blog, and surround your beautiful works of sublime art with greed driven capitalistic advertisements. Nothing like that oh so moving picture of junior playing with his very first barf, and a caption of “Ads by Gaaaaaaagle” eloquently underneath. I’m sure once you put a little thought into it, you can come up with your own wonderful form of digital dysentery. Best of luck, I’ll be watching for you.

Author Info:

For more on digital photography visit photographyfunonline.com or read other digital photography articles.

The Must have arsenal of the digital photographer. Besides their trusty camera digital photographers need a full cache...
Photography For Beginners: Get Creative With A Wide Angle Lens. Your digital camera has a powerful zoom lens. I have...
Digital Photography Reference For The Beginner With so many digital photography reference books in circulation these...

Using flash units like the Canon 48AF-1 external digital flash unit

admin — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 11:33:20 +0000

Flash photography is available for more than a century. In the beginning flash photography was available only to the professional and skilled photographers. The old flash units were very hard to use. They utilized a chemical that would literally blow in order to generate the needed light. They were also disposable units and had to be completely changed after each use. Moreover they were not automatically synchronized to the camera shutter and thus the photographer had to be skilled in perfectly timing the flash unit with the camera shutter. Modern cameras and moreover digital cameras use electronic flash units that are automatically synchronized with the shutter and that use a special electrical device for lighting the scene that can be over and over.
Flash photography is different than regular day light photography. There are many things to consider when using flash, here are a few:
Built-in flash units: Built-in flash units are embedded in the camera and controlled through the cameras interface. Built-in flash units are thus small as they have to fit inside the camera body. They are also designed to be as generic as possible to meet all the different scenarios the camera might be used in. They are also limited in their illumination capacity and can be used only when taking photos of relatively close by objects. On the advantages side built-in flash units are very easy to use and carry they do not require any extra accessories, batteries or maintenance. External flash units on the other hand are harder to use but provide more coverage in terms of object distance and more flexibility for usage. For example built-in flash units do not allow effects such as bounce flash while external flash units do. The Canon 48AF-1 on the other hand is an external flash unit and is normally used by semi professional or professional photographers. It works with any Canon compatible camera.
External flash units: The Canon 48AF-1 is an external flash unit. The external flash slides into a mechanical slot on the camera. The slot also has electrical connection built into it and thus the flash unit is electrically connected to the camera micro-computer. The Canon 48AF-1 like other Canon external flash units connects to the cameras micro-computer and is completely controlled by it. The camera micro-computer takes care of shutter synchronization other optical settings that need to be synchronized between the camera and the flash unit.
Firing the flash: Both built-in and external flash units can be fired either manually or automatically. In automatic mode the camera measures the ambient light and based on that and other optical factors and settings decides if firing the flash is needed or not. Although in most cases the camera can make the right decision as to whether or not the flash is needed many times it will fire the flash when it is better not to and vice versa. An example of such a case is when taking a photo at day light but having some shades over the object for example a man wearing a hat can result in shades over the mans face. In such a scenario although there is enough ambient light using the flash in fill-in mode would eliminate such shades and result in a much better digital photo.
Flash has limits: Flash units can only do so much. They can not light a big area for example and are limited to how far an object can be from the camera in order to be properly lit. Different flash units have different limits. Usually built-in flash units are weak and can only illuminate objects that are a few feet a way from the camera. On the other hand external flash units can illuminate object much farther away.

Author Info:

Find more on photography on printrates.com – a place about products like Canon 48AF-1 external flash unit Jacob Georgeson is an expoert photographer. Mr. Georgeson writes about new digital cameras. This article can be published only if the resource box including the backlink is included.

External flash units and the Canon Speedlite 580EX Nowadays using flash photography is easy one push of a...
Facts about flash units and taking photos using a flash For most of us firing the flash is something that...
The pros and cons of the Canon Rebet XTi digital camera Canon is making high quality affordable digital cameras. Their new...

Selecting a Digital Camera

admin — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 12:01:03 +0000

The emergence of digital imaging technology and the Internet has transformed the art of photography. Where previously you’d need to lug a supply of film along for any photo project and then go through the tedious process of rewinding and reloading film rolls, you can now store hundreds of digital photos on a single compact memory card. And while with film cameras you never knew whether your photos were any good until you developed your film, digital cameras provide instant previews of every photo, so you can quickly and easily delete the images that didn’t turn out right. No more wasted rolls of film and wasted money spent to develop photos you took with the lens cap on or with the flash off.

If you’re shopping for a digital camera, there’s no reason to compromise on quality – excellent models are available for very reasonable prices. Start your search by comparing cameras from such leading manufacturers as Canon, Nikon, Kodak, Olympus and Sony. Remember that a used camera in good condition might work just as well as a brand-new one, and at a much better price. If you’re willing to purchase a pre-owned camera, you’ll want keep an eye on the latest listings at eBay for the widest selection and best prices on used and refurbished digital cameras.

One of the most popular varieties of digital camera is identified by the acronym “SLR”. This stands for the phrase “single lens reflex”, a design which allows the photographer to view the precise image captured by the photographic lens, rather than an approximation seen through a separate viewfinder. The SLR digital camera design is preferred by most professional photographers and offers a number of other advantages, including the ability to easily switch lenses depending on the subject matter being photographed, a larger digital sensor size yielding higher-resolution images, and better depth-of-field control than non-SLR models.

Both SLR and non-SLR cameras offer an array of advanced digital and optical features to make photography easier. Built-in zoom lenses allow you to capture close-up images of distant objects. Autofocus technology handles all the image focusing at the push of a button, without any need to manually adjust the lens settings. Automatic light meters and flash bulbs make sure there’s sufficient light for the best photo quality. Image stabilization lets you take longer exposures without the need for a tripod. And the list goes on…but it’s still up to you to find interesting subjects to photograph!

Once you’ve chosen the camera best suited to your photography needs, you should have no trouble finding a great deal at shopping sites like Amazon and eBay. With no shortage of reliable online merchants to choose from, your new digital camera is just a few clicks away!

Author Info:

For information on digital cameras, photography, or SLR digital camera please stop by our websites.

Digital SLR cameras body and lenses Digital SLR cameras are usually sold in two parts: the...
How To Set Your Digital Camera To Save The Best Photos! Your digital camera will save your photo files one of...
Photography Q&A: Types Of Photography Equipment * What are the different types of cameras? There are...