Digital Photography Lesson 1

Ok so it's time for our first lesson in digital photography. I'll start with "how your camera works". It's quite simple really, your digital camera has an image sensor inside that does pretty much the same thing that your flatbed scanner would do when it captures an image. Except of course that the camera's sensor is a whole lot smaller... Some cameras use a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) sensor and others use a CMOS. So when an image is projected onto the sensor the image is scanned and then saved or stored onto the camera's storage device. The image information is stored in the form of tiny pixels and bigger sensors record more pixels. Most cameras allow you to control the picture size (it allows you to control the number of pixels you use to record your image). Ideally you want to take your pictures at the largest image size but that just depends on the size of your memory card...

Most cameras take pictures as a JPEG file format which is a compressed format. Some cameras allow you to choose a file format though. So you able to choose either JPEG or TIFF which is an uncompressed format. Most high-end digital cameras allow you to set your camera to take RAW format images which are much bigger in file size and produces the best image quality. Most times JPEG will give you good enough print quality but if you want really good quality prints then you should use TIFF. Remember though that TIFF is uncompressed therefore a larger file size which means less pictures on you memory card. RAW format images will give you even better print quality and is really most useful when you want professional quality pictures or poster size pictures... so most times JPEG is just fine...

OK so we'll end lesson 1 there... tomorrow we will touch on image size. If you can't wait till then then check this link: Digital Photography Secrets and if you looking for books on digital photography check out Amazon

Check in tomorrow for the updates... until then, happy snapping.