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Digital Photography Basics – February 2009

Adam Cochran ran our Digital Photography Special Interest Group (DPSIG) for almost six years and all that great information he shared during that time is archived here at HelpMeRick.com. Make sure to use that information.

In today’s class we covered the basics about digital photography divided into three quick, hard hitting segments:

  1. Using the camera
  2. Transferring the images
  3. Organizing and using the images (including printing and email).

Using the Camera

  • Unless you are an expert film camera user and know all about f-stops, depth of field, focusing, ISO, light metering, etc, stick with using the Auto or the presets on your camera. For the most part, you will be extremely pleased with the results from using the Auto function.
  • The best tip Adam ever taught me about the digital cameras is how to use the camera’s auto light metering. All cameras have this function and it involved the shutter button. Your shutter button has TWO positions. If you hold the shutter part of the way down, you will see (and sometimes hear) the shutter adjusting to the light it is receiving. Keep the shutter depressed partially for a split second to get the proper light reading, then push it the rest of the way to take your picture. I promise that mastering this tip alone will dramatically improve the quality of your pictures.
  • Learn to use your camera’s flash. Typically that involves toggling the lightning bolt icon on the camera to one of at least three settings:  Automatic, forced, or off.  For the most part, you want to use your flash only in the darkest conditions or to offset a subject that is standing in front of a bright light source. Otherwise, learning the second tip will help you avoid using the flash almost entirely.
  • Hold your camera steady and don’t immediately lower it to view the photo you just took. Give it a split second to finish taking the photo before moving it. Combine this tip with tip #2 and you will see photos that you didn’t think were possible.
  • Your camera memory can hold literally hundreds of photos, you really don’t need to delete the “bad” ones. Wait until you get to your computer, download them, then weed them out. Too many mistakes can be made using the clumsy controls on a camera and the small screen.
  • Don’t install the camera’s software…you don’t need it. The alternatives work much better and are easier to use.

Here are a few good articles covering this topic right here at HelpMeRick.com:

Transferring your images to the computer

The easiest way to transfer images from your camera is to use a card reader. Most new computer users come with them pre-installed, but you can purchase a USB version for less than $20. This method saves wear and tear on your camera and saves battery life.

I recommend using Google’s Picasa to download your images, but the next easiest way is to use Windows’ built-in photo transfer wizard.

The important part of transferring your images is to know where they end up. YOU have the power to control that. Most of the time, they will end up in your My Pictures folder (XP) or Pictures folder (Vista).

Organizing and using your pictures

Again, I believe the easiest and most straight forward method is to use Picasa. The built-in tools Windows provides for emailing are pretty good with some email services as well. Third party tools like Canon’s Zoom Browser, Kodak’s Photo Gallery and others seem too clunky to me compared to polished products like Picasa. Two other photo management programs that do a good job are Adobe’s Photoshop Elements Organizer and Creative Memories.

The important factor is that you pick ONE photo organizer, learn it, master it, and move forward with it.

Once you decide on a photo organizer, use its tools to add keywords, albums, and other organization methods so you don’t end up with a giant digital shoe box (a mess). All the photo organizer programs offer good to very good printing utilities, but I think you get the most bang for your buck by transferring your photos to a service for printing or copying them to a CD and taking them to a developer.

Here are some pertinent tips for organizing and using your pictures that we have shared over the years:

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