Digital technology is making it easier and less expensive to take a lot of pictures. We'll discuss how to take better digital photographs, how to manage all your digital images, and what to look for when you are in the market for a new digital camera.
Guests
Patrick O'Leary
Patrick O'Leary
Patrick worked as a commercial photographer for 18 years, specializing in editorial photography. He has a master's degree in mass communication- photojournalism and is the staff photographer for University Relations. He has spent much of the last 12 years learning about the digital and interactive worlds, including running an interactive media company.
Mike Neuharth
Mike Neuharth
Mike is an information technology specialist with the University of Minnesota's Academic and Distributed Computing Services. When not on campus assisting staff and faculty members with their technology needs, he spends time sharing his reverence for documentary photography and interest in all things new and electronic with family, friends, and strangers.
For Your Files
Patrick O'Leary, a photographer at the University of Minnesota, says that digital cameras often come with the same tools as regular film cameras, but the tool names have changed:
"One of the things that comes up a lot is what we used to call ASA. Now it's called ISO or the the speed of the film. They still have that in the digital cameras, but a lot of people don't know it exists. Digital does maintain that, you have control over that, but once upon a time when you bought the film it said it right on the box and you knew what you were getting. Somebody told you to buy 200 all the time because it's good both indoors and outdoors, and you were really aware of it. Now you're not really aware of it unless you pay attention to the menus."
Patrick also gave us a few tips on how to manage our growing collections of digital pictures:
"I do it first by date so everything ends up in my folder system in chronological order, and then I do it by topic or whatever it might be. Then I try to make a copy of that on a CD. Then I might go back into that folder and if I have several different events going on, I might separate them based on the events."
And Patrick outlined some precautions you can take to protect the storage media itself:
"I usually put them in mylar sleeves, which look like an envelope. They also make these out of paper, and as I understand, paper isn't as safe as a mylar, which doesn't leak as many chemical onto it. Whatever you're using, when you put it in this sleeve you also store it upright. If you store it flat, over time it can warp."
Mike Neuharth, a technical specialist at the U, gave us some pointers on how to decide on a digital camera:
"Most importantly, I think, it's not all hype, you do want to take a look at the megapixel rating on the camera. This is the amount of information that the camera's going to soak in from a particular scene. It doesn't necessarily matter, if you're just viewing things on the Web or displaying them on your computer, but it's going to give you better resolution when printing things out. That's where it's really important."
Mike says someone shopping for a digital camera should consider looking online:
"There are many good review sites out there where you can get opinions from people who are not trying to sell you on a camera but just sharing their experiences. That's a great resource. I really like dpreview.com (Digital Photography review) and photo.net— both provide some good information.
Mike cautioned against some digital features:
"The digital zoom: it's not the greatest thing to rely on. You're going to get a much clearer picture with an optical zoom. If you have to rely on digital you're asking the camera to make up information. It's basically taking the large image that you have at your maximum optical zoom and just cropping it and enlarging it. So if you've ever taken a photo on your computer and doubled the sized, you notice how it gets jagged and looks blurry, that's essentially what you're doing with a digital zoom."
Links
Mike Neuharth recommended dpreview.com and photo.net.
Digital Zoom
A way of making an image larger using a digital camera by increasing the size of the pixels. This is done within the camera and usually lowers the quality of the image. Standard analog cameras use optical zooming, which is done with the lens.
ISO
A standard measure of film speed (i.e., how sensitive the film is to light), as set by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
Megapixel
A measure of the resolution of an image or image sensor (such as a digital camera) which means "one million pixels." The larger this number is, the clearer the image will be and the larger it can be printed.
Optical Zoom
A way of enlarging a subject using focal lenses (i.e. the way a standard camera lens zooms).