Introduction to Digital Photography, Photo Editing and Digital Cameras Southwest Arkansas Educational Cooperative

What will we learn today? Camera Types Digital Film Taking Digital Pictures Editing Your Digital Photos Printing Digital Photos

Camera Types Standard 35mm cameras Disk-based Digital Cameras –Floppy Disk –CD-ROM/CD-RW/DVD Diskless Digital Cameras –MemoryStick®, –Compact Flash, –SD, MMC, etc. –Hard Drive-based (images not to scale)

Camera Types – con’t Batteries –AA or AAA alkaline or rechargeable –Lithium Ion rechargeable –Other types as determined by your manufacturer

Camera Types – con’t Camera Size –Pen-sized Cameras –35mm-sized Cameras –Larger-sized Cameras –Digital SLR (Single Lens Reflex)

Camera Types – con’t Megapixels and Resolution –Mega = Roughly 1 million –Pixel = Dot that makes up a part of a picture –Megapixel = # of Millions of dots to create a digital photograph –The higher the megapixels, the better the picture (in most cases)

Camera Types – con’t Resolution –Size of a picture expressed in width x height –640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 2048x1600 –Resolution gives approximation of megapixels 640x480 = 307,200 pixels (0.3 megapixels) 2048x1600 = 3,276,800 pixels (3.3 megapixels) –The higher the resolution, the LARGER the digital photograph!

Camera Types – con’t Quality Settings –Economy Low quality – Good for distance or general outdoor Small file size (lots of pictures fit in memory) –Standard Medium quality – Good for mid-range shots, group shots Average file size (fewer pictures fit in memory) –Fine Best Quality – Good for people and detail work Larger file size (fewest pictures fit in memory)

Camera Types – con’t You can change resolution and/or quality ‘on the fly’ –Mix and match resolution on same memory card –Mix and match quality settings on same memory card –You must remember CURRENT settings!

Digital Film The MORE memory, the MORE pictures! Pay attention to the type of memory your camera requires! Extra memory cards will keep you shooting! The MORE memory you have, the MORE pictures you can take at a time!

Taking Digital Pictures Know your camera! Read the manual. Save the fancy stuff for the photo editor! –Whatever your original pictures look like is what you have to START with! Digital Zoom vs. Optical Zoom –Optical is ALWAYS better! –Digital will create ‘blocks’ in your photos

Taking Digital Pictures – con’t Watch the lighting and the FLASH! –Digital cameras can usually adjust for low light –Built-in flash is good for 5-10 feet only –Your camera may have ISO settings The higher the ISO, the more light your camera lets in. Too high of ISO will lead to ‘dotty’ overexposed photos! (200 speed is good for most applications)

Taking Digital Pictures OOPPPSS! I Did It Again! –Digital cameras allow you to deleted unwanted pictures immediately! –New pictures are taken ‘after’ pictures already stored on the memory card. (no ‘gap-filling’) –If you have the space, take 2-3 pictures every time. Then, delete the ones you don’t like!

Time to Explore! Any questions or comments so far? Let’s learn how to use the digital cameras we have with us today.

Editing Your Photos Transferring Pictures: –Serial Cable (like a mouse cable) –USB Cable –Cradle –Memory Card Reader –Infrared and other methods (USB)(serial)(camera in cradle)(memory card reader)

Picasa Picasa is free photo management software that helps you instantly find, edit and share all the photos on your PC. Picasa automatically locates all your photos (even ones you forgot you had) and sorts them into visual folders organized by name, size, or date. You can drag and drop to arrange your folders and make albums to create new groups. Picasa makes sure your photos are always organized. Picasa also makes advanced editing simple by putting one- click fixes and powerful effects at your fingertips. And Picasa makes it a snap to share your photos - you can , upload to an online album, print photos at home, make gift CDs, and even post photos to Blogger. You can download Picasa from

Editing Your Photos Once pictures are transferred, open Picasa 2 and complete the Step by Step Guide Using Picasa 2 PLAY, PLAY, PLAY with your software and photos!

Editing Your Photos Red-Eye Removal Tools –Worst-case – Use Paint to remove red eye –Best-case – Software automatically does it! Some Possible Built-in Effects –Sepia tones –Embossing –Pen-and-Ink

Editing Your Photos NEVER SAVE OVER THE ORIGINAL! ALWAYS use ‘Save As…’ As a precaution, as soon as you open a photo, use the ‘Save As…’ to make a copy of the picture. Give the new, edited picture a new name!

Printing Digital Photos Camera ResolutionGood PrintsMaximum Prints 640 x 480 (0.3 mp)2.5” x 3.5”3.5” x 5” 1024 x 768 (0.8 mp)3.5” x 5”5” x 7” 1280 x 960 (1.2 mp)4” x 6”8” x 10” 1600 x 1200 (2.0 mp)5” x 7”11” x 14” 3600 x 2400 (8.6 mp)8” x 10”20” x 30” From: Digital Photography for Dummies

Printing Digital Photos –320 x 240 typical size for photo –Some systems may limit file sizes! Computer / Web –640 x 480 or 800 x 600 is typical screen resolution –Larger pictures take more memory

Point, Shoot, Click! Have fun! Enjoy yourself! Have a great time! Learn your camera! Experiment! Make lots of mistakes!

Connecting Your Camera Plug the cable into the camera Plug the other end of the cable into the computer Turn on the camera in PLAY mode Windows XP should open a window asking what you’d like to do Use the wizard to copy pictures from the camera to the computer