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Welcome to the Digital Age!Digital photos are quite different from their traditional counterparts. Here are some characteristics that have made digital photography popular:
Pictures Made of Dots
A digital picture is also different because it is made up of dots, called pixels. In fact, usually millions of dots, or Megapixels. The human brain, when confronted by such a huge number of tiny dots, puts together all these dots in a smooth coherent picture. Unless you use a magnifying glass, or zoom in on the picture, you would never notice the fact that it is a digital picture.
In fact the picture of the earth shown to the left is made up of:
That's not a lot, most digital photos contain 3,000,000 or more dots.
When you zoom in on a digital picture, or blow it up into a very large image, it starts to become pixelated. The human eye begins to see the individual dots and the quality of the picture is significantly compromised as shown in the example below.
How Many Pixels Do You Need?Although there are a number of factors to consider, here are some rules of thumb:
How many pixels do your really need? Check out the video below on the MegaPixel Myth:
How a Digital Camera WorksHere are a couple of great articles on how Digital Cameras work.
Basic Mechanical Functions of a Camera all relate to how it handles light:
Each digital photo not only includes a picture, but also contains lots of information about the picture. Included are things like:
Exercise 1Let's take a moment to look at two images and the information that is stored with them. First, download the image of the world found above in the tutorial:
Next let's download a picture with photo information.
About LensesIt's also important to have a great lens. Optical zoom is not the same as digital zoom. Digital zoom simply reduces the number of pixels in the diagram and should be avoided while shooting.
Here's a few pieces of additional equipment you should consider for your camera:
Photography Tips
Basic tips for taking good photos:
View this video for some more advanced photo taking tips:
Beyond AutomaticView our new tutorial for learning about some of the simple "manual" features of your camera and how to use them. Additional Info
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