Saticoy PCUG SIG meeting Digital Photography August 14, 2003

Introduction to Digital Photography

I thought this would be a simple outline

1) Take Pictures
2) Get them into your computer
3) Use them.

Then I started really thinking about it.

To do justice to this subject without being a 6 week course then let's look briefly at each one of these.

1. Take Pictures

With what Camera? - Regular or Digital? You'd think that with the title of this SIG the answer would be obvious, but NOT SO.

When you have had your regular film developed in the past year, you will have seen a check box for Add pictures on CD (or similar wording) which means you will get back your photos, negatives AND a CD with your pictures on it.

Perhaps you have seen one of these machines in the drug store that lets you take your photos and do all kinds of fun things to them including putting them on a CD. ***BE CAREFUL ***
One "gotcha" of using kiosks is that they are not labeled very well sometimes when it comes to price. Long's Drugs uses Aladdin photo kiosks that have a sign right on them "4x6 prints $.29 " And it IS very clear. (When it is working. Sometimes the machines go down and won't print, however - at a store that has it's own inhouse 1 hour photo lab, then it WILL take your photo and print it through the big machines. You just have to come back in an hour.)

If you are comfortable with your current camera, then perhaps, FOR YOU, it is not time yet to purchase a digital camera. Get your photos on a CD from your developer (or the Drug Store Kiosk) and skip to step 2.

Which Digital Camera?

If you are convinced you want to get one, which one do you get?
This isn't so simple. Pick up any catalog or even Sunday Newspaper Ads and you will quickly see the DOZENS of different cameras priced from under $100 all the way to $2000 or more.
"What the heck is a MegaPixel and why do I care?" is a phrase that I'm sure many computer store salesmen have heard.

Here is where you can spend a lot of time with the different detailed answers. SIMPLY PUT - if you want to take small simple pictures to email to family and friends or post on a web site, then the cheaper cameras are fine. The more expensive and higher MP, the detailed and fine the photos you can PRINT ON PAPER.
My opinion is that if you don't intend to print out the pictures on paper then size DOESN'T matter.

Another consideration: Higher the MP, the larger the file size and depending on your storage medium, the FEWER pictures you can take.

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The same questions you would ask yourself before buying a regular film camera {or even a computer} would apply here as well:
What are you going to use it for? For shots of kids playing soccer (outdoors in sunlight from 10 feet away or more) then cheaper is fine.
If you only want to make your own full color 11x17 calendars of closeups of flowers, then you need a lot more power.

2. Get them into your computer

If you are skipping down from above because you are getting your photos developed and ALSO put on a CD, then this step is easy.
Put CD in your computer - drag and drop files to folder of your choice. (My Photos - or "John's Birthday" or any folder you create)
Now you can skip to step 3.

You already own a digital camera that came with a cable and special software.... follow the instructions as each are different.

BUT IF YOU HAVE WINDOWS XP you should have almost no problems at all. Most digital cameras sold in 2004 have a cord that attaches to your computer which, when you camera and computer are both on, you computer will take over and "see" it quite easily. With my Kodak DX6490, I never did load the software that came in the box.

If you have a win 9x box, SOMETIMES things go wrong. This is something I know from personal experience. But there is good news!
What you see here is a CF card reader. This is a box that you plug into your computer through your USB port. Your digital camera has some sort of memory card or stick that you can take out of the camera and plug into this box. You would see it like you would another drive in My Computer and you can drag and drop like a floppy.
The image on the right is a 6 in 1 box that can read the 6 different memory formats.

Sony ® Memory Stick (MS)
CompactFlash (CF) Type I and II
IBM ® Microdrive (MD)
SmartMedia (SM)
MultiMediaCard (MMC)
Secure Digital (SD)
Requirements: USB2.0 port/Windows/OS 9-X

BACK UP *** BACK UP *** BACK UP *** BACK UP *** BACK UP *** BACK UP ***

If your computer has a CDR or CDRW - then you are REALLY ready for digital photography. Your camera can only hold so many photos. Eventually you will have to delete them to make room for more. Your computer hard drive will also eventually run out of room. CDs are wonderful.

My practice is to download photos from camera and burn a CD right away. CDRWs are easier because you can drag and drop to them, as if you were moving files to a new folder. CDs are cheap, though, with typical sales every Sunday of 50 blank CDs for under $12.00. This translates to $.24 each. Even on a on the tightest week, I still think nothing of burning a CD for a friend with only 10 - 20 pictures on it. {assuming I don't have 400 or 500 they would be interested in} 3. Use them

Here is another example of a topic for MANY SIGs, fortunately, some have already happened and some are still scheduled to be repeated.
Here is a part of an outline from a previous SIG on EMAIL and talks about emailing photos to family and friends

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PHOTOS

The other thing that is quite popular is attaching photos to an email.

When creating an email message, after you get to the message box - type the first few sentences (telling them what you're sending) then click on Insert - Picture

This IMBEDS a picture in your email.

the other option is to Attach by either clicking on the paper clip - or Insert - File Attachment

BE SURE TO RESIZE PHOTO BEFORE SENDING IT.
There is nothing worse on a dialup Internet connection to be waiting more than 20 minutes to get your email. One typical culprit is some relative sending you the photo of their new baby (or grandchild). When you click on it, your screen is filled with a forehead and one eyebrow along with arrows to let you scroll left and right and up and down.

This is caused by someone sending you a raw image straight from their camera. A 2300x1728 photo is much too big to send to someone. For email purposes you probably never want an image larger than 800x600 or even 640x480 since that will still take up their whole screen.

HOW TO REDUCE YOUR PHOTO SIZE....
Using IrfanView to resize is SO SIMPLE.

when you open a photo there are a number of things written across the bottom
At the bottom are numbers which tell you many things, among them are the size of photo in pixels - and how large the photo is on your hard drive (kb) as a compressed JPG file - and then how large it is when uncompressed.