Getting Started With Digital 1
Many of us have made the jump to digital, but now we have to learn a whole new set of ideas and terms. 2
What are some of these ideas & terms? how does a digital camera work? what is a digital picture? pixels dpi / ppi jpeg tiff RAW pdf psd 3
how does a digital camera work? capturing light onto a sensor instead of film CCD - charge-coupled device CMOS - complementary metaloxide-semiconductor sensor is made of pixels otherwise, the camera functions the same way as a film camera light-tight box for capturing light from a specific area 4
what is a digital photograph? digital file made of 1s and 0s (binary code) how does it get to binary code? when light hits the sensor, it causes a reaction in the pixels pixels - the smallest element of a digital file; different shapes pixels turn the light into an electrical charge processor translates that information into binary code 5
histogram human eye can discern about 12 stops of light film/sensors can only discern about 6 stops of light sixth stop not on graph because contains no detail -2 = darkest tones; black with detail -1 = dark tones 0 = middle tones +1 = light tones +2 = lightest tones; white with detail 6
histogram graph showing your exposure shows the amounts of the different tones in your photograph all data should come down to outside edges major advantage of digital note: does not follow the outline of the photograph 7
histogram underexposed data is bunched up on left side of graph shadow detail is lost blocked up overexposed data is bunched up on right side of graph highlight detail is lost blown out 8
What else is there? sometimes you can have blown out highlights that do not show up on your histogram because they are too far out to register on the graph your histogram can look good.... but it is hiding some important details use your highlight indicator to check what might be blown out and then decide if it is important 9
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ppi / dpi ppi - pixels per inch higher ppi = greater resolution sharpness, clarity, and color are also effected by the quality of the lens and the camera dpi - dots per inch resolution of monitor, projector, or printer standard resolution for most printers is 300 dpi 11
jpeg joint photographic experts group compressed image standard in field 3 main types of compression basic, normal, fine basic - web viewing, very small normal - standard compression fine - highest 12
tiff tagged image file format uncompressed image file better for working on in computer than jpeg some cameras shoot in tiff but has been dropped by most manufacturers good to keep your files in this format instead of in jpeg 13
RAW file type produced by the camera unprocessed file direct from the sensor more flexibility in adjusting the image later changing white balance processing image at 2 different exposure amounts for combining later NEF - Nikon Electronic Format 14
pdf portable document format for the easy sharing of data standard used in press publications do not need the specific software that created it to view it can be a photograph or a document or a combination of elements 15
Photoshop document file type created by Adobe Photoshop (full version or Elements version) preserves layers for later editing purposes psd larger file size does not degrade with multiple editing and saving events file type that I prefer most of the time 16
file sizes KB - kilobyte - 100 bytes MB - megabyte - 1000 kilobytes GB - gigabyte - 1000 megabytes TB - terabyte - 1000 gigabytes in photography, bigger is better bigger can also really slow down your computer point of diminishing returns 17
Transferring Your Images straight from the camera using a USB card reader using a firewire card reader use PC card converter 18
Straight From Camera convenient connection cord comes with the camera nothing more to buy slower wear and tear on camera eats battery power, unless use AC power supply 19
USB or Firewire Card Reader faster does not require use of the camera need to buy card reader lots of options get what you pay for 20
PC Card Converter great for laptop users converts standard card into PC card 21
Image Organizing and Archiving software provided with camera Adobe Photoshop Bridge Adobe Lightroom Adobe Photoshop Elements Aperture iphoto Others 22
resizing images in Elements open the image you want to work on go to Image - Resize - Image Size set width under pixel dimensions to 1280 hit okay you are done 23
cropping to size open image select crop tool set longest side to 1280 px - you have to type px because it defaults to inches crop your image however you want hit enter check size by going to Image - Resize - Image Size 24
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