Digital Photography - An Overview of the 3 Most Important Aspects of Digital Cameras
Television and magazine ads frequently have a tendency to focus on the more glitzy, bells and whistles cameras have to offer.
Because of this tendency it is very easy to overlook those options that really should get first priority when you are selecting a digital camera, namely, the features that affect picture quality.
The following three aspects you should be focusing on are resolution, image noise levels and file format.
Let's take a look at each one of these areas: Resolution: What's your camera's pixel count? Your camera has what's called an image sensor that absorbs light and converts that light into a digital photo.
The digital photo is composed of tiny points called pixels.
Today's cameras come equipped with resolutions that are so high that their pixel count is expressed in megapixels, where 1 megapixel is equivalent to 1 million pixels.
The subject of resolution and pixels is vast and obviously cannot be thoroughly covered in a short article as this.
However, for the purpose of this article the point to remember is that the higher the pixel count the better picture quality you can expect and the larger the actual picture size the camera can produce.
Also, the general rule of thumb is this - in order to be able to print quality photos you need to have 200 pixels per inch (PPI) at the very least.
The following chart can be used as a guide for printing standard size photos:
The light sensitivity of the image sensor is adjustable.
These light sensitivity settings are expressed in ISO numbers, such as ISO 200, ISO 300, and so forth.
The higher the ISO number the greater the camera's sensitivity to light.
What does this mean to you? This simply means that you can capture an image in dim lighting without using flash, you can use a faster shutter speed, or you can use a smaller opening.
However, where does noise enter the picture? Increasing the ISO levels can also produce noise which can in turn give your pictures a speckled look.
Another cause of noise would be very long exposure times which are sometimes necessary in low-light conditions regardless whether you increase the ISO or not.
File Formats: Is going raw right for you? File formats can be summed up fairly easily.
JPEG, pronounced jay-pegg, is the normal standard format for most digital cameras.
However, some of the higher end digital cameras will also offer a second format referred to as Camera Raw, or Raw for short.
Raw files give you greater control over the look and feel of a picture whereas JPEG does not.
During the process of creating the file, JPEG files reduce the size of the file thus losing some of the picture data.
Whenever picture data is discarded the quality of the image is also reduced.
Raw files contain "unprocessed" image data allowing you to specify how that data is converted into a picture instead of the camera making that decision for you.
Of course, this particular step is carried out by way of software installed on your computer.
Because of this tendency it is very easy to overlook those options that really should get first priority when you are selecting a digital camera, namely, the features that affect picture quality.
The following three aspects you should be focusing on are resolution, image noise levels and file format.
Let's take a look at each one of these areas: Resolution: What's your camera's pixel count? Your camera has what's called an image sensor that absorbs light and converts that light into a digital photo.
The digital photo is composed of tiny points called pixels.
Today's cameras come equipped with resolutions that are so high that their pixel count is expressed in megapixels, where 1 megapixel is equivalent to 1 million pixels.
The subject of resolution and pixels is vast and obviously cannot be thoroughly covered in a short article as this.
However, for the purpose of this article the point to remember is that the higher the pixel count the better picture quality you can expect and the larger the actual picture size the camera can produce.
Also, the general rule of thumb is this - in order to be able to print quality photos you need to have 200 pixels per inch (PPI) at the very least.
The following chart can be used as a guide for printing standard size photos:
- 1 megapixel - 4 x 6 inch photo
- 1.
5 megapixels - 5 x 7 inch photo - 3 megapixels - 8 x 10 inch photo
- 6 megapixels - 11 x 14 inch photo
The light sensitivity of the image sensor is adjustable.
These light sensitivity settings are expressed in ISO numbers, such as ISO 200, ISO 300, and so forth.
The higher the ISO number the greater the camera's sensitivity to light.
What does this mean to you? This simply means that you can capture an image in dim lighting without using flash, you can use a faster shutter speed, or you can use a smaller opening.
However, where does noise enter the picture? Increasing the ISO levels can also produce noise which can in turn give your pictures a speckled look.
Another cause of noise would be very long exposure times which are sometimes necessary in low-light conditions regardless whether you increase the ISO or not.
File Formats: Is going raw right for you? File formats can be summed up fairly easily.
JPEG, pronounced jay-pegg, is the normal standard format for most digital cameras.
However, some of the higher end digital cameras will also offer a second format referred to as Camera Raw, or Raw for short.
Raw files give you greater control over the look and feel of a picture whereas JPEG does not.
During the process of creating the file, JPEG files reduce the size of the file thus losing some of the picture data.
Whenever picture data is discarded the quality of the image is also reduced.
Raw files contain "unprocessed" image data allowing you to specify how that data is converted into a picture instead of the camera making that decision for you.
Of course, this particular step is carried out by way of software installed on your computer.
