The many rewards of digital photography have brought the pleasure of taking photographs into the lives of millions of people around the globe. However, the apparent ease of the digital photography technique can be misleading. In essence, photography remains just that when you convert to digital cameras: you still have to know how to compose and shoot pictures to get the best results.
The way you see your subject, and visualize the resulting image doesn't change in any basic way with digital photography technique, but there are exciting new approaches and technologies to understand and to master!
Digital Photography Technique One - Pixel Parlance
Bigger isn't always better. Having more pixels doesn't always translate into better images, as the size and quality of the pixels are also important. 6 Million pixels of a bigger size can actually give you a clearer image than 8 million of a smaller size.
Digital Photography Technique Two - Zoom Zones
Optical zoom is more important for your image quality than digital zoom. Optical zoom delivers more detail to your camera sensor, whereas digital zoom is more of a cropping function applied to existing data (detail) captured by the sensor.
Digital Photography Technique Three - Making Sense Of Sensors
Digital photography relies on sensors, which are often less discerning than film when it comes to rendering detail in shadows and highlights. You should therefore be careful not to "blow" your highlights. If they are not captured to start with, you can't adjust them afterwards in your software processing!
Digital Photography Technique Four - Grading The Grain
While there is a general acceptance of the grain sometimes visible in film prints, the human eye is particularly good at seeing regular patterns, such as row-and-column "noise" in some digital prints. When you purchase your digital camera, it is a good idea to check the reviews regarding noise levels for particular models!
Digital Photography Technique Five - Color Coding
What about black and white shots? Digital cameras take pictures in color. The most basic element of the digital darkroom, such as Photoshop, you will need to master, is how and when to turn your digital color images into exactly the black and white image you want.
Digital Photography Technique Six - Setting Selections
In digital photography you the freedom to choose on a per-shot basis many settings you were locked into or restricted to, when using film, such as film speed and white balancing.
Digital Photography Technique Seven - RAW Rewards
When purchasing a digital camera, you will have the option of models which produce only JPEG files (which are processed on board by your camera), or some which give the option of RAW files, which are unprocessed.
The assumption is that RAW files can then be processed on your computer with more powerful software to achieve the desired results. RAW converters are improved all the time. Over time you will get better results from your existing RAW format picture files by applying the latest converters when they become available.
RAW is like wine: it improves over time, just let it lie until the right converter comes along...
Digital Photography Technique Eight - LCD Leeching
The LCD screen drains battery power. Use the viewfinder to compose your photographs. Most digital cameras will let you switch between the two.
Digital Photography Technique Nine - Histogram Hits
You will need to figure out how to use the histogram function - once mastered it is an indispensable tool to get balanced pictures. Some cameras show the histogram in real time for easy correction of your exposure.
Digital Photography Technique Ten - Software Solutions
Digital cameras are susceptible to artifacts and aberrations that film cameras are not, such as those resulting from JPEG file compression, oversharpening, etc. However, most of these problems can be dealt with by applying the correct software solutions before printing.
There is no mystery behind the images your camera produces. It is only a question of mastering digital photography technique, and then getting to grips with the same old photography techniques that have been around for ages...
