The Individual Guide

How many of us once dreamed of becoming professional photographers for “National Geographic,” only to find out that we did not even know how to get the lens cap off of our cameras? And now that digital cameras are becoming more and more common, it seems that we will have to learn all over again how to take a photograph, this time with a digital camera.

Do not worry - realize that this time, you have technology on your side. You may not end up with photographs worthy of “National Geographic” status, but you will be able to get some that will look beautiful on your wall and in your photo album.

Here are some tips for taking better photographs with digital cameras:

Get to know your camera. It may seem tedious, but be sure to read through your owner’s manual. Spending just an hour or two acquainting yourself with your camera will save you a lot of stress down the line.

When you first get your digital camera, practice taking photos. Make sure that you know how to use it before you take it on your vacation or to your daughter’s graduation! You do not want to miss great photo opportunities because you are too busy trying to turn your camera on!

Do not be shy - take as many photographs as want. Most digital cameras come with memory cards that hold a multitude of photographs - if yours does not, get an extra memory card. If you take a hundred photographs of one thing, at least one of them will turn out!

Use the features on your camera! Most digital cameras have different modes for different types of photographs - night mode, landscape, portrait, macro, etc. Understand these modes, and know when to use each one.

Use the LCD screen - if your digital camera has a good LCD screen, you will be able to tell almost immediately whether or not you took a good photo - if your daughter’s eyes were closed, be sure to take another one!

Remember: close-ups are often more interesting than shots from a distance. You do not have to have everyone’s feet in every photo! Consider taking a photo that includes everyone from just the shoulders up. Also, if you are taking a photo of your family at the Epcot Center, for instance, realize that you do not have to fit the entire Epcot globe into your photo. If you do that, your family will look like ants in the photo and there is no reason for them to have stood in the frame in the first place. Instead, get a close-up of your family with just a small aspect of the globe in the background. Or get a photo of your family by the sign, instead. You can always use the landscape feature of your digital camera to take a photo of the entire globe, later.

The subject of your photograph does not always have to be the center of your photograph! Try taking photographs with your subject slightly to the side of the frame, for instance.

Be aware of lighting. Without learning too much about how lighting affects a photograph, you can still be aware of certain aspects. For instance, if the sun is setting behind your subject, your subject may turn out as a silhouette. Of course, if you try take a photo of your friend with the sunlight hitting him from the front, be aware that he will probably have to squint his eyes.

If it is extremely bright out (like if you are in bright sunlight or in the snow), hold up something of a neutral color (like a dark tan bag or light gray sweatshirt) to the camera as you focus (most digital cameras focus when you push the button halfway down), then remove it before you take the photograph of your actual subject.

Try new things. Do not be afraid to get down on the ground to take a photo of an object or a person from a different angle. You do not have to take all of your photos head-on. Take a photo of a sign from an angle, take a photo of the Eiffel Tower from the bottoms looking up, etc.

If you are on vacation, do not get stuck taking photos of your fellow travelers standing in front of one famous, forgettable building after another. Yes, you can still take these photographs, but consider taking a photograph of your friend in front of the sign, too, so that you at least know which building it is! Also, be sure to take photographs of not just places, but of memories. For instance, be sure to get a picture of your friend’s feet as she stumbles around with a broken high heel. Take a photo of the menu from your favorite restaurant. Take photos of not just the beautiful fronts of buildings, but the graffiti-ed, trashy alleys, too. Take photographs of things that you will not see on the postcards, of things that are unique to your own personal experience!

You do not need to set up every single shot. Take photos of people when they are unaware that you even have your camera out. Go ahead and take some photos of strangers, as well.

One of the benefits of taking digital photographs is the fact that you can touch them up on your computer at home. Be sure to make use of this great feature. You do not need to spend your time touching up all of your photos, but definitely go through and fix up your favorites - you can straighten them, remove red eyes, brighten or darken them, and do many other things, as well.

If you are unsure as to whether or not you think you would like using a digital camera, try out a disposable digital camera, first. Disposable digital cameras are also excellent for if you are going somewhere where there is the potential of breaking or losing your camera.

Anne Clarke writes numerous articles for websites on gardening, parenting, fashion, art, and home decor. Her background includes teaching and gardening. For more of her articles on digital photography and cameras, please visit Disposable Digital Cameras.

The term “free” stock photographs does not mean that the photograph or images are free by default. Royalty free stock photography means a customer pays fees only once for a photograph. They don’t have to pay every time they need to use it. A free stock photograph can be used as many times and as long as the customer wishes. However, the copyright remains with the photographer who owns the photograph. When a customer buys free stock photograph, it is theirs to use, but they cannot sell it.

If a customer wants to use royalty free stock photographs on their website, they must make sure that their license permits the right of publication of the image. Many royalty free stock photographs are sold under the license for printing or electronic use only. These photographs are becoming more and more popular and are available on many websites and CD’s. The main drawback of free stock photographs is images can be purchased by anyone and used multiple times. A potential buyer has no way of knowing whether someone else is using the image.

Generally, fees for royalty free stock photographs depend on size and not on usage. A copyright holder can sell a photograph to anyone. However, is a customer is looking for a unique, one-of-a-kind image for a corporate campaign, etc., and then is wiser to hire a professional photographer? The difference between stock photographs and royalty free stock photographs is that a stock photograph can be used only once after licensing. If a customer wants to use it again, he needs another license. Royalty free stock photographs can be used many times over a long period of time.

Stock Photography provides detailed information on Stock Photography, Free Stock Photography, Digital Stock Photography, Nature Stock Photography and more. Stock Photography is affiliated with Black and White Photographs.

Taking candids can be great fun! The lure of the chase and the unexpected images resulting from it will keep you amused for hours. But taking a successful picture can be a bit tricky. Follow these simple rules to enhance your rewards:

- be prepared for anything: things have a habit of happening just when you least expect it

- have your camera with you always: without your equipment there will be no shot

- watch people: their actions and expressions are what you are trying to capture

- be bold: to get that shot you need to be there in the thick of things

- be watchful: almost anyone can be the subject of candids

- snap first, think later: the chance will pass you by if you let it

- set a fast shutter: either your subject or you might be moving

- use remote control if needed: this way, you can appear inconspicuous for some of your shots

- act quickly: blink your eye and your moment is lost

- use a long lens: isolate you and your subject

Many photographers fail with candids through their shyness. Whilst it can be difficult to shoot candids, the more you try, the better it feels. Most subjects don’t mind you taking their photograph even if you are caught doing it.

Eric Hartwell runs the photography resource site http://www.theshutter.co.uk and the associated discussion forums as well as the regular weblog at http://thephotographysite.blogspot.com

You’ve probably seen digital kiosk photo printing centers before at some point in your life and may have even used their services. However, if you haven’t used one before they can be a bit intimidating, kind of like using self check-out at a grocery store for the first time. No one wants to be standing at a printing kiosk looking like an idiot trying to figure out what in the world all of those different buttons do. It’s better to just use an online service and learn how to get digital photos into picture form within the confines of your own home or go to the store and let the professionals handle the job, right? Well if you think that way I’d like to put your anxieties to rest by explaining how using digital kiosk photo printing is actually pretty easy.

The process of working a digital photo kiosk begins with a user putting their camera’s memory card into the machine. After completing this task, simply use the buttons on the touch screen to select the photos that you would like to have printed. While it may take a few moments to familiarize yourself with the buttons, once you get the hang of it there is no problem. You might even be allowed to do a little editing on the pictures before they are printed but this depends on the kiosk used. After selecting the prints of choice, you will either receive the photos instantly or have to wait an hour or so to pick up the prints from the store photo lab.

Even though using digital kiosk photo printing is fairly simple, there are warnings that must be heeded. Kiosks can vary from machine to machine especially in the area of photo quality. In fact, sometimes the kiosks don’t even work at all. Assuming that you have access to a working photo kiosk, it is probably best to use the machines that take an hour for the store’s photo mini lab to develop the photos so that you can get the best quality prints.

To view our list of recommended sources for digital photo printing online,
visit Recommended Sources For
Digital Photo Printing Online.

Photographic filter is an attachment that will allow certain kinds of light to be able to pass through, and able to reduce or block out other unwanted light sources.In short, the term filter really means anything that modifies the incoming light in some way and includes: polarizing screens, multi-image prisms,close-up attachments, soft focus filters, neutral density (ND) filters, graduated ND filters, and color filters for black and white photography. Filters come in two main shapes: round and square.

Filters add color and a certain touch to a photo that complements the individuals style of photo taking. When you are using a black and white film with filters, you can darken or lighten the tone of the subjects color. The color filters that are used can darken the tone of an opposite color and brighten the tone of the color filter that is being used. For an example, a red filter will make the red leafs on an autumn tree look very rich and bright, while on the other hand the sky behind it that was blue, is now almost black.

Neutral density filters reduce the light entering your camera so that a slower shutter speed,or a larger aperture can be used. Graduated ND filters are used to balance out bright skies against darker foreground scenes.

A neat filter is called the star filter. This type of filter in photography is placed on the cameras lenses to create a star look effect form any source of light. This is very popular with television game shows and used for portraits to provide a soft overall diffusion. A split field lenses is really a full lenses but only half of it is close-up, it is great for taking a picture of something close-up at the bottom like a small flower or bug in focus. The top of the lenses is just blank or empty and the camera uses its lenses to background in focus, say the mountain in the distance.

Albreht Moy has many photographs for sale at his website.

Often a beginning professional photographer must do with a single large space to set up a new portrait studio. It must contain a reception and display area, a dressing room, an office, and of course, a camera room.

The camera room must be able to accommodate large families, various groups and the typical wedding party with bride and groom. These demands require a background wall of at least sixteen feet wide for a group portrait without wall shadows. The background wall can be covered with floor to ceiling drapes of a solid color in a muted shade. Colors that have worked well in the past are gray/green, light gray, blue/gray and wine red. The drapes should part in the middle to expose most of the back wall which will be artistically painted in tones of brown, gray, and beige with accents of apple green and rose red. The drapes should extend six feet along the left and right walls for extremely large groups. A curved bracket will eliminate the corner. If a rear exit exists in the back wall, a false wall can be built with a door to the extreme side for rear access. This door will be hidden by the drapes and the area behind the wall can be utilized for frames, ready orders and back up equipment.

Since the camera lens sweeps a triangular area, the dead spot to the left can be utilized for an office and the area to the right, a dressing room. Props can be stored on shelves along the wall and hung from the ceiling. The floor should be kept free as possible for lights and equipment. Walls should be painted in a bone white for use as a reflective surface with bounce lighting. The posing area may be carpeted with a loop type rug in a neutral solid color. The area used by the camera stand should be covered in cushioned tile or linoleum for easy rolling. Ideally, pulleys can be installed on the ceiling for raising and lowering muslin type backgrounds. It takes but a few minutes to attach two corners of a muslin and raise it to the ceiling and stretching it out to the edge of the rug. Several muslins can be stored in bags for easy access.

The reception and display area can utilize low couches and a cocktail table for showing albums. One area can be reserved for a computer terminal for displaying poses and another desk for taking orders and making reservations. Only sixteen by twenty and larger portraits should be displayed on the walls. Smaller sizes for selling purposes can be displayed on the desks.

The dressing room should incorporate a lighted mirror and dressing table with bench, hooks and hangers for clothing and a small lavatory. The office can double as a room for computer work, ordering supplies and customer calling. Your new efficient studio will be a pleasure to work in making for a happy photographer and satisfied customers.

http://www.photoartbyken.com [In progress - Articles, Digital Art, poetry, Original sheet music.] Comments welcome.

“I have a great product, and I know exactly where it can be sold at this moment. But the only thing standing between me and seeing my product in national circulation is procrastination.” Have you heard this before?
By applying the same management techniques that are used by successful businesses, you can move your stock photography operation forward. Here are some self-management principles for the small business entrepreneur:

GET IT DONE. It’s easy to slip into the habit of narcoticizing yourself with the evening news or a sitcom. Change your habits. Buy a $4.95 quartz alarm to beep the same time every evening to remind you and others in your household that it’s “Marketing Time” — in others words, time to devote some specific time to getting your business off the ground.,br>DO ONE THING WELL. Creative people often do themselves in because they are talented in many areas — music, writing, painting, crafts, and so on. Choose one, and begin today to develop just one area of your creativity.
ASK AROUND. Don’t reinvent the wheel. There’s a goldmine waiting for you in the neighbor or friend or acquaintance who’s already been there. He knows the pitfalls, barriers, and obstacles, especially if he’s failed. Everyone loves to be an expert. Weigh their opinions against others’, and then come to a consensus. If you don’t want to consult a local competitor, phone someone in another like-sized city who is traveling the same highway.
ELIMINATE THE LOSERS. Take time to analyze what’s working for your business and what’s not. Parts of your business are moneymakers, others are not. Don’t let sentiment or the tired phrase, “We’ve always done it this way,” drag you down.
LOOK LIKE A PRO. Too many entrepreneurs feel that because their product is good, it should sell. Not so. A “better mousetrap” will not insure your product’s success. Employ packaging techniques. You don’t get a second chance at a first impression. If you want first class sales to your clients, give them first class treatment. Build a quality website. Invest in deluxe stationery, labels, and product packaging.

DO YOUR HOMEWORK. Jumping in with two feet and enthusiasm is fun and romantic, but unless you’ve checked to see if water is in the pool, you’re in for some disappointments. If your enthusiasm is still high after you’ve done your research, you’ve got a winner.
UNDERSTAND MARKETING. Your product will sell if you position yourself effectively. Super umbrellas won’t sell on a sunny day, but even poor ones will sell easily in the rain. Your success today will reflect not only your product’s worth to a customer, but your ability to find that customer’s need and fill it.
SPECIALIZE. In the last century, the keyword was ‘versatile’. In this century, the markets are too fragmented to be able to be all things to all markets. Choose your corner of the market and develop it. Become an important resource only to certain consumers.
BE BUDGET MINDED. You’ll see your product in national circulation if you have the cash flow available to pay the production, phone, office, and other bills. Don’t fall into the Madison Avenue trap of buying a new car, new clothes, new office equipment, over the counter drugs, high-calorie ‘goodies’, and other creature comforts that are supposed to make your life fulfilling. If you donate your cash to these dollar-gobblers, you have no cause to say, “The cost of getting into business on my own is too high.”
FAIL BUT DON’T QUIT. Are you afraid you are not going to make it? Fear of failing is one of the greatest deterrents to beginning entrepreneurs. That’s why not too many succeed; they never get up after they’ve been knocked down. Most successful people in any field have failed many times. The difference between you and them is that they never quit.
UNDERSTAND BRANDING. Develop a “style” about your stock photo business - and stick to it. That includes your actual photos right down to your stationery. Develop a logo and a simple “catch-phrase” you can use in your promotions and advertising.*
PLAY NOT WORK. There’s a saying, “The luckiest people sweat the most.” Yes, it’s going to require long hours. But don’t translate that to mean work. If you love what you’re doing, it’s all play. Choose your area of stock photography interest first by asking yourself, “What area do I love most?” Then do your research and find out if there’s a market for that area. If there is, it’ll be all play.
START TODAY. Most people spend their time preparing, rather than doing. “One for the money, two for the show, three to get ready, four to get ready, five to get ready…” Start today.

*Reference: The Brand Gap, Marty Neumeier, 15BN 0-321-31810-9; New Riders Press, ask@peachpit.com

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Rohn Engh is director of PhotoSource International and publisher of PhotoStockNotes. Pine Lake Farm, 1910 35th Road, Osceola, WI 54020 USA. 1 800 624 0266; Fax: 1 715 248 7394. http://www.photosource.com

There are many places to get a camera for about $5. These usually use 35mm film that is exposed, sent to a photo finisher, and…only the negatives and prints are sent back to the originator. Some of these camera come with a built in flash and others do not. Whether or not you want a flash is up to you and whether you want to take pictures inside or outside. It is usually recommended to use a flash for pictures inside.

These cameras are simple. After reading the instructions…all you do is aim and shoot. And I’m going to tell you how to aim and shoot.

Here are my tips for a great photo:
Stay Still-Don’t move a bit when you are snapping the picture. Even a little movement will usually make the picture not as sharp. It’s a good ideal not to breathe when you are taking a picture. Of course, don’t do this longer than 5 seconds. And only do this if you don’t have a medical condition that five seconds of not breathing would hurt you.
If you are near a tree or a side of a building. Lean on the item while you take the picture. You’ll be amazed how sharp the picture is, providing other things are done correctly, when you are still when you shoot!

Take Photo-9a.m. to 3 p.m.-If you take your picture during these hours, the color is usually better. That is because the color of light at sunrise and sunset tends to have more red in it. Now, if you want your subject to have a more than normal red face. Go ahead and photograph him or her at 630 p.m.

Take Photo with sun behind you-Pictures work on something called reflected light. If the sun is behind you, it will hit your subject and bounce into your camera, even without any noise.Of course, if you want a red, artsy picture-go ahead and shoot toward the sun. When you do this people usually come out too dark. But, like I say, that may be your style.

Follow moving things-Like, your buddies are playing b-ball and you want a picture of them playing. Don’t hold your camera still for a picture this time. As dude number one brings the ball to the net, follow him through the viewer in the camera, try to keep him in about the same spot in the viewer all the time. Try snapping the picture as he does a hoop. A lot of times you get a real clear, focused picture of the shooter and a blur of the ball. But sometimes that’s cool!

If you want stuff blurred, then don’t follow them with the camera. Like you want a picture of the freeway but the want the traffic blurred. Try taking the picture with the traffic going left to right or right to left with maybe a bridge in the photo. This occasionally works.

Photos inside with flash-Hold still, try to get the subject to look away a little bit from the camera. Sometimes if they look right into the camera you get something called red-eye.

The throw-away camera can take excellent photos with flash of two or three people. Remember to hold the camera still during taking the picture.

Don’t try to use the flash in a large area. Like 5,000 people photo of a night rock concert. If you want to take a picture of something going on on a stage, I recommend a more complex camera.

Have fun with you disposable camera and remember to ask permission from people before you photograph them; make sure you do not violate their privacy, or in any way be disrespectful of people or places.

The throw-away camera can be a lot of fun. Perhaps you could start a photo album of the best picture and share them with you friends and family.

Gene Smith is a retired Navy Chief Petty Officer who has held down many jobs in his life. He has been a photographer, grave digger, musician, farm worker, potato picker, groundskeeper, domestic,ocean research technician, radio announcer, movie director and recording engineer. He lives in West Virginia.

Your time is valuable. It’s annoying when you receive an image which is too large, too small, or impossible to open.

And your customers, suppliers, or friends will hate you if you do it to them.

In this short article, you’ll learn how to send the right size image, in the right format. It’s surprisingly pretty simple, once you know how.

Image formats and sizes seem complicated at first, which is why people send images that are the wrong size or format. But once you understand a couple of basic principles, you’ll be able to easily size any image appropriately and send it by e-mail or upload it to a web site.

Begin with the end in mind

Take Stephen Covey’s advice - start by being clear about your goal. What is the person to whom you’re sending the image going to do with it? Is it just for them to look at on their computer, or will they need to print it? It makes a big difference (the reason is simple, and you’ll find out what it is in a minute). If the image is to be printed, how big?

Pixels and DPI

The answer to the sizing problem has to do with pixels. Unless you’ve been living in a bunker for the last five years, you’ve probably heard of them. You may even have an idea what a pixel is: the smallest element of a digital image - a single square (rectangle, actually) of a single colour.

The resolution of an image is expressed in PPI, or Pixels Per Inch. This is often confused with DPI (Dots Per Inch). Strictly speaking, DPI actually relates only to printers, but in practice, the terms are often used interchangeably.

Resolution essentially determines how large the image can be reproduced. This also depends on the output device (computer screen or printer). It’s important to understand the difference between size and resolution. The best way to do this is with an example…

Let’s say we have an image which is 300 pixels wide by 150 pixels high. This is the size or pixel dimensions of the image. Simple enough. But here’s the tricky bit (so pay attention):

The typical computer screen size, in pixels, is 1024×768 pixels. The resolution is usually 75 PPI (which means every square inch of screen ‘real estate’ is 75 pixels wide by 75 pixels high).

Therefore if we look at our 300 x 150 pixel image, it will be four inches (10 cm) wide and two inches (5 cm) high. Fine so far. But what if we now want to print that image?

Different printing devices can print at different resolutions. But generally, for an image to print well, it needs to have a resolution of at least 200 PPI, or preferably 300. Any less than this, and it will start to look chunky, fuzzy, or pixellated. Or all three!

You may have heard of printers which can print at 1200 DPI or more, but this is separate from the size of the image itself - there’s really no need to send a 1200 PPI image to your printer.

So you can see that our 300 x 150 pixel image will only print at a size of about 1 inch (2.5 cm) wide by half an inch high. Big difference!

By now you’re probably thinking, “OK, enough geeky explanations, how big should I size my image?!”

Here are some guidelines, then:

• On-screen viewing: height 500 to 700 pixels, width 700 to 900 pixels
• Print - 200 to 300 PPI. So for a 4×6″ (10×15 cm) print, the pixel dimensions should be 800 x 1200 at the smallest, or 1200 x 1800 at the largest. Obviously for a larger print, you need to increase the pixel dimensions accordingly.

The good news

Most imaging programs do all the calculations for you in the “resize” function. Here’s how to resize images in the most popular image editing applications:

In Photoshop (including Photoshop Elements), go to Image –> Resize –> Image Size, where you can either specify the new size in pixels; or in centimetres or inches. Don’t forget to set a suitable resolution for your end use (75 PPI for on-screen viewing, 200-300 PPI for print).

The procedure for PaintShop Pro is very similar: Go to Image –> Resize, where you can resize either as a percentage of the original size, specify the new pixel dimensions, or specify the absolute size in cm or inches and PPI.

If you don’t have either of these programs, you can even resize in Windows Paint. Choose Image –> Stretch, and then enter the new size as a percentage of the original size.

It’s also worth checking out Irfanview, a free image viewer which has been around for years. It supports every imaginable image format (and then some), and includes batch processing (allowing you to resize or otherwise adjust multiple images in one operation) as well as slide shows and a bunch of other features.

In Windows XP (and possibly some other versions) you can also check the size of your image without opening it, by hovering the mouse pointer over the file within Windows Explorer. A box soon pops up with all of the details.

Formats

OK, the last thing to think about is image format. Not only does this substantially affect the size of the file (in bytes), but also whether other people can open it!

You may have noticed that the most common format is JPEG (which stands for Joint Picture Experts Group, if you must know), often abbreviated to its three-letter Windows file extension, jpg.

Most likely your images are already in JPEG format if they have come from a digital camera, although some digital cameras can capture images in TIFF or RAW formats (which are beyond the scope of this article).

There are a couple of good reasons for the popularity of JPEG. The main one is size. A postcard-size, 300 DPI image takes up about 6 MB in it’s ‘native’ format. That’s one big e-mail! The same image saved as a JPEG takes up around one-tenth of that when saved as a JPEG at a decent quality setting.

(The other reason JPEG is a popular format is because it’s extremely widely supported - as well as digital cameras, every image editing or viewing application can handle it - which in turn ensures its popularity!)

So by ‘compressing’ the image, JPEGs take up a fraction of the space of most other formats. There must be a catch, right? Well, yes and no. Let’s explore a little deeper.

JPEG uses an algorithm (mathematical formula) to compress the image. And it does this essentially by “summarizing” parts of the image with less detail in them. In order to do this, and achieve the incredible ratio of compression which it does, it actually “throws away” some of the data (technically, it’s known as lossy compression - as opposed to lossless compression. An example of a lossless compression algorithm is zip).

Well, “throwing away” bits of your picture doesn’t sound too good, does it. Actually, it’s not as bad as it sounds. When you save an image as a jpeg, you’re presented with a choice of quality setting (exactly how this is presented varies from program to program). As you would expect, the higher the quality, the less compression is achieved, and vice versa. However, even at fairly high quality settings, the amount of compression is still substantial, yet the degradation (in the form of compression artifacts) is barely perceptible.

By the way, if you do need to send an image file which is larger than about 1 or 2 MB, a file transfer service like yousendit.com or megaupload.com is a much more elegant way to do it than e-mail. It saves clogging up both your own e-mail as well as the recipient’s. All you do is browse to the file on your computer and enter the recipient’s e-mail address, and the file transfer service does the rest.

Hopefully you’re now ready to give it a try! In summary:

1. Know your goal

2. Resize the image to the appropriate pixel dimensions, if required

3. Save in JPEG format with a reasonably high quality setting

Now go ahead and e-mail some pictures around the place!

Steven Pam is the founder of SmartShots Commercial Photography, based in Melbourne, Australia.
He specializes in photographing people, cars, and anything to do with aircraft.

They are smaller, but they perform greater tricks than the colossal, tripod stand cameras of the yesteryears or the more recent film cameras with optical viewfinders. Yes, Dave Etchells, owner of the Imaging Resource website Imaging-resource.com rightly says: “Digital has reawakened photo enthusiasts’ love of photography again”. ‘Digital cameras’ or ‘digicams’ as they are fondly baptized by the generation-y, have the perfect blend of technology and artistry to capture the beauty of any moment effortlessly. From professional-like digital single-lens reflexes, to megapixel sensors (megapixel: a measurement of a picture’s resolution.), from ‘point-and-shoot’ attributes with 3- and 4-megapixel to Optical Zoom features, they have truly enriched the world of everyday snapshot photography as well as that of graphic communications.

Using no traditional film and record images on a memory chip, the digital cameras manufactured by various market-leaders are providing consumers, professionals and cinematographers with the sheer ecstasy and delight of taking brilliant color snapshots that will last for a lifetime. Yes, if you are a photo-enthusiast of this generation, you would definitely like to go for cameras that create awe-inspiring pictures with vibrant colors at the touch of a button without having to wait for the elaborate, time-consuming photo-processing sessions at the lab. At the same time, you would also crave for the brilliance of imaging technology and professional-quality photo prints with the freedom to crop and edit high-resolution pictures with 4.0-5.0 megapixels and more. Wonder why professionals who used to adore the ‘legendary’ film cameras have switched to digital models? Why won’t they, if the digital technology gifts them with cameras that instantaneously capture moments depending upon image size, file format, media type, that store endless images as digital files on reusable memory cards or discs? Besides, won’t an everyday snapshot taker love the idea of uploading the pictures to an online photo-album site to share with the geographically remote, and of downloading image files to his computer for printing on his home printer? The Digicams allow you to do all this, and much more that cannot be discussed with full potential in a single article like this.

So to speak, Eastman Kodak Company, Canon, Sony and Nikon happen to reign the realm among professional photographers as well as among casual snapshot takers globally. The feature-rich digital cameras manufactured by these companies have received global attention from users who cherish the activities of taking, sharing, printing and viewing images for memories, information, and sheer entertainment.

Now, who wouldn’t want to keep 1500 and more of his treasured memories right at his fingertips, when these cameras are around? And yes, ’staying connected’ being the buzzword of today’s times, anyone would want to explore the freedom of ‘wireless photography’ that lets him print real pictures at home, share albums instantly with friends and family around the world as well as transfer pictures and videos to computers without USBs (classic example: the KODAK EASYSHARE product range).

No wonder, the sales pitch of digicams are soaring every year, for which the Photo Marketing Association, US has commented: “Digital cameras are expected to continue their growth in 2006 before reaching their peak at the end of that year or the next”.

However, let these trade statistics bug the market-research analysts. The photo-lovers are delighted to share their world right from the palm of their hands with these wonderful cameras. Let them be so, for years to come!

Lopa Bhattacharya is a content writer/developer working for various overseas corporate website projects, CD-Rom presentations, brochures, flyers and other communication materials). Has worked on numerous SEO copywriting projects on varied themes ranging from travel, hotel industry, photography, web design and software development to US-based clubs and network communities. Was previously an editorial associate for the news, culture and entertainment portal based on the life and times of Kolkata.