Photogenic Photography Blog

As with any subject of interest, it is important to be familiar with and understand the terminology - and digital photography is certainly no exception. People that understand the meaning of common digital photography terms and abbreviations have the knowledge necessary to purchase digital cameras and understand the features they offer. Because many of the abbreviations and terms are unique to digital photography and digital cameras, it is imperative for hobbyists and professionals to understand their meaning. Here are some of the most common and important terms and abbreviations.

• Pixel - A pixel is the tiniest part or smallest discrete component of any digitized picture or image and all photos actually start with a pixel. Digital photographs are comprised of thousands or even millions of pixels, which are the photo’s building blocks.

• Megapixel - One million pixels make up one megapixel. When photographers use the term or word megapixel, they are referring to a digital camera photo’s maximum resolution in millions of pixels. In other words, cameras with a four-megapixel range take photographs that have a four million pixel maximum. This means quality to the consumer because better quality photos have higher megapixel counts. Buy a digital camera with the highest megapixel range you can afford, trying to keep it in the three or above megapixel range, especially for people wanting to make photo prints.

• Resolution - This refers to the total amount of pixels in a digital photo, with the better quality, sharper pictures having a higher resolution.

• JPEG - Formulated by the Joint Photographic Experts Group, a JPEG is a compressing image standard or compression method. JPEGs along with GIFs are two of the principal graphic formats found on the web. The lossy compression method used by JPEGs, which is a lossy file format, sacrifices a little of the original image data each time you save an image. The 24-bit color image stored by JPEGs, which lets you save innumerable colors, is well suited for images and photos with fine grades of color and tone.

• Aperture - The opening that lets the light travel to the sensor inside the interior of the digital cam is the aperture. When you take a picture, inside the lens is a round, small opening that alters the diameter, which controls and measures the total light hitting the sensor in the digital camera. It is the shutter speed and aperture combined that control how much light reaches the camera’s sensor. An aperture priority mode, found on some digital cameras, allows the photographer to adjust the aperture to suit their requirements.

• Focal Length - Often overlooked in amateur photography, the term focal length refers to how much the camera lens is able to magnify a shot. Normally divided into two categories, the focal lengths are telephoto and wide-angle for narrow fields and spacious fields of view respectively.

• Memory - In the digital camera, storage space capability that stores the pictures is the memory.

Knowing the common digital photography terms can help people understand cameras better so they can purchase one that meet their requirements. And, of course - before you purchase, test the digital camera out first!



By: Terry Roberts

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Cameras have always been present in times of events. They can really help people keep all of their treasured memories. Of course, during weddings/nuptials the ever-reliable cameras are surely present.

It is well known that weddings are one of the wonderful events in an individual’s life. Many people wait for the day they can have a sacred union with the one that they love. And in order for them to have at least a good memory of this great event, cameras are needed.

You know, it’s amazing how far our technology has come with regards to photography. Many devices or gadgets are now being introduced in order to help people treasure special moments in their everyday lives.

There are also new cameras that are being made especially to capture the most treasured times in our everyday lives. Among these devices are digital cameras. These devices are really great for capturing happy moments during events like weddings.

Since the introduction of digital cams, they have outsold film cameras. Thus, this makes digital wedding photography a more popular service than film photography. Why?

Well, this may be because digital photography can take wedding pictorials into new heights. Cameras used for digital photography provides a lot of new advantages to their users.

One of the major advantages of these digital cameras is that they let users skip the usual film separation process, which is among the most time-consuming processes in photography. So, removing one time-consuming process would mean getting results faster, right? And when living in a fast-phase society, quick results are a must!

Another advantage of digital wedding photography is that, even though it provides fast results, the quality of each printed photo is not sacrificed. This means that no matter how fast you get your pictures, the result is still beautiful.

Another advantage of digital wedding photography is that it provides customization options to its users. This would mean that a user can edit photos even before they are printed. You can change the size, brightness, contrast or sharpness of your photo. You can even add or remove some details on your photos.

Digital photography has also integrated with cellular phones. This means that you only need to bring a phone to take pictures during weddings. Nevertheless, it is a fact professional digital cameras can provide better results than the cameras of cellular phones. Most professional digital cams have 6 mega pixels while cellular phones usually have lower mega pixel.

But perhaps the greatest advantage of digital wedding photography is the availability of your photos to be reproduced over and over again without making any variations between the first printed photo and the last photo printed. Digital photography allows users to save their files on their computers, which would mean that they can be reproduced without wearing out any film, since it doesn’t need one.

But, no matter how great a technology is, it’s still not perfect. One of the major disadvantages of digital photography is that it is not ideal for 4-color printing. Why? Well this is because of the fact that there will always be a variation between the images you will see on your pc monitor and your 4 color printed photo.

Why? Well, computer monitors use RGB, right? Four color printing uses CMYK. RGB and CMYK have entirely different outputs. So, no matter what you do, the image on your monitor will never be the same as your 4 color photos, unless there are computer monitors that also use CMYK to produce colors for the images and texts.

Nevertheless, digital wedding photography is still better than film photography and that is also a fact. See for yourself.



By: Terry Parker

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Digital photography is an extremely popular hobby today and certainly a wonder of modern technology. Unlike years ago, today it only takes the push of a button and a minute or two later you have your prints. The days of having to purchase film, take the entire roll in for developing, and pay before seeing the results is long gone. With a digital camera, memory card, batteries, accessories and practice, you are prepared to capture beautiful images and moments. Many people with an entrepreneurial spirit and a love of photography have learned the art of capturing eye-catching scenery, subjects or unforgettable moments and discovered ways to turn digital photography into a money making business.

You do not have to be a professional photographer to make money but you must be able to produce excellent quality pictures that are clear and that people will pay for. Whether someone chooses to do this full time or part time, they will be prepared to capture a money-making photo by having the camera close by at all times. The flexibility and quality of digital photographs and the internet has given people many opportunities to make money with their services and pictures. One creative way to make money with digital photography is finding places where people would pay to have memorable pictures taken, such as tourist attractions, parades, concerts, and competitions. Take your business cards along to these hot markets, take pictures and then post them on a file sharing service or website that allows people to browse and buy your pictures. Selling your digital pictures online as stock photos offers digital photographers another excellent way to earn money. There are stock photography agencies or companies on the internet where you can use their database to upload your pictures and then they pay you when somebody buys any of your pictures. Most have certain terms, such as quality of pictures, content, resolution and pixels of the digital photographs. Usually if your work is made up of lower resolution pictures, many digital photo stock agencies pay less for it. There is a demand by graphic designers, magazines, website publishers and others that require backdrops and photographs of people, weather, birds, animals and nature, which are always in great demand.

Contact local real estate agents, car dealerships, insurance companies, hair salons and other agencies and businesses in your area that often require freelance photographers to take pictures of houses, vehicles, hair styles, property for refinancing or sale and insurance pictures, just to name a few. Make money by selling your services to capture special occasion moments such as graduations, birthdays, weddings, family reunions, new babies and other important events. There are many ways to make money with digital photography but it takes skill, credibility and dedication. To take exceptional, awesome photographs requires an individual to always keep learning and perfecting their abilities. The ways to make money using your digital camera are almost endless and it just takes a creative mind and lots of imagination to find your niche. Come up with a business and marketing plan and soon your digital photography hobby will produce a steady income.



By: Terry Roberts

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f Digital Photography commenced when two scientists ( George Smith and Willard Boyle) invented the device called ‘Charged Coupled Device’ (CCD) in 1969. Since then the CCD has been widely used in the production of modern digital cameras. It is the heart of all digital cameras and now called the image sensor. These two scientist, never thought that CCD will be extensively used in digital cameras, that time they invented the CCD to develop the first solid-state video camera (in 1970) which could give sharp images which was enough to be used in television broadcast (1975).the two scientists didn’t plan it this way.

1.Introduction of First Digital Camera - Mavica

Since the above invention world had to wait around five years to see breakthrough in digital photography. In year 1981, world renown Sony Corporation introduced the first prototype digital camera which was called Mavica (Magnetic Video Camera). This new camera called Mavica was an electronically operated still camera with two CCD chips, It recorded images using magnetic impulses on to a compact two-inch diameter still-video floppy disk. However the first digital cameras for mass market were available in mid nineties.

It could be hooked to a computer through a serial port cable. For example, the cameras which came out with such facilities were Apple Quick Take 100 camera (February 17, 1994) worked with a home computer via a serial cable. The other similar digital models were introduced to the market by Kodak (DC40 camera in March 28, 1995), Casio ( Casio QV-11with LCD monitor in late 1995), and Sony ( Cyber-Shot Digicam in 1996).

2. Digital Image Software and Printers

Although there were several manufacturers came out with different types of digital cameras, none was so popular as Kodaks DC40 digital camera which produced for mass markets. Later Microsoft and Kinkos both collaborated with Kodak to introduce the digital image-producing software workstations and corner shops. The consumers were able to use these software and corner outlets to develop photo CDs and photographs as well as adding digital images to the documents. Similarly, IBM worked with Kodak introducing the internet-based network image exchange. At the same time, Hewlett-Packard was the pioneering company to make the first color inkjet printers that helped consumers to print good quality images which was an impetus to the popularizing the digital photography.

3.True Digital Camera

In 1988, Fuji developed the true digital camera, DS-1P which could record images in the form of computerized file. Other unique feature of this camera was its internal memory chip with a capacity of 16 MB while using a battering to store. However, it was noted that this Fuji camera never marketed in the United States or not even in Japan. As such, we can reasonably assume that the first commercially produced digital camera was Logitech Fotoman (in 1990) which was also called as Dycam Model-1. This camera used a CCD sensor which stored images digitally and later cold be transferred to Personal Computer (PC).

The background or evolvement of digital photography stress that that the future is the digital photography. This is already proven as the recent market surveys indicate that in year 2006, approximately 35 billion images were printed or stored in Western Europe.

By: Alex Don

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Using a digital photography green screen is easy. The screens are used in both still photography and videos although it’s more common in video photography.

First off, you need an actual green screen. Despite the name, this can be either green or blue in color. The choice of color will largely be dictated by what you are photographing as you want to make it easy for your software to isolate the intended image with you.

Purpose made green screens are readily available from around $20. You can look for them in places like eBay, Amazon or your local photo store. Alternatively, you can make your own from fabric or even by painting a roll of paper. So long as the color is consistent, you’ll be fine.

Next up you need to make sure that you have good lighting for your digital photo. This is especially useful when you come to edit your pictures as extra shadows can confuse any automatic software options that you choose.

Although you can buy expensive lights, you’ll probably find that you can get very good results with just a couple of fluorescent tubes. Place them both upright, in front of your subject and to either side. This way any shadows should be canceled out.

Then take your photographs.

Once you’re happy with these, the time has come to edit them and put in a new background. So your “talking head” shot now shows you in a news studio, in front of a street scene, or just about anywhere else you choose.

Much will now depend on your photo editing software.

At its most basic, you will need to trace round the outline of your chosen image. Programs like Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop have tools that will help you to do this. But it may still take a while to tweak the places where the automatic software recognition program isn’t as accurate as you may like. This is where the contrast between the green screen and your subject matter comes in handy as it gives your chosen software a much better chance of doing a good job with as little of your help as possible.

Once you’ve got your image selected, you then need to use another option to digitally “lift” the image and then drop it onto your chosen background. Again, this will vary with your software package but providing you can get the software to just copy the selected area, you’ll be fine.

It may pay you to practice doing this with a simple shape such as a rectangle or a circle so that you don’t waste lots of time tracing round a complicated image only to find you press the wrong key at the wrong time. It’s at times like these when you’re grateful for Edit Undo options but personally I wouldn’t rely on them one hundred percent.

It’s then a relatively easy matter of dropping your carefully cut out selection on to the new picture. So you can then pretend to be talking to people from in front of the pyramids of Egypt or anywhere else you prefer.



By: Trevor Stonham

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Ever since the development of digital camera, photographers are able to adjust their pictures and that includes removing the background they dislike. As the technology matures, removing the background can be fast and easy.

But why do photographers want to remove the background?

Just to let you know, sometimes photographers are force to take their pictures.

Let’s picture this, after a long wait, you finally snapped the take off of the grey falcon. But when you look back at the picture, you found that you accidentally snapped your fingertip along with the falcon.

Now, you will not get the same picture again. What are you going to do? Delete the once in a life time picture or remove the disturbing background?

If you are like any photographer, you will choose the latter.

Sometimes, the background looks just nice with your subject on the LCD screen. But when you see it as a picture, something is just not right. That is when you need to remove whatever is disturbing in the background to make your final picture looks better.

After much talk about removing the background, how do you do that?

The most popular way to do that is by using photo editing software.

Before the development of the software, photographers need to remove the background in the dark room. They need to use a special solution and monitor the process. If they are not careful, they might spoil the picture.

Today, there are a lot of photo editing software that can free you from this tedious job. Furthermore, they are so user friendly that even a non-professional can use it. Some software even allows you to plug in some codes for different purposes. After that, you will have more choices to alter the background.

Some internet users are willing to pay for photographs for their tasks. Now, with the help of the software, you can keep the subject and replace the background with what your clients need. If they want a grey falcon taking off from a building, you can easily swap the ledge with a building with the photo editing software.



By: michael wong

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With the rise of digital photography in the last decade, many photographic purists have lamented the declining use of good old fashioned printed photographs. In fact, digital photography is, by and large, much preferable to the now outdated camera film reel and offers a wide range of benefits that not only include better quality pictures, higher resolution and more options for storage, but also - to the evident delight of many - the option to print!

Historically, the earliest cameras were first developed in the tenth century by a Persian mathematician, but photographic processing and chemical photography didn’t actually come to light until the nineteenth century, when a French inventor came up with the first permanent photograph in 1826. This first photographic print took a whole eight hours to expose and, while traditional photography made long strides in order to reduce the time it took to process photos, it wasn’t until the birth of digital photography that photographers were truly freed of the need to be within close access to processing facilities.

Commercial digital photography is often said to have begun with the unveiling of the Kodak DCS 100 in 1990, but the high cost of digital cameras meant that its uses didn’t stray much away from professional photographers and photo journalists. It was only in the late 1990s and early 2000s that digital photography began to find its way into the home. The take-up of digital cameras became so widespread that in 2004, Kodak announced it would no longer be producing re-loadable film cameras, with both Nikon and Canon following suit in 2006.

It’s clear that digital cameras offer both the professional and amateur photographer a range of benefits. With a traditional re-loadable camera, printed photos that turned out blurry or were unwanted would simply have to be thrown away, with the processing fee already paid for. However, with digital cameras, it’s easy to delete photos that you don’t want - making more room for photos that you do.

Additionally, digital photo printing has become much more widely available today. In the early days of home digital cameras, printing out digital photos was largely confined to in-home printers, with only the best quality colour ink cartridges being able to cope with such high resolution images. But now, it’s possible to find affordable digital photo printing from online photo processing services and on the high street.

Moreover, digital photos give you the option of having your photos printed on personalised items, like a mug or family Christmas cards. Many people even choose to get digital photos of special occasions, like a landmark birthday or a wedding, printed in book form, so there’s less likelihood of special photos being lost or becoming faded. And while the traditional medium of printed photographs can hold nostalgic value, it’s becoming increasingly clear to many that digital photography is the only way to go!



By: Adam Singleton

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Digital cameras are used for many events and special occasions. To transfer our favorite pictures from the camera to the computer we need to use special software that will facilitate this. This software is known as digital photography software, and you will find many varieties of it available on the market.

This digital photography software can sometimes be found with the digital camera that you buy. In the digital photography software there are various items to be found. These different programs will allow you to manipulate the pictures that you have taken when they are finally on your computer.

There are different types of digital photography software that can be found and used. You will need to make sure that all of the features in the software work properly before you download any of your stored images. The software can be ZoomBrowser EX 5.1, ArcSoft PhotoStudio, PhotoStitch and ImageBrowser 5.1 among the many varieties.

There are different types of digital camera software that you can use for Windows computers and ones for Mac computers. A few of these differences are found in the browser programs. The ImageBrowser 5.1 is to be used with Mac computers and it allows you to view, archive and manage your digital photographs. This is true for the Windows version, the ZoomBrowser 5.1.

To make these many different types of digital photography software work you will need access to device drivers. These drivers that you must have in your computer’s hardware should be TWAIN for Windows 98/2000. For Windows ME you should have WIA installed.

Besides these digital photography software you also need to have a Picture Transfer Protocol or a PTP on your computer. This Picture Transfer Protocol provides the support that you need for your digital camera to connect to any Windows XP (SP1 – 2) or Mac OS X (v10.1.5 – 10.3). With this transfer protocol you don’t need to look for the various requirements that are needed for device driver installation.

By looking at these various digital photography software you can gain an idea of the types of software that you will need to buy. The different kinds of software that is available today should not be that expensive.

You will however need to see if these various programs are compatible with your computer and your digital camera. The various features that are found with digital photography software, allows the camera enthusiast to create the masterpieces that they want.



By: Muna wa Wanjiru

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My introduction to digital photography was probably a bit more dramatic than most people’s. To get the full picture – so to speak – let’s travel back in time to the salad days of my life as a fledgling photographer: six years ago!

Although digital photography was available even then, they had as yet to come into their own, or rather into my hands. Naturally enough, this meant that I was still lugging around my film SLR – that’s single lens reflex to all those out there who’re sitting around scratching their heads.

Anyway, along with my trusty camera, which I had spent a fortune to get by the way, I was also lugging around everything else that I needed along with it. Spare lenses, extra film, batteries, filters, basically the whole works. Having said that, even though I’m now almost fully digital through and through I still do carry most of the same things. The only thing that’s radically different in digital photography is the lack of film rolls.

I now don’t carry with me rolls and rolls of film, and I don’t need to wait eternally to reload the camera either. Instead I have learned to do a quick change of my memory cards even under the direst of weather circumstances.

Speaking of dire weather conditions it was on one of these days that I was introduced to digital photography.

The one great thing about digital photography though, was that I get to see the pictures I take immediately I take them. The small viewfinder that accompanies just about all new digital cameras is perfect for determining in an instant whether you need a reshoot or not. Of course the screen is generally too small to see too much detail but it works for the most part.

And if you really want to go high tech and see right then and there whether your photograph came out okay, all you need is a laptop computer. With digital photography your shooting abilities will increase manfold as you now also have the ability to store more shots as well. All you need to do is to transfer the pictures to the laptop and you have a newly emptied memory card just waiting to be filled.

If you’re somewhere in the middle of deepest Antarctica or somewhere equally cold of course, then you won’t want to spend time fiddling with all these gadgets and might only want to get back to blessed warmth. But digital photography as option is always open for you to take if you want to take the time and effort to empty out your memory cards while you’re out in the field shooting away.

For my part I prefer to have the laptop with me only on certain trips that I take. Like the ones where transportation and storage are easy and where I don’t have to lug the silly thing along with me everywhere I go, along with my digital photography equipment! You might of course feel differently about that, but as I like to say, each to his own. First things first though, you need to decide whether you like digital photography or not.

For many a professional photographer, the difference between choosing digital photography cameras over film cameras, is somewhat akin to the preference of manual transmission over automatic transmission cars for the professional driver. Although to a very great degree digital photography and manual photography are both the same, and they both yield almost identical results, in the end when push comes to shove, the manual car will always give them more power and control when they need it most.

And that’s why you’ll still see quite a lot of professional photographers hugging their old film SLR’s to their chest, refusing to part with it. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the inability to change and adapt as much as it is the knowledge that film cameras – for the moment at least – will yield far better results when push comes to shove.

For the beginning photographer though, digital photography is as good a way as any to go, and if you’re mainly an enthusiastic amateur, you’ll get along fine with your digital camera. It’s when you start going up in the stakes that you have to make a decision whether you want to upgrade with digital photography all the way, or whether you want to go for the film camera.

Then again, before we end this article, I just have to point out that technology is advancing in quantum leaps and bounds, and that there’s a huge possibility that you will see more and more people abandoning their film cameras for the power of digital photography.



By: Muna wa Wanjiru

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hotographers; you love your little piece of camera technology, and these days you are snapping away like never before. But what are you really doing with all those photos?

With technology that allows you to take all the photos you want at no cost, there is nothing stopping you from taking many more photos than you would in the days of film. This has been a great boost to the art of photography. People are now happy to experiment without fear of wasting money. As a result, they are becoming much more adventurous.

In the past, if a person did not know much about photography, they would likely buy a point-and-shoot compact camera. Now most compact cameras have manual settings that allow almost the same flexibility as an SLR camera. Ambitious beginners are even opting for digital SLR cameras, knowing that they can learn as they go without fear of paying for their mistakes.

But back to the question: with all this snap-happy activity going on…what are we doing with all those photos?

Gone are the days when you had to get your photos developed and printed to see your results. Now we have digital files which can be viewed instantly, and revisited on our computer screens at our leisure.

The problem is, in most cases that is as far as they ever get.

By now you probably have thousands of photos on your computer (and hopefully backed up somewhere). But who ever sees them? Yourself, occasionally, and others perhaps, if you ever get around to sending those emails you promised.

The truth is, if you don’t print your photos and do something with them, then they represent wasted energy. Think of the reasons you took all those photos in the first place…to record precious moments in your life, and share them with friends and family. Your intentions may have been good at the time, but as long as those photos stay locked up where nobody gets to enjoy them, they are an opportunity lost.

So here is my challenge to you. With the gift-giving season still several months away, you could be trawling through all those thousands of photos. Pick out some of the best ones and get them printed. Then instead of doing your gift-shopping at the chain stores this year - turn some of those photos into personal gifts for the people who will really enjoy them.

This need not be a project for the ‘too hard basket’ as long as you don’t leave it until the last minute. You don’t need to spend a fortune. If you want to frame some photos, you should be able to pick up some ready-made frames the right size and do the job yourself.

The problem with framing photos as gifts is they can be difficult and expensive to send in the post. So here is another thought: why not turn some of your best photos into calendars?

Calendars are a great gift. You can create a gift with a real personal touch, using not just one, but twelve of your best images. What’s more, who doesn’t need a calendar? This is one gift you know will be used, appreciated and enjoyed. In fact, do a good job and those people will be begging you to make them another one next year!

It’s easy to personalize a calendar. Printing your photos is not costly, so you can print a different set of pictures for each person. Then all you need to do is grab a blank calendar and stick your photos in place. What could be simpler. It’s a chance to be a little creative without doing any hard work!

To make your photos into gifts, all it takes is a little forward-thinking. You can start now by looking back through your image files to find your best pictures. There is still plenty of time to get your photos printed, and have fun seeing them transformed into something special.

I can tell you now…it’s a lot more fun than joining the queue at a department store two days before Christmas!



By: Andrew Goodall

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