Why Should I Think About Digital Photography

If you haven't rushed out to buy a digital camera, you're not alone - neither did I. As an amateur photographer, I have a couple of film cameras, an old manual Nikon and a nice autofocus Canon Rebel, and I wasn't particularly tempted to check out the digital craze up until recently, even though each of my children had naturally been using them for years. But recently my dad gave me his mid-priced Olympus (he found the menus hard to follow), and Ive been giving it a try. And, surprise, surprise! I find it great fun, and it takes great pictures, too.

My number one favorite thing about the camera is pretty obvious no film. My father gave me two substantial memory cards, and I can take an amazing amount of pictures before running out of storage. I dont have developing expenses for photos that I dont really want now that Ive seen them (I don't EVER pay to develop my pictures), and since I can actually see how they look on the spot, I can purge anything I don't like to save the storage for other photos. Taking lots of shots helps me improve, and improves the likelihood of a better than average photograph as well, and now its free. My camera has settings on it that let me to take pictures just like I have film I can set film speed and fiddle with aperture/shutter speed options just like with my other cameras, so I can use my prior experience with photography, which makes learning so much easier. And I love not having to wait to see how the pictures came out.

The other really cool thing about digital cameras is photo editing. I havent gone out and bought Photoshop yet, but I am planning on purchasing the Elements program for next year or so. I just use Googles free Picasa and sometimes my PhotoDeluxe editor (it came free with my scanner), and even then I can do an awesome number of great things with my photos. One of my favorite features is being able to correct poor exposures (I admit, I often dont notice backlighting). Now with a little adjusting, I can save these shots! I correct red-eye easily, sharpen a photo, adjust contrast, warm up colors, and correct unwanted tint (such as from incandescent lighting). Cropping is my favorite those lucky few who have their own darkroom crop their photos routinely, but the rest of us used to have to take what we got no longer! We can pick and choose, and glory in removing unnecessary background, too much sky and turning the shot into a closeup is effortless. Altering the picture size is easy would you like a 5x7? No sweat. 8x10, 4x6, some unusual size just an easy click will do it for you And dont forget special effects. Limited only by the features offered by your software, you might add neon glow, turn your photo into a line drawing, create a mosaic, soften your background the only limits are your imagination and your software!

When your photo is just how you want, you can print it on photo paper on your own printer, or you can send it out for processing. Using Picasa, you can click and send it to a processor via the internet, and get your professionally printed photos in the mail but only the ones you have decided you want. Also, you can easily put your pictures on a webpage, send them to your friends via email, or use them on a blog Picasa makes it simple to share your photos with others.

As you can see, I have been won over. My love of photography has actually been revitalized by the pleasure of working with this kind of control over what you are doing. I urge you to take the jump, if you haven't already. It's a true joy.

Interested in learning more about digital photography? Then try visiting DigitalPhotography4All.com where you can get real information for regular folks, and great ideas to improve your own digital photography.