OK, so you have a digital camera and you’ve been hearing about how you can use software to “sharpen” photos. Sounds great, but as with any digital imaging technology, there are deadly pitfalls that await the unsuspecting picture-fixer-upper.
First off, let’s discuss two things the sharpening tool won’t help with:
1. Blurry photos due to camera or subject movement. You know the kind. You take a photo and the camera… Continue reading
Buffer Overload
A reader asks…
“I love my digital camera, but sometimes when I take a lot of photos all at once it seems to ‘overload’. It gets to a point where it just won’t take any more pictures for a minute or so. It’s really annoying when I am trying to get a shot and the camera won’t work. Do you know what causes this?”
Yup, sure do. Your… Continue reading
Using Memory Card Readers
Seems like everyone is using memory card readers. If you want to find out what the fuss is all about, read on.
First off, most of these work in pretty much the same way. You plug it into your computer, Windows XP / ME automatically installs it (win 98 usually needs drivers), and you’re ready to start reading your memory cards.
Once you have the reader… Continue reading
Ohh, we’ve all been there. You take a snap shot of your kids (or grandkids) and the devil in ‘em seems all too apparent. Those big red-eyes glaring back at you from the photo, screaming for some time in PhotoShop. Continue reading
Making Pictures the Right Size
What’s the “right” size for a picture? Well, that depends on the photo. Most monitors display at 72 dpi (dots per inch). So, if you want the picture to be 5 inches wide (probably about the biggest you would want for an e-mail message), the picture would be 360 pixels wide (5 inches x 72 dpi = 360 pixels).
Pixel is short for “Picture Element”… Continue reading
“RAW” Digital Photography
Many newer digital cameras are now offering a “RAW” file setting in addition to the “standard” JPG and TIF options. As its name suggests, this is a file type that needs to be “cooked” (OK, processed 
before you can use it.
Before we get into the hows and whys, let’s look at how a camera typically processes an image.
When you snap the shutter on your… Continue reading
3 simple steps you can take to get better prints from your digital photos…
1. Watch the resolution – Remember that in order to get a quality print, you’ll need to have the DPI to back it up. The “Dots Per Inch” – pixels if you will – are the stuff your photos are made of. If you don’t have enough of ‘em, you aren’t going to get a good… Continue reading
Watch Those JPEGs!
JPEG is a great format, ya know? They can take a huge 30 meg file and make it look great at 3 meg – if only my diet worked so well
However, there is a hidden danger behind all that digital dexterity. JPEGs are a “lossy” compression scheme. What they do is “dump” unnecessary information when they are created. The higher the compression rate, the more… Continue reading
Strange Colored Printouts
Have you ever perfected a photo in your imaging program, only to get bizarre colors when you went to print it? You know, the photo is all green, pink, etc? It used to work fine, but now the printouts are making your eyes water with all their hideous color.
Well, if you’ve never been there, just hang on—ya probably will be!
If your printer has been doing… Continue reading
Digital Imaging: Here’s a question one of our readers had:
Q:
I have a 2.1 megapixel digital camera and I just got a new 5 megapixel camera. I know that the more megapixels, the better. Is there any way to convert my 2.1 megapixel images to 5?
A:
Actually, it’s really easy – Just use your new 5MP camera to re-take the photos you shot with your 2.1MP… Continue reading
