Digital Photo

1. Digital Photo It’s all about the pixels!

2. In the late 1990’s digital cameras produced low-quality images that looked okay on a computer screen. But digital photographs have gradually turned from low-resolution images to sharper-than-life images.

3. Digital imaging has allowed photographers more control over color photography…moving from black and white darkroom to a digital darkroom workflow.

4. Digital photo editing programs like Elements, Photoshop, and others allow you to adjust for lighting conditions without using filters, to fine tune contrast, and control color saturation and sharpness.

5. Some vocabulary you need to grasp: Imaging sensor – the light sensitive device that records images, taking the place of film. Pixel – smallest picture element in a digital imaging sensor. Pixels are usually square, uniform in size, and uniformly spaced. They’re the equivalent of grain in film. Megapixel – equals to one million pixels. Resolution – refers to an image’s sharpness and amount of fine detail.

6. Every digital camera has a megapixel rating. This number refers to the number of pixels on the camera’s imaging sensor. But what does this mean and how many pixels are necessary? Simple answer: the higher the # of pixels, the higher the resolution in an image. Ex: an 8 MP camera will produce sharper and more detailed 8x10 images that a 1.3 MP camera. BUT the 8 MP camera produces much bigger images, so fewer images fit on the memory card!

7. Now we’re going to set up a practice photo shoot…and get a little familiar with DSLR cameras: • Cloth and a chair placed on top of table • Some of the decorative glass bottles • Human hands…may hold small objects like pencils, etc We going to take turns in our group composing and taking images of the reflective bottles…and contrast that with our non-reflective hands. Just looking for composition and learning a little about our cameras.