Digital Zoom Versus Optical Zoom

Digital Zoom Versus Optical Zoom. Many digital cameras offer both digital and optical zoom.  These two often confuse the average camera buyer, until you know what you’re looking at.

Optical zoom works much like the zoom lens on a 35 mm film camera. It changes the length of your camera’s lens and draws the subject closer to you.  The optical zoom keeps the quality of the picture. Digital zoom works differently. It simply takes the picture and crops it then enlarges the part that is left.  It causes the quality of the photo to be reduced, sometimes greatly.

What this means in terms of output is you may have a larger view of an object with the digital zoom, but chances are your image will become unfocused.  Details will become lost.  It is actually best to turn off the digital zoom feature of your camera if possible.  This will prevent you automatically zooming in too close as the digital zoom is often an extension of the optical.

There are a couple of things you can do if you want a closer view of a subject but want the quality of your picture to still be good.  Try moving in closer when you take the picture.  Often only a foot or two will do the trick.  If this isn’t possible, you can set your camera to take a picture at its highest file size.  This will result in a photo that can be cropped to include only your desired subject, yet allow for an image that is still clear.

Digital zoom has its place.  It can be used if the only destiny of your photo is the internet.  Photos online can be a much lower quality in the camera and still appear acceptable when sent through e-mail or posted on a web gallery.  If your goal is printing, however, seek a camera that has a greater optical zoom and turn off the digital zoom.  Your pictures will be better in the end, even if they are not as close up.

How to Save Photos From Your Digital Camera

How to Save Photos From Your Digital Camera. Once you’ve taken photos with your digital camera, you need to store them somewhere.  You could always leave them on the memory card, but that would get rather expensive, so let’s explore a few other options.

1. Transfer your images onto your computer.  Most cameras come with a wire to connect your camera to your computer, a CD with a downloading program and an instruction booklet.  Transferring the images is fast and simple.  Once they are on the computer, you can delete the images from your memory card and start taking more photos.
2. Burn your images onto a CD. If you have a CD burner on your computer, you can make photo discs to store or share with others.  When it comes to pictures, it is often best to use a CD that can’t be written over.  This will save the heartache of losing precious photos.  Label the CD and store it where it can be gotten easily when you need to see your pictures.\
3. Store your images on a public web site.  There are many photo-hosting sites on the internet.  Some charge for the service, but many are completely free.  You have the choice to password-protect your images or share them with the world.  This option helps if your computer should crash.  Your pictures are safe.
4. Print your images and place them in a photo album.  Many people still like turning the pages of a photo album and reviewing the memories.  This also makes it possible for those without a computer to view your pictures.
5. Create a photo gift.  There are places out there that will take your digital image and place in on shirts, mouse pads, cups, calendars and numerous other items.  These make wonderful gifts and provide a way to keep a cherished picture near at all times.

These are just a few suggestions.  Using your creativity, you will come up with many more ideas.

What Is the White Balance Setting on my Digital Camera?

What Is the White Balance Setting on my Digital Camera? Have you ever taken a picture of a beautiful winter scene and been disappointed to discover the crisp, white snow came out with a bluish tint?  This is the kind of situation your digital camera’s white balance is meant to prevent.

The white balance is a sensor that analyzes the lighting conditions and colors of a scene and adjusts so the white in the picture appears white.  This helps insure the other colors appear as natural as possible. This is one advantage digital photography has over tradition film.  With film, you buy with a certain lighting condition in mind.  If that changes, you need to either change your film or hope you can fix any errors in post-production.

Most digital cameras allow you to use either automatic white balance or choose between several preset conditions such as full sun, cloudy day and so forth.  Automatic white balance will work in most conditions.  There may be times, however when you want to “warm” up a picture to enhance the color, such as for portraits or sunsets.  The best way to do this is  set your camera’s white balance to “cloudy”.  This will deepen the colors and add a glowing quality to portraits.  It will take a beautiful sunset and enhance it to the point of incredible. 

Practice taking the same photo with different white balance settings to get a feel for the changes each setting evokes. Keep notes until you have a good idea of what each setting does.  In time, you will come to automatically sense which setting is best for your particular situation. 

White balance is a small setting that can make big changes in your finished photos.  Make it your friend and you will no longer have to worry about faded sunsets or blue snow. 

Take Better Pictures With Your Digital Camera

Take Better Pictures With Your Digital Camera. Today’s cameras make taking pictures a lot easier than the one’s of yesterday.  There is always room for improvement, however.  Use the following tips to help make your photos go from acceptable to great.

1. Always be aware of the background. You don’t want to find trees growing out of people’s heads or a passing vehicle to draw attention from your subject.  Sometimes moving your subject just a couple steps to either side can make all the difference.

2. Use available light. If your digital camera has an option to turn the flash off and it’s light enough outside to read a book then use the available light and turn the flash off. In general camera flashes are too harsh for human skin and make all of us look pale.  Indoors, where there isn’t enough daylight, place your subject by a window and use your fill flash feature.

3.  Aim your camera slightly down at the person’s face.  Also don’t shoot just face on to the person, try a little to the side, a three quarter view, so that you see more of their face. Remember camera higher looking down and a three quarter view, it will slim your subject.

4.   Remember your focus.  Get closer to your subject. Fill the frame with your subject and there will be no doubt as to what the picture is saying.

5. Never put your subject dead center.  Put your just slightly off center; not a lot just a little. When you’re shooting  groups of people, find the imaginary center line of your group and put that line just a bit off center in your view through your lens or screen.

Following these tips won’t turn you into an award-winning photographer today, but you will be on your way to better, more powerful photographs that others will comment on for years to come.

Why Digital Photography?

Digital photography is quickly becoming the preferred way to take pictures.   If you are in the market for a new camera, consider the following advantages of digital over traditional film photography.

In the long run, digital is less expensive.  All photos are recorder are on memory device within the camera and then downloaded straight to your computer.  You skip the need to keep buying rolls of film and paying for developing. You can send unlimited copies of the same picture to friends and relatives without spending a penny extra.

You see your pictures quicker.  Most digital cameras allow you to view your photos immediately.  There is no waiting and worrying about whether or not that “perfect shot” turned out.  You can take a picture of that new baby and immediately download it to your computer to share your good good news with friends and relatives. There’s no need for anxious grandparents to wait days or even weeks for a picture.

Most digital cameras have built in editing features.   Cropping and re-centering the picture to make it look its best can be done easily.  You no longer have to worry about a stray hand distracting from the main subject of your photo.  Sharpening can be done immediately to bring out the details.  Within minutes you can have a print-perfect photo.

You avoid the frustration of running out of film and having to find a store that is open in the middle of an important event or on vacation.  Depending on the size of your memory card and the setting of file size and quality, which you often control, you can store a couple hundred pictures on one tiny card.  That is the equivalent of nine or ten rolls of film. 

These are just a few of the advantages of digital photography.  It is definitely worth considering as you search for your next new camera.

Your Digital Camera Owner’s Manual

All cameras come with an owners manual, but so few people take the time to read it.  Once they get past the basic operations, they get anxious to go out and try the camera.  Maybe all the new terms are confusing or there seems like too much information to digest.  This is understandable, but by not reading the entire manual, you limit yourself and many cool features of your camera are never used.  Hopefully you will find the following suggestions helpful in getting the most from your digital camera.

After your first overview of the features your camera possesses, decide what you would like to explore the most.  Pick only one special feature.  Read the instructions on what this feature can do and how to use it.  Don’t worry if it isn’t completely clear, that will come in time.

Now the fun part.  Take your camera and start using this special feature.  Try all the different settings within this one feature.  See how your pictures change.  Explore what this feature does.  Don’t stop until you know this feature inside and out  and don’t go onto the next feature until you have fully explored this one.

When you are satisfied you know the ins and outs of one special feature, return to the owner’s manual and pick another special feature you would like to learn.  Repeat the above process with this feature, only returning to the manual when you are satisfied you have mastered the new skill. 

By working through the owner’s manual in this way, you will find it isn’t so overwhelming.  The hands-on practice of each skill will help you learn it thoroughly.  When you have covered all the cool things your camera will do, go out and enjoy them all.  You will be glad you took the time to become friends with this wonderful creation.

Digital Camera Terms To Know

It helps when learning to use your new digital camera to also know what some of the more common terms mean.  Below you will find many of these common terms defined.


Automatic Mode — A setting that sets the focus, exposure and white-balance automatically.

Burst Mode or Continuous Capture Mode — a series of pictures taken one after another at quickly timed intervals with one press of the shutter button.

Compression — The process of compacting digital data, images and text by deleting selected information.

Digital Zoom — Cropping and magnifying the center part of an image.

JPEG — The predominant format used for image compression in digital cameras.

Lag Time — The pause between the time the shutter button is pressed and when the camera actually captures the image.

LCD — (Liquid-Crystal Display) is a small screen on a digital camera for viewing images.

Lens — A circular and transparent glass or plastic piece that has the function of collecting light and focusing it on the sensor to capture the image.

Megabyte — (MB) Measures 1024 Kilobytes, and refers to the amount of information in a file, or how much information can be contained on a Memory Card, Hard Drive or Disk. Pixels — Tiny units of color that make up digital pictures. Pixels also measure digital resolution. One million pixels adds up to one mega-pixel.

RGB — Refers to Red, Green, Blue colors used on computers to create all other colors. Resolution — Camera resolution describes the number of pixels used to create the image, which determines the amount of detail a camera can capture. The more pixels a camera has, the more detail it can register and the larger the picture can be printed.

Storage Card — The removable storage device which holds images taken with the camera, comparable to film, but much smaller. Also called a digital camera memory card.

Viewfinder — The optical "window" to look through to compose the scene.

White Balance — White balancing adjusts the camera to compensate for the type of light (daylight, fluorescent, incandescent, etc.,) or lighting conditions in the scene so it will look normal to the human eye.