Five Ways to Make Money Using Your Digital Camera

Five Ways to Make Money Using Your Digital Camera. Have you ever wanted to find a way to bring extra money into your household--yet don’t have a lot of time to spend on a full-time endeavor?  The solution is as close as the digital camera sitting there in a drawer. The following suggestions are only a few of the many ways you can make money in your spare time with your camera.

1. Pet photos -  Most owners won't struggle to take a photograph with their pet all by themselves. You can be the one who makes it easy on them. Not only can you charge for the service and your time, but you can offer the photograph in it's digital form or as a print that you can mail to them later - either created by your own photo printer or by a photo processing service.
2. Graduations - preschool, high school, or college graduations offer dozens, if not hundreds of opportunities to capture a significant moment in someone's life. If the family members of the graduate aren't located in as good a location or don't have as good a camera as yourself - you'll have even greater opportunity at getting the shots they couldn't.
3. Holiday Family Postcards - offer your services to families that want their picture taken and put on a postcard that they can send to their extended family and friends.
4. Photo Novelty Items - take photographs of people that want the pictures of themselves of their loved ones imprinted on coffee mugs, mouse pads, key chains, tee-shirts, and other items.
5. Newborn photo service - parents of newborns are some of the busiest people in the world. Advertise your services on an on-call basis so that you can take informal snapshots for the growing family either before they leave the hospital, or after they get home. This way both parents and the child can be in more of the pictures all together, and the parents have one less thing to try and figure out

Digital Camera Memory Cards

Digital Camera Memory Cards. Does it really make a difference what size memory card you use?  To your camera, no; to you, however, it could mean the difference between getting the picture you want or running out of space on your memory card.

When choosing the most logical size, take into account how many pictures you usually take at a time.  Your needs if you are a world traveler will be different from those of a person who only uses a camera for holiday get-togethers.  You also need to decide how big the files are of the pictures you take.  Smaller files such as pictures for online will take less space and enable you to fit more on a card.  Larger files for printing will need more room.

 If you have a 2 mega-pixel camera, 128MB is usually enough. For a 3 or 4-megapixel
camera, a 128MB or 256MB memory card is usually plenty. For a 5-megapixel camera, start with a 256MB memory card.

Here's a rough guideline of how many pictures a flash memory card can hold:

1. A 128MB flash memory card can store about 21-41 large, uncompressed images or up to 100 small, compressed images.  This is good enough for most photographic needs.
2. A 256MB card will store about twice that, 42-82 large pictures and nearly 200 smaller ones.  Important events like weddings and once in a lifetime events might warrant this size just to make sure you don’t miss that one special moment.
3. A 1GB card has room for nearly 4 times as much as a 256MB card, If you are planning a long vacation with a lot of picture taking, this might be best with the capacity to hold 168-328 large images and a total of close to 800 smaller images.

Whatever you decide, remember you can always use several smaller cards and just change them when they are full.  It only takes a few seconds to switch memory cards, so don’t panic if you don’t have a large memory card.

Red Eye and Your Digital Camera

Red Eye and Your Digital Camera. You’ve seen the dreaded demon-eye effect that occurs when the camera flash bounces off the eye of a person or pet.  An otherwise wonderful picture can be ruined by this.  Technically, this is called red-eye and is caused when the pupil of your subject’s eye is wide open and the light from the camera’s flash reflects off the subjects retina.  In people, the color ends up red; in pets, the color is often green. 

Many photo editing programs include a red-eye correction filter, but this may not allow your photograph subject to appear “normal.  These filters also do not work on the green effect produced in a pet’s eyes.  Photo stores sell pens that are used to clear up red-eye, but again they are not always natural-looking and do not work on the green.  The best thing is to prevent the demon-eye effect from the start.

It is rare to find a digital camera that does not come with a red-eye reduction feature.  This feature can be turned off or on.  It is best left on in all circumstances other than direct sunlight.  The red-eye reduction feature works by flashing a short burst of light at your subject before you snap the picture.  This burst of light causes the subject’s pupil to close and makes it less likely for the camera’s flash to reflect off the retina. This in turn reduces the chance of red-eye.

It also helps to direct the flash of your camera so it does not directly hit your subject’s eyes.  Bouncing the flash off a nearby wall or other object will soften its effect and reduce the chances of this unwanted malady.  Between bouncing the flash and using your digital camera’s red-eye reduction feature, your little angel, whether human or animal, will have eyes that don’t glow.

Making Your Digital Camera Battery Last Longer

Making Your Digital Camera Battery Last Longer. With all the features digital cameras have these days, you may find keeping batteries a problem.  This could well be your biggest expense, but there are some things you can do to increase the length of time your batteries stay charged.  Let’s start with the three biggest sources of power drain.

The LCD screen takes up the most power.  It is possible to turn this feature off unless you really feel the need for it.  Using the camera’s viewfinder will conserve power.  Another big power drain is the flash.  Whenever you can, use natural lighting to take your photos and turn off the flash.  This will help save your battery for times when you absolutely need the flash.  A third drain on your battery is constantly using your zoom.  It takes more power zooming in and out than it does keeping your zoom at a steady place.  Try to find a setting you like and sticking with it as much as possible. Some other things you can do to make your battery last longer are::

1. Make sure Power Saving mode is on, or simply switch off your camera when you're not using it.
2. In cold weather, keep your camera and batteries warm in your jacket until you are ready to use them. The cold drains batteries very quickly.
3. Store batteries in a cool, dry location away from sunlight and other heat sources.
4. Avoid unnecessary playback of your already taken images.  Try to decide when you take the picture if it is a “keeper” or needs deleted and then refrain from reviewing until the pictures are downloaded to your computer.
5. Use the AC adapter. Most digital cameras have an adapter that allows you to plug directly into a power point.  If you don’t plan on moving around a lot and are near an outlet, the AC adapter will increase the life of your batteries.

Needing to buy more or recharge your battery is something you won’t be able to avoid completely, but with a few precautions this won’t be needed as often.

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.