Those basics all that are new to photography should know....
This section was developed for the first time digital camera owner. The person that bought his or hers first digital camera or PEN should take a few minutes to read this article. Digital photography has many surprises to newcomers and most likely you will learn that your new digital camera requires more than only additional memory cards. What is really necessary and what else should you buy, we will discuss in these short articles.
This section was developed for the first time digital camera photographer, the person that bought his or hers first digital camera. Digital photography has many surprises and most likely your new digital camera requires more than only an additional memory card.
That leaves folk with questions and challenges, many that are often never answered or solved.
Typical questions are:-
Is the supplied software any good?
Should I edit my images, or can I use my images "Out the Camera"?
Is it better to shoot RAW and what is the difference?
What is dynamic range?
What editing software is best for my purposes?
What is workflow?
I have prepared a few articles which I believe will guide and help those first times users to better understand digital photography and what is required to get the most out of it. Its also a good way of sitting back and to review your next purchase or book. For example often people think buying a more expensive SLR body will improve image quality. There are merits in buying a more expensive body but in most cases a higher grade lens will have a more profound impact on image quality. You are welcome to give me feedback on the "Getting Started Section" and I am happy to add improved information or new ideas to this section.
The image at the top is a great example of what the challenge is for so many people today. You bought your fist digital camera or you have recently upgraded to a better mirror-less type high end compact camera or a SLR and the images you get from the camera is not exciting. Often people refer to the so-called washed out look of digital images. The color is not good, the detail lack and the images just look flat. This is when many people turn to forums and this is where things can go wrong. The advice one get from forums is in most cases just not the correct or good advice. I believe that is why a service like our forum is so important. We have well experienced photographers happy to help people.
I hope that this site could eventually fill that gap and that hobby photographers will find the right information that will help them to improve their image taking skills and post processing skills. I decided not to host training videos or how-to articles on the site. I believe we have enough good sites doing that. On this site you will find articles, general information on post processing, editing software and references to interesting websites with information.
I do find that often one see something new or one learn a new technique and when its not used often, then that technique ends up in the memory " trash bin". I therefor decided to use the "Expert Tips" Blog to document these techniques. A good example is how to soften only the skin part of the human face. Its a great editing skill I learned and the result is a natural soft skin look. This and other such techniques I will for example add to the expert page.
The above image was taken with the Olympus E30 digital SLR camera. The image was taken in RAW format. I have put it through my typical post processing steps and as you can see the color, the image detail plus the general contrast of the image has been improved drastically.
I used Photoshop Elements 8 to prepare the image for this article.