Zooming in on digital photography
Rick Giase settled the nerves of people new to digital photography when he provided tips about shooting photos with a digital camera, as well as purchasing tips. The Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer showed excellent photos he took with a digital Olympus "point and shoot" camera.
His recommendations for selecting a digital camera:
- Older camera models will cost less and have most of the features as the newer cameras.
- Decide what features you feel that you need.
- Buy more than one memory card. A card can, and will, fill up or fail when you least expect it. He recommends a 256 megabyte (MB) card for a 3 megapixel camera, 512 MBs for 4 megapixel models, 1 gigabyte 6 megapixel models. If you have enough memory you can shoot at high resolutions.
- A 2-3 megapixel unit works for small prints, and e-mailing photos to family. Choose 4-7 megapixels for 8 x 10 or larger quality prints or for magazine publication-quality photos.
- Sports photographers need a digital single-lens reflex camera with interchangeable lenses and the ability to make fast, consecutive shots.
Giase described four battery types:
- Proprietary brands, manufactured exclusively for one camera type, can be a nightmare to replace while you are on the road.
- Nickel-cadmium (NiCad) batteries need frequent and lengthy recharging. If completely exhausted, they can be fully recharged about 1,000 times.
- Nickel-Metal Hydride (NiMH) can store up to 50 percent more power than NiCad and are free of heavy metals.
- Lithium-ion batteries are expensive but contain no poisonous metals.
Other great tips:
- Mimic a polarizing filter by shooting through a pair of quality sunglasses, placed as close to the camera lens as possible. Polarizing effect is strongest when the sun is over your shoulder.
- Learn to control your flash. You don't have to do everything on the "automatic" setting. Fill flash modes can produce a great portrait.
- Read the instruction book!
— Glennis McNeal, Oregon Press Women
NOTE: If you didn't get a copy of Rick Giase's handout and would like one, contact Judi Buehrer at jlbuehrer@earthlink.net