Great Digital Photography Tips To Improve Your Florida PhotographyThis page is dedicated only to digital photography tips. Most photography tips apply equally to film and digital, but there are many distinctions between the two. The line has always seemed especially blurred to me because I have been scanning my color slides for years and doing all printing digitally. This turned out to be an excellent introduction to using a digital camera body, but missed a few key pieces of information. The digital photography tips on this page will make that transition easier for you to make.
Don’t Keep Shooting Like There Is Film In The Camera
Digital photography tip: get over film and learn what your digital camera offers that your film cameras didn't! Digital photography offers many advantages over shooting film, yet some photographers I know still shoot just like they were using film. They say their results are “good enough” and they are not really interested in taking advantage of what digital offers. Some of these photographers own equipment that puts my own to shame, yet they might as well be using an auto-everything point and shoot because they can’t be bothered to use the features on their cameras. I always like to maximize the use I get from all of my equipment and also maximize the quality of my photographs. When I first made the jump from film to digital photography my first thought was “this is easy, it is just like shooting chromes.” I had spent just enough time with the camera and instruction manual after unpacking them to change the camera defaults to highest quality/largest .jpeg recording, ISO 100, manual exposure and manual focus – my accustomed shooting settings for landscape, architecture, macro, etc… I remember being amazed at what a great job the camera did with the files(almost ready to use) compared to all the fiddly adjustments that always seemed to be needed when scanning my film slides. It all seemed so fast and easy – except when I couldn’t quite get the exposure or contrast right or the color balance was off or the light level was too low to stop a swaying flower. Those eight-bit .jpeg’s just did not have enough information to make some of the needed color/exposure corrections. Where was that control to switch to a higher ISO? Had I seen something in the manual about being able to set the white balance by degrees Kelvin? Weren’t there camera adjustments for contrast and saturation? Time once again to sit down with both the camera and the instruction manual. This time I learned what every one of the switches and dials on the camera body did. I learned how to find every control I was ever likely to use in the electronic menus. I actually did this in front of my computer with my word processor open and made a one-page cheat sheet as I went along. I also did more research at the library, in magazines and on-line and discovered the wonderful versatility offered by shooting in RAW file format. I read every digital photography tip I could find and made a point of trying each one at least several times to see if it suited my shooting style. Now I felt I was at the core of what the digital photography revolution was really all about. I finally got it in a way that is not possible without actually shooting digital for a while and getting to know it. Yes, there are still limitations and difficulties – it is still photography, after all. Compared to film, though, digital is so much more versatile and forgiving. Digital also lets me shoot many, many more frames without having to stop and even then it is much faster and easier to change flash cards than it ever was to reload with a fresh roll of film. I now own enough flash cards to easily shoot for two full days and they cost me less than three months worth of film and processing. I also think of all those manufacturing and processing chemicals that are not being used and all the time I am not spending cleaning and scanning and storing transparencies. So, here is my “top 10” list of a digital camera’s most important advantages over a film camera: 1. Ability to change ISO(film speed) from frame to frame, 2. Ability to adjust white(color) balance from frame to frame without external filters, 3. Ability to adjust contrast and color saturation from frame to frame without having to change rolls of film, 4. Ability to shoot RAW format files and gain major adjustability after the shot while maintaining image quality, 5. Ability to shoot hundreds of full-sized, RAW frames on a reusable flash card that is smaller and lighter than a single roll of film, 6. Ability to shoot a frame and then make a high quality, long lasting print, at home, within minutes, 7. Ability to easily convert any file to black and white, 8. Not having to buy film(especially when traveling) and then pay for(and wait for) processing, 9. Not worrying about film going through x-ray machines, 10. The space and weight advantage of flash cards over film. Do I miss film? Yes, I do, but the way I miss my 1961 Ranchero or my 1970 LTD – fond memories but I don’t want them back again. I think switching to digital cameras after long years of film shooting was a great advantage for me in the same way that switching to Photoshop from a wet darkroom was an advantage. I seem to have had many fewer problems than some younger photographers I talk to who have only worked in digital. I am glad I learned photography the way I did but I don’t want to go back. These are the good old days. Return from Digital Photography Tips to Florida Photography Tips
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