Digital Cameras

Storage, Pixels and Resolution

When you take a photo with a digital camera, the image is stored inside the camera on removable or fixed storage. Removable storage would be a floppy disk, CD, or memory stick. When the storage device is full, you can replace it and continue taking photos. Fixed storage is basically the hard drive of the camera. If your camera uses fixed storage, you are restricted as to how many photos you can take before uploading them to your pc. Of course, if your fixed storage is full and you need that one last photo, you can review what you have taken and erase the images you don’t really want. Either way, a digital camera can be a lot of fun to use.

Digital photos consist of thousands of tiny squares called pixels. The quality of the image depends on the number of pixels used to create it or the resolution. The more pixels there are, the sharper the image will be. If you enlarge the image enough with a scanner or printer, the pixels will become visible. Low-end cameras typically have resolutions around 640x480 and high-end mega pixel cameras can have up to 6 million pixels. Keep in mind, the more pixels the larger the file size.

Photo Editing

There is an abundance of photo editing software available. You will have to decide what features you need and how much you want to spend. Editing allows you to enhance your photos in many ways. You can crop, rotate, flip, touch up and sharpen images. You can insert text and clip art, draw and add effects.

Printing, E-mailing and Photo Albums

Photo quality printers are very affordable and most do a good job. When researching printer options, be sure to check the price of replacement ink cartridges before making your purchase. They can be quite costly. Photo quality paper will also enhance your prints.

Wherever you are, sharing photos with family and friends is fun and digital photography makes it even easier. First, you should decide if you want your photo available for print or screen display. If you want it for screen display only, you should reduce the size of the file. Look for the Resize or Image size in your photo-editing software. A 4x6 photo size is average.  Keep the file size below 50KB for screen display. Printed photos can go as high as 300KB when saved as a JPEG.

You can store your photos electronically. Options include software, disk storage, and websites that offer online storage.