Thursday Thirteen #14

13 Thoughts About Digital Photography 1. I was unprepared for how much I would enjoy messing with photos on my computer, using Photoshop Elements 4. It's like the old days, when I used to do B&W darkroom work. Lots of fun. The learning curve is steep, but after a few months, it's amazing how you can improve a photograph. 2. I think slides are still the pinnacle of photography. I have a Nikon D70s that is only a few months old, and I love it, love it, love it, but as I scan my old slides, there is a "look", a "density" to slide film and the rich colors that digital photos hasn't matched yet. Digital photos will probably catch up to film one day, but as of now, the difference is still real. 3. I love the immediate gratification of digital photography. I always hated waiting on film to be processed, and with slides, it typically took a week. 4. Automatic White Balance is awesome. (No, I'm not being racist.) Back in the day, you chose a film to match your needs. Taking pics indoors? Use indoor film that is formulated with a blue tint to offset the yellow light of incandescent light bulbs. Use the ubiquitous outdoor film indoors, and you get a yellow cast if you don't use a flash, which is blue tinted. That's why you see blue spots after looking into a flash going off. Modern digital cameras are amazingly adept at sensing what kind of light you are under, inside or outside, and adjust themselves accordingly. Lovely. Just lovely. 5. RAW is wonderful. (No, I'm not talking about rasslin', as in WWF RAW.) Almost all digital cameras take jpeg photos. This is a digital file that has been compressed, with some loss of color information. It's a trade off, smaller files, but if you make a bad exposure, there's not a whole lot you can do with a bad photo, even with Photoshop. RAW files are ginormous, but it is ALL of the digital information the sensor saw when you pushed the shutter release, and with your camera manufacturer's software, you can correct photos to a great extent AFTER you've taken the photo. With my Nikon, I can adjust a RAW file two or three stops up or down in exposure, or change the white balance afterwards. That is an absolute revolution. To change exposure after the photograph is taken? I couldn't have even dreamt of such a thing a few years ago. What this means is, in high contrast situations like I usually encounter here in Florida, extreme differences between the brightest parts and the darkest parts of an image, I can make amazing adjustments afterward. My camera has a setting that creates a RAW file and a jpeg file at the same time. If the exposure is good, the jpeg will do, but if the photo has problems, I can open the RAW file and usually adjust it to end up with a good photo. 6. Cost is good and bad. Digital is more expensive up front. The cameras cost more, but afterward, the photos are usually seen and manipulated on computer, which most people already had. So, if you can handle the up front expense of a decent camera, and you already have a computer, then digital cameras are the way to go. Prints are about 30 cents a piece at places like Wal-mart, if you want hard copies. Ink jet printers are amazing too, but if you print photos on yours, you'll go through ink like Sherman went through Georgia. 7. I was unprepared for how free I would be to "burn film" with a digital camera. Life is expensive, so for many years, I shot my slide film sparingly, because if I went nuts, it was a big chunk of change to have it all developed. With a 2 gigabyte card in my Nikon, I can take 318 RAW/jpegs or up to 1500 or so lower resolution jpegs, which is just crazy. In most situations I can just fire away, and know that all I have to do is download to a computer and then I can take hundreds more. I took photos recently at a couple's wedding and reception, and I took almost 200 photos. I could then throw out ones wherein people's eyes were closed, etc., and still have more photos of each situation. 8. I worry a little bit more about humidity and rainy weather than I did before. This isn't a big issue with me, I know that the electronics in digital single lens reflex cameras are usually sealed in a plastic-like coating, but unless you buy the professional level cameras costing mucho dinero, the controls and doors on the cameras generally aren't sealed against moisture very well. And with inside air conditioning almost year 'round in Florida, and humid warm or flat-out hot weather outside, it's really easy to get condensation in a camera. That's a death sentence for electronics. But my old, late 70's Canon AE-1 has served me through rain and such, though I protected it as best I could, without complaint. It's still a perfectly functional camera, and I hope that Nikon has at least built my camera to the standards that my trusy Canon was made to 25 years ago. 9. Dust on the digital sensor is really easy to accumulate. The more you change lenses, the more you get, too. Since the sensors are electrically charged, they attract dust. I'm as careful as I know how to be with my lens changing, and so far, a can of air spray has remedied my dust problems successfully. It is a new concern that is just part of doing business with a digital slr camera. 10. There's lots of inspiration with the proliferation of digital cameras. There are millions of amazing photographers on the internet. Just cruising some people's web sites inspires me to new heights, and if not new heights, at least to get out and shoot more. That's a good thing. 11. The Photoshop Elements 4 Book For Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby is absolutely one of the best photography purchases I have ever made. That is not an exaggeration. It is simple, step by step stuff on how to do the most common needed tasks with Elements. Elements is around $70 and this book is about $20-25, so for about $100 you can do absolutely amazing work with digital photos, directly digital OR scanned images. Elements is now at 5.0, but Mr. Kelby has a book for that too that will be out in two weeks, though I'm still using version 4. 12. Pro Digital Photographer's Handbook by Michael Freeman. This is an absolutely killer reference. There are differences between how film senses light and how digital camera sensors see light. This book explains all of that and immediately changed how I was using my new Nikon. I was taking photos as with film, and had to learn to reevaluate my exposure in most situations. You may or may not need this book, but if you have the curse of needing to know how things work internally, this is your book for doing that with digital cameras. If you just want to point and shoot and get good photos, you don't need this, modern cameras are amazingly good at correcting your mistakes. But if you want to know more or just how to get the most out of you camera, and ideas on how to handle many situations unique to digital photography, this is a plainly written, easy to understand, yet in-depth look at most aspects of digital photography. 13. The Photo Idea Index by Jim Krause. Ok. This one is a bit hard to explain, but if you just want to take photos, don't really care about technical details, but want to take great photos, this is the book for you. I bought this at Barnes and Noble, kind of on a whim, it looked spiffy-neato, and I have fallen in love with it. It is a small, full color, IDEA book on taking photographs. Stuff in the house, travel, makeshift tripods and lights? No problem. He covers so many ways to look at the world, that just flipping through this book from time will greatly improve your ability to "see" from new perspectives and give you lots of inspiration. This was a wonderful find. All the photos in the book were taken specifically for this book, with either an inexpensive point and shoot digital, or some were taken with a digital slr. This one book will give you great ideas and improve your photography. I would recommend this to any person interested in photography, especially beginners who often wonder how the mysterious "they" take such good photos. There are thousands of books on the technical stuff, but very few on "seeing." This one's a keeper. Note: I'm still hanging in there with National Novel Writing Month. I'm just barely above the needed pace, but that's better than slower, and it's better than quitting. It's been strangely easy so far, although I can tell you, my novel stinks like baby poo. I'll just say that Ernest Hemmingway was right about what he said about the first drafts of anything. It has some promising characters and I've surprised myself with a few of my descriptions, so it's most definitely a worthwhile endeavor. -- John The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!