Playing With Digital Prints

Digital photography has stepped miles and miles away from where it was, only a mere four or five years ago. It is light years ahead of where many ever saw it going. And while I am convinced that film is never going to go out, I recognize the changes that warrant digital to never leave either. So with all of the upgrades and advances in our digital technology, what things can you do with digital that was more difficult with film? First, film prints had to be scanned into the computer and then sent wherever you wanted them. Digital photos … Continue reading →

Digital Photography 101: Printing Footnotes

In the last couple of days our continuing series on digital photography has focused on the art of printing. We’ve learned that taking memorable shots is only half the joy (or challenge, depending on how you look at it) of digital photography. The technology gives you the gift of instant gratification (getting to view your shots instantaneously), but ironically many digital photographers allow their images to sit in their cameras for months (if not longer) before take the initiative to print them. To that end I find it imperative to discuss a few other benefits of having a photo printer … Continue reading →

Digital Photography 101: More Printing Options

Did you know amateur photographers will shoot roughly 23 billion digital pictures this year? Yet, less than half of those images will be printed. If you are guilty of letting your pictures sit in your digital camera for months without printing you obviously are not alone. However, with all of the printing options available to digital photographers getting your shots from your camera to your album has never been so easy. In my last blog I reviewed ways you could print your pictures from the comfort of your own home. If you don’t feel like printing your own pictures, or … Continue reading →

Digital Photography 101: Printing Your Pictures

Continuing in our series about digital photography… Okay, so you’ve snapped your photos, now it’s time to print them. You have a few options for printing your images. You can do so from the comfort of your home, have it done at a retail store, or use an online printing service. In this blog we will discuss printing your pictures from your home. Printing digital pictures at home is easy thanks to advancements in technology. These days you don’t need a fancy computer to get prints that are as good as the ones you get at the store. Many digital … Continue reading →

Learning More about Megapixels

Along with new cameras and features, digital photography brings a world of new lingo that we now must learn to be able to work effectively with digital photographs. Everything seems to be measured in megapixels, but what exactly is a megapixel? Let’s explore the world of megapixels while we try to gain an understanding. Although I somewhat understand myself what it is and how it works, in order to delve deeper into the subject, I contacted my good friend Keith Randall with Ritz Camera for some more information. Basically he helped me understand and reword the knowledge I already have, … Continue reading →

The Great Megapixel Debate

Lately in the digital photography world, there has been a lot of discussion, rumors and theories that are being changed, edited and tested to the extreme. The biggest debate at the moment seems to be that of the megapixel and how it effects the results of your photographic image. In theory, the greater amount of megapixels the camera takes, the better the results. However, many photographers are putting that theory to the test, and dispelling a major myth. In The Megapixel Myth, photographer Ken Rockwell tested several different camera’s with differing megapixels, claiming that he has gotten the same results … Continue reading →

What To Do With All Those (Digital) Vacation Photos

Just because I prefer to shoot on film doesn’t mean I don’t occasionally take digital pictures. For all of you readers who have digital cameras and have been feeling left out of my previous blogs—this one is for you. With summer rapidly coming to an end you are probably wondering what to do with all those great vacation shots you have stored on your digital camera. (Now’s a good time to go through all those shots and decide which ones to keep and which ones to delete before you start snapping those back-to-school shots.) The following are different ways (they … Continue reading →

More Online Photo Services

I did a search for “online photo printing services, and found some more services that I would like to let you know about. These are not services that I have used, but you can check them out for yourself and decide if they are worth pursuing. The first one that I found was winkflash. They advertised 4 x 6 prints for 8 cents each ( on your first order, up to 75 prints), and 99 cent flat-rate shipping. They offer free software, free photo storage, photo sharing, postcards, and greeting cards, notecards, and a whole bunch of other cool stuff. … Continue reading →

Photo Print Test

As promised from a previous post, here is the information about online photo services compared. The people from Smart Computing magazine did a test of four online photo services. The services that they compared were KodakGallery, Shutterfly, Snapfish and Mpix. First, they uploaded test photos to each site, to see how the color quality would vary, from site to site. They used images of a bouquet of flowers, a pet portrait, a regular portrait and other images with a wide range of sharpness and colors. They also sent some photos that were deliberately underexposed or that had unusual color casts, … Continue reading →

Choosing a Photo Printer

Chuck talked about cameras and how to buy a camera, in previous posts. I’d like to talk about printers, and in particular, printers that are good in rendering photos. There are different types of printers, such as Inkjet, Dye Sublimation, and Desktop Photo Labs. For our purposes, let’s discuss inkjet printers. Inkjet printers have come a long way since they were first introduced. Not only has the quality gotten better, but prices have decreased. Last year, dye sublimation snapshot printers were all the rage. Now, the emphasis is on archival quality prints. How do you go about choosing a printer … Continue reading →