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DIGITAL DAKINI

Beginner's Guide to Digital Photography for Lovers
by Iona  Miller, ©2002

Digital Dakini teaches you the rudiments of digital photography for lovers.  Included are an introduction to digital imaging, how to set up photoshoots, lighting, ideas for costumes and background vignettes, how to create an atmosphere, use the camera, upload and manipulate your photos, how to print, etc.

Introduction

Nowadays, everyone is jumping into the digital revolution, which allows us all to take any photos we want economically, and simply delete those we don't like as we go along.  But how to start?  Until a few years ago imaging was all analog.  Pictures were "recorded" on film and their manipulation took place only in a darkroom, generally by experts.  This was a remote-controlled, messy, wasteful, expensive, environmentally unfriendly way of capturing and reproducing images.  Even professionals threw away 9/10ths of their shots.

Digital imaging has increased the freedom of home photography substantially.  It is affordable, and you don't need to grind through a zillion roles of film to refine your technique.  You can learn by and eliminate your mistakes as you go, right on the spot, without "paying" for them.  In the case of "boudoir" shots, you can take photos it might be difficult to get developed conventionally, without strangers seeing them.

Digital imaging is the digital recording of images, whether by a digital camera or a scanner.  Once recorded, these digital images (made of 0's and 1's) can be transferred (downloaded) to your computer where they can be edited, manipulated, e-mailed, printed, or incorporated into almost any kind of document.  With a laptop, you can send new photos home or elsewhere while you are travelling.

In order to get images into your computer, they must be digitized.  There are basically two ways of digitizing them.  Digital cameras digitize images as they are shot.  Scanners digitize existing negatives, transparencies and prints.  Once the images are digitized--whether they were shot with a digital camera or shot on film and scanned--you can transfer them to your computer.  There are many ways to do this.

The second part of digital imaging is the optimizing of images.  Even a fairly banal or mediocre shot can become eye-popping with the right augmentation or treatment.  Bear this in mind while you are shooting.  Since you see the results of anything you do as you do it, if you don't like something you just hit "delete" or "undo" and do it again.

You can e-mail your pictures, or post them on a web page, put them on flyers, turn them into calendars or greeting cards, put them on T-shirts and coffee mugs, print them, or even have them output back onto film.  In the long run digital is cheaper, alot cheaper.  Much less money is spent on paper and ink for printing than on film, chemicals, darkroom facilities, etc.

Digital Camera vs. 35mm Camera and Scanner

So now we know we need either a digital camera or scanner, so which one?  You might have thousands of dollars invested in a top 35mm system.  If you scan your 24x36mm full-frame 35mm image (negative or slide) with a 2700-dpi (dots per inch) scanner film scanner (under $500 today) you get a 9.4 megapixel scan (2496 x 3776).  Do it with a 4000-dpi scanner ($1000-1500) and you get a 21 MB file (3762 x 5646).

So you can continue to shoot with your familiar and versatile 35 mm SLR camera--which very likely has more features and better performance than most digital cameras.  You also have a good negative or slide as well as a high resolution digital image.  But resolution is only one part of the story.  Digital cameras give you a myriad of benefits that simply cannot be achieved with a 35mm camera.  So, if you don't have alot invested yet in analog-for you there is no question.

Unlike 35mm cameras, digital cameras are getting better and cheaper all the time.  Taking photos is free.  You basically buy your memory storage once (memory card) and can keep reusing it after you have downloaded your photos to your computer.  You have instant gratification because you see the photos you have taken with the LCD monitor on you digital camera.  Instant feedback shows you how your shot looks; if you don't like it shoot again.  Or shoot a bunch, because you can keep only the ones you like and delete the rest.  Making copies is as easy as three clicks of your mouse.  You can instantly e-mail or upload them.

Digitals hold far more images than the traditional 24 or 36 images.  You take take as many photos as you like before downloading, limited only by the size of your memory card.  High resolution pictures take more memory and the file type it is saved to affects it.  The average digital can take around 180 photos at high quality 5x 7" size with a 132MB memory card.

 

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File Created: 2/2/02    Last Updated: 3/16/02
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