Digital Photography 101- How To Get Started

Digital photography, though pretty much the industry standard at this point, is still a young technology.  Many of the biggest digital advancements happened over the last 10 years, so it’s never too late to learn how to use a digital camera.

And the best part?  Learning to take digital pictures is a lot easier than you may think!

The Camera
When digital cameras first came out they were far outside most people’s price range, but now they are affordable for almost everyone.  Now you can get a good point and shoot camera for less than $200 or for more features you can get a nice digital SLR for under $1000.

Which camera you choose is up to you, but try to keep in mind what you’re using it for.  Speaking from personal experience, the high image quality of an SLR doesn’t do much for you if you just want to take pictures of your friends – it’s too much to carry and deal with.  Give some thought to what you want to use your camera for so you’ll choose a camera that is suitable for your needs.

Software to Manage and Edit Your Images
Many digital cameras include some type of software for uploading images and managing your files.  Some of these are better than others and if you have a Mac you’re ahead of the pack with iPhoto, but for the most part you don’t need to worry much about uploading – as long as your computer can see your camera or the card reader you can bring the files in however you want.

As for editing software, there is a wide variety of options out there for every price range imaginable.  Paint.net is a fairly powerful and completely free image editor that features layer editing and quite a bit of other things that the big bits of software do, or if you’re going the professional route you can’t beat Adobe Photoshop.  Just be aware that Photoshop is a pro tool at a pro price, and you probably won’t need all of its features right when you begin.

The Output
Finally, once you’ve uploaded and edited your images, you’ll probably want to share your photos with friends and family.  There are countless ways to do this, but the most popular is definitely online photo sharing through sites like Flickr or Facebook.  Sharing your photos online allows the people you care about to see them any time they want without having to print hundreds of copies and mail them all over the place.

If you want to print or share your photos, you can print them on photo paper at home, use a photo sharing website, have them printed at a local photo shop or you can use an online service like Snapflish.  Or, you can write a blog and share your photos on your website for everyone to see. And, once you’ve shared your photos online, you can then put your photos in picture frames and beautifully decorate your home or office.

Digital photography is easy to learn but can require a lot more time and skill to master.  With digital ,anyone can pick up a camera, start shooting and upload and share their photos with very little knowledge. Then once you have the basics, you can choose to make it as complicated as you want.  If you’re new to digital photography, then you may be better off getting an inexpensive point and shoot camera and seeing how it works for you. This way, you’ll get comfortable taking digital pictures and may even find yourself spending more time sending pictures to the people you care about!