The Camera

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Modes: There are several modes available: portrait, landscape, running and auto. The portrait mode is for still photographs taken less than twenty feet away. xi mode is for taking pictures of far away scenery such as mountains, beaches, etc. Running mode is for action shots, and auto mode allows the camera to choose which mode to use when a picture is taken.

Memory Cards: Memory cards store the actual data files of your photos. The bigger the memory card the more photos you can take.
The faster the memory card, the faster you can take pictures.

Taking Pictures

1. Hold the camera steady
2. Use natural sunlight whenever possible
3. Put the sun behind you
4. Get close…almost too close
5. Use proportion
6. Use the horizon as a guide
7. Vertical pictures suit some subjects better and are much easier to add in Power Point presentations.
8. Use natural light (no flash) whenever possible. If you are not sure which is better, take one with flash and one with out and then decide later.
9. Other tips from Kodak on taking great pictures

Rule of Thirds:

Place the important elements of your photograph at the intersections of vertical and horizontal lines drawn dividing the image into thirds as shown:

Up Close and Personal

Taking a picture at close range tends to invoke stronger emotional response than one taken from further away:

Macro Feature

The macro button (small flower) allows you to take picutres at extremely close ranges. This is excellent to use for flora or any element which you would like to see fine grained detail.

Action Shots

Take lots of pictures. With digital technology you are no longer as limited with the number of pictures you take. If one doesn't turn out, just delete it!

Importing Pictures

Turn camera on and place in PLAYBACK mode once it is connected to the computer. See the schema below for connection of the camera to your computer.

Working with Pictures

Cropping: There is almost always room to crop but keep the original. Use the rule of thirds and don’t be afraid to get in close. Even the most basic picture editing programs have cropping features.

Pixel: Short for picture element (using the common abbreviation "pix" for "picture"), the pixel is one of the many tiny dots that make up the representation of a picture in a computer's memory.

MegaPixel: One million pixels.

The higher the resolution, the more pixels in an image and therefore the greater the image quality. An image file that is 1 megapixel (MP) can make a photo realistic print of 5 x 7 inches; a 2 MP file can make an 8 x 10-inch print; a 3 MP file can make an 11 x 14-inch print.

Resolution: The number of pixels per square inch on a computer-generated display. The larger the resolution, the better the picture.

A screen display can handle 72 pixels per inch (ppi) both vertically and horizontally at its maximum. For print work, a higher resolution number will give more detailed results. 300 pixels per inch usually yields a good printing resolution. However, with the higher resolutions, more memory space will be used for the image.

Printing: To find the largest photo quality image you can print, simply divide each dimension by pixels per inch (i.e. 300 or 72).
A 3.2 MP camera has a resolution of 2048 x 1536:
2048/300=6.83
1536/300=5.12

Resizing: There are several ways to resize your photos: by pixel, during export, or within a program. Size your pictures according to their purpose. For instance, the photos taken above were resized to approximately 25% of the original to fit nicely within this tutorial.

File Types

• GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Formatraster. The GIF format is often used on the World Wide Web to store graphics and is the type best used for cartoon-like images. GIF images are limited to 256 colors, which is the same number of colors most computer monitors can display.
• JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group. The JPEG format allows compression of memory, using less space and facilitating faster load time on a Web page. This is the type best used for photographs. JPEG images can have millions of colors and are often used for photographs and complex images.
• PNG stands for Portable Network Graphics. These images are a newer type of image specifically designed for use on the Web. PNG images can have millions of colors and will most likely replace GIF images as the primary Web based image.

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