Getting the Most From Your Digital Camera

With a digital camera, you can also take as many pictures as you want without worrying about wasting film. You can look at pictures right away and decide whether to keep them or delete them. And, you can print only the images you want -- you don't have to process whole rolls of film and then figure out where to store all the pictures.

But digital cameras also have a few disadvantages. A film camera can take a picture almost immediately when you press the button. Digital cameras, on the other hand, can take a few seconds, especially if they're making adjustments automatically. They also require more light than traditional cameras do. Sometimes, the abundant space on a memory card encourages people to take so many pictures that they're not sure what to do with them later.

By keeping a few tips in mind, it's easy to overcome the disadvantages and get a lot out of your digital camera. The first step is to know the basics of how camera works. A digital camera is a lot like a film camera, but it uses a sensor and a memory card in place of film. When you take a picture, a digital shutter opens and exposes the sensor to light. The sensor reacts to the light, and the memory card stores the resulting picture.

The light that hits the sensor determines virtually everything about the picture. Your camera may be able make some adjustments, but it has to work with the amount and type of light that it receives. You can control how the light hits the sensor with three settings:

• The focus adjusts the lens in relation to the sensor, making sure that the light converges on the sensor's surface. Most digital cameras have an automatic focus feature, but a few focus manually and have interchangeable lenses.
• The aperture, measured in f-stops, determines how wide the shutter opens. A wide opening lets in more light, and a narrow opening lets in less. Higher f-stops mean that the opening is smaller, and lower f-stops mean that it is larger. The aperture determines the picture's depth of field, or how much of the picture is in focus. At low f-stops, the foreground of the picture will be in focus while the background is out of focus. At high f-stops, objects in both the foreground and background are in focus.
• The shutter speed determines how long the shutter is open. The longer it's open, the more light will hit the sensor. If you or your subject is moving while the shutter is open, the image will be blurred.

Once you have a feel for the settings, there are a few other steps you can take to make get more from your camera:

• Hold the camera steady. Since digital cameras require more light than film cameras, the shutter is often open longer. This can cause your pictures to blur. Using a tripod or monopod can help you keep your camera still.
• Lock the focus. On most auto focus digital cameras, pressing the button halfway will focus the camera. You can hold the button in this position until you're ready to take the picture. This can further reduce the time between when you press the button and when the shutter opens. It can also let you keep the camera in focus while re-framing the picture.
• Use optical -- not digital -- zoom. An optical zoom physically changes how far the lens is from the sensor. Digital zoom, on the other hand, simply forces the camera to create the picture from one portion of the sensor rather than the whole thing. You can do the work of a digital zoom yourself using image editing software, and you can often do it better than your camera can.
• Preserve the battery. It's tempting to use the LCD screen as a viewfinder. Sometimes, it's the only good way to see what you're taking a picture of. But the LCD screen uses lots of battery power. If possible, set your camera to preview pictures on the screen after you take them but to keep it turned off the rest of the time.
• Delete unwanted pictures right away. Unless you're quickly taking several pictures of the same scene, look at your picture as soon as you take it. You'll know right away if you need to take another. If you do, go ahead and delete the one you don't like. If you wait to review all your pictures and delete unwanted ones, your camera will probably insert new pictures into the spaces the deleted ones left. This can make it harder to sort and organize your pictures later.
• Maximize your storage space. Most cameras come with a very small memory card. Upgrade it to something larger, and keep the old one as an emergency backup. You can fit more pictures onto your card by lowering the resolution or increasing the compression that the camera uses. Even if your camera has a high megapixel rating, you can manually set it to take slightly lower-quality pictures. You should still be able to make average-sized prints with little to no loss of quality.