Explaining Exposure in Digital Photography

Exposure is the quantity of light collected by the matrix in your camera during a single shot.

If the photo is exposed too long the photograph will be too bright. If the photo is exposed too short the photograph will appear too dark. Almost all digital cameras today have light meters which measure the light in the given shot and set an the exposure automatically.

Most photographers depend on the light meters which is fine, but if you know how to control your exposure you can get more creative pictures.

Understanding Photographic Lens' Parameters

In today's digital cameras the lens is ranked next to the CCD matrix in importance. With the advancement of electronic technology the cost of CCD chips steadily decreases while that of quality optics does not change and now we can say that a good lens is the most expensive component in a digital camera.

It is possible that your digitalkamera is equipped with a good matrix 10 or 12 MP, but if the lens' resolution is insufficient, it wouldn't obtain the most out of this matrix. There are cheap 10 MP digicams, which provide much worse and unfit for printing image than some 5 MP cameras from the recent past with quality professional lenses.

What is important to know about the lens when you buy a camera?

Why Shoot in RAW

Many amateur photographers having digital SLR cameras or some of the more sophisticated compact models often ask the question why you need to shoot in RAW. In fact it is a widespread belief that using RAW-format only complicates your life. This - of course - is only half true.

If you own a DSLR, not by accident and before posting or printing your image you'd like to get the most out of what your camera and your computer software are able of, and exercise some creative thinking, then the right question is not whether to shoot in RAW, but exactly how to do it.

The Importance of Digicam Matrix Size

In digicams, the role of light-sensitive film is played by a special chip with CCD (Charge-Coupled Device) matrix that contains millions of tiny elements, transforming light into electrical signals. Subsequently, these signals are processed and converted into digital image of a certain size. It is stored in the memory of the camera as a separate file and later can be transferred and edited on a computer or printed and published in the Internet. The number of sensitive elements constituting the CCD determines the image resolution and is therefore of paramount importance to its quality. That’s why, manufacturers of cameras always state it in the first place in the list of characteristics of their products. Some of the cheaper models still use CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor) sensors. Select CCD instead of CMOS matrix, because the first has some significant advantages - high sensitivity, combined with lower noise levels (which leads to cleaner picture). On the other hand, CMOS sensors are much cheaper to produce and consume up to 100 times less energy in their work. They may be a good option when looking for cheaper digicam with longer battery life. Of course, this rule has exceptions, as far as leading companies in the industry are concerned. For example Canon use CMOS matrix for their highest class digicams with interchangeable lenses, but the hardware and software are at such level that all the shortcomings of the CMOS matrix are removed, leaving the big advantage of the low energy consumption.

Digicam Specs

So you are a photography beginner and have decided you need a new digicam. I guess you're quite startled by all the different camera specs and features. So check out the chart below for brief explanation of the most important ones.

sensor	A silicon semiconductor designed to capture photons (light) and convert them into electrons. Digital camera image sensor designs are based on either CCDs or CMOS. The pixel count, or resolution, of an image sensor has a direct relationship to the size image file that will be created and to the appropriate use for that file. 10 mega pixel or more is a common sensor size nowadays.
image sizes	depend on the sensor size (resolution)
movie clips	Most digicams record movie clips with sound. Some high cameras even can record full HD clips.

Examining the Parts of a Digital Camera

If you’re very new to digital cameras, you might be wondering what all those buttons, LEDs, and windows are for. Here’s a quick introduction to the key components of the average non-SLR digital camera. Not every camera will have all these features, and some will have additional features not shown in the pictures below.

Digital Camera Basics

The digital camera is one of ­the most remarkable instances of technological breakthrough because it is so truly different from its predecessor. Conventional cameras depend entirely on chemical and mechanical processes - you don't even need electricity to operate them. On the other h­and, all digital cameras have a built-in computer, and all of them record images electronically.
At its most basic level, this is all there is to a digital camera. Just like a conventional camera, it has a series of lenses that focus light to create an image of a scene. But instead of focusing this light onto a piece of film, it focuses it onto a semiconductor device that records light electronically. A computer then breaks this electronic information down into digital data. All the fun and interesting features of digital cameras come as a direct result of this process.

Similarities between Photography and Vision

Photography is very similar to our vision. The lenses of our eyes project the incoming light waves onto the cone and rod shaped light-sensitive cells located on the retina (the internal lining of our eyes).
Similarly, a camera has a lens which projects the incoming light waves of photons onto a light-sensitive chemical film in a conventional camera or onto a matrix of sensitive pixels
But unlike the impressions captured with our eyes, the digital image or film can be used to make a more permanent representation of reality for future viewing and sharing with others, for example on a computer monitor which emits light (direct way of seeing) or via a printed copy which reflects light that falls upon it (indirect way of seeing).

How Cameras Function

Photography is undoubtedly one of the most important inven­tions in history - it has truly transformed how people conceive of the world. Now we can "see" all sorts of things that are actually many miles - and years - away from us. Photography lets us capture moments in time and preserve them for years to come

The basic technology that makes all of this possible is fairly simple. A still film camera is made of three basic elements: an optical element (the lens), a chemical element (the film) and a mechanical element (the camera body itself). As we'll see, the only trick to photography is calibrating and combining these elements in such a way that they record a crisp, recognizable image.