blockhead's Blog

As it is a fact that digital cameras are comprised of miniature computers that have storage discs for retrieving the images as digital information, so a certain amount of knowledge is necessary regarding the digital camera disc formats. A proper understanding of the disc formats of the digital camera memory can help the photographer or user make efficient use of the device in a correct and useful fashion. This discussion is aimed at revealing these little details!

At present in among the common users of digital cameras there are two main types of storage medium available nowadays. Some cameras use 1.44-MB floppy disks, which are available almost everywhere in the present market trends, and some digital cameras use assorted forms of flash memory having a range of capacities covering from several megabytes to a gigabyte. The difference lies between these two types of disc formats in their capacity. Floppy disks have a fixed memory capacity that cannot be altered, and the flash memory devices have capacities that keep increasing everyday. This is a kind of boon because of the fact that picture-sizes are also increasing constantly with the invention of higher resolution cameras that become available in the markets with daily technical advancements.

The major and the most popular file format available for digital cameras are TIFF and JPEG formats respectively. Looking in a little detail into these two formats, the TIFF format is an uncompressed format without any alteration of image sizes and JPEG is a compressed format that does alter the image size for economic use of memory for storage. Certainly, from common sense, majority of the digital cameras use the JPEG file format for storing images and photographs, and they even offer quality settings such as medium or high and accordingly the size is altered thus providing both memory management as well as quality management of the pictures.

Again looking at the disc formats from a different angle, it is apparent that a 1.44-MB disk cannot clutch many photographs or images. Sometimes, in fact, they can't even fit one picture on one disk, due to high quality and subsequent seize and memory requirements. However, the floppy disks have their own advantages. In today's world of Internet publishing and email a picture size larger than 640x480 is hardly required, and more or less always they are saved in JPEG formats. During such times it is possible to accommodate about 15 pictures on every disk. Thus making situations more economic and flexible for the users. However for storing bigger and greater quality pictures higher capacity media are required such as a 128-MB flash memory card that can store more than 1,500 small compressed images or 20 of the uncompressed 1600x1200 images.

Thus so far a handsome amount of information regarding the disc formats has come into light from the above discussion. It is a humble effort to bring out the rudimentary knowledge for such a wide field of study as digital camera disc formats, which includes photography as well as computers all in one. What a fantastic combination!

About The Author

Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.snapjunky.com. Visit his digital camera guide and learn how to take better pictures with your digicam.

A photobuyer calls you and says, 'We like the photos you sent us and have scanned two dozen of them into our database.'

'You what...?' is your response.

The photobuyer responds, 'You have a lot of pictures that we feel we could use in the future. We're building an in-house reference file. Any problems with that?'

Consider it a compliment. Scanning of photos by a photobuyer needn't be a threatening experience. Twenty-five years ago, when photocopy machines were new, a buyer copying a photo 'for the files' seemed tantamount to copyright infringement to stock photographers. Gradually, however, stock photographers saw they were getting sales from the photocopied reference photos on file with photobuyers.

The same is happening today with scanning. The photobuyer scans photos to obtain low resolution (i.e. not reproduction-quality) 'thumbnail-size' images to put into their reference 'view-only' database. A software program cross-references them.

In the future, scanning your selections will be commonplace. No need to fear thievery any more than you do at the present. And particularly if you are working within the confines of a photobuying community where you know your buyers and they know you. It?s important to remember that the editorial photobuying community that you are working in makes all the difference in the world when it comes to the issue of thievery. It would be rare to hear of larceny.

In the editorial stock photo field, I?ve never heard of a photobuyer intentionally 'stealing' a photo. There?d be no sense to it. The photo editor has a budget to work with; there?s no material profit to him or her to ?borrow? a photo on the sly. Besides, the photo will be seen by hundreds, thousands of viewers. Most gangsters say this is not a profitable way to get away with something illegal.

In commercial stock photography, however, there can be a different attitude and circumstances. The commercial field can brew more reasons and opportunity to 'borrow' someone?s photo, especially for a local or regional brochure or promotion.

If you?re involved strictly in editorial stock photography, the above kind of information might be news to you. If you deal extensively in commercial stock photography, it?s not a surprise.

You have a choice which area you want to work in.

Scanned images come in a variety of forms. The 72 dpi-scanned image is an excellent reference image. However, the image can be ?decompressed? and in some cases be used as a 300-dpi image.

A graver problem regard digital images is that it's possible to easily pass them on to others (swapping). If an ad agency goes out of business (check the Yellow Pages and you?ll see how often this happens from year to year), or photobuyers begin trading images, your images, or parts of yours, could be involved in the action.

THEY KNOW YOU

Again, however, if you are working as a specialist and deal with repeat buyers in the editorial field, you will know your buyers and they will know you. You can encourage these folks, potential repeat buyers, to scan your photos for their reference files.

I should say that I am in the minority on advocating that you allow photobuyers to scan your photos. But most of those with the opposite view are in the commercial field, or are editorial stock photographers who spend a portion of their time on commercial work.

My own thirty-five years of involvement in and observing stock photography, tell me that for the editorial stock photographer, thievery has never been a problem. But if you are like most people, and want to deal in both the editorial and commercial divisions of the stock industry, it is an important issue to consider. With this in mind, here?s one photographer?s negative experience.

Ann Purcell is an author and nationally-known travel photographer. She relates this adventure with a commercial client who scanned some of her images:

?Here?s one of my experiences with scanned in-house reference photos. One of my photo agencies sent a selection of photos to a printer company for an ad. None of the photos were selected to be used, but they were all scanned. Lo and behold, about six months later, one of the photos came out as a full-page ad for the printing company. The company ended up paying me $15,000 for the copyright infringement.

?They also paid me $10,000 for use of the picture. Then they must have changed photo researchers, because....... Lo and Behold.....Six months later, another follow-up ad used the SAME photo, again without permission! This time they paid $10,000 for the use/copyright infringement of the picture. That's $35,000, all due to having had in-house reference scans and photo researchers who knew nothing about USA copyright laws!?

Yes, this does happen in commercial stock photography. But does it happen when you deal with editorial publishers such as textbook companies, book publishers and magazines? Rarely, and then it?s usually an honest mistake. We?re all entitled to a few of those. -RE

So you have finally decided to backup those precious photos? There are a few ways to backup photos. In this article we will explain how you can backup your photos either yourself at home or by using an online backup service.

Backing up to a DVD/CD

Backing up to a DVD/CD is done by using a DVD/CD writer and software that can burn files on such media. Usually using such solutions requires more technical know-how. Backing up to a DVD/CD is a cheap solution. You can buy such writer drives and software for under a $100 and each DVD/CD media should cost much less than a dollar. One such software that is used by many is from the company Roxio.

When backing up your photos to a DVD/CD please keep the DVD/CD in a safe place a good option would be somewhere out of your home maybe a family member?s home, with a neighbor you can trust or with a friend. Another thing to remember with DVD/CD backups is that when you take new photos you should remember to refresh your backups. Usually unless your photo album is very big the easiest way to do that is just to burn again you complete collection.

Backing up to an online backup service

As many other services backup also found its way to the Internet. A number of sites provide backup services today for everything from digital photo albums to your word documents. Those services usually charge a monthly fee in the $10 to $20 but some provide a more limited service for free. The idea behind the service is simple: instead of backing up to a DVD/CD you upload your photos to a site and create copies there. The site stores the backups in a safe place far away from your computer. If a disaster happens and you need your files you can simply download them back from the site or have the site send you a DVD/CD with the files (not all provide the latter option). A broadband connection is needed in order to use this option.

There are many advantages to using an online backup service. First they are usually very easy to use. Some provide software that you download and install on your computer. You point to the folder where your photos reside and the software takes it from there. It will make sure new files are uploaded to the backup service and that the backup is always fresh.

Examples of sites that provide such service are: Streamload that starts with a basic FREE 10GB space (approx 10,000 photos at 2 megapixels) and Xdrive that starts from 5GB for $10 a month.

Ziv Haparnas is a technology veteran and writes about practical technology and science issues. This article can be reprinted and used as long as the resource box including the backlink is included. You can find more information about photo album printing and photography in general on http://www.printrates.com - a site dedicated to photo printing.

One of the favorite subjects of most photographers is outdoor landscapes. There's so much beauty and majesty in nature, and many of us want to capture the moment and take it with us forever in the form of a snapshot or photograph. Unfortunately, the photo often doesn't live up to our memory of the actual landscape scene. Here then are a few tips on how to take better landscape photographs in the future.

1. If your landscape scene includes the horizon or distant mountains, try to look around for something of interest that you can put into the photograph in the foreground that will bring better balance to the composition. There are lots of things that can work to accomplish this goal, including fences, flowers, tree branches and much more. The key is to be on the lookout for foreground subjects of interest, and not just focus all of your time on the distant horizon instead.

2. A favorite trick of professional photographers to greatly improve the appearance value of their photographs, is to look for ways to lead the eye of the beholder into the photograph and especially toward the main subject of the photo. Again, this is something that you have to generally look around for to find when you are outdoors. But look for things like a road, a fence, a river, or anything else that has a directional line to it that can be used to point the way to the main subject of your photo. This greatly enhances the overall appearance value and provides one of those simple but meaningful professional touches.

3. When photographing distant landscapes such as mountains, lakes, forests and so on, it's very easy to lose a sense of scale in the photo. So what was huge and impressive in real life becomes compressed and uninteresting in a snapshot if you aren't careful. A good way to avoid this is to place something in the photograph that gives a point of reference for scale. For instance, just including a person in the photograph of a large landscape can help you begin to get a feel for the size of the area that you are viewing.

4. Try to place the main subject of your landscape scene slightly off-center rather than in the dead middle of the photograph. Many photographers have a tendency to want to naturally place their main subject in the center, but actually the best photographs are those that have the subject slightly off center either vertically or horizontally in the photo. So a good way to remind yourself to do this, is to divide the scene up into thirds both up and down and across and then place the main subject on one of the spots where the imaginary lines converge. That should help ensure that your photos have more drama and interest in the composition.

5. The very best landscape photographs are taken when the light from the sun is at its best. This is usually very early in the day or very late in the day, when the sun's rays are longer and shadows provide more detail. The harsh midday sun can flatten and wash out many landscape photographs making them uninteresting and bland. So most landscape photography is best done in early morning or late afternoon.

In addition to the tips provided above, digital photography presents its own set of challenges for landscape photographers. Film cameras simply required that you bring along enough film for the trip. Digital cameras require that you bring enough media storage to make sure that you have enough for all of the photos that you want to take. Remember there are most likely not going to be any stores close around, so plan accordingly and use the tips provided above to be able to take better landscape photographs with your digital camera.

Thad Pickering writes on many consumer related topics including digital photography. You can find a digital photography tutorial and the digital photography basics by visiting our Digital Photography website.