Tips For Better Photos: Week Two

First a little reminder, our Open House is this Friday and I hope that you can drop in and see us and the new studio. There will be some delicious hors d'oeuvres and wine, not to mention some fantastic give a ways! You won't want to miss out, so plan to stop by.

Okay, now on to the nitty gritty. So how many of you got your manuals out and read them? I doubt very many of you really did this, but I am telling you, this is one of the quickest and easieast ways to improve your photo skills. I realize that it is not on Opraha's Book Club list, but I promise it is well worth the effort.

Okay, so enough preaching. Time for Tip Number 2: How to Decide the Best Settings For Image Quality? There are many factors that can effect your image quality, but I am just going to talk about only one of them: Image Resolution. Nearly all digital cameras these days offer the user a choice in Resolution settings. For example the Canon PowerShot S5 has settings ranging from 640x480 pixels (smallest) to 3264x2448 pixels (largest), with many options in between.

So which do you want to pick? Well that will depend upon what you want to do with the photos, as well as how much in-camera and computer storage you have, not to mention the question of how important is image quality to you. Basically, the higher the resolution you choose, the better the image quality your photos will have and the more room it will take up in your camera's and computer's memory. Higher resolution also means you can print larger images with it as well as have the ability to crop an existing photo down smaller. Keep in mind that the more megapixels that your camera has, the more room it will require for storage space when using a larger resolution setting. Now if you are only wanting to take a few snapshots from your vacation and only want them in 4x6 size so that you can put them in your album, then you don't need a higher resolution. In this case, choosing a lower resolution will allow yo uto get more images on your digital media. But if you are planning a little family portrait in hopes of printing a nice 8x10 to give to Grandma for Mother's Day, then you will want to chose your camera's largest resolution setting.

Here are a few side by side examples of High and Low Resolution Images. When viewed full frame side by side, you can see the slight difference between the two. But when they are croppped in close, you can really see the difference.

So, now what do you do? Get out your manuals (for those of you that didn't already do it) and READ IT!!! Then take so photos in the various resolution settings, put them on your computer and see how different they will look. Especially if you are zooming and cropping in on them.