| Digital Photography Information |
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What is digital photography? Digital photography is basically taking pictures with a digital camera. In digital photography the camera uses different lenses and light sensitive sensors to capture the picture that is focused on. This picture is stored in a digital format that can be manipulated with a computer, printed or just viewed on a computer screen. You can see that this is very different from traditional photography where a light-sensitive film is used to capture the image. Digital images can be stored, manipulated, printed, showed on a screen, sent by email and so on. It is a very flexible medium. It is also becoming more and more popular. The history of digital photography The first digital camera that was available to the everyday person was the Apple QuickTake 100 camera that was released 1994. After that came many different makes and models. But the road to this first camera was a long one. It all started in 1951 when the first video tape recorder recorded live images by creating electrical impulses and saving it on a magnetic tape. That technology was perfected and in the 1960s NASA started using digital signals to map the surface of the moon instead of using analog signals. These digital images were then sent back to earth. By this time computers were also getting better and better and NASA used the computers to enhance the images that they got of the moon. The American government also used digital images in spy satellites. All of this meant that research into digital technology was going very quickly. In 1972 Texas Instruments were the first to patent a film-less electronic camera. Then in 1981 Sony released a electronic still camera that became commercially available, even if not many people could afford it at that time. This camera recorded images on a mini disc that could be used in a video reader that was connected to a TV set. This camera was not a real digital camera, though. it was a video camera that took still pictures by using freeze-frames. Since the middle of the 1970s Kodak invented megapixel sensors that could capture an image that was of good enough quality to print on photo paper. Then Kodak invented the Photo CD system that set the standard for colour in digital photography. In 1991 Kodak released the first professional digital camera. This was for use by photojournalists. It had a 1.3 megapixel sensor. The rest is history. Nowadays you can get a digital camera that can take photo’s, videos, sounds and that can even manipulate the picture on the camera. You can take colour, black-and-white and sienna pictures all with one camera. And you can get a camera with 10 megapixels and even as high as 12 megapixels (very expensive!). Now the photography world is your oyster. Who would be interested in digital photography? Why would anyone want to take a course in digital photography if your camera can do it all for you? Good question. I have a better answer. If you are really honest with yourself, you don’t know half of what your camera can do. I know I don’t. Because it is so advanced and because digital camera’s can do almost anything but cook and clean for you, it becomes very difficult to use your camera to its full potential. There are so many settings and things. Personally, I have no idea what to do with the exposure setting on my camera. I don’t even know what it is there for. And there are many different strange little numbers on the screen that just confuse me. Anybody who owns a digital camera will find a course in digital photography very useful. It will help you know what to do with your camera. It will teach you how to set up a shot to get the best results. It will teach you what to shoot where and from how far out or with how much zoom. There is a whole world of pictures that we can only imagine, and now it is available to you and me. If you like taking pictures just for the memories, this is for you. Taking pictures of your family, your pets and your friends will be so much more rewarding if you do it right. Even if you want to become a professional photographer like a wedding photographer or the paparazzi, this is a great place to start. Digital photography and the internet There are many websites that are dedicated to showcasing your digital photo’s. Some, like icanhascheezburger.com, are all about funny pictures and having a laugh at the silly things people and their pets get up to. Other websites are more serious, like Photo.net or just for fun, like Flickr.com. College SA offers this Digital Photography course: To find out more about College SA as a College, click HERE for MORE INFORMATION |
