Digital Zoom Versus Optical Zoom

Many digital cameras offer both digital and optical zoom. These two often confuse the average camera buyer, until you know what you’re looking at.

Optical zoom works much like the zoom lens on a 35 mm film camera. It changes the length of your camera’s lens and draws the subject closer to you. The optical zoom keeps the image quality high. Digital zoom on the other hand works differently. It simply takes the picture and crops it then enlarges the part that is left. It causes the quality of the photo to be reduced, sometimes greatly.

What this means in terms of quality output is you may have a larger view of an object with the digital zoom, but chances are your image will become unfocused and grainy. Details will become lost. It is actually best to turn off the digital zoom feature of your camera if possible. This will prevent you automatically zooming in too close as the digital zoom is often an extension of the optical.

Digital zoom has its place. It can be used if the only destination of your photo is the internet. Photos online can be a much lower quality in the camera and still appear acceptable when sent through e-mail or posted on a web gallery. If your goal is printing, however, seek a camera that has a greater optical zoom and turn off the digital zoom.

There are a couple of things you can do if you want a closer view of a subject but want the quality of your picture to still be good. Try moving in closer when you take the picture. Often only a foot or two will do the trick. If this isn’t possible, you can set your camera to take a picture at its highest file size. This will result in a photo that can be cropped to include only your desired subject, yet allow for an image that is still clear.

If the image is of high enough quality you may be able to crop and enlarge using photo editing software and end up with a much better looking photo than letting the camera do it. By not using the digital zoom your pictures will be better in the end, even if they are not as close up as you would like.

Free Online Photo Editing! ANNOUNCEMENT!

Over on my website you can now upload and edit your digital photos for FREE! Do you want to get rid of that red-eye you always get when you use flash? Now you can very easily with this new service!

Would you like your photos to show perfect smooth and lustrous skin? Smooth wrinkles, or crop out your old boyfriend? Can do!

You can also use a wide variety of effects to turn your digital photos into works of art you will be proud to show off to all your friends and family.

And the best thing is there is no program to download and install and fiddle with. You can also edit you photos from any computer connected to the internet!

To use just click on the icon above which will take you to the Photo Editor Control Panel. The upload a photo or click on one of the three example photos and play! The best way to learn this software is to experiment and see what happens! But if you have any question please feel free to leave a comment here or email me.

Be sure to bookmark the control panel so you can find it quickly the next time you need to edit your photos.

Most of all.... Have FUN!

Get Picture Perfect Shots via Digital Photography

Nowadays, there are a large number of photographers who have decided to shift from old SLR models to digital ones. Through DSLRs, they can get more time to concentrate in taking those great pictures since images that are not par with their standards can simply be deleted. Also as there is no film to buy and process, taking tons of pictures is as cheap as taking just a few.

SLR stands for Single Lens Reflex. The name implies the use of lenses and a mirror. Mirror reflects light entering the lens up into the viewfinder. Thus, a photographer can estimate how the image will likely appear when it is developed. Moreover, a SLR camera uses separate lenses that can be interchanged depending on the resolution needed.

Likewise, a digital SLR or DSLR camera uses lenses and mirror. But instead of a film that records the image, a DSLR camera uses light sensor chips and digital memory. In other words, a DSLR camera is the computerized version of the traditional SLR camera.

However, the functions of these models are rather different so it is suggested that users spend time getting familiar or acquainted with their owners manual. Owners should use that “trial and error” technique by taking a few shots and storing better pictures. Sooner or later, users can surely master these cameras.

Individuals who decide on using these types of cameras should really invest on memory cards and lenses. The lens can be more important than the camera body as even the most expensive camera is only as good as the lens attached to it.

Here are some more helpful tips that will aid owners of DSLR cameras in capturing a perfect image using the art of digital photography.

1. Normally, people take full body shots against a background. However, it is more appropriate to take a shot from shoulders up or an upper body one because image of those in the picture really appear small. Nobody wants to see Uncle Harry's hairy bowed legs anyway.

2. The law of optics remains the same whether using an old or a digital camera. For instance, if the sun is behind an image, the picture will be silhouette. If light is in front of the image, the subject will appear to squint and that makes for a bad image, unless it's Clint Eastwood.

3. A polarizing filter will remove glare. When using a polarizer, be sure that the source of light is 90% to the subject.

4. Try a few shots with your white balance setting changed auto to cloudy when shooting bright landscapes and outdoor portraits.

5. Do not use the flash mode when the setting is already sunny. Off camera flash can be used in some circumstances which I'll cover in the future. Using the on camera built-in flash is a great way to ruin an image anyway.

6. Zoom in to emphasize a certain asset or characteristic of the subject being captured.

7. Practice. Practice. Practice. And experiment!

It suffices to say that the techniques in getting the perfect shot have not changed from the film days. However, using digital cameras and employing this new art of digital photography have simply improved photo shooting by making capturing pictures easy for everyone.

Got to go. Mr. Eastwood is glaring at me through his polarizing sunglasses!