How to ... delve into digital photography

Organization and archiving are key to preserving your pictures

For shutterbugs, the digital revolution has brought great things. With no film to develop and no money wasted on poor shots, people are taking more pictures than ever.

But that also means you have more pictures than ever.

Whether you print out every shot or keep digital versions of your pictures, it's easy to find yourself wading through shoebox after virtual photo album when you want a particular photo.

In the digital age, organization is key.

So is learning how to use your camera.

Do you shoot in jpeg or RAW? How many dots per inch (dpi)? What, if any, editing should you do?

“It used to be that we took care of all of that and you just came in and picked up your pictures,” said Chris Arendt, manager of the Camera Center of York. “Now, you have to do a lot of it.”

Phyllis Morley of Manchester Township just got her first digital camera in January and is still learning how to organize and store her pictures.

“It can be a challenge trying to figure it out,” she said.

She likes being able to delete shots she doesn't like and submit images online to pick up at the local camera shop. She even cropped some pictures on a kiosk at Wal-Mart and learned how to send snapshots as e-mail attachments.

The best part of going digital, she predicts, will be the lack of clutter.

“You can be a little more selective,” she said, adding, “We have so many slides and pictures, so hopefully this will be more organized.”

Arendt said customers often get confused when their prints don't match what they saw on their computer screens. They don't understand that a crisp image on the monitor doesn't necessarily translate to a crystal-clear print.

“It all depends on the predetermined values for output they're using,” he said, the resolution and file format they've set their cameras on.

E-mailing images and posting them on the Internet pose a different set of issues. So do storing and archiving photographs.

“With film, you were forced to archive because that was part of the process,” Arendt said. “But now, you have to make a conscious effort to do it.”

Too many people either print their pictures and delete all the digital files, or they dump the shots on their computer and call it a day. “If you have images on your hard drive, you're gonna lose them,” he said. “It's not a matter of if your hard drive will crash, but when. Photo files suck up space fast."

So what's a shutterbug to do?

The answers vary, depending on your skill and interest levels, as well as what you want to do with your shots. But if you follow these guidelines, you'll be well on your way to building a photo collection that's easy to access, share and print.

Shooting

Ideally, you'll know when shooting what you plan to use your pictures for.

If you just want to e-mail them to grandma, share them online or post to a Web site, shoot in a lower resolution (75 to 100 dpi). The files will be smaller, so you can fit more pictures on your memory card and open them faster on the computer.

If you'd like to make prints of your photos - or e-mail them to someone else to print - you'll want to keep your camera set at 300 dpi. The only reason to go higher is if you're certain you'll be making enlargements.

Most point-and-shoot cameras automatically operate in JPEG mode because it compresses the image to a manageable size without compromising quality and is easily opened by most media applications.

Other cameras will allow you to switch to RAW or TIFF - file formats that while more flexible, take up more space and can be difficult to open if you don't have an application that reads them. Also, RAW files can vary from one camera manufacturer to another.

If you're in doubt and have space and memory to spare, it's better to shoot in a larger, higher-quality format and setting. Arendt said, "You can always make a file worse, but you can't make it better."

Processing and editing

Memory cards, while great for temporarily storing images, are easily lost or damaged, so it's a good idea to upload your photos to a computer or other storage device soon after you've finished shooting.

Arendt said he also encourages his customers to format their memory cards on a regular basis. Formatting deletes all the images on the card and cleans it up. "A lot of people tend to shoot some, then delete some," he said. "That can lead to corruption of your files."

Some cameras come with basic organizing and/or editing software that will let users crop images, draw or write on the images or adjust the brightness and contrast. Photo kiosks and free downloadable software such as Google's Picasa offer additional features such as red-eye reduction, resizing, sharpening of an image or adding special effects.

If you want more features, consider investing in professional photo-editing software such as Adobe Photoshop. Arendt recommends Photoshop Elements, which is cheaper than the regular version and not as complex, but "it's still really powerful."

Organizing & archiving

It's pretty easy to dump your pictures into a folder on your computer, but if you want to find a particular shot again with ease, you need to rename and organize them.

Everyone has a different system - parents may create a folder for each child, travelers may file by location, others by year. It can be as simple as dumping files into a folder for the current year or as complicated as creating subfolders for each month, each event and each person in attendance.

Including names of those pictured in the filename makes it easier to search for photographs of a certain person. Using descriptive words can help you recall what a picture looks like without opening the file. Some go as far as creating designations such as "sm" for a smaller version of a photo, or "bw" for a black-and-white one.

Having your pictures easily accessible on your computer is great, but if that's the only place you've put them, you'll be out of luck when you run out of memory or your hard drive - or external hard drive - crashes.

"You've gotta have a way to archive them," Arendt said.

The easiest - and cheapest - way is to buy a spindle of CDs and burn your images to them. Keep one near your computer and another in a safe-deposit box or fire safe. If you want more storage capacity, burn them to a DVD instead.

Label each CD or DVD - with a marker that won't bleed through and ruin the data over time - and print index sheets with thumbnails of what is on each disc.

Online photo storage services such as http://www.snapfish.com or http://www.kodakgallery.com are another option. They allow you to share images with family and friends for free, but they might limit the file sizes and number of files you can store. Most also require you to purchase a certain number of prints every so often or they'll delete your albums.

"If you really think the pictures are important to you, get gold CDs," Arendt said. "They claim they last 300 years."

GLOSSARY

DPI (Dots per inch): This refers to the density of dots in one inch of a digital photo. It affects the way it looks on a screen or in print.

JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group): A color image compression technique that reduces file size by eliminating redundant or unnecessary image data. Many digital cameras automatically save images in this format.

Pixel: The smallest element of a digital image. It's also the name for each tiny point of light that makes up a picture on a computer screen.

RAW: Unlike JPEG and TIFF, RAW is not an abbreviation for anything. It means that the image is saved in its original unprocessed form, as captured in the camera.

Resolution: The number of pixels in the image. This number affects the quality of a photo. Low-resolution photographs are best for e-mailing and posting to the Internet because they are smaller, open faster and take up less space. If you want to make a print or enlargement, you'll need a high-resolution image to get the best contrast, color and detail.

TIFF (Tagged Image File Format): This is the standard format for high-resolution graphics because it has cross-platform compatibility.

Source:http://www.dpreview.com, http://www.frogprints.co.nz

RESOURCES

The Internet is full of resources for choosing a digital camera and improving your digital photography. Here are three Web sites to get you started:

Digital Photography Review contains product reviews, forums, and tips to improve your shots. http://www.dpreview.com

Hewlett-Packard's Web site includes information on everything from organizing and editing your pictures to ideas for projects using your images. http://www.hp.com

A good resource for beginners wanting to take better shots or advanced photographers looking for new ideas. http://digitalphotography.tipcentral.net/