Digital Photography Resources

Digital Photography: Not Just For The Birds

While birdwatching at Gilmore Ponds, we met Ken Phillips, an avid birder and professional photographer. The powerful telephoto lenses he carried got my attention, as did the 1 Gigabyte hard drive card that was inside the camera: about the size of a matchbook. A saw-whet owl hidden in a cedar tree was a drawing card for all visitors.

Digital photography costs, as Ken pointed out, have dropped by half in the last year. The cost of photosharing on the web is zero. There are some good websites that can help you to get started, and many others that focus on equipment. So toss away the Brownie and let's look at some resources.

Resource
What it is
Tips

Gear
Froogle
Google Search power applied to comparison shopping
Use the Advanced Search page and be very specific (brand, price, model)

Google Directory
Choice resources for digital photography
If you want to know the basics, try HowStuffWorks

Reviews
Digital Photography Review
Comprehensive reviews of digital cameras with enough comparative information to sate the average buyer. Excellent Gallery photos.
Use full-screen (F11) setting on your browser to enjoy the photos.

Lessons WebPhotoSchool
Free lessons on the basics of photography, with a pay series for more professional lessons. How to get good results.
Plenty of basic information that's easy to understand, to help you get better results. Written by pro photographers.

Nature Photography
Advice, based on the film camera, but applicable to digital.
Follow the links to the articles below the main article.

Albums Ofoto
Kodak's place to store your photos. If they're high enough quality, you can order up to 20 * 30 prints. Share with friends. No longer free.
Many useful basic articles on getting the best results from your digital camera

Shutterfly
Unlimited free storage and uploading. Use these kinds of services to store your images so that others can view them without your having to pay for storage and bandwidth on a website.

Screensavers Active Media Eclipse Personal Edition
Highly rated screen saver toolkit that lets you make your own screensaver out of any of your photographs.
If you want to distribute screensavers, you have to pay for and register most screensaver software.

Viewers Irfanview
Undoubtedly the most popular and versatile freeware image viewer. It will play music if you so desire.
Does conversions of picture formats as well as allows basic adjustment and filters.

Editors Photogenetics
Adobe Photoshop is great but it can take years to learn how to use it. If all you need is to brighten up a picture and make it more visible, this does it especially easily.
If you have a scanner, it probably came with a subset of some high-quality editor. Follow the tutorials that came with it.

Paint Shop Pro
This is an older version, before "tubes" (rubber stamp-like design collections) came out. But it still does a great job on images.
There are tons of PSP tutorials, so specify the version (3.12) when you're searching Google.

Accessories Radio Shack
Reasonable advice from the retailer you all know. Includes stuff you've probably never heard of. That's how it is with accessories.

Don't get carried away :)

	Resource	What it is	Tips
Gear	Froogle	Google Search power applied to comparison shopping	Use the Advanced Search page and be very specific (brand, price, model)
	Google Directory	Choice resources for digital photography	If you want to know the basics, try HowStuffWorks
Reviews	Digital Photography Review	Comprehensive reviews of digital cameras with enough comparative information to sate the average buyer. Excellent Gallery photos.	Use full-screen (F11) setting on your browser to enjoy the photos.
Lessons	WebPhotoSchool	Free lessons on the basics of photography, with a pay series for more professional lessons. How to get good results.	Plenty of basic information that's easy to understand, to help you get better results. Written by pro photographers.
	Nature Photography	Advice, based on the film camera, but applicable to digital.	Follow the links to the articles below the main article.
Albums	Ofoto	Kodak's place to store your photos. If they're high enough quality, you can order up to 20 * 30 prints. Share with friends. No longer free.	Many useful basic articles on getting the best results from your digital camera
	Shutterfly	Unlimited free storage and uploading.	Use these kinds of services to store your images so that others can view them without your having to pay for storage and bandwidth on a website.
Screensavers	Active Media Eclipse Personal Edition	Highly rated screen saver toolkit that lets you make your own screensaver out of any of your photographs.	If you want to distribute screensavers, you have to pay for and register most screensaver software.
Viewers	Irfanview	Undoubtedly the most popular and versatile freeware image viewer. It will play music if you so desire.	Does conversions of picture formats as well as allows basic adjustment and filters.
Editors	Photogenetics	Adobe Photoshop is great but it can take years to learn how to use it. If all you need is to brighten up a picture and make it more visible, this does it especially easily.	If you have a scanner, it probably came with a subset of some high-quality editor. Follow the tutorials that came with it.
	Paint Shop Pro	This is an older version, before "tubes" (rubber stamp-like design collections) came out. But it still does a great job on images.	There are tons of PSP tutorials, so specify the version (3.12) when you're searching Google.
Accessories	Radio Shack	Reasonable advice from the retailer you all know. Includes stuff you've probably never heard of. That's how it is with accessories.	Don't get carried away :)