This week, the New York Times featured a robust package on the digital-camera industry that's really revolutionized how life is documented and preserved. I'm all over it, and I think it's one of the greatest technological impacts on society in the last decade. That and cinnamon-flavored Crest toothpaste, which rocks my world.
Here's my take on each article:
Blow-Up: Snapshot to Poster As I mentioned in "What I Learned Buying a New Digital Camera," cramming all those megapixels up in this bitch means the opportunity to print your own posters is here. How cool is that? While expensive home printers can do you up a 13x19, the best option for posters is to upload your photo file to one of the many, many hosting services with print-purchasing options. My host, Fotki, sells 16x20 prints for $8.50 and 24x36 posters for $12. (Though I have those prices bumped $4 each if someone buys one of my shots. Not a huge mark-up, obviously.) Talk about a great gift for family members.
Which Camera Does This Pro Use? It Depends on the Shot Photojournalist David Burnett shares some advantages of digital mostly instant feedback and ability to send shots across the globe in minutes but sticks with his trusty analog models for most heavy-duty stuff.
A Mundane Shot? If It's on a Photoblog, Someone's Interested A look at some of the ways people share their pics online, including Guess Where NYC, a flickr project that has people guessing where around town photos were shot.
Less Cursing, Better Pictures: 10 Suggestions Ten habits of highly effective digital camera owners. Most of which are common sense.
From Broken Bones to Decayed Buildings How digital cameras are used in such industries as medicine and education. Only I can't figure out why these uses couldn't be implemented with old-school prints and a scanner. Except for the cost factor, which is obvious.
Getting Schooled Beyond 'Say Cheese' Where aspiring shutterbugs can find seminars and full-scale classes to get the most of their purchase.
Photo Prints? Everyone Wants Your Business With prices as low as 15 cents for 4x6 prints at Sam's Club and $1.99 for an 8x10 at Costco, the opportunities are endless, and affordable, with no risk of paying for prints you don't want.
Tools for the New Darkroom A rundown of Photoshop plug-ins and separate software options for optimizing sharpness, noise, color and exposure for your digital shots.
Superzoom Review: Ugly, Bulky and They Get You Real Close My buddy Wilson reviews relatively bulky digital cams that have as high as 12x digital zoom. (Most pocket cams have 3x.) Wilson writes: "only one superzoom went vroom-vroom in the end."
Vacation Tips: What Your Camera Needs Advice on where to get cheap back-ups for media storage and battery life.
Fantasy Camp for the Pixilated Tales from some weird-ass Fantasy Photo Tour, where shutterbugs are exposed to models in crazy costumes. What, we ran out of stuff to shoot already?
Shooting in the RAW, Perfecting the Image Setting your camera to shoot in RAW mode instead of JPEG does have its advantages. But you'd better know your way around some photo-editing software to bring them out.
To think, two years ago when I travelled to New York I took a camera with a dozen roles of film and had to carry them everywhere I went because I just couldn't risk them getting them stolen. Now I have a Canon Ixus which shows me the results instantly and all the picks are stored in the camera rather than going throug airports and hoping that the film doesn't get damaged before you get home. I think i'm going to get one of those 7.0 megapixel ones shortly. The other day I was able to get photographed with the lovely Jessica Alba (sorry to name to name drop) and have the image on my website for the whole world to see that night! Very pleasing stuff. And the great thing is, you don't have to be a genious to take good shots. And then there's the selling aspect too which I haven't looked into yet ... but will! Great stuff. Great post.
Posted by Tim Holland at June 10, 2005 10:24 AM