If you’re new to the idea of taking photos, it can be incredibly intimidating. Just like when you first got your first DSLR, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer number of options out there. With that said, here are a few tips for taking photographs that will help make your photography experience a breeze.
First, make sure you’re shooting in RAW, which is the most popular of the three major image-capturing formats. When taking pictures with your camera, your images are stored as 8-bit pixels, so they can be resized and manipulated to any size you need. RAW is also the format that will be used for printing your photos.
This is a good time to clarify that there are multiple formats for the same image, and in most cases, the format you choose for your photos will depend on what your style is. For example, a landscape would require you to use JPEGs, while a portrait would need you to use RAWs. If youre in the mood to capture a photo of your friends at a wedding, you might want to choose your RAW images for the front of the card or the back.
Of course, you can also print your images directly from your computer. They’ll be black and white and probably not very high quality, but they will be the same image.
As usual, there are two types of quality you can choose for your photos. You can choose to shoot RAW for the quality, or you could just shoot JPEGs, which are full of noise and compression artifacts. The latter may seem like a good choice, but it’s generally not worth it for your photos.
The difference is that JPEGs are pretty easy to edit, and you can often save them without needing to go to Photoshop, and even to save the files to your computer afterwards. RAW is more difficult to edit, and you need to go to Photoshop to do so.
RAW files are also easy to share. They have no compression artifacts, and can be scaled with a few free software programs, making them great for sharing with friends on the web. I generally prefer raw files, but if your photos are particularly large or complex, you may prefer to go with JPEGs.
With the advent of mobile devices, there’s a lot more potential for photographers to take their work to the web. I’ve been using a Sony RX100 as my camera for the past year, and I use the camera’s built-in web browser to upload my images. It has a pretty decent JPEG viewer, but it’s not as fast or as easy to use as a good web browser.
It’s true, but if youre not already using a program to view JPEGs, you’ll have to switch to one of the many flash programs you can download. Most of this software is free, though. If you want something free, check out Adobe’s Lightroom. This program is free, and can be used with other Adobe software.
Adobe Lightroom is also free. I use Adobe Camera RAW and Photoshop on a regular basis, and I like it. It has the best built-in JPEG viewer, but if you want something that’s free, check out Adobes Lightroom. It is free, but you can only use it with Adobe software.