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It is important to realize that there is no such thing as a perfect camera, one that will be the best for everyone. Although we sometimes talk about ‘cameras of the year’ or ‘top picks’, such lists and awards are really of little consequence. The camera that wins most accolades may not be the one that is most suitable for you. The important thing you need to do is to think about what you want from a camera; you need to know what the various specifications mean, and to work out which is the best for you. Even those aspects that can easily be quantified - such as the number of pixels the sensor records - are not always straightforward. For some people a 2 megapixel (Mp) camera may be a better choice than a 4 Mp model. Even where image quality is important, you cannot assume that a 5 Mp camera will necessarily give better results than a 3 Mp model. As in life, other things are seldom equal.

In the past, photography was a costly and time-taking business. This meant photographs were taken cautiously so as not to waste film. Only the richest companies could afford to take hundreds of pictures knowing that only one would be chosen out of the bunch. Nowadays, because of technological advancements, amateur photographers do not need to worry about finances or the amount of time it will take them to produce one photograph. Experimentation is possible for anyone, and more relaxing and enjoyable. When it used to take hours to process a picture, it can now take under that to process several, and amateurs can benefit greatly.

Normally our eyes compensate for lighting conditions with different color temperatures. A digital camera needs to find a reference point which represents white. It will then calculate all the other colors based on this white point. For instance, if a halogen light illuminates a white wall, the wall will have a yellow cast, while in fact it should be white. So if the camera knows the wall is supposed to be white, it will then compensate all the other colors in the scene accordingly. Most digital cameras feature automatic white balance whereby the camera looks at the overall color of the image and calculates the best-fit white balance. However these systems are often fooled especially if the scene is dominated by one color, say green, or if there is no natural white present in the scene. Most digital cameras also allow you to choose a white balance manually, typically sunlight, cloudy, fluorescent, incandescent etc. Prosumer and SLR digital cameras allow you to define your own white balance reference. Before making the actual shot, you can focus at an area in the scene which should be white or neutral gray, or at a white or gray target card. The camera will then use this reference when making the actual shot.

Action photographs are quite popular, though they are difficult to take properly. Speed is essential to taking clear pictures for indoor sports and activities. The shutter speed is crucial, for if it is too slow you will lose the picture, as the movement will have continued past the shot you wanted. The results can be erratic, so the highest quality won’t be assured. Make sure when taking pictures of indoor sports that your camera is on a setting with a fast shutter, such as rapid fire mode.

JPEG (pronounced “jay-peg”) is a standardized image compression mechanism. JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group, the original name of the committee that wrote the standard. JPEG is designed for compressing either full-color or gray-scale images of natural, real-world scenes. It works well on photographs, naturalistic artwork, and similar material; not so well on lettering, simple cartoons, or line drawings. JPEG is “lossy,” meaning that the decompressed image isn’t quite the same as the one you started with. (There are lossless image compression algorithms, but JPEG achieves much greater compression than is possible with lossless methods.) Making image files smaller is a win for transmitting files across networks and for archiving libraries of images. The real disadvantage of lossy compression is that if you repeatedly compress and decompress an image, you lose a little more quality each time. This is a serious objection for some applications but matters not at all for many others.

Redeye is a common occurrence in photographs. It occurs most often at night, because the pupils dilate to let in more light. When this happens, the flash of the camera reflects to the very back of the retina, creating redeye. Many cameras have settings to compensate, flashing a red light into the eye before taking the picture in order for the pupils to contract. However, if it is too dark, this setting won’t make much of a difference. There are several ways to account for this, one of which is having the subject of the photograph look away from the lens. If there is still a problem, most photo editing programs have red-eye removal.

Good photos result from the following elements: always having your camera with you; being in the frame of mind that you THINK about taking pictures when a good opportunity presents itself; experience in knowing what the camera can do and can’t do, such as how to adjust your camera to compensate for poor lighting conditions or anything else that doesn’t happen to be just right;have patience; taking lots and lots and lots of photos– the average professional photographer takes around 120 shots for every ONE that he/she actually uses and gets paid for; and finally, luck.

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