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Knowing what Digital Camera Accessories you Need
By Luvi Marie Corcuera

Capturing a moment is best done with photography and in this time and age, the best option for this is through digital photography using a digital camera. Whether you are the type of person that is into photography or simply someone fascinated with capturing the beauty of certain views, then with a digital camera you will be able to tell the story of a moment that cannot be brought back. Digital photography allows you to touch many lives through the images of beauty and art which you are able to capture and be able to store electronically. It may perhaps be an option for others to be a profession and this could profession could even bring a lucrative compensation should you decide to take this path.

Living in today's high-tech world allows us to make use of the digital camera technology making it easier for us to shoot pictures on the go and be able to have them available in less time and with the use of digital camera accessories be able to improve or enhance the quality and experience of digital photography. The digital camera accessories available today as tools makes it better choice for us to invest in them especially if this becomes a hobby or a profession.

The Basic Necessities for Capturing the Moment

It doesn't really matter whether or not you do photography for profit or simply for leisure, it is probable that the next best equipment you need to invest in other than a nice new digital SLR camera are the digital camera accessories that you will use along with it. There are various types of digital camera accessories available that you may either need immediately or would need in the future which would help you with keeping your equipment in good shape, improve the quality of your photos, add additional capacity to your work output, reduce the complexities or simply just enhance your own photography experience. Some of the digital camera accessories may include any of the following and depending on your needs may even be further augmented as the need arises:

Camera Bags

The first probable investment being the camera bag, this is where you will place all the things that you will need when you are location shooting or traveling and it would also serve as your basic kit where all your photography equipment is stored and protected well. It is also one of the most inexpensive accessories that you may ever buy and add to this is that they enable you carry and protect the expensive equipment that you carry around. Camera bags come in many different shapes, sizes and colors through a wide variety of different brand names that specialize in this, and they are available for anyone's personal preference.

Camera Tripod

Of the camera accessories, perhaps the camera tripod is one that will help a lot of people since it helps reduce the amount of "camera shakes" when taking photos and allows you to take shots from a variety of angles. While does seem that this is a bulky and cumbersome accessory you should know that a great majority of tripods are either foldable or retractable and should be able to fit in most of the medium size to larger camera bags. If you happen to have one of the older tripods which you have used for your traditional cameras, then you should be ware that some of them are actually compatible with today's digital cameras and you may not need to re-invest in a new camera tripod. Just the ability to have steadier shot and a finer finished product is a must for many and this makes the camera tripod a great digital camera accessory to have and perhaps even a necessity for some.

Battery Chargers

For people who take vacations and for those that visit remote locations without the convenience or availability of digital camera accessories shops, the use of a battery charger is important. Even if you carry with you extra batteries sometimes these batteries just all of a sudden get drained and you are left with no power to your digital camera thereby rendering them useless. Having a battery charger is very handy in some situations and this may be the difference in being able to take that critical photo should the need arise. Being extremely affordable, it should be considered whenever deciding to but that those additional digital camera accessories on your next shopping spree.

Memory Cards

The memory card for a digital camera is perhaps the most important digital camera accessory for many as akin to a traditional camera that needs film, a digital camera needs memory for storage of images. Most people take this likely since the capacity of the memory cards they purchase with their digital camera is sometimes sufficient, it should however be known that some people do not delete or transfer the contents of the memory to other devices like PC's and in some cases the memory becomes full. Having that extra memory card with you will help reduce this from happening and will also be of great assistance during times when a large volume of photos need to be taken especially for professionals and for those that take a vacation in remote places where they are unable to transfer the images, and with no shops readily available in the vicinity.

You never know when your existing memory card will fail so keeping an extra card can pay dividends when the time comes. Just be aware though of what type of memory card your digital camera uses as there are various types of cards available for different digital cameras such as SD cards and Sony memory sticks. You don't want to buy a memory card that is not compatible to your digital camera.

Other Important Accessories

Lastly, one of the digital camera accessories that you may want to have is the digital photo printer, which is especially useful if you want to print your photos from the comfort of your home. Most locals now have photo shops that can process the printing of your digital images but for some the ability be able to print from home or from anywhere, then a photo printer is a must. All you will really need is to have printing consumables always available, your personal choice of photo paper such as matte or gloss and you will be able to print off any photo you want, at the sizes and quality you need. Most of the printers in the market today are already of photo output quality and the choice these days is what size of footprint you want, depending on your needs i.e. if you travel a lot then perhaps a small size printer will be best for you.

Conclusion

Whether you are a professional photographer or just enjoy taking pictures, you should be fully aware of the various digital camera accessories that are available in the market that can perhaps help you reduce the amount of effort in your profession or simply improve your photography experience. Some of these accessories can be expensive but a majority of them are indeed quite affordable and for many are in fact a necessity, and by being able to to have them can sometimes make the difference of being able to have that all important and perhaps even life changing moment captured. Availability for most of the accessories for your digital camera is in most cases excellent with a great number of electronic equipment shops in most locals and not to forget the growth of internet shops that specialize in providing thee services.

As a final note, even if the requirement for digital camera accessories is not for you, then perhaps someone you know such as family and friends has these needs and this actually makes for great gifts on special occasions like birthdays. Anyone with a digital camera will be more than happy to receive these accessories as gifts and this should give you more options when giving away gifts this Christmas or any other occasion during the year.

Luvi Marie Corcuera is a full time Mom and works part time as the Editor of Informational sites such as: Acne Treatment and
Cake Decoration

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Photo: May Ng

How to Organize Your Digital Photos

By Valerie Goettsch

Organizing images or finding a particular photo can seem a daunting task. Having a digital photo management system in place for archiving and cataloguing your images will make the process much simpler.

Besides devising a consistent method for cataloguing your images, using a photo organizer or album software program will make managing your digital collection a breeze. While everyone has their own organizing method, here are some guides based on what works for me.

Archive Originals

Right after downloading your photos, it's a good idea to burn them to CD or DVD. This prevents you from accidentally overwriting an original image. You can always go back to your disk to retrieve it. To save space you can keep adding new images until the disk is full. Be sure to label the CD with the year and note the contents whenever you add new pictures.

Delete Unnecessary Photos

After you've archived the original images to disk, review your downloaded images and purge unwanted shots. Delete badly exposed images, duplicates, out-of-focus shots, etc. If some are a little over or under exposed you can generally adjust them with your photo software, so unless you have a better version of an image, you may want to keep some of the so-so shots and fix them.

Name Your Images

Create a new subfolder to My Pictures whenever you download new photos. Don't just dump them all into My Pictures. There are several methods for naming and structuring your folders. I like to organize my folders chronologically and put all photos for a particular year into subfolders under that particular year. Other people like to group their pictures by topic, such as Vacations, School, Sports, Baby, Wedding, Family, etc.

When you download images, your software will prompt you for image names. Be sure to use relevant names, not the default "003784.jpg." For instance, if I download a series of Halloween photos, during the download process I will have my photo manager software rename all the images using "Halloween 2007" in the name. Later you can rename individual photos if you wish. For example, by adding "Lisa_Linda" within the file name you can later do a search to find all images of Lisa and Linda. To make it easier to find certain photos, you can rename individual images within your folders or use the Batch Process feature to rename a group of photos.

Tag Images

To help you find photos of specific subjects, you can use your photo album software to tag images with keywords. They can have a variety of attributes such as date, place, occasion, and person. For instance, you could label a picture of your daughter Kathy at her 10^th birthday party at the zoo using the keywords Kathy, 10, birthday, zoo and then be able to search for all images with these tags, no matter where they are on your hard drive. This is a huge timesaver in helping you find favorite pictures. Initially it can be quite time-consuming to tag photos, but most software will let you batch label a group of photos with the same keywords. This greatly speeds the process.

It's also helpful to tag images that need editing like red eye reduction, cropping, color adjustments etc.

Protect Your Digital Photos and Projects

Can you imagine losing that cool slideshow you made of your child's first birthday? Computer crashes can and will happen. Back up your photos! Burn them onto CD or DVD. It's easy, inexpensive insurance. Most PCs and laptops come with CD burning software. Or, if you have an external storage drive, use it to back up your images.

Finally, don't just let your precious picture sit on your computer. Print them, email them, frame them and enjoy them!

For more information on organizing your digital photo albums, visit http://www.digitalphotos101.com

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How to Take Better Night Photos
By Nellie Graham

Night photography is definitely one of the best types of photography you can delve into. It will allow you to capture different hues and colors during the night that would have been otherwise detected with the normal human eye. There will be things that will open up for you and you will be able to appreciate the presence of lights more often.

If you're having difficulty understanding metering, then you'll probably want to take up night photography as this is one of the types of photography where you don't have to worry about your metering. You can forget about honeycomb, matrix, spot and multi-metering systems as these will not be utilized in night photography.

The best metering system that you'll ever need for night photography is your eye coupled with some experience on your belt. Since we are no longer dealing with daylight, a metered reading is only as useful as a "starting point".

There are so few factors in night photography that can make the metering system unreliable. It is because whenever you read meter systems, they work on the premise that the area being read has equal amounts of light and dark areas. If you're metering with that premise then the system will not work 100%.

What you want to do is to simply start out with an aperture of 2 seconds with an aperture of around f/5.6 if your depth of field is not a priority. Should you need a longer exposure, just try the shutter. If your camera is able to go up to 30 seconds of open shutter time, you should remember to use the self-timer to fire the camera instead of pushing it down yourself.

This will eliminate any type of camera shake that will come out of pressing down on the shutter button and taking your hand off it to allow the mirror to capture light for 30 seconds. In cases like this, it is highly recommended to use some sort of cable release.

So whenever you are exposing a photograph during the night, you should always remember to use the Bulb setting if and when you have it, mount your camera on a sturdy tripod to minimize any type of camera shake and finally use a wired or remote trigger in order to take away any chances of you blurring the shot with the act of taking your finger away from the shutter button. Aside from these advices, you are on your way to capturing the best possible night shot.

Visit us to learn more about this topic http://www.guideto.com/night-photography/how-to-take-better-night-photos and http://www.photoscout.com

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Take Control Of Your Photographs

By Diana Cooper

Before investing in a camera, consider choosing one that offers manual features in which you can control the outcome of your pictures. The two basic features are aperture and shutter speed. Just by understanding how they work you can turn your photographs into a piece of art.

First let me explain depth of field (DOF). DOF is the distance from the foreground to the background of the picture that is in sharp focus. An increase DOF makes wonderful landscape pictures such as a view of a valley where everything is in sharp focus including the flowers nearby, the mountains in the distance and all of nature's beauty in between. A decreased DOF works well when you want to blur the clutter in the background so the subject will stand out clearly.

One way to choose your DOF is by adjusting the aperture. Aperture is the diameter of an opening in the camera which exposes the lens and allows light to enter. The smaller the aperture (for example, f/22), the greater DOF you will have leaving you with a sharp picture. Your DOF is less when the opening is larger (for example, f/2) thus giving you a blurred background.

Lens focal length and the distance of your subject you will focus on are a couple of other ways to control DOF. Using a wide lens will increase your DOF and using a telephoto lens will decrease your DOF. Focusing on your subject in a far distance will have a greater DOF than focusing on your subject in a close distance.

Shutter speed is another way you can make a difference with your pictures. You can capture action by either creating a blurred motion by using a slow shutter speed (for example, 1/15) which makes wonderful waterfall pictures or you can use a fast shutter speed (for example, 1/1000) and freeze the movement which can make a great shot of a gymnast in mid air as she flips over the bar.

A fun way to use a slow shutter speed is to pan your shot. Say you are taking a picture of a bicyclist passing by. Focus in on the bike and follow it with your camera as the shutter stays open. This way, the cyclist will be fairly sharp and the background will give the impression of him/her moving really fast.

Aperture and shutter speed work together when it comes to the amount of light that enters. A small aperture (opening) allows very little light to enter so you will need a slow shutter speed. With a large opening, less light is needed so you will use a faster shutter speed. When using a slow shutter speed be sure to stabilize your camera to prevent shaking which will give you a blurred background and a blurred subject. A tripod works nicely.

It may sound a little confusing at first but it really is easy once you get the hang of it. You will be amazed by how much better your photos will look by taking control of these features instead of depending on a point and shoot camera. Best of luck!

About the Author: Diana Cooper specializes in nature and wildlife photography. You can visit her website http://www.dianasphotography.com to read more photography tips and articles, to buy her earth friendly greeting cards and to visit her photo and gift shops.
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