To Flash or Not to Flash - Completed

We have finished the example that we described below in regards of using your digital camera flash. Finished a little ahead of time because the kids were sleeping well tonight so... You can get directly there by following this link to see when to use your digital camera flash.

Let us know what you think!

To Flash or Not to Flash

We are talking about camera flashes here. And we are close to finishing a page to show how sometimes not using a flash makes your pictures look a lot better. We should be done in several days.

Links and Sponsors

I have added a page to highlight our sponsors and interesting links related to digital photography. Check it out here!

Please support this site by visiting our sponsors. Thanks for everyone's support so far.

Aspect Ratio

We are not talking about HDTV 16:9 TVs here. Aspect ratios are important when printing out your digital photographs. Most wonder why your digital pictures looked cropped or have white borders when printed out. Why? Aspect ratio - of course.

A digital picture has an aspect ratio of 4:3 to mirror a computer screen, while traditional file prints have a 3:2 ratio to match 35mm film negatives. Therefore, something has to change in order for a digital picture to fit on traditional print sizes.

Two things you can do. (1) Have a white borders on the picture so you can see the entire picture. Or, (2) Crop the picture to fit the aspect ratio of traditional film but that means making some decisions on what to cut off.

There are some digital cameras that now offer a 3:2 aspect ratio.

Example of Digital Photography Effects

I have added a page to show an example of using two digital photography effects: B/W (black and white) and sepia. It is so easy to get pro effects or even be artistic with your digital camera.

JPEG - Lossy Compression

Someone asked us for more information on JPEG files since they noticed their files getting smaller after saving from a jpeg file. In general, JPEG files will always compress your digital files and there is some loss when you save the pictures. There is usually an option to choose between better quality to less quality. But most of the time it should be unnoticeable - unless you choose for less quality, that will increase the compression. Here is a link for an in-depth information on the topic: JPEG FAQ.

We usually choose the highest quality setting when possible.

Example of Noise Reduction

I have added a page to show an example of digital camera noise reduction. Using an affordable digital camera software like Neat Image can make your images impeccable.