Digital Photography 101

You can grab an easy to print PDF of this handout or read it online.

Getting to Know Your Camera

battery: most cameras come with some kind of rechargeable battery, though some can also use conventional batteries.
memory card: your camera probably came with a small starter memory card-you'll probably want to get a bigger one. Memory cards come in many styles--see the CNET.com article for descriptions and pros and cons.
flash: usually you can set the flash to auto, on, or off.

memory: what stores pictures on your camera--usually your camera comes with a small memory card and you'll want to get a larger one. Memory is measured in bytes (usually megabytes).
pixels: the dots that make up digital pictures
megapixel: 1,000,000 pixels.
resolution: the quality of an image, measured in pixels per square inch.
megabyte (MB): a measurement of data storage capacity. Memory cards commonly hold 128, 256, or 512 MB. 1024 bytes = 1 kilobyte, 1024 kb = 1 megabyte, 1024 MB = 1 gigabyte.
USB: a standard computer connection used for moving information between devices, such as moving pictures from your camera to your computer.

at home you'll most likely connect your camera directly to your computer with a USB cord that came with your camera
here we have a card reader-put your memory card in and the computer will retrieve pictures from it
at Wal-Mart or another photo processing place, they also use card readers

Each picture you transfer will show up on your computer as a file, usually with an alphanumeric name (like IMG2059.jpg).

file types: most digital cameras will use .jpg (JPEG) files. There are other file types (.gif, .tiff, .bmp, .png, etc.), but we won't get into those tonight
file sizes

a 640x480 (.3MP) photo will take up approximately 100-500kb of memory on your memory card or computer and will make a decent resolution for a 3x5 or 4x6 print
you can set your camera to take photos in different sizes
you may want to take photos at a large size and then resize them later-that way you'll have a large size if you want to make an 8x10 print and a small size for e-mailing or displaying online

photo editing software: Adobe makes Photoshop, the top-of-the-line photo editing software, and also Photoshop Elements, the lower-rent version
free photo editing software

editing: crop, resize, rotate, special effects
organizing: you can move photos around on your computer just like any other type of file. Many photo editing programs also allow you to create albums or collections of various types.

by e-mail: it's a really good idea not to send huge photos to people. Most photo editing programs will let you resize pictures so they are small enough to make it through.
online photo sharing services: all of these offer ways to store, share, and print your photos.

Consumer Reports digital camera guide: Links to Consumer Reports seem to change a lot, so if this doesn't work, just go to the site and look for digital cameras under electronics.
CNET Digital Camera Buying Guide: Also offers a lot of good basic digital camera information.
Digital Photography Review: For in-depth reviews of cameras.