1. The general techniques of taking pictures

2.  Everyone has a camera right at their fingertips. Simply owning a camera does not make someone an expert.  It takes practice to be able to take photographs that tell great stories.  The word photography means “drawing or writing with light”

3. Key Terms  Photography  Pixel  Megapixel  Pixels per inch  JPG  RAW  ISO  Color Temperature  White Balance  Composition  Rule of Thirds  Depth of Field  Aperture  Caption  Resolution  Resampling  RGB  CMYK

4.  Digital cameras, including phones, store images in the form of millions of tiny picture elements called pixels, which is short for picture elements.  A pixel is a single point of light on the screen of a monitor. A megapixel, which means one million pixels, is often used in connection with digital cameras.  A camera that shoots photographs of 6.2 megapixels shoots digital images of roughly 6.2 million pixels at the highest resolution.

5.  Numerous cameras allow you to take photographs that are many megapixels in size.  Most people use a camera for pictures that are 3 inch by 5 inch or 4 inch by 6 inch. That camera should be a 3 or 4 megapixel.  Pictures that are put on the web can use a camera 3 or fewer megapixels. If pictures are to be used for publications the camera should have at least 5 megapixels. Most consumer grade cameras shoot at least 5 megapixels. What does your phone take?

6.  It is necessary to determine if you need a camera that has interchangeable lenses (zoom, telephoto, and wide angle lenses) or a camera with built in zoom lenses.  The cameras with interchangeable lenses are called SLR cameras. SLR stands for single lens reflex. Digital cameras with interchangeable lenses are called DSLR.  Cameras with interchangeable lenses cost more, but you get the right lens for the right photo.  A built in zoom lens is what most people need for standard photos.

7.  The small monitor/color screen is the liquid crystal display (LCD) on the camera.  A viewfinder is a small monitor built into the camera that allows you to see what you are taking a picture of at the correct zoom and angle.

8.  Digital camera resolution is usually measured in megapixels- a raw counting of the number of pixels in the digital image.  Low resolution pictures of 1 to 2 megapixels may be fine for viewing on a computer or TV, they will not make good quality printed pictures.  Cameras with higher resolution (5 or more megapixels) are necessary for print quality photos.  The basic rule is that if photographs will be used for print documents, save at the highest resolution possible.

9.  The output resolution for a finished picture is done in ppi. PPI stands for Pixels Per Inch.  If the picture will be printed it needs to be no less than 300 ppi. If the picture will be used on the web or emailed the resolution can be as low as 72 ppi. A computer screen can only show 72 ppi resolution.

10.  Most cameras give an option on how to save the picture. The most popular options are JPG, TIFF, and RAW.  JPG (Jay-peg) is short for Joint Photographic Experts Group, the organization that developed this file format. This is the leading way to save a picture. ◦ It makes the photo web-friendly ◦ Smaller file size ◦ Compressed file format

11. TIFF RAW  Tagged Image File Format  Large files  Not compressed as much as JPG  Cannot be displayed on some web browsers  Used for photos in high end document design.  Does not stand for anything, just a word  Not a standard format  Each camera manufacturer has its own specifications  Records data straight from camera sensor  Files are uncompressed  Extremely large files  Used mainly by professional photographers.

12.  Digital cameras can be adjusted for different types of light.  Light sensitivity is measured using a scale called ISO, which stands for International Standards Organization.  Most cameras provide a choice of ISO values, usually 100, 200, 400.  As the ISO value increases, the camera becomes more sensitive to light.  High ISO values produce images that look grainer that images shot at lower ISOs. Most cameras automatic ISO features yield good results.

13.  Different kinds of light have different color qualities. This is commonly called color temperature. This is a way of saying that the light sources contain different amounts of red, green, and blue light.  Example: Sunlight tends to be blue, a regular light bulb tends to be more yellow or orange, and a fluorescent bulb tends to be green.  Your eyes adjust to changes in color temperature so the colors with different light sources look the same, but with cameras it’s not so easy.  A camera must be white balanced to correct color temperature problems.

14.  White balancing tells the camera what combination or red, green, and blue light it should perceive as white, given a particular lighting condition. Most cameras have an automatic white balance feature.  Most cameras include white balance presets for normal types of light.  If your camera does not offer white balance adjustments, you can remove unwanted colors in the photo editing stage.

15.  Composition is what you are taking a picture of.  Holding the camera is the quickest and surest way to get a sharp, clear picture. Blurred pictures are unwanted.  One of the best ways to spark interest in your photographs is to vary the angles while framing the shot well. An unusual angle or viewpoint can add a great deal of interest to an ordinary object.

16.  From above a person may seem meek, or childlike, but from below a person may seem strong and dominating.  Camera angle refers to the different angles you can hold a camera and still get a shot of the same object/person.  There are three main angles that you can use. They are eye-level, low-angle, and high- angle.

17.  The rule of thirds is one of the most well known principles of photograph composition.  The basic principle is to imagine dividing an image into thirds horizontally and vertically so you have the image in 9 parts. Your main focus of the picture should be on one of the intersections.

18.  Using lines can be an effective way of drawing the viewers eye into a focal point of an image.  Lines can be the shape of a path, a line of trees, a fence, etc.  Diagonal lines are used to draw the viewers eye through the picture. They also give the image depth or a sense of action.  Vertical lines convey variety of different moods from power and strength (skyscrapers) to growth (trees)

19.  Horizontal Lines convey a message of stability or rest like the horizon or ocean. Landscape horizons are probably the most common horizontal lines. Horizontal lines should not be in the middle of the picture, they should be in the upper or lower third of the picture.  Converging lines occur when two or more lines come from different parts of an image to a single point. They act as a funnel for the viewers eyes, directing the viewers gaze to a point in the picture

20.  Depth of field refers to the portion of the scene in focus in the camera. It can be long or short.  The aperture is the iris of the camera. It is the opening in the lens where you will see the picture.  The best advice regarding backgrounds in pictures is to use simple, plain backgrounds. The more distractions that are removed from the background, the more attention is drawn to the subject.