So you own the best digital camera? That is good news. However, did it come with ineffective photo software? Most cameras do. In order to ensure that you take your digital photography to the next level you should seriously think about photo software that makes it very easy to do photo editing, printing, organizing and emailing. As an example, you may face many challenges after you have snapped a few photos. I think the most troublesome of them all is the red eye. Most photo software comes with a red-eye elimination or reduction method. The red eye reduction method should ensure that the eyes are left looking lifelike by not eliminating the pupil reflection. Using the red eye reduction should be easy. The most easy and useful photo software that I have come across is Photolightning. There are others like Adobe and Acdsystems which are also good. The most recommended features that photo software should include are:
1) Photo Editing: The ability to fix red eye, lighten dark photos, apply special effects to your photos and resize, modify, crop them. This may also include the ability to adjust brightness, saturation etc. and automatically/semi-automatically enhance the picture quality.
2) Email photos: The ability to automatically reduce photos (in size) for faster emailing and then attach them to an email, or better yet, embed the photos directly into the body of an email.
3) Photo printing: Easily print photos in standard sizes on single sheets of photo paper or on "micro-perf" templates for placement in picture frames. The software should also provide for a way to print entire album pages and index prints.
4) Batch Processing: Easily resize, rename, add captions/watermarks, change format, and change timestamp. This is a time saving feature that every photo software product should have nowadays.
5) The photo album - or organizer: This feature lets you organize your photos by date, keyword, or rating and add captions. A good photo organizer makes it easy for you to quickly find your photos.
6) Backup photos to CD: Burning photos to CD so that you can share them with friends or make backup copies is a very useful feature. It is even better if the photo software remembers which photos have been backed up so that you do not waste space/time backing up photos you have already archived.
7) Create Slideshows: This is an optional feature but very useful indeed. A great feature is the ability to email a slideshow that you have created to friends and family or post it to a website.
8) A photo uploader: This is another optional feature that can be very useful by allowing you to upload your photos to your favorite online photo printer.
9) A How To-Manual
10)?. There are so many possible features that the list may be never-ending.
Many of these features are common to many photo software products, but ultimately it is ease-of-use for your favorite features that is most important. Remember that each and every software package has its positives and negatives so you should look for the proper blend of ease-of-use and the functionality you require.
If you want to purchase a digital camera, you really must have at least some idea of what you need to look out for and avoid. You don't have to be an expert, but you must at least know some basics to make sure you don't end up with an inadequate camera for your digital photography. The following is a series of things you need to understand and look out for, there there is less plus several things you must avoid.
The number of megapixels the digital camera is capable of:
From a basic standpoint, generally speaking the more megapixels a digital camera has the higher quality images it will be capable of outputting. You will find that with the higher end more professional digital cameras (8 to 12 plus megapixels) the image quality will also be increased significantly depending on the quality of the cameras lenses, but for lower end digital cameras this will have less effect.
Now in regard to the number of megapixels, there is one thing you really do need to look out for. It is vitally important that you read the small print as it were on the digital camera. You see many digital camera manufacturers will have you believe there camera is capable of a higher number of megapixels then it really is.
For example some digital cameras will have in big print on the camera and or in its documentation say six megapixels, but underneath in small print it will say something like five megapixels enhanced to six using software. Basically this means that the camera is really only capable of five megapixels but the software in the camera will attempt to enhance the quality of the photos to six megapixels, this will never be as good as a true six megapixel camera.
How much zoom do you need?
You're going to have to decide just how much zoom your camera will need, for this think about the type of photography you want to take with the camera, if a lot of long-distance photos are going to be taken, obviously more zoom will be very useful.
Now there is another important thing to understand here, digital cameras come with two kinds of zoom: optical zoom and digital zoom. Optical zoom makes use of lenses within the camera to zoom in on objects. Digital zoom simply digitally makes the image bigger and in the process will lose you a considerable amount of quality.
Many digital cameras here too can be misleading since they will often state the maximum digital zoom in big letters on the camera without actually stating that it is in fact digital zoom, they will of course tell you that it is digital zoom so as to cover themselves legally but again only with very small print nearby.
Personally I never use digital zoom. This is because I would much rather take my picture at full quality and then when I'm at home make use of my PC to make the image larger. This way it is possible to see in real time how much visual quality you will be giving up and of course you will still have the original photo at full quality.
The powersupply for your digital camera:
The powersupply is something greatly ignored when people buy digital cameras. People just don't consider it, yet when you think about it having a reliable power source for your digital camera is vital to make sure you don't ever run out of power right when you need your digital camera most.
AA and AAA batteries are the most common method used to power the lower end digital cameras. In many ways having this kind can be a good thing in that these batteries are cheap and easily replaceable at anytime.
Some lower end and most of the higher end digital cameras will only accept their own powersupply specifically made for that camera. These powersupplys are normally Lithium batteries and can be quite expensive.
They will generally give you the advantage of lasting longer, however it is still wise to have at least one spare pack charged and ready to go with you at all times. When considering price on different cameras remember to take into account the added price for battery packs in the future.
A few digital cameras have the capability of being able to take both their own specific battery pack and normal AA or AAA rechargeable batteries you can find at any supermarket.
If you take into account everything mentioned above when you compare digital cameras, you should have no problem in choosing a good camera for your usage. Also remember to check out on-line reviews as they will help you compare each camera.
This is especially important if you are buying a high-end digital camera, since as I have mentioned there are other factors such as the digital cameras lenses that will affect the quality of the pictures the digital camera takes.
Both Mahesh Mhatre & Vincent Manga are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.