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      :: Reviews
      • Panasonic Lumix DMC-FP8 (black) Panasonic Lumix DMC-FP8 (black)
        The Lumix DMC-FP8 lives up to Panasonic's speedy performance claims; its photo quality isn't bad, either.
      • Canon PowerShot S90 Canon PowerShot S90
        As long as you're not expecting dSLR speed in a tiny body, the Canon PowerShot S90 is an excellent compact camera for advanced amateurs.
      • Samsung HZ15W Samsung HZ15W
        The Samsung HZ15W has good parts and features, but ultimately disappoints on the whole.
      • Casio Exilim EX-FC100 (black) Casio Exilim EX-FC100 (black)
        Casio provides affordable, advanced high-speed shooting for the masses with the Exilim EX-FC100, but other aspects lag behind its class.
      • Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 (with 20mm lens) Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 (with 20mm lens)
        The best interchangeable-lens compact we've see thus far, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 delivers great photo quality and performance in an enthusiast-friendly shooting experience. Like competitors, however, the lack of an optical viewfinder limits its usability for photographing action.
      See All Photography Product Reviews
      :: Photography Help & How-To
      • How to store digital photographs when on vacation How to store digital photographs when on vacation
        When you're on vacation you may run out of space on your camera's memory card and won't be able to take any more pictures. Fortunately, there are several easy ways to fix this.
      • How to file digital photographs on a computer How to file digital photographs on a computer
        One of the great things about digital photography is that you can take lots of pictures and not worry about the cost of developing them. It's also one of its major drawbacks as you can end up with thousands of pictures on your hard drive, making your collection of photographs hard to manage. You may want to use an image management program to organize your photographs, but you can also do it quickly and easily with Windows Explorer.
      • How to develop digital photographs from home How to develop digital photographs from home
        Printing your digital photographs using an online photofinishing service is a great way to get traditional prints from the comfort of your own home.
      See All Photography Help & How-To Articles

      :: From The Blog...
      • Lenovo ThinkPad X100e details get leaked Lenovo ThinkPad X100e details get leaked
        The ThinkPad "netbook" actually isn't a netbook at all - and now we know what powers it.
      • Use your iPhone to kill yourself (virtually, speaking) Use your iPhone to kill yourself (virtually, speaking)
        You'll do just about anything to get out of another long and tedious boardroom meeting – and if you're Stan, a lowly cubicle dweller who just can't take it anymore, this even includes taking your own life in a number of creative ways.
      • Protect yourself when shopping online this holiday season
        If you’re planning to do some online shopping for your kids this Christmas, there are some things you can do to protect yourself from scams.
      • Productivity via GPS: how to load to-do lists based on your Android phone?s location Productivity via GPS: how to load to-do lists based on your Android phone’s location
        Using popular apps Astrid and Locale, users can automatically load to-do lists based on location or time of day.
      • Study: Nearly one-third of laptops fail within first 3 years Study: Nearly one-third of laptops fail within first 3 years
        So you're dropping big bucks on a new laptop and are expecting it to last a long while, right? Well, according to the findings of a new study on computer reliability, you might not get what you bargained for.
      Read More and Discuss

      • Understanding Scanners
        Getting to know the different types of scanners.
      • Travel Gear Tips
        Advice on traveling with camera gear.
      • Traveling with a Camera and Laptop
        What you need to know before you pack and go
      • Start a Photography Library
        Six essential books for the enthusiast.
      • A Consumer's Guide to Lenses II: Diagrams
      • How to Photograph Pets
        How to get your pet to pose for the perfect picture.
      • How to Photograph a Wedding and Survive
        So you've been asked to photograph the wedding of a friend or relative, or supplement a professional photographer's efforts. In either case, it's important to fully understand what's at stake.
      • How to Photograph a Rainbow
        A pro's tips on how to capture a rainbow - safely.
      • How to Choose the Right Wedding Photographer
      • How to Build a Digital Darkroom
        A guide to selecting components for a digitaldarkroom.
      • How New FAA Rules Affect Traveling with Cameras and Laptops
      • Get the Most from Your Scanner
        Getting the most out of your scanner.
      • Get Stunning Prints from Digital Images
        Get the best prints possible from your digital images.
      • Get Great Prints From Digital Images
      • Get Great Prints From an Inkjet Printer
        Don't waste that valuable ink - make sure you're printing the best, not the rest
      • Gearing Up for Vacation
        How to make it a successful trip from a photography point of view
      • Digital Camera Accessory Guide
        The well-dressed digital photographer--accessorized!
      • Cool Accessories for Digital Cameras, Printers, and Scanners
        Find the perfect accessory for your digital photography gear bag.
      • Buying a Scanner
      • Camera Gear and Laptops: Carry-ons or Baggage?
        A traveler's guide
      • A Consumer's Guide to Lenses - Part II
        Become an expert in the latest trends in high-tech lenses.
      • A Consumer's Guide To Lenses - Part I
        Learn about lenses and the pros and cons of several types.
      • Avoiding Red-Eye in Digital Photography
        Red-eye occurs when light from the built-in flash of a camera bounces off the subject's retinas and reflects back to the camera lens. Along the way, the light takes on the tint of the blood vessels in the eye, which causes the eyes to appear to be glowing red in the picture. In animal pictures, eyes often have a white, yellow, or green glint.
      • Archiving and Backing Up Your Digital Photo Collection
        You can archive digital images that you don't need to access quickly or frequently. If a photo is valuable to you on some level in the long run but you don't imagine wanting to look at or print it in the foreseeable future, just save it to disc — a CD or DVD is the best choice because Zip disks and floppy disks have a considerably shorter storage life. You have several archiving options, many of which may be on your computer right now. If they're not, you can easily acquire them.
      • Accounting for Aspect Ratio in Digital Photography
        You may notice that your digital pictures have a different width-to-height ratio — or aspect ratio, in photography lingo — than pictures taken with a 35mm film camera. Digital cameras produce images that have an aspect ratio of 4:3, and 35mm film negative produces pictures that have an aspect ratio of 3:2.
      • Getting to Know Digital Photography

        Going digital opens up a world of artistic and practical possibilities that you simply don't enjoy with traditional photographic prints. Here are just a few advantages of working with digital images:

      • Getting Smart about Digital Camera Batteries
        Like any camera, a digital camera runs on battery power. The type of batteries you need depends on your camera. Some models use a custom battery supplied only by the camera manufacturer, and others use standard, AA-size batteries.
      • Fine-Tuning Exposure with a Digital Camera's Metering System
        Your camera's exposure metering system is a tireless friend that keeps plugging away, calculating its reckoning of the correct exposure (based on parameters you set) regardless of whether you choose to pay attention or not. It's available whether you're setting exposure manually or using one of the programmed or priority modes. You can't really turn off the exposure meter completely when the camera is on — although it might go to sleep after a few seconds of inactivity. Even then, as soon as you tap the shutter release button, a sleeping meter wakes up, looks at the current view through the lens, and reports its findings.
      • Evaluating Digital Images in Camera Raw
        The first step in processing raw digital images is to evaluate your image. Chances are, the first time you really view an image — other than the thumbnails in Adobe Bridge — is through the Camera Raw preview. When you first open an image in Photoshop's Camera Raw, Auto Adjustments are automatically applied for the Exposure, Shadows, Brightness, and Contrast controls. (That would explain why your raw images actually look pretty good!)
      • Digitizing Existing Pictures with Scanners
        Scanning existing photographic prints, drawings, slides, and negatives is a popular use for digital imaging. By scanning existing images, you can preserve vintage photographs on CD-Rs and CD-RWs, repair and retouch your family album, and share images with friends and family without losing control of your valuable negatives or original prints. You can e-mail or post your images on a Web site, even when they were not shot with your digital camera. In order to take advantage of these opportunities to use and share your existing photos in a digital format, you need to scan them into digital images.
      • Digital Photography: Understanding Computer Monitor Resolution
        As you prepare photos for on-screen use, remember that monitors display images using one screen pixel for every image pixel. The exception is when you're working in a photo-editing program or other application that enables you to zoom in on a picture, thereby devoting several screen pixels to each image pixel.
      • Digital Photography: Looking at Lens Features
        When choosing a digital camera, the first thing you should concentrate on is the lens furnished with the camera. Understanding the basics of lens features will help you make the best choice for your needs. Some of the more expensive digital SLR (single lens reflex) cameras allow you to use interchangeable (attachment) lenses that you can use in different situations.
      • Digital Cameras: Aperture, f-Stops, and Shutter Speed
        The brightness or darkness of a photographic image depends on exposure — the amount of light that hits the film or image-sensor array. The more light, the brighter the image. Too much light results in a washed-out, or overexposed, image; too little light, and the image is dark, or underexposed.
      • Demystifying Digital Camera Resolution
        For many people, image resolution is a very perplexing part of digital photography. Some of the confusion stems from the different meanings that resolution has for cameras, printers, monitors, and scanners. Adding to the problem, a lot of incorrect information has been spread around over the years — you've probably gotten bad advice yourself from well-meaning but misinformed friends and salespeople.
      • Dealing with dSLR Camera Shake
        Whenever photographers get together, one of the inevitable topics of conversation is each shooter's prowess at hand-holding a camera for incredibly long exposures. No matter how experienced a photographer you are, and whether or not you apply arcane breath-control and body-steadying practices to your techniques, you only think you're steady enough to shoot long exposures with short lenses, and reasonably long exposures with telephotos.
      • Creating a Digital Art Photo in Black and White
        Shooting in black and white (B&W) is a serious form of art photography. Some people tend to dismiss B&W as boring or somehow less artsy because — face it — there's no color! However, there are plenty of markets for your B&W art photos, from galleries to museums to photojournalism to portraiture and architecture shots.
      • Contending with Digital SLR Camera Quirks
        If you're entering the digital SLR world from the realms of film cameras or non-SLR digital photography, you'll note some significant differences that can only be called quirks. They are idiosyncrasies of the dSLR that you must compensate for or grudgingly put up with. Some might even drive you crazy. The following sections offer some advice for contending with these quirks.
      • Choosing Digital Camera Filters
        Filters are those glass or gelatin disks or squares that are affixed to the front of your camera's lens, changing the light that passes through the lens in some way. Filters were really popular before the advent of digital photography because some of the effects you could get with them weren't possible (or easy) to achieve in the darkroom.
      • Checking for Advanced Flash Features in Your Digital Camera
        Most cameras have a built-in flash that operates in several modes. In addition to automatic mode, in which the camera gauges the available light and fires the flash if needed, you typically get the following options: fill flash, no flash, red-eye reduction, and night-time flash (also called slow-sync flash). Higher-end cameras may allow you to add an external flash unit as well.
      • Checking for Advanced Flash Features in Your Digital Camera
        In addition to the basic flash modes, you may have access to some advanced flash controls in your digital camera, which expand your creative flexibility. This article explains three of these options.
      • Capturing a Great Digital Picture

        After you figure out the mechanics of your camera — how to load the batteries, how to turn on the LCD, and so on — taking a picture is a simple process. Just aim the camera and press the shutter button. Taking a good picture, however, isn't so easy. Sure, you can record an okay image of your subject without much effort. But if you want a crisp, clear, dynamic image, you need to consider a few factors before you point and shoot.

      • Camcorder Techniques: Framing a Shot
        Framing the shot is simply a matter of placing the subject properly in the picture. You don't have much to remember to frame a shot correctly. Keep these three things in mind when framing: safety margins, offset versus symmetrical, and proper headroom.
      • Bringing Soft Images into Sharper Focus
        Sharpening filters, found in every photo-editing program, can make slightly soft photos appear to be in sharper focus. Don't expect miracles from sharpening filters — even the most sophisticated ones can't rescue a totally blurry or even moderately blurry image, despite what you may have seen done on your favorite TV crime drama.
      • Looking at the Key Features of a Digital SLR Camera
        When you upgrade from your first digital camera to a digital SLR (single lens reflex) camera, the stakes increase dramatically. Digital SLR cameras have interchangeable lenses and generally cost quite a bit more than any basic point-and-shoot digital camera. Take a look at the individual features of the dSLR (digital SLR) cameras you're considering and how they affect you.
      • Looking at Basic Digital-Camera Settings
        Digital camera manufacturers work hard to create a good "out of box" experience — that is, to make your first encounter with your camera fun, easy, and rewarding. To that end, cameras leave the factory in automatic picture-taking mode, using default settings that are likely to produce a good picture the first time you press the shutter button.
      • Locking Your Camera Focus
        Autofocus point-and-shoot cameras produce terrifically sharp pictures when you use them properly. But getting sharp results sometimes requires telling them where to focus.
      • Knowing How Digital Camera Lenses Work
        When shopping for a digital camera, people often overlook the camera lens. Serving as your camera's "eye," the lens determines what your camera can see — and how well that view is transmitted to the CCD (charge-coupled device) or CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) chip for recording. The following sections explain the basics of how digital camera lenses work.
      • Identifying Digital Photo Printing Options
        In the first years of digital photography, the only option for people who didn't want to print their own photos was to find a professional photo lab that could handle digital files. Now, any outlet that offers film developing, from your local drugstore to big-box retailers, also offers quick and easy digital camera "developing." You just take your memory card (or a CD full of images) to the store and specify the print size and quantity, just as you do when dropping off a roll of film.
      • Going from Digital Photo to Gallery-Ready Art Print
        Photographers who take the time to capture and print superior quality images by adhering to the following five steps — each a creative process in itself — will produce gallery-ready art prints that turn viewers into buyers. They'll enjoy your work for a lifetime. From taking a traditional portrait to making text-based art from a photograph, you'll travel through a land of light, space, time, and patience (remember, anything digital can get quirky) as you create some of the most original and high-quality work around.
      • Put Together a Digital Photo Slideshow
        Photoshop Album is a popular, inexpensive software package that amateur photographers use to manage, print, and share their digital photos. The program provides one-stop shopping for the most popular photo management functions — everything from storing photos to emailing them. Photoshop Album even links to a selection of editing software packages, such as Adobe Photoshop, that you might have installed on your computer, and then allows you to click once on a picture and launch the editing package with the picture preloaded.
      • Preparing to Photoblog
        Photoblogging "nearly' requires a digital camera, because you could conceivably photoblog with a film camera and digitizing service provided by a developer, or a camera/scanner combination. But using film doesn't lead to a happy photoblogging life. The path from film to blog is too slow, too expensive, and too complicated.
      • Peeking at the Anatomy of a Digital SLR Camera
        Exploring the innards of your digital SLR camera is a way to better understand how to use all the nifty features your digital camera includes. In some ways, the basics of a dSLR have a lot in common with the conventional film SLR, or indeed, any film camera. All these picture-grabbers share some fundamental components, as shown in Figure 1:
      • Looking at the Pros and Cons of Digital Photography
        Digital cameras blend the art of photography with the science of the computer age. They serve as an outlet for creative expression and as a serious communication tool. Just as important, digital cameras are fun. Digital photography, however, does have its pros and cons.
      • Shopping for the Right Digital Camera
        Today, everyone from icons of the photography world to powerhouse players in the computer and electronics market offers some sort of digital photography product. Having so many different fingers in the digicam pie is both good and bad. On the upside, more competition means better products, a wider array of choices, and lower prices for consumers. On the downside, you need to do a lot more research to figure out which camera is right for you. Different manufacturers take different approaches to winning the consumer's heart, and sorting through the various options takes some time and more than a little mental energy.
      • Shooting Panoramas with a Digital Camera
        When you're shooting digitally, you don't have to try to squeeze the entire Grand Canyon — or whatever other subject inspires you — into one frame. You can shoot several frames, each featuring a different part of the scene, and then stitch them together as you would sew together pieces of a patchwork quilt.
      • Setting the Resolution on a Digital Camera
        In digital photography, resolution is a measure of how many pixels make up a digital picture. It has become the holy grail of digital photography, as manufacturers compete to produce cameras with ever-higher pixel counts — the number of pixels in the camera's image sensor, which determines how many will be in the actual picture.
      • Sending Digital Photos by E-Mail
        With a few clicks of your mouse, you can send an image to anyone who has an email account. Although attaching a digital photo to an email message is really simple, the process sometimes breaks down due to differences in email programs and how files are handled on the Mac versus the PC. Also, newcomers to the world of electronic mail often get confused about how to view and send images — which isn't surprising, given that email software often makes the process less than intuitive.
      • Selecting a Format in Digital Photography: JPEG, TIFF, Raw
        Your camera may offer a choice of file types, or formats. The format determines how the camera records and stores all the bits of data that comprise a digital photo. This setting affects file size, picture quality, and what types of computer programs you need to view and edit the photo.
      • Saving Digital Photos in the JPEG Format
        JPEG (pronounced jay-peg) is the standard format used by digital cameras to store picture files. If you don't need to resize your JPEG originals, you can share them via email or post them on a Web page immediately. All Web browsers and email programs can display JPEG photos. Chances are, though, that your originals are too large for on-screen use, which means that you need to size them smaller. After you take that step — or do any other photo editing — you must resave the file in the JPEG format before sharing it online. (In case you're wondering, JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group.)
      • Understanding the Key Features of a dSLR Camera
        When you upgrade from your first digital camera to a digital SLR (dSLR), the stakes increase dramatically. A dSLR generally costs quite a bit more than any point-and-shoot digital camera, so you want to make the right purchase the first time. You also want to buy into a camera product line that has all the accessories you'll want to buy in the future. Owning a very cool digital single lens reflex is little comfort if you can't find that special must-have accessory.
      • Trimming Pictures to Standard Photo Sizes
        Some photo editors enable you to constrain the Crop tool to drawing a crop boundary that has a specific aspect ratio. You may even be able to use the tool to establish both the image print size and output resolution simply by cropping.
      • Ten Ways to Protect Your Pictures
        When asked to name the belongings they'd take if suddenly forced to leave their homes because of a fire, flood, or alien invasion, most people put their family photographs at the top of the list. Our pictures provide a visual record of our lives, and those images usually can't be replaced if lost. If flames, floodwaters, or space creatures appear at your door, may you have the presence of mind to grab at least a few of your photos as you're running away! In the meantime, read on for a list of things you can do to protect your photographs from environmental decay, digital destruction, and other, more common mishaps that can ruin your pictures.
      • Single-Click Fixes in Photoshop Album
        The quickest and easiest Photoshop Album edits to make in the Fix Photo dialog box are what are called Single Click Fixes. These are automatic edits, meaning you really have no say-so in how Album applies them.
      • Shrinking Digital Photos to Screen Size
        Have your friends ever emailed you photos that exceed the boundaries of your computer monitor? Or worse, have your friends complained about the size of photos that you've sent? Either way, the problem is caused by an overabundance of pixels. In addition to producing pictures that don't fit on-screen, having too many pixels creates another problem for Internet photo-sharing. Every pixel adds to the picture file size, which increases the time that it takes for your photos to make their way through the Internet pipeline.
      • Working with Your Digital Camera's Autofocus Mode
        Your focusing options depend on the type of digital camera you own. Cameras aimed at the casual picture-taker offer autofocusing; models designed for professionals and photography enthusiasts offer a choice of both autofocusing and manual focusing.
      • Working with Digitally Captured Images
        In the early days of digital cameras, downloading images was a complex process that involved connecting your camera to your computer with a special cable and then using a software program to download the images to your hard drive. You can still use that option with most digital cameras, but today there are simpler ways to get your images on your computer. The following options can be used with most digital cameras (consult the manual that came with your digital camera for details about your system).
      • Using Tags to Categorize and Search for Digital Photos
        Photoshop Album enables you to attach tags to your digital photos to categorize them and make it easier for you to find specific photos later. The program uses existing category names such as People, Places, and Events, but you can add your own custom subcategories.
      • Using Lenses Creatively in Digital Photography
        Working with a lens involves more than simply adjusting to its greater or lesser field of view. That is to say, a wide-angle lens is much more than just a wider perspective, just as a telephoto lens has a lot more going for it than the ability to pull objects closer to your camera. The following sections show you some of the techniques you need to know to work with wide-angle and telephoto lenses creatively.
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