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Monthly Archives: December 2010

Your digital camera takes an image with a . For example, a Canon t2i takes an image with an aspect ratio of 3 : 2. The long side will always be 1.5 x as long as the short side. There’s nothing inherently good or bad about a specific aspect ratio,…

28 December 2010 0 comments Processing

The “aspect ratio” of an image is the ratio of the length of the image to the width of the image. Most dSLR cameras have an aspect ratio of 3 : 2.  The Canon t2i has a 3 : 2 aspect ratio. A full size jpeg image taken by the…

27 December 2010 0 comments Glossary

When you make design decisions involving images and web sites, size matters. You want to get a large enough image that you can see some detail, but you also don’t want the image to be too big for the screen. At the same time, you want the image to be…

26 December 2010 0 comments Processing

If you’re digital camera is any good, it takes really big pictures. My Canon t1i is something like 15 megapixels, so the long side of an image is 4,752 pixels. This is nice for printing, but it’s over kill for the web. My widescreen monitor has a native resolution of…

25 December 2010 3 comments Processing

Facebook sets limits on the size of the images it displays.  While you can upload bigger photos, Facebook’s upload script will automatically shrink the images and resize them for you.  If you want some control in that resizing process, it helps to know what the maximum size is so that…

24 December 2010 2 comments Digital Photo FAQs

When I got Kirk Tuck’s book, Minimalist Lighting: Professional Techniques for Location Photography, I already knew a little bit about minimalist lighting.  I’d been reading Strobist for six months or so and I’d used some of those ideas with my students to do portraits for the yearbook last year. While…

19 December 2010 0 comments Book Reviews

Two weeks ago, I read an article in the NY Times that examined the future of point and shoot digital cameras. The author suggested that as dSLR cameras became more popular and camera phones increased in quality, point and shoot cameras would soon fade away. Your average user would find…

17 December 2010 0 comments Random Thoughts

Looking for a perfect Christmas present for a girly girl? Or, at least, for a girl who loves the color pink? Yeah, I had that problem. She mentioned that she needed a camera, and it had to be pink. Like, well, just about everything else in her life. So I…

16 December 2010 0 comments Gear Review

In the first step of this tutorial, we looked at . We cleaned up Mario’s face a little, removing some spots and a slight scratch/scar.  Then, we used the adjustment brush to apply some negative clarity and . At this point, he looks pretty good. This is no magazine cover,…

11 December 2010 0 comments Processing

In the , we did some editing to Mario’s face and removed some blemishes and what not. It’s started to look cleaner, but his skin is still a bit rough, especially if you zoom in. Next, we want to soften that skin out, make the pores less noticeable, and remove…

08 December 2010 0 comments Processing

About Digital Photography How To

Digital Photography How To is intended to be a guide to people learning how to use their digital SLR cameras. Three years ago, I had never picked up a camera; now, I produce a yearbook every year and I moonlight as a professional photographer.

I write this website to share what I've learned in that time. The topics will range from truly beginners topics, to tutorials for post processing, to resources for yearbook and graphic design, to thoughts on transitioning from a hobbyist to a professional. Keep up to date by subscribing to the RSS feed.