Zooming In on Digital Photography
How to Take Better Pictures, Save Them and Actually Find Them Later
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Friday, May 13, 2005
Used to be that the trusty old film camera got pulled out a few times a year -- on vacations, birthdays and holidays.
But digital cameras are changing people's habits. According to research firm InfoTrends, households with digital cameras take more than twice as many pictures as households without a digital camera -- 35 shots per month compared with 17.
Where every shot was a commitment in the film world, it costs nothing to push the shutter button on that digital camera, cell phone camera or other high-tech gadget. And, thanks to e-mail, it costs nothing to share that photo with friends and family around the world.
"We're getting to the point where photography itself is really starting to transform in people's minds," said Christopher Chute, an analyst at IDC. Some digital photographers in the 23-and-under set never print their pictures at all, he said.
As a result, people are shooting a lot of images that once went uncaptured, for better or worse -- check out Fotolog, a site that lets people post their latest snaps for all the World Wide Web to see. If the Internet really needed a repository of, say, 20,000 pictures of Converse sneakers, it now has one at this site.
"A lot of people start out taking the cliche pictures," said Adam Seifer, chief executive of Fotolog: " 'Here's my kid, here's my dog, here's my house.' " But with the potential to take unlimited "free" shots, people usually start to get more adventurous, he said.
Seifer has taken a picture of every meal he has eaten for the past 2 1/2 years. (Check out his eating habits at http:/
For shots that you might actually want to keep, here are a few tips about how to get the most satisfaction out of the digital camera.
Mark Greenberg
A photojournalist whose work has appeared in magazines such as People and National Geographic.
ยท Take advantage of the fact that digital means you don't have to buy film. Just shoot, shoot, shoot and shoot. Don't be afraid to push that shutter button, because every moment will yield some different expression on your subject's face.
