DIGITAL BASICS 2

Memory cards are little chips that store all the taken images until it fills up. They come in a wide variety of sizes, from 512 megabytes to 8 gigabytes. To clarify, there is 1000kilobytes in a megabyte and 1000megabytes in a gigabyte. If you had a 6megapixel camera, you could fit about 300 jpeg images onto a 1gig card. Once those images have been saved onto cd or computer, you can erase the card and start again. The best way to erase your images is by formatting the card. This can be done on camera or on computer but your own camera is preferable. It is also good to format a brand new card before you have even used it as this “calibrates” the card to the camera and ensures a longer life for the card.

There are many file types that can be shot with, converted and saved to. I mentioned jpeg before because this is the most common image file used and would be considered the industry standard. The more professional camera models give you the option of shooting in raw as well, which contains minimally processed data. They are not ready for print until they are converted to an RGB file like a TIFF or jpeg. Raw images are sometimes known as digital negatives, as they need manipulation just like film negatives would before printing. This gives the photographer far more personal control with colour, contrast, saturation and density. Oh and file size as well. You can manipulate and convert files with many different types of software but I would like to talk about one called photoshop…. Next month!