Digital Photograhy

Digital Photography and the Web JONAS DOW N O V E M B E R 4 TH, 2 0 1 3

When reading this manual, you will learn the best methods and practices of using digital photography on the internet. This manual will explain how to use a digital camera, download pictures onto your computer, and resize or otherwise optimize them for use on the web.

Using a Digital Camera and Downloading Images ď‚— A digital camera is a tool used to take

high-quality photos that can be downloaded onto a computer and eventually put on the internet. There are a series of steps that must be taken before the raw photos are ready to be uploaded, however. ď‚— First of all, you must download the pictures onto your computer. This is done by connecting the camera and computer via a cable and either copying or syncing the pictures onto your computer.

Ratio and Megapixels ď‚— Before you take a picture, you will

want to check the ratio and megapixel settings on your camera. Common ratios include 16:9 and 4:3, and these correlate to the shape of the image.

16:9 is for widescreen computers, and 4:3 is for more square-shaped computers. ď‚— The megapixel setting determines how large the photo is. A larger megapixel setting just means that the photo will be saved with a higher amount of pixels than it would if you selected a lower megapixel setting.

Optimizing Digital Images for the Web ď‚— The best practice for putting images

from your camera onto the web is fairly simple. Once you have downloaded them onto your computer, open them in Photoshop and change the image size to a reasonable size, such as 800 x 600 pixels (smaller than the size of a computer screen). This is known as down-sampling. ď‚— Uploading a picture with fewer pictures will allow people to view them much quicker than if you left them as they were on the camera.

Raw photo, 14.4 Megapixels

Optimized photo, 1.37 Megapixels

“Save for Web” Feature  This feature in Adobe Photoshop

allows you to convert files into commonly used file types, such as .jpg, .png, or .gif. These file types are used universally by all browsers.  When saving a photo using the savefor-web feature, you are given the option to change the quality and size of the image. Reducing these will also reduce the loading time of the image, which is useful for users with a slow internet connection.

Naming Digital Images  When you have finished optimizing a

photo, you will want to save it. In order to make sure you are able to find it later and recognize it without opening it, you should consider what name you give it. When naming an image to be saved, you should be able to tell what it is, when it was taken, and who took it. For example: soccergame1-september20-jtd.jpg  You should use hyphens (-) instead of underscores (_), as underscores do not show up in links. In addition, if you use neither and simply leave a space, it will be replaced by ‘%20’.

Bibliography  "Samsung EC-PL210 Digital Camera with 14 MP and

10x Optical Zoom (Indigo Blue)."Amazon.com: : Camera & Photo. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Nov. 2013. <http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-EC-PL210Digital-Camera-Optical/dp/B004OZ922E>. (samsung camera image)  "Robert Accettura's Fun With Wordage." Robert Accettura's Fun With Wordage. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Nov. 2013. <http://robert.accettura.com/blog/2008/12/18/sim city-for-iphone/>. (‘loading’ image)  "Direct Incorporation Blog." Direct Incorporation Blog. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Nov. 2013. <http://directincorporation.com/blog/2012/01/31/ naming-a-business/>. (‘hello, my name is…’ image)