Digital Camera Stuff: Things to Know Before & After Buying One  Dr. Tom Foley Mathematics Dept. & Computer Science Dept., Glendale Community College

These pages were created for my students and my colleagues at GCC.  They are intended for an average computer literate person with an average interest in digital photography.  For more advanced info, please refer to the Links to Other Resources.  Most of the image editing examples use Photoshop Elements version 2, and the details are similar to those used in Elements (version 3) and Photoshop CS.  There are a few editing example that make use of Photoshop CS.

• What are Pixels, Mega Pixels, & How many MP's should I get?
• Pro's & Con's of Digital Cameras
• Additional Expenses - there are many
• Things to look for in Choosing a Camera
• List of Cameras - with prices, # of MP's, zoom, and type of memory card.  Beware that the lowest price listed might be from an on-line service of marginal reliability.
• Image file formats - with discussion of JPG files, plus RAW, TIFF, GIF, and editor formats
• Memory Cards & Image Capacity - stuff about different memory cards and how much memory you need
• Camera operation - things to know
• Workflow - generic steps after a photo is taken
• Computer issues - you may need an upgrade
• Image Editing in general - These editing examples using Photoshop Elements will enhance a mediocre image and make it rock!   I avoided using Layers in some of these examples in order to keep things simple.
• Image Editing example - general color/contrast enhancement, save for prints, and save for the web. This example contains essential info for enhancing almost any image.
• Image Editing example - selections and selective enhancements
• Image Editing example - adjustment layers
• Image Editing example - crop for printing at stores
• Image Editing example - contrast is good and bad, so be selective
• Image Editing example - red-eye removal and some brighter teeth
• Image Editing example - vignette examples
• Image Editing example - very low light + yellow cast
• Image Editing example - add a border for printing
• Image Editing example - digital noise
• Image Editing example - what I generally do in Photoshop CS
• Image Editing example - perspective distortion correction
• Image Editing example - Curves, Channel Mixer, Blending Modes, simulation of Velvia film (Photoshop CS)
• Image Editing example - Photo Filters and Curves (Photoshop CS)
• Image Editing example - Clone Stamp to remove edge artifacts from sharpening
• Image Editing example - Shadow/Highlight for bring detail out of shadow (Photoshop CS)
• Image Editing example - Healing (Photoshop CS)
• Image Editing example - Sharpening
• Image Editing example - Local Contrast Enhancement using the Unsharp Mask
• Image Editing example - digital slide show presentation
• Image Editing example - image resizing up and down for prints and digital presentation
• Image Editing example - 16 bit Mode or why 16 million colors is not enough (Photoshop CS)
• more to come in the future.
• Making Prints - at photo processing stores and/or on a home printer
• Links to other resources (camera reviews, printer reviews, tutorials, some good books)

More images: Shots of Monument Valley and shots on a Northern Trip to Iceland, Norway, Faroe Islands, and southern England.