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Digital Cameras:
Find a camera that fits your style - a sleek, stylish camera that slips into your pocket or do you want a practical camera with large, well-positioned controls? Controls are harder to find and can be difficult to manipulate on small cameras while with a bigger camersa you'll be less likely to take it everywhere you go.
Your camera should have a built-in flash and a viewfinder for framing the picture. Many cameras offer creative controls so you can get better pictures. The more controls, the more complex the camera, and the easier it is to make mistakes. As capability increases so do cost and complexity.
With a complex camera, you'll need to read the manual twice and practice with the camera to learn its many features. With a simple snapshot camera, you'll be taking good snapshots minutes after opening the box. And should your Aunt Em ask to borrow it, she'll be able to take pictures, too. But it will not have the capability of a more advanced camera.
Will your computer work with your digital camera?
If your computer is fairly new, the camera will almost certainly work with it. But don't take a chance. Before you buy a camera, review the specs to find out what the computer requirements are. Nearly every camera requires a USB (universal serial bus) connection on the computer.
Avoid cameras that force you to use the battery-draining display screen to compose pictures. One important software feature is the plus/minus brightness control so you can adjust picture brightness during picture-taking.
Camera resolution-determines picture quality it is a key factor in how big you can print and how much you can crop your pictures. The higher the resolution, the greater the cost of the camera. For general picture-taking, a camera with a 2 to 3 megapixel resolution is adequate.
Review the resolution settings many cameras offer a range of settings, which can be convenient to fit more pictures on a picture card or save making adjustments later.
For instance, if you know you'll only e-mail a particular picture, you could use a low resolution setting so you do not have to resize the picture later.
Resolution Maximum print size:
Resolution is the digital version of square footage. In other words, how many pixels (picture elements) are there on the sensor that creates the picture - the sensor is the digital equivalent of film, except it is used over and over. Resolution is expressed by the number of horizontal pixels on the sensor multiplied by the number of vertical pixels. The resolution for a typical sensor in the language of digital cameras might be 3.1 megapixels (2,160 horizontal pixels x 1,440 vertical pixels = 3,110,400 pixels).
Glass or plastic camera lens. Glass gives much better quality pictures. Is it a zoom lens or a non-zoom lens? A zoom lens adds costs but also great versatility. With a zoom lens, you can magnify subjects or shrink them to include more area in the picture. If you choose a zoom lens, what is the zoom range? 2X? 3X? More? The greater the zoom range, the greater its versatility.
Digital zoom shouldn't be an important factor in choosing a camera. In effect, it crops the picture as you take it, reducing resolution of the picture and the size you can print it.
Scanning old photos and other paper images onto your computer:
Scan from matte prints Glossy prints look nice, but they also show fingerprints and scratches faster than matte prints.
Clean your surfaces Use a slightly damage cloth to clean your scanner and photo. A really damp cloth can ruin both, so be careful.
Line up your photo Keep your photos square on the scanner. If you have to adjust the position of the image in Photoshop, it will re-interpolate (you want to avoid interpolation in most cases) and become a little softer.
Make TIFF your friend Save everything as a TIFF file, the most reliable, accepted file format around. If you want your digital pictures to last for a long time, it's your best bet.
Turn off sharpening Photoshop has a sharpen filter, so don't let your scanner sharpen images for you. You can't undo sharpening if it's done on the way to your computer.
Bit depths select the highest available bit depth, usually 48 bits. Your images will rarely look better by scanning at a higher bit depth, but theoretically it'll give you more headspace to make adjustments. It can make a big difference if you plan on doing any color correction.
Find the right resolution You should always scan smaller images and slides at a higher DPI since they pack information in a smaller package.
Save your negatives If you do a lot of scanning and have a lot of negatives, buy a slide scanner. Some scanners can deal with 50 slides at a time. Let it scan all night, and then sort through your images in the morning.
Use TIFF files if you're scanning or shooting on a higher-end camera