Amateur and professional photographers have many options in
today’s camera marketplace to suit a wide range of interests.
DSLR landscape photo ca 2007
and memory card capacity has
skyrocketed as the cost has plunged.
I purchased Photoshop Elements to
edit pictures, so my computer became
my darkroom. There are free software
programs (e.g., Picasa) that are
adequate for amateurs. I’m a freelance
writer and photographer, so I also
had to purchase a Nikon Cool Scan V
fi lm scanner to digitize 35 mm slides
for publishers who were also in the
process of going digital. I eventually
realized some savings by not having
to purchase and develop slide fi lm,
which was costing me about $1,000
annually.
The resolution of DSLR sensors
is measured in megapixels. Most
photographers soon realized that
the camera companies were moving
toward higher and higher megapixels.
The fi rst digital camera had .01
megapixels, and today, cameras
with over twenty megapixels are
common. Unless you’re shooting
for commercial purposes, it isn’t
necessary to go above ten megapixels;
this is adequate for quality portrait
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and landscape photographs. Higher
resolution images are used for
posters, not family photographs.
The digital age has almost destroyed
the stock photo industry because so
many people are taking quality digital
images and giving them away for free.
When fi lm was king, it took skill and
experience to take professional quality
images; it was also too expensive
for most people to get into stock
DSLR portrait photo ca 2016
photography. Not anymore. I’m not
going to get into the newest age of
cell phone and iPhone photography
because these devices were originally
intended for telecommunications, not
photography.
Digital point-and-shoot and
compact travel cameras are still very
popular. DSLR cameras are moving
toward even greater improvements in
image quality, including multimedia
(i.e., video) capability. With all these
added features, some DSLR cameras
are getting larger and bulkier, but
there are many options for quality
mirrorless cameras with small,
lightweight bodies. Amateur and
professional photographers have
many options in today’s camera
marketplace to suit a wide range of
interests. ●
An avid outdoorsman, Duane
Radford is also a successful writer
and professional photographer.
He’s the author of books about
fi shing, hunting, and cowboys.