What does tiff mean?

Digital photo terms and tips

Understanding digital photo file formats will help you make the most of your digital camera. Knowing how to take advantage of your camera's features makes it easy to produce great pictures and movies perfect for any situation. Digital cameras allow you to capture fast-moving action with a burst of photos, take pictures just the right size for e-mailing, or even make movies with a few pushes of a button.

JPG

JPG is the standard format used by most digital cameras. What makes JPGs so popular is that they are able to hold a lot of information (i.e. image detail) in a relatively small file. It's important to note that JPGs are recompressed everytime they're saved. Numerous recompressions will degrade the quality of the image, so it's a good idea to make a copy of your picture before making any modifications to it. Generally speaking, JPGs are your best bet for everyday shooting. The format strikes a solid compromise between image quality and file size. Your choice of image size (i.e. image resolution) should depend on the intended output for your photos, though it's usually best to shoot at the highest possible JPG resolution to take advantage of the camera's image sensor.

TIF

TIFs guarantee the highest possible quality image, but at a cost of huge file sizes and long waits as

The only time it would be smart to shoot TIFs is if you planned on making an enormous photographic print where you would want as much detail from the image as possible. Definately not for everyday photos, but great if you are planning to print large.

MPG

Creating a movie with your digital camera is not unlike taking many pictures in succession. MPGs are great to capture fast action, or to show a sweeping panorama that your camera isn't able to capture in a single picture. Keep in mind that the quality isn't as high as a DV camera, but for recording short videos to view on your computer, it's a good choice. Depending on your camera model, movie length is generally limited by the capacity of your memory card or CD. Movies in MPG format can be a good way to capture fast action. In the end, your file format choice is best dictated by what you're photographing. Different scenes lend themselves to different formats, but if you're not sure what to do, shooting JPGs is your best choice.

Image editing programs abound and they provide you with great solutions to making your digital photos shine. Let's take a look at some of the simple things you do to improve your images after you take them.

With just a little work, you can do everything from removing red-eye, cropping your photos to standard print sizes, or using the Auto-Fix feature to bring out the best in your pictures.

Your camera may have come with bundled software from the manufacturer which can be useful. However if you want to go to the next level you may want to check out some of the most popular software titles. One of the most useful features of any photo editor is the ability it gives you to undo any changes you've already made to your photo. For instance, if you decide that maybe a sepia tone and black border don't really complement your photo the way you thought it would, just click on the Undo button at the bottom of the screen to go back one step at a time. The Undo feature allows you to undo every single change you've made to the image, from when you first began editing it. Also, if you undo a change, then decide you were right the first time, just click on Redo. In addition to undoing mistakes, you can also restore an image to its original appearance by hitting Reset (instead of having to hit Undo repeatedly).

If you've made all your changes and are ready to save the image, you have two options: by choosing Save as Copy, you'll save an additional copy of the image in its new, modified form. If you choose Save and Replace, you'll overwrite the old image with the new one.

The Auto-Fix function is a great place to start when editing your images. The Auto- Fix combines several steps into one by correcting the image's contrast, brightness, color levels and more.

Combating the Dreaded Red-Eye

Red-eye is one of the most common problems encountered when taking photos of people. Red-eye happens when someone is looking directly at the camera, and the light from the flash reflects off the blood vessels in the retina.

Removing red-eye is quick and easy. After selecting Fix Red-Eye under Essential Tools, move your mouse over the offending red part of the eye, give it a single click and- voila, the red-eye is gone. If you're not satisfied with the result after one click, a second click will often do the trick.

Going to Print: Cropping Your Photos

When you're ready to get some prints made of your photos, the Crop tool under Essential Tools is invaluable. With it, you can size the photo to standard print sizes, (anywhere from 2 x 3 to 20 x 30), ensuring that your photo fits the exact print dimensions so that there is no white space on the print.

Making Great Gifts with Edges and Templates

Once you've fixed up your photos to your liking, you're ready to share them. Making prints is one way to let people see your photos. Another way to present them is to take advantage of the many offerings at the ImageStation store.

For gifts with a large white background (such as coffee mugs and t-shirts), your photos might benefit from both the Templates and Edges editing tools.

Let's start with Templates, which include a number of borders to suit any photo. Starting with a photo I shot at the zoo which I ran through Auto-Fix, I'm thinking of making a funny coffee mug for my girlfriend to remind her of my photo savvy and to make her laugh every time she takes a sip of coffee.

After choosing the Templates tab, I'm ready to find the perfect template. In looking at all of the choices available, I settle on a fun Valentine's Day theme. Clicking on the design applies it to the image. The photo is a little off-center, so I use the Move arrows to push it a touch to the right.

I choose to Save as Copy in order to preserve the original image, and now the image is ready to adorn the side of a coffee mug.

Another option for dressing up your image is to use the Edges tool.

Adding edges will give a nice textured look to sides of your photo, and look great against the white backdrop of a t-shirt or coffee mug.

Wrapping Up

The top photo editor's are powerful tools, allowing you to work wonders with your photos. With the tips above, you should have little trouble in creating great photos to show to friends and family on your computer screen, as a photographic print, or even on a coffee mug. Good luck!

How can I get great group shots?

It never fails. It happens when you're out with friends, or home for a visit, or at that business dinner with the client. Someone pulls out a camera, someone else says, "Hey, everybody! Say Cheese!" And you grin as best you can, knowing that the resulting awful photo of you mid-blink will be emailed to everyone you know faster than you can say, "redeye."

Everybody likes a nice group shot to remember a social gathering. So why do they always wind up looking so bad? We here at ImageStation Magazine thought it was time for a refresher on getting the perfect group shot. So here are four tips for photos that will travel as email attachments for months to come.

Off with their heads!
Cropping and framing. We have a little joke in my family. When we're paging through rolls and rolls of old photos and come to a group shot, we'll all smile and pass it around. Invariably, if I'm in the photo, that means I didn't take it. And if I didn't take it, then Grandma Gert, did, God rest her soul. Gert was a great woman with a wicked sense of humor, but she was also quite a bit shorter than me. Which could explain why my head was almost always cut off, disappearing out of the frame on top. When it comes to framing that perfect group shot, remember that faces are the most important part - that's what people always look at first. Your friends pay people to cut their hair, so don't do it for them! Give your photos plenty of breathing room on top. One of the great things about digital photography is that you can always crop the empty space out later, if need be, but you can't add the top of Aunt Jane's beehive back in.

The opposite is also true: Don't feel like you've got to get everybody's toes in the frame. In fact, the head-to-toe shot can sometimes come back looking like a mugshot. Unless that's what you're going for, feel free to let your subject's bottom halves fall out of frame while you concentrate on their faces.

And if Uncle Joe is towering over everyone else, remember that you can always just make him sit down in front.

Turn off that flash! Put the sun at your back. When I was a kid and my dad gave me my first camera (I think it was a 126 cartridge), he gave me one piece of advice: "Always put the sun at your back." Actually, he gave me two. He also said I should hold my breath when I hit the shutter, but I think he was just making that one up. For some reason, that hasn't stopped me from doing it to this day.

But since most of us are using small digital cameras, that's not exactly an option. Thankfully, there's another easy solution: turn the flash off and use available light. Any digicam that comes with a flash also comes with a way to turn it off. Usually some combination of button-pressing will result in an icon that looks like a lighting bolt with a line through it appearing somewhere. This means the flash is off.

With your flash off, pay attention to where the light is coming from in the room. The "sun at your back" advice works just as well indoors - just look for the brightest light in the room, and make sure it's behind you, shining on your subjects. Shooting a digicam with the flash off will often result in better digital photos. No more blown out ghosts with red eyes! However, you now have a new problem to worry about: blurring. If you're shooting without a flash, locate the brightest place you can or turn on a nearby lamp. If you can put your camera down on a table or some other flat surface and shoot on a time-delay, do it! That way, you won't even be touching the camera when it shoots. Believe it or not, most blurring comes from tiny movement in your hands, not your subjects! You can also try leaning against a wall, or bracing your hand against whatever's handy.

Say cheese! Explaining the digicam delay. Shooting digital photos of a get-together is great because the photos can be online in minutes, with emails going out to all your wired friends to come see. The problem is, when you're shooting people who aren't used to digital photography, they may assume that a quick "Say cheese!" is all it's going to take.

But consumer-level digital cameras are slower than traditional film SLRs, so sometimes it helps to warn the folks in your group shot that there'll be a small delay. Try saying, "When I say cheese, stand real still, okay? Ready? Cheese!" Your subjects may have to do a little work, but they'll get better group shots in their email for it. And the really killer thing abut shooting digital at family functions is all the oohing and ahhing over the camera from the older family members. I love passing my camera around the table after sneaking a shot of Uncle Eddie doing his spoon trick. (Don't ask.)

Up against the wall! Getting into position. Okay, so, you've got your flash off, you've identified the brightest spot in the house, and you've explained that "say cheese" may mean a prolonged smile. Next you need to set up your group shot.

With small groups, the closer you can get people to stand next to each other, the better. If everyone stands shoulder to shoulder, it's going to get that mug shot quality mentioned earlier. Instead, position people at an angle. The professional photographers tend to put people with their outside shoulder angled toward the camera, and their inside shoulder facing away. At an angle, you can get people to stand closer to each other and still be comfortable.

But there's no need to get too formal with a casual group shot. I tend to let people stand where they feel comfortable. Once they've filed into place, just give them a gentle nudge together.

Finally, when it's picture taking time, people have a tendency to go stand in front of a wall. Nine times out of ten, your shots will look better if you get your group to stand away from anything like a wall or a bookcase. The further they move away from what's behind them, the more out of focus that stuff will become. And that's good - you want the photo to be about the people, not what books they have on the shelf behind them.

That's it! Just follow those four tips and this season's group shots will be better than the last - you'll see. The tall guy may even make it into the frame this year.

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