Sunday, December 10, 2017

Taking Pictures - What's The Best Way To Do It...And Why!

A Snapshot
    For the most part, I take "snapshots" for my articles. If I am performing some difficult or technical modification/repair, I take more detailed photos. They're not the best I can do and I know it! Last week I wrote about a new cellphone I bought and it got me thinking about how I take photos for my articles. No matter what they are for, your photos record moments you want to keep. For how long? Well, that's up to you. In any case, there are many ways to take photos and many devices you can use. Each has its pro's and con's. Figuring out what to use and how to compose your photos is really important. Here's how!

A Great Camera In It's Day. Still Works!
The Device. Nowadays, digital photos rule the day. It's increasingly rare to find someone taking pictures on actual film. Hopefully, we all remember or know what that is! I still take pictures using an older digital camera. It's a Sony CyberShot 10.1 megapixel one. Works fine, takes OK shots in a resolution that works fine for online use. The higher the resolution, the clearer the pictures when resized larger, however, the file size gets bigger and bigger! An average 1920x1080 (HD) photo is around 1MB with minimal compression. The more it's compressed, the smaller the file size, but you will give up some in quality. I shoot in a 3 mega pixel mode(2048x1536) so I can crop and manipulate the framing. Makes life easier when you take fast photos in awkward positions. Every week you see the results.

The New Phone
The problem is, I have to remember to bring the camera with me to the RV when I am writing an article or taking a trip. Sometimes I forget. That being said, I RARELY forget my cell phone. My old phone was capable of taking photos at 8 mega pixels but I always used less. The problem was ease of getting them to the articles. With the standalone camera, I pulled out the memory card, popped it into the reader and uploaded the pictures I needed. With the phone, I had to connect the phone to the computer (and deal with drivers and the like) and then navigate to the picture folder and copy each one across. Not all that efficient. Since I'm not much of a "cloud" guy, I like my files on my device, not floating about in cyberspace.

The 360 Degree Spherical camera
My new phone has dual main cameras and a lower resolution camera on the screen side for video conferencing or "selfies." It also has a camera attachment that will take 360 degree spherical photos. That sounds way cool, but I'm not sure how great it will be for an article. The main cameras will take great photos and I've already connected the device to my home computer. That all works fine. What do I do if I want to access the photos for an article on one of my mini-android laptops I take with me when I travel? It's too hard to type up an article on a phone (even one with a bigger screen) and I haven't figured out how to connect the phone to the android tablet/laptop. It's not certain that I can anyway.

Is it time to stop using the old standalone and switch to the phone's camera? It will take nice pictures and most of the time I will be able to easily integrate them into the articles. But....sometimes it could get difficult. Looks like there will be some experimentation. Stay Tuned.

Be Seeing You...Down The Road,

Rich "The Wanderman"
www.thewanderman.com







6 comments:

  1. When I want to get my pictures from my phone to my laptop or other device I "share"via email as an attachment. Very handy if you have only a few to copy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dave,
      Very true, I have used that method a few times, but if the photos are very large in size or there are quite a few the MB add up very quickly.

      Great idea though!

      Rich "The Wanderman"

      Delete
  2. I recommend trying Google Photos. Free unlimited storage for your lifetime of photos and videos in your private account and available on all your devices. Great editing and sharing. You should be able to connect your digital cameras and smartphones with a cable to your computer.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jim,
      As I said, I am not a big fan of the cloud. My photos stay on my device(s). of course, anyone can do whatever they like!

      Rich The Wanderman"

      Delete
  3. I like to take my photos in "biggests & bestest" mode so I have the option to make big prints or to crop for the details I really wanted but couldn't reach with my zoom. I have a free program that will rename in batches (I take a lot of photos) and will resize, making smaller email friendly copies. It does the renaming in seconds and the resizing in minutes, even if I have a lot of photos. FastStone Reziser. It has 2 tabs - one for resizing, one for renaming. I've used it for years and it saves me hours of time renaming large batches of photos. If I'm cropping, then I use a photo editing program.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Deborah,
      Wow! Thanks for turning me on to the FastStone app. It's wonderful. The batch renaming alone would be worth it, but it's so much more than that!

      thank you!

      Rich "The Wanderman"

      Delete

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