In This Issue ...

Editor's ViewPoint
The MailBag
Featured Articles
Product Spotlight
Tip Of The Week
Download Of The Week
 

Editor's ViewPoint

Well, we're into our second week of 2006 and here's an interesting piece of news I just came across. Kodak has a new logo! Kodak Chariman and CEO Antonio Perez it was revealed that Kodak will be saying goodbye to their famous yellow-box logo in favor of a simpler more contemporary design.

On the software front, Adobe has launched a new product called Adobe Lightroom. Lightroom is best described as next-generation photographer's software. Not only can do all sorts of image processing, it can also sort, catalog and print them with aplomb. Watch out for this software taking the photography world by storm.

And yes, your feedback has been heard! Many of you have dropped me a note saying how great it would be to have a 'little book' consolidating all the tips given in the website. I'll proceed to do just that. So stay tuned - I'll keep you updated. As always, drop me a note to give me comments!

Gary Hendricks
Basic-Digital-Photography.com Editor

The MailBag

Focal Length Explained

Question: I keep hearing about the term 'focal length' in digital photography. Could you explain what it means?.

Chris, United Kingdom

Answer: I'd think of focal length as the light-bending power of a lens. It’s defined as the distance (in mm) between the centre of the lens and the point of sharp focus on the film/sensor plane when the lens is focused at infinity.

To create a larger image on the film plane (that is, to magnify a subject), you require a longer focal length lens. Doubling the focal length of a lens doubles the size of an image. It also halves the angle of view and consequently the amount of the scene captured.

The larger the film plane, therefore, the longer the focal length required to record the same amount of a subject. This is why large and medium format film cameras use longer focal length lenses than their 35mm film counterparts.

Featured Articles

5 Things You Need to Know About Shutter Speed
If you’re new to photography, you may be struggling with some of the terms used in the industry. Well, one of the most ... read more

Where Do You Store Your Digital Photos?
Do you have a ton of photos in your collection? Perhaps you’ve been taking many photos over the holiday season or during ... read more

A Guide to Scanning and Digitizing Your Old Photos
If you’ve taken a lot of photos with a traditional film camera, you probably have a truckload of analog photos which ... read more

Product Spotlight

Share Your Pictures at SmugMug

If you've tons of digital photos to share and but are not sure which photo sharing site to choose, then do take a look at Smugmug. I've been a happy user of their photo sharing service for a year now and I've been most impressed by it. The service allows you to upload, arrange and share your photos, as well as buy prints or burn picture CDs.
 

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Tip of The Week

When shooting an impromptu portrait that could use a little softening,
try breathing on the lens right before releasing the shutter. The effect is like a soft-focus filter’s, but variable: The longer you wait to fi re the shutter, the less the softening effect.

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Download Of The Week

IrfanView is a fast and simple image viewer and editor that supports all major graphic formats, including BMP, DIB, JPEG, GIF, animated GIF, PNG, PCX, multipage TIFF, and TGA. In addition, it features drag-and-drop support, directory viewing, TWAIN support, slide shows, batch conversion, and modifications, such as color depth, crop, blur, and sharpen.