How-To

Black-and-white images always have held a special place in photography. Although color photographs comprise the majority of the images that are created and printed, a monochromatic print produces a much different reaction than does a color version of the same scene.

One of the challenges we face as photographers is making the subject stand out from its surroundings. An effective way to do this is to use the selective focus technique, which allows us to choose one part of the image to be sharp and in focus while making the rest out of focus. It's the opposite of getting a lot of depth of field. While this technique lets the viewer know what's important in the photo, it's also a way to make interesting compositions that can't be duplicated any other way.

Sophisticated technology goes into the design and manufacture of your digital camera. Understanding some of that technology can help you to predict how the camera will fare when you're shooting in a variety of situations. For our annual How-To issue, we're including this article on the anatomy of an image sensor.

Modern digital cameras do an impressive job in getting an acceptable exposure for most images. There's a difference between an acceptable exposure and an exceptional exposure, however. The best exposures make maximum use of the capabilities of the camera sensor and internal camera processing while causing only a few problems when printing or working on images in the computer.

Who needs all these modes?
You might ask yourself this question when you pick up a digital camera loaded with custom exposure settings.

Digital Terms

    * A Quick Guide To Some Common Terms
      Associated With Gear That You Might Buy

Cold Weather And Digital Cameras

    * Winter Wondering
    * Changing Backgrounds
    * Cropping Problems?
    * Resampling For Size

Now that archival-quality, large-format prints cost only a few dollars and can be produced quickly, I find myself creating many more prints than I'm able to frame and display. The cost of framing prints hasn't declined, nor do I have much wall space left in my home to display my newly printed images.

Image Organizing

    * Bringing Order To Your Images
    * Red-Eye Myth
    * Choose The Right Disc
    * CF Card Differences
    * Resolving Resolution 

While they're not particularly intuitive and may discourage photographers who could benefit from using them, Layer Masks are an essential tool when working in an image-processing program. As you'll see, they're worth the effort required to learn them.