Digital photo. Photography Basics

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As often happens in digital photography: the perfect camera is perfectly set up, the subject seems interesting to you, but the audience yawns. One of the reasons why technically perfect digital photographs fail to inspire viewers is due to lack of composition. From this article you will learn a few simple rules on how to create something interesting in any situation.

Rule of thirds

This is the easiest, yet most powerful rule for creating interesting photographs: the rule of thirds. If you photograph a tree against a sunset background, with the tree positioned right in the center of the frame, then later you will be disappointed to see that such a photograph only causes boredom. According to the rule of thirds, you need to mentally divide the frame into nine equal sections, conditionally drawing two vertical and two horizontal lines that will create a grid. On most cameras, you can activate a grid in the viewfinder that divides the frame according to the rule of thirds. The main subject of the photo should be located at one of the resulting four intersection points, and you will see that the photo will become much more attractive. This way, the elements of the photo will be arranged according to the golden ratio, which creates an aesthetic effect for the eyes. This rule also applies to portraits: the model’s eyes should be located at the level of one of the lines dividing the frame into segments - this will help create an interesting composition.

Properly leave free space in your photo

The rule of thirds can be used to achieve another artistic effect. To do this, you need to properly leave free space in the photo. If the photo shows where people or animals are looking, then in the overall composition it is best to leave free space in the direction where your subjects are looking. Do not frame the image to the subject's face in the direction in which he is looking. The same rule applies to shooting moving subjects: leave some space in front of the moving subject. The image of a horseman galloping from the right seems more interesting if you place it on the right side of the photo so that the viewer can understand where he is going. A shepherd against a sunset background looks more impressive if you show his future path by correctly leaving empty space.

Quantity matters

A funny rule also works in product photography: psychologically, people like things more, especially food, when there is an odd number of them in the photograph. Flower photography looks especially attractive when the main subject, such as a rose, is depicted with at least two, four or six tulips, leaving the total number of subjects odd. The reason for this is that it is a difficult task for the human brain to find pairings and symmetry in such photographs, and therefore the image is perceived as interesting. You can also use this trick when shooting group portraits, landscapes, and architecture.

Learn from animals

Is there anything special about your photography again? Try changing your shooting point. For example, an object taken from a so-called “bird's eye perspective” or “frog perspective”, that is, from above or below, looks much more interesting. Use a tripod to raise your camera and take a photo with a wide-angle lens. Or try the opposite: place the camera at the bottom, so even familiar works of architecture and tall buildings will look unexpectedly interesting thanks to the unusual perspective.

Experience, Experience, Experience

Once you've mastered the principles of digital photography outlined here, you'll eventually notice that it's entirely possible to break them. Someday you will even have to do this to give your photographs a touch of individuality, so to speak, to create your signature on the photo as a photographer. All you need to do to achieve this is just take pictures and take pictures using the equipment you have. Not a single photographer has yet become a master in front of a computer screen. Get inspired by new ideas from the Internet and our advice, and don't be afraid to try something new. Everything can be learned.

Chip Series: Digital Photography Basics

Digital photography sounds more complicated than it actually is. We'll walk you through basic techniques like shot composition, as well as some tricks from the pros. With our tips, you'll master digital photography and make your photos even better.

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MOSCOW INSTITUTE OF OPEN EDUCATION
DEPARTMENT OF MATERIAL AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES

Distance course materials
"Information technologies and education"

Polilova Tatyana Alekseevna
[email protected]

Digital photo

Digital photography is gaining more and more popularity. Digital technology has become an indispensable working tool for journalists and reporters - it is rare that a magazine or newspaper can do without publishing footage taken with digital devices. Graphic materials for the Internet are also increasingly produced using digital cameras. Professional photographers are increasingly using digital technology - they are attracted by the speed of obtaining results. The ability to see a photo on a computer a few minutes after shooting and the ability to edit the image on a computer make a digital camera an indispensable assistant on the studio set.

The service of digitizing films and slides is becoming widespread. Now specialized digital photo laboratories are opening to fulfill such orders. An integral part of the service of many photo studios is instant digital photography with output of finished prints on a photo printer.

What are the features of digital photography and what are its advantages?

We have already mentioned one advantage - the speed of obtaining images. Immediately after shooting, you can transfer the original images to your computer and immediately view the results of your work. You will leave for subsequent printing only those photographs that are clearly successful. Now you don’t have to worry about a stack of printed photographs of dubious quality - somewhere the picture turned out to be “blurry”, somewhere unnecessary objects got into the frame, in some pictures the model closed her eyes or yawned at the wrong time.

Unsuccessful shots do not need to be immediately thrown into the trash - they, most likely, can be brought to acceptable quality with the help of graphic editors. Yes, and successful photographs often have to be edited before printing - to frame them correctly, increase sharpness, improve the color gamut of the image, etc.

Having a digital camera and a computer, you are now freed from the middleman - the darkroom, in which, after chemical processing of the films, they print photographs using chemical reagents. You now do not depend on the technology of chemical film processing and the professionalism of the operator. It is precisely violations of the technology of film development and printing of photographs that lead to the negative effects known to everyone - a change in the natural gamut of photographs, excessive darkness or overexposure of photographs.

Digital photo technologies

The digital photo industry is growing very quickly. Digital cameras incorporate many of the achievements of traditional film cameras - both advances in the field of optics (high-quality optical lenses) and a variety of automatic shooting functions.

Digital cameras offered by companies differ markedly in capabilities and, accordingly, in price.

To navigate the wide range of digital cameras, let's first look at the basic elements of digital photography technology.

CCD matrix

The central component of any digital camera is a light-sensitive semiconductor charge-coupled device (CCD). It is the electronic analogue of the usual photographic film; the quality of the image largely depends on its characteristics. Being a direct analogue of photographic film, the CCD matrix borrowed from it a key indicator for a photographer - photosensitivity. The value of this parameter directly depends on the size of the unit cell of the CCD (direct analogy with the grain size of silver halides in photographic film). The characteristics of the CCD cell determine the amount of light accumulated by the matrix.

The quality of the image is also determined by the size of the matrix - the larger the matrix, the better the image you can get. This fact is also easy to explain: imagine that when photographing an object, a 10x10 matrix is ​​used. In this case, the image is transmitted with 100 dots. With this resolution, the object in the “photograph” will probably be difficult to recognize. If you use a 1000x1000 matrix, the result will be noticeably better.

The first digital devices had a matrix of about 300,000 elements (pixels). This made it possible to get a good picture on a monitor screen measuring 640x480 pixels, but it was too early to talk about the photographic quality of the image when printed on a printer. Modern middle-class digital cameras have a matrix of 3,000,000 elements (such cameras are called three-megapixel cameras). The images obtained by these cameras can already be viewed on full screen and printed on a printer with photographic quality in the traditional 10x15 cm format.

Replaceable memory cards

A digital camera stores pictures on removable memory cards of various types.

Flash memory is a non-volatile semiconductor rewritable memory with random access (Random Access Memory, RAM). Genetically, it came from read-only memory - ROM (Read Only Memory).

The advantages of flash over media such as floppy disks and CDs are compactness, low power consumption, long service life, and mechanical reliability. Flash memory manufacturers now describe their products as solid-state, non-volatile semiconductor devices capable of storing digital data in any format. Volatility independence refers to the ability of a device to store information without external energy consumption.

Flash memory includes many different devices. Used as compact media for digital cameras, pocket computers, players, etc., they are usually called memory cards. The most common of them:

• PC Card (ATA Flash);
• CompactFlash type I and II;
• SmartMedia;
• Memory Stick;
• MultiMedia Card;
• Secure Digital (SD) Card.

Flash memory devices differ primarily in size and weight. The speed of reading and writing data and the capacity of the card are also different. Some have a copyright protection mechanism.

Today, such card formats as CompactFlash and IBM Microdrive, SmartMedia, MemoryStick are common. The listed types of removable cards can store from 128 MB to 1 GB of data. The well-known company Sony suggests using 80 mm CDs with a capacity of 156 MB as media.

Sony has interesting models of digital cameras that use regular 3.5-inch floppy disks and CD-RW as storage media. The photo on the right shows a SonyMavica MVC-CD300 camera with CD-RW media.

The purchased device usually contains small-capacity media for storing several photographs. But many hobbyists buy larger capacity removable cards, where they can store dozens or even hundreds of images.

However, you can refuse to use additional memory cards or microdisks and work with a portable computer (laptop), regularly copying captured footage to disk.

Connecting to a computer and printer

Modern digital cameras are connected to a computer via a USB port. The camera kit includes a cable, one connector of which is inserted into the camera connector, the other into the USB connector of the computer.

Pictures copied to a computer can be printed on a printer. If the quality of the pictures is high, then it is better to use a printer that provides photographic print quality. To print photographs, you must also use special photo paper.

There are other options for printing photos - directly from the camera to a printer, bypassing the stage of saving them in computer memory. For example, the Canon PowerShot G2 camera is equipped with a special interface for directly printing images on the CP-10 photo printer, developed by the same company.

Digital point-and-shoot cameras

For novice photographers, a simple, inexpensive digital camera is quite suitable - with its help you can take pictures that are not inferior in quality to a regular point-and-shoot camera. Handling such a device is also simple: you do not need to specifically focus, set the shutter speed and aperture. Just frame the frame and press the shutter button - the camera itself will select the necessary parameters to get a good image. Even very small modern digital cameras have this capability.

Let's look at the characteristics of the Che-ez miniature camera! Cubik.

The camera lens allows you to shoot from 1.5 meters to infinity, and can work in photo and video mode.

The camera has a matrix of 1.3 million pixels; it can store up to 50 frames of 1280x1024 size in memory. Using this camera, you can shoot and save a 90-second video at 18 frames per second for display in a window measuring 320x240 pixels.

The dimensions of the camera are 56x56x30 mm, weight - 110 g. The device has a USB interface and runs on two AAA batteries.

Che-ez camera! Cubik can be called a digital point-and-shoot camera. But with its help it is quite possible to take interesting pictures - if you understand the scope of application, the capabilities of the device, and master the shooting technique.

When shooting with a point-and-shoot camera, defects known to photographers may be revealed. For example, the sharpness in the frame will be uneven - good sharpness in the center of the frame and blur at the edges. Color rendition in the center and at the edges of the frame may also differ. When shooting a dark object against a light background, the automatic shutter speed will be set exclusively to the background - when shooting a character, this will lead, for example, to a very dark face against a light background.

How can one adapt to such a device? Firstly, all important elements should be placed in the center of the frame, and only minor details should remain on the sides. It will be good to get shots where the objects being photographed have blurry outlines. There is no need to shoot with a point-and-shoot against the light unless you want to get a contour image. The ideal direction of light is from behind or from the side of the photographer.

Minolta Dimage 7 camera

The Minolta Dimage 7 camera is one of the best digital cameras today, which even professionals enjoy using.

The Minolta Dimage 7 camera has a high quality optical lens - the quality of the pictures directly depends on it. The lens has a sevenfold zoom, i.e. the ability to bring the subject significantly closer with virtually no loss of shooting quality. Like many other digital cameras, the camera's processor can perform digital 2x zoom, making it possible to capture distant objects more clearly.

The camera allows you to shoot objects at a distance from 0.5 m to infinity. If you have to photograph small objects at a distance of less than half a meter, then you need to switch to a special macro mode. If you decide, for example, to photograph a fluffy butterfly caterpillar, the camera provides excellent macro photography, in which every hair of the caterpillar will be visible in the picture.

The camera is equipped with two liquid crystal (LCD) screens. The vertical screen on the back of the camera can be used to display the scene you are shooting in place of the viewfinder. On the same screen you can view captured images of the shooting and use the menu to delete unnecessary frames.

The screen on the top panel of the camera displays the selected photo parameters, shooting programs, the number of possible frames and other settings.

The camera is very energy-intensive. It is equipped with a power supply and special batteries, which are located in a separate plastic case and connected to the camera via a cable.

To transfer frames to a computer, there is an interface cable connected to the computer via a USB connector. The latest versions of Windows treat the camera's memory card as a removable device, files from which can be copied as easily and simply as from a regular disk.

The process of photographing with a high-quality camera is a huge field for activity that requires constant experimentation with existing equipment, self-improvement and discipline. It takes years to achieve a certain level of skill here. But the pleasure from the beautiful photographs obtained is great.

Camera Controls

The camera is switched on to the frame photography mode by turning the main control wheel on the top panel (up to the camera icon).

On the main control wheel, the camera and movie camera icons are highlighted in red - in the appropriate position, the camera can shoot either individual frames or a video.

To transfer captured frames and videos to a computer, the main control wheel is moved to the position indicated by the lightning icon.

One of the features of high-quality cameras is the presence of manual controls. Focusing, shutter speed and aperture settings are the most important functions of any camera, including digital ones. These settings can be made in two main operating modes - automatic and manual.

The most commonly used method is the automatic method, which is indispensable for serial and rapid shooting and is especially effective in high-end devices. But when you need to create a color or composition effect, or when shooting takes place in unusual conditions, an experienced photographer will prefer manual settings. Although most settings in Minolta Dimage 7 can be performed automatically, it also allows manual setting of shooting parameters.

After turning on the camera, the photographer can set the shooting modes he needs, the image quality parameters and the size of the resulting files - the corresponding control wheels are installed on the camera body.

To adjust the frame, a digital viewfinder and a liquid crystal color display are used.

If the built-in flash unit is raised, the camera will automatically shoot with flash.

The shutter button is traditionally installed on the top panel of the camera.

Focusing the frame

The camera has several ways to adjust focus. Focus can be set using a “cross” - for precise targeting of a point in the image. Or you can specify an area enclosed in square brackets to focus on. When shooting, the automation will provide maximum quality of sharpness in a given area.

Due to the fact that objects in the frame are at different distances from the lens, inevitably part of the image (the focus area) appears sharper, while others are blurry. In a traditional photograph, the area of ​​greatest sharpness is located in the center of the frame. However, in artistic photography, another technique is often used - the focus is not in the center of the frame. The camera also allows you to implement this focusing mode (the so-called “flexible focus” - Flex Focus): using a “cross”, the focus can be set and locked in an arbitrary location in the frame.

This digital camera has two autofocus modes - single and continuous.

Single AF is used for general purpose photography and static subjects. When the shutter button is pressed halfway, the autofocus system locks on the subject in the focus area and remains in this position until the shutter button is pressed all the way.

Continuous autofocus is used for moving subjects. When you press the shutter button halfway, the autofocus system is activated and will continue to focus until the actual shooting.

Story programs

In addition to the main universal shooting mode, the camera has several scene programs that are optimized for typical scene shooting conditions:

• Portrait - optimizes the reproduction of warm, soft human skin tones with some background blur.
• Sports - used for shooting fast subjects at very fast shutter speeds and tracking subjects using continuous autofocus.
• Sunset - optimizes camera settings when shooting sunsets, capturing the rich range of warm evening tones.
• Night portrait - used for shooting night scenes. When using flash, reproduction of the subject and background is balanced.
• Text - optimizes the clear reproduction of black text on a white background.
• The subject program remains active until the photographer changes the settings.

The selected scene program is displayed on the camera display.

Setting image sizes

The camera has a mechanism for setting the desired size of pictures.

The larger the image size in the camera, the better quality of the printed image you can get. High quality images require more memory space. The size of the image should be set depending on the final purpose of using this image: small images are more suitable for placement on websites, and large images allow you to get high-quality prints on photo printers. The maximum size of pictures is 2560x1920, and the minimum is 640x480 pixels.

Setting the Image Quality

The Minolta Dimage 7 has several image quality settings: Super, Fine, Standard and Eco.

Image quality controls the amount of compression, but does not affect the number of pixels in the image. The higher the image quality, the lower the compression ratio and the larger the file size. Super mode produces very high quality images and the largest image files. If it is important to economically use the available space on the CompactFlash card, then you need to use the economy mode. Standard image quality is sufficient for normal use.

File formats

File formats change when image quality settings are changed. Super quality images are saved in TIFF format. When you select High quality, Standard quality, or Eco mode, images are saved in JPEG format.

Depending on the quality, images are saved in 24-bit color or 8-bit black and white image files. The camera can create a special file format that can only be read by the camera's included image viewing software, DiMAGE Image Viewer Utility.

When you select an image quality, the camera display will show the approximate number of images that can be recorded on the installed CompactFlash card. The same CompactFlash card can contain images at different quality settings.

Exposure Modes

Four exposure modes provide a wide range of image creation options. Programmed autoexposure allows automatic shooting, aperture and shutter priority allow you to maximize shooting capabilities in various situations, and manual exposure provides complete freedom to control all parameters when creating an image:

• Program mode (autoexposure): The camera controls both shutter speed and aperture.
• Aperture priority: The photographer selects the aperture and the camera sets the appropriate shutter speed.
• Shutter priority: The photographer selects the shutter speed and the camera sets the appropriate aperture.
• Manual exposure: The photographer manually sets both shutter speed and aperture.

The aperture (an opening shutter in older camera models) regulates the light flux that hits the light-sensitive elements. The shutter (shutter speed) determines the time the light is exposed to the photosensitive elements of the camera. When shooting on a sunny day, you need to open the “curtain” for a short time so that the frame does not turn out to be overexposed. When shooting at dusk, the curtain needs to be opened wider and held a little longer to ensure the necessary light flux.

The lens aperture controls not only exposure, but also depth of field: the area between the closest in-focus object and the farthest in-focus object. The larger the aperture value, the greater the depth of field and the longer the shutter speed required for exposure. The smaller the aperture value, the shallower the depth of field and the faster the shutter speed required for exposure.

Typically, landscape photography uses a large depth of field (large aperture) to get both the foreground and background in focus. And when shooting portraits, a shallow depth of field (small aperture value) is usually used to highlight the subject in relation to the background.

Depth of field changes as the focal length changes. The shorter the focal length, the greater the depth of field; The longer the focal length, the shallower the depth of field.

The shutter controls not only exposure, but also the ability to “freeze” motion. High shutter speeds are used in sports photography to “freeze” movement. Slow shutter speeds can be used to emphasize the effect of motion (subject blur), for example when shooting a waterfall. At low shutter speeds, it is recommended to use a tripod to avoid unwanted blurring caused by accidental camera movement during exposure.

If the shutter speed slows to a point where it is difficult to keep the camera steady when shooting (for example, when shooting at night), a camera shake warning will appear in the lower left corner of the displays.

For a beginner photographer, it is recommended to use autoexposure mode. In this mode, the camera uses light and focal length information to determine the appropriate exposure, freeing the photographer from worrying about technical details.

Drive modes

Drive modes control the speed and shooting methods. These features, listed below, are often used by photographers.

• Single-frame advance: each time you press the shutter button, one frame is taken.
• Continuous “pull”: The shutter button is pressed and held to take several frames in a row.
• Self-timer: Delays the shutter release for taking self-portraits.
• Bracketing: Used to take a series of shots with varying exposure, contrast, and color saturation.
• Time Lapse: Used to take a series of shots over a period of time.

Single advance is the main operating mode of the camera in which individual frames are taken.

Continuous advance mode allows you to take a series of photos by pressing and holding the shutter button. The continuous advance mode operates in the same way as the motor drive on film cameras. A number of images can be recorded at one time, and the recording speed depends on the image quality and size settings.

When the shutter button is pressed and held, the camera begins recording images until the maximum number of images has been recorded or the shutter button is released. The built-in flash can be used when shooting, but recording speed will be reduced as the flash must recharge between shots.

When set to continuous autofocus, the lens will focus continuously while shooting a series of frames.

Video recording

The camera can record up to 60 seconds of digital video. The clip is recorded in motion JPEG format measuring 320x240 pixels (QVGA). Making digital video is not difficult. To do this, use the main control wheel to switch the camera to video recording mode (before the movie camera icon). Next, you need to select your subject, compose the frame and press the shutter button to start recording.

The camera will continue recording until the end of the available recording time or until the shutter button is pressed again. While recording, the data panel and displays will display a countdown of the available video recording time in seconds.

After turning on the camera, the electronic viewfinder or liquid crystal display will turn on - it will display the image entering the lens. The display will show some parameters set by the camera (for example, picture size and quality, scene program).

First of all, you need to remember to install the plot program. If the plot is not defined in advance or does not correspond to the plots of the programs, you need to set the universal mode.

Make sure that the subject is no closer than half a meter, otherwise you will need to switch the camera to macro mode.

Use the viewfinder or LCD monitor to frame your shot. Here you need to pay attention to the overall layout of the frame - it is advisable to place important objects in the center of the frame. If you need to enlarge an object in the frame, use the zoom (rotate the ring on the lens).

The frame must be sufficiently filled. For example, when photographing a person, you do not need to include vast skies and endless distances in the frame. The main part of the frame should be occupied by the subject - a person. Look on the display to see if an important part of the object has been cut off (for example, you should not “cut off” part of a person’s leg, arm or shoulder for no particular reason).

Pay attention to how the light falls - it should not hit the camera lens. If the lighting is insufficient, use automatic flash or additional light sources. If the subject is located far enough away, then the flash is not needed, it will not provide the necessary illumination.

When shooting in high resolution mode or in low light, you must use a tripod. In difficult shooting conditions, the camera spends a significant amount of time selecting the optimal shooting parameters, and during this time it is necessary to ensure that the camera is completely still. It's difficult to hold the camera steady for several seconds, and moving or shaking the camera can result in blurry shots.

Shooting in scene modes:

• "Portrait" - Most portraits look best at longer focal lengths. Fine details are not overly emphasized, and the background is rendered softly thanks to the shallow depth of field. Use the built-in flash in bright, direct sunlight or backlit (light behind the subject) to soften harsh shadows.
• “Sports” - when using the flash, make sure that the subject is within the flash range: 0.5 – 3.0 m (in telephoto mode).
• “Sunset” - When the sun is still above the horizon, do not point the camera directly at the sun for an extended period of time. Intense sunlight can damage the CCD. Between shots, turn off the camera or put the lens cap on.
• “Night portrait” - when shooting night landscapes, use a tripod to avoid the “blurring” effect when moving the camera when shooting at long shutter speeds. The flash can only be used to illuminate subjects close to the lens, such as portraits or full-length people. When shooting this way, ask the people in the frame not to move even after the flash fires, as the shutter will still be open for a while to expose the background.
• “Text” - when photographing text on a sheet of paper, you can use macro mode. To avoid camera movement when shooting, use a tripod to get a clear image.

When you shoot with a high-precision camera, you must strictly follow the technique of starting the shutter button: first you need to lightly press the shutter button to carry out the settings programs, and only then press the shutter fully to take the frame.

When you lightly press the shutter button, the camera will begin to select the optimal focus and exposure parameters. Focus cues on the displays will confirm that your subject is in focus. The shutter speed and aperture indicators will change color to indicate that the selected exposure settings are locked.

To take a photo, you need to press the shutter button fully. The access lamp will go off, indicating that the image is being written to the flash card.

It should also be borne in mind that after the shutter button is fully pressed and the moment the frame is actually taken, a certain time may pass - a fraction of a second or even a second. For example, if you turn on the red-eye protection mode, there is a small pre-flash first, and only then the final photo is taken. There is no need to rush to change the position of the camera after pressing the shutter button; it is better to keep the camera fixed for a couple of seconds so as not to get a blurry shot.

The captured frame can be viewed on the camera display by switching to image viewing mode. If you don’t like the frame in terms of layout or content, it’s better to delete the bad frame and repeat the shooting.

The beginning of autumn is the time to sort through summer photographs, and at the same time organize your family photo archive. For years, millions of users have used the free Picasa program to do this. But this year you may have to reconsider your habits - as of May 1, Picasa will no longer be downloadable. The popular program suffered the same fate as Google Reader and is now no longer supported. You can only work with Picasa if you have downloaded it previously, but please note that no further updates will be released for it.

It would seem like nothing, but there are enough programs for organizing photos on the market, both paid and free. But despite the huge selection of applications for working with images, finding a full-fledged replacement for Picasa is not so easy. Mainly because, for all its simplicity, this program was multifunctional: with its help you could organize photos into albums, select pictures according to various criteria, perform basic editing operations, and quickly upload albums to the cloud.

Let's not forget that Picasa was a free solution, which means commercial programs should not be considered as an alternative. We also intentionally do not include in this review programs whose main function is to view images. Our goal is to find solutions that allow you to organize large collections of images and upload photos to the Internet.

⇡ Google Photos is the successor to Picasa

For backing up your photo archive to the cloud, you can't find a better solution than Picasa's successor, Google Photos.

Firstly, all web albums uploaded using Picasa are automatically transferred to the new service from Google. Secondly, as in the case of Picasa, users of the new service receive unlimited storage space for photos whose size does not exceed 16 megapixels. For most people who use their smartphones for photography, this means being able to download their entire photo archive for free, since the number of smartphones with higher-quality cameras is not so large (even the iPhone 6s has a 12-megapixel camera, and the Samsung Galaxy S6 has a 16-megapixel camera).

To upload photos to the cloud from your computer, you need to use the Google Photo Backup application. Like Picasa, it allows you to automatically download all photos from memory cards, from the desktop and from standard Windows folders for storing pictures. In addition, you can add any number of additional folders in which photos are stored.

When automatically copying photos to the cloud from memory cards, you can also choose a folder in which to save a local copy of the images. Google Photos Backup can download images at their original resolution or automatically compress them. RAW files are supported, but loading is disabled by default (this can be changed in the settings).

If everything is more or less clear with uploading images online, then many other Picasa functions have not migrated to Google Photos. The online service has rather modest image editing capabilities (and, frankly, the editor interface leaves much to be desired); there are no tags, captions, or comments on photographs that are familiar to Picasa users. So if you've been using Picasa not only as a tool for uploading photos online, but also as a cataloger and editor, it's worth looking for a desktop application with the functionality you need in addition to Google Photos.

⇡ BonAView 1.9.0

• Developer: High Motion Software
• Operating system: Windows
• Distribution: free
• Russian interface: yes

BonAView is not the most famous program for working with photo archives, but it is undeservedly ignored. In terms of functionality, it is close to Picasa, and in some ways it even surpasses the recently closed program.

Viewing images is possible by catalogs, by albums, or in the Timeline mode so beloved by Picasa users, when photos are automatically organized by the program by time they were taken.

You can use ratings to sort images and create custom albums. BonAView is suitable for working with photo collections of any size, as it supports an unlimited number of albums (including any number of subalbums). The number of photos in each album is also not limited.

You can use filters to sort images. They help to display only photos related to a particular album, having a specific name or a given rating.

Viewing photos is possible in two modes: in the form of thumbnails, the size of which can be easily controlled using a special slider, and in 3D view. The second mode allows you to work with a “carousel” of images, rotating and even editing them as you view them.

By the way, about editing. There are many functions for improving photos in BonAView. There are options for adjusting color rendering, level correction and red-eye removal, tools for automatic adjustments, tools for sharpening and blurring, about a dozen effects (sepia, negative, shadow, etc.), a good set of frames for different cases. It is interesting that, as in “large” photo editors, it is possible to apply editing tools not to the entire image, but to part of it, having previously selected the required fragment.

It's also worth paying attention to an interesting feature for creating visual annotations. Using it, you can add various graphic elements and text to the picture.

Let's also mention the excellent built-in search engine. BonAView can search for photos by specified folders, by user albums, by certain properties (size, resolution or file type, last modified date, rating).

To quickly select photos stored in different folders and albums, it is convenient to use the ImageBoard tool (analogous to Photo Tray in Picasa). Once photos are placed in ImageBoard, you can add them to albums and perform other operations as a group. But there are no full-fledged tools for batch processing in BonAView - for this, the same developer offers a separate program ImBatch.

Unfortunately, BonAView does not include any means for sharing photos with other people. This may be due to the fact that the latest version of the program dates back to 2013, when social functions were not as in demand as they are now. However, BonAView can be used in conjunction with Google Photo Backup.

⇡ JetPhoto Studio 4.15

• Developer: Atomix Technologies Limited
• Operating system: Windows/Mac
• Distribution: free for non-commercial use (Pro version available)
• Russian interface: no

JetPhoto Studio combines the capabilities of a cataloger, viewer, graphic editor, and also contains tools for publishing photo albums on the Internet.

To start working with the program, you need to create an album. Then photos from different sources are added to the album (from a memory card, from local folders, from a webcam, etc.). When sorting images in an album, the user can mark them with a star, add keywords and notes (that is, a text description of the photo). It is also possible to edit information in EXIF. All this data can be used when searching for the desired images. And pictures marked with a star can be quickly selected. It is convenient to use a calendar to search for photos. Simply click on the desired date and only photos taken on that day will be shown.

In addition to the usual mode for viewing photos in the form of thumbnails for such applications, JetPhoto Studio offers an interesting feature of displaying images on a map. The program perfectly understands geotags and makes it possible to assign them either manually or based on the downloaded GPS track. There is also integration with Google Earth, creation of KML and KMZ files. If information about where the photo was taken is not automatically available, you can easily add it by simply pointing to the location on the map. This can also be done for a group of photographs by first selecting them.

JetPhoto Studio offers many different ways to easily view your images. For example, based on selected photos, you can create wallpaper, flash gallery, screen saver, slide show, web gallery in one of several formats.

But the image editing capabilities are more than modest. There are only a couple of very simple effects, tools for basic image correction and cropping.

Like Picasa, this program allows you not only to work with photos locally, but also to publish them on the Internet. There are two main ways to do this: using the Flickr service and the JetPhoto Server. The second method involves creating your own website with web albums based on the proposed templates. The user needs to purchase hosting, deploy JetPhoto Server on it, and then upload web albums from the program to the site. Agree that for most this is too complicated and expensive (especially since we are looking for an alternative to Picasa, which means free solutions).

But integration with Flickr is very interesting, because on this photo hosting you can store photos with a total volume of up to 1 terabyte. To be able to upload your photos to Flickr, you must authorize JetPhoto Studio to access your account. After this, you can upload both entire albums and selected photos. In this case, you can upload originals or compress images to a specified size, manage privacy settings, and add geotags. Keywords and notes added to photos in JetPhoto Studio will also be transferred to Flickr. For the convenience of users, the amount of available free space is shown before each download.

Among the disadvantages of JetPhoto Studio, it is worth noting that the interface is not very responsive. The program often freezes when performing certain operations, and importing photos with default settings generally paralyzes the computer. However, if you switch to import in the background, you can work with other applications. In an age when even many web applications can simultaneously load data and perfectly respond to any user actions, this looks like an archaism. However, JetPhoto Studio is in a sense a relic of the past, because the latest version of the program dates back to 2013.

⇡ WindowsPhotoGallery ("Photo Album") 2012

• Developer: Microsoft
• Operating system: Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1
• Distribution: free
• Russian interface: yes

Some may consider Microsoft's application not the best alternative to Google's product, but Windows Photo Gallery is very close in functionality to Picasa. The application can be downloaded for free as part of the Windows Essentials package. In addition to the component we are interested in, the package also includes a blog editor, an email application, OneDrive and a program for working with video files. During installation, you can select only those applications that should be installed.

Immediately after launch, Photo Gallery picks up all the photos stored in the image library (by default, these are the My Pictures and Public Pictures folders). To add other images, you just need to show the program where they are stored by changing the library settings.

If you need to copy photos from a memory card, just connect the drive - the program will immediately offer to import pictures.

In the Photo Gallery window, photos are sorted by the time they were taken. In this case, as in Picasa, there may be photos stored in different folders nearby. Their location on the disks does not matter. If you wish, you can choose one of many other sorting options: by folders, by ratings, by drive types, by people depicted in photographs, by title, by geotags. The appearance of the application workspace is flexibly customizable: you can enable the display of additional information about the file, rating, signatures, quickly change the sort order, etc.

A variety of tools are offered for organizing images: ratings, flags, captions, text tags, geotags, information about the people present in the photographs. It is convenient to use the sidebar to add different types of tags. As the user works in the program, a database of tags is compiled, and later one can quickly find photographs tagged with a certain keyword, or those in which the desired people are present. Interestingly, Photo Gallery can help with identifying people: the program itself finds the heroes of photographs and offers to indicate who they are.

All photo information added to the Photo Gallery can later be used in searches. For example, you can search for pictures taken in certain months and tagged with a particular tag. The AND and OR operators are used to define search criteria. The search criteria can also be the type of file (video, photo, Raw file) and whether it was published on the Internet.

Photo Gallery allows you to send photos and video files by mail, as well as upload them to various online services: Flickr, OneDrive, Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo. Images can be compressed to the desired size before downloading. In addition to sending them to the Internet, photos can be used to create panoramas, collages, and videos (in the Movie Maker application).

Photo Gallery also offers some image editing tools. There are several filters with a convenient preview function, tools for color correction and noise removal, exposure settings and photo alignment. In addition, directly from the program you can rename files, change resolution, and edit information about the shooting date. Conveniently, all changes made can be canceled by pressing one button.

Unfortunately, Photo Gallery support for Windows 7 will be discontinued soon. This is because Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 have a built-in Photos app for viewing, organizing, and sharing photos online. This application allows you to view photos in different modes: by album, by folder or by date. Photos is integrated with OneDrive, and all photos a user works with in the app can be uploaded to the cloud. Albums are created automatically based on the best images or manually by the user. However, in terms of functionality, Photos is inferior to Photo Gallery (just as Google Photos is inferior to Picasa - simplification is in vogue these days).

⇡ Zoner Photo Studio Free 18

• Developer: Zoner, Inc.
• Operating system: Windows
• Distribution: free
• Russian interface: yes

We deliberately placed Zoner Photo Studio at the end of the review, leaving this application for dessert. Despite the fact that the program is the younger brother of the professional version of Zoner Photo Studio, it has all the modern important functions for organizing your photo archive, as well as free uploading to your own photo hosting site. It differs from the paid version of Zoner Photo Studio Free in that it does not have advanced image editing tools: masks, filters, gradients, selection tools, noise removal tools, adding frames, perspective correction, working with HDR, as well as screen capture tools , batch processing, video slideshow creation. However, the list of what the program has is much longer than the list of missing options.

Zoner Photo Studio Free can work both as a simple tool for viewing photos stored on disk or on any media, and as a cataloguer. In order to create a database of photographs, you need to import them into the program from any folder, from a memory card, etc. Photos stored in the database can be displayed in the form of a calendar, by folders or by keywords. There are a lot of viewing modes: from one in which the main part of the window is occupied by one image, to “tiles” (with the ability to flexibly adjust the size of thumbnails). You can also display multiple photos side by side and view geotagged photos on a map.

Image sorting is also great: photos can be sorted by title, rating, date created or last modified. There are also a huge number of advanced criteria that involve all EXIF ​​data. In addition, the program can separately show RAW and JPEG images, giving preference to either the first or the second.

To the right of the viewing area there is an information panel where you can easily edit all the data about the photo. So, it is possible to set a color label, add a rating, title, description, keywords, and change EXIF ​​information.

Zoner Photo Studio Free does not work with third-party cloud services, but it offers unlimited space for storing photos on its own photo hosting Zonerama. After creating an account and gallery, a Zonerama item appears in the navigation bar with two folders: “Public Albums” and “Hidden Albums.” It's easy to guess that all photos sent to the first folder become publicly available, and pictures uploaded to the second folder can only be viewed by the owner. To upload photos, simply select them and drag them to the desired album with the mouse.

Although the editing capabilities are limited compared to the professional version of Zoner Photo Studio, the range of editing options is quite impressive for a free program. You can not only change the image resolution and canvas size, but also add text, place one image on top of another, add some effects, perform color correction, improve sharpness, work with shutter speed and white balance.

⇡ Conclusion

In general, as our little research has shown, most free programs that can be considered as a worthy alternative to Picasa have one common drawback: they are quite old. Therefore, you still need to think about whether it’s worth switching to an unfamiliar solution or staying with the abandoned, but still working Picasa for some time. The only program that stands out from the rest in that it is actively developing and looks modern is Zoner Photo Studio Free. Apparently, it can be recommended as the best replacement for Picasa.

Chapter 1. Introductory.

This book was written because I was disappointed with other books, where, unfortunately, out of 15-20 chapters, only a few were devoted to digital photography, I decided to write this. Basically, such books describe the history of photography, the advantages and disadvantages of digital photography, image editing and methods of storing photographs. In this book, we will compress everything unnecessary into a few paragraphs and analyze the things that are most significant to you.

I think you don’t need to be convinced that digital photography is an amazing thing, nor are you interested in the history of its creation or some ancient semiconductors that have not been used for a long time. In addition, after purchasing a camera, you will find a description for it that describes in detail how to turn on the equipment, focus and, finally, take a picture. There is a lot of literature that is intended for beginner photographers and those whose actions are designated: point and shoot. These articles are intended for creative photography techniques. It will contain a bit of technical information in the first three chapters, which are the basics, but everything that follows will inspire you to take the pictures you've been dreaming of. In the Basics chapter, you will learn:

1. How to arrange people individually or in groups.

2. How to take close-up photographs using the special capabilities of a digital camera.

3. How to use the scanner to take close-up photos or pictures of large objects.

4. How to shoot action and sporting events.

5. How to use the camera in situations that require decisive action.

6. Creating images for publications.

7. Secrets for eliminating photography defects.

8. When to use a scanner instead of digital photography.

9. Special effects that will change any photo for the better.

If you are a beginner photographer and want to choose a suitable photography school, then it would be a good idea to read reviews about photography schools. Opinions and advice from students who have already completed the training.

Owners of digital devices and business people who would like to use the world of photography at a different, higher level than just clicking photos of family and friends will find useful information here. By studying this material, you will diversify your life and improve the quality of your photos. If you are already familiar with your digital camera and now puzzled that you want to apply it better, this material will be a guide to your dreams and increase your skill. So, a brief description of those for whom this book was written:

1. Those who want to create excellent photographs, and their interest in their work grows and threatens to turn into professionalism.

2. Those who want to use professional images for personal or business WEB sites.

3. Businessmen who want to use their graphic assets to promote their business.

4. Company employees who do not have photography skills, but who constantly work with graphics and who need to learn how to use digital images for reports, presentations or speeches.

5. Professional WEB masters with good programming skills and little photography experience.

6. Graphic artists and other image editing experts in Photoshop or other graphics programs who want to learn all about digital photography.

7. Digital photography teachers who need to learn something extra.

Some of you will use this book just to satisfy your curiosity about digital photography before you buy a camera or scanner and start taking pictures. However, most already have a camera and want to ask: Is this book for me? If you fall into at least one of the above categories, this book will be extremely useful to you.

Digital Photography Basics:

Your digital camera has certain characteristics that are common to all models. These are resolution, display, storage device and some other automatic properties. Each subsequent chapter will open up additional opportunities to use these and many other functions. The names of camera models will not be mentioned here, since for this book it does not matter much; the characteristics of the cameras are quite similar. Therefore, when we talk about 4, 3.3, 2 or 1 megapixel cameras, we will be referring to the type of camera, not the model. For the techniques described in this book, you will need a camera with at least 2 megapixel resolution. A camera with a 2-megapixel sensor provides a resolution of 1600*1200 pixels, which is quite enough to produce 15*20 cm prints on a printer with a resolution of 200 dpi. The 2-megapixel camera captures enough information to subsequently crop the image, especially if the photograph will be used for a WEB page and 10*12 cm prints.

If your camera has a 3 or 6 megapixel sensor or even higher, you have special capabilities. You can create larger prints, cut out parts of the image, and add changes.

Another requirement is for your camera lens. To use the techniques outlined in this article as effectively as possible, you should have a zoom with a focal length ratio of 2:1 or 3:1, and it is advisable to also have macro photography capabilities. Some of the most interesting effects require the use of a wide-angle or telephoto lens, as well as close-up views. But even if you have an inexpensive camera that doesn't provide enough zoom, we'll look at how to use the features you already have to get the same results.

Other components, such as the type and capacity of the storage device, manual or automatic shutter speed, focusing methods, built-in flash, can be anything you want. You'll learn how to get the most out of your camera's features.

You don't necessarily need a scanner to use the recommendations in this material, but if you do, you'll learn some other techniques that will allow you to replace and augment your digital camera. The scanner model is not important, the main thing is that it is a tablet type. Here you will also see the difference between the types of flatbed scanners and their capabilities.

The advantages of digital processing are obvious. If you have a digital camera, computer, printer, you can capture images, improve and retouch them, reproduce them, send them by email or post them on WEB pages. The only disadvantage of digital cameras is that they are much more expensive than standard point-and-shoot cameras with similar functions. Digital film, although it has the property of being reusable, is still very expensive. But here is a plus: having bought such a device and film once, you can print only those pictures that you like, and simply erase the rest from your memory.

Digital cameras are different from each other, but they all have some specific features. All cameras have a lens, an optical viewfinder, an LCD display, image preview, a camera control menu, a shutter and shutter button, and control buttons. It is also worth mentioning that most of the cameras have a hole for a removable storage device, an electronic flash, a monochrome display to display the number of remaining frames, camera mode and other information, and a USB port. The camera may have a tripod socket or an infrared port for wireless transfer of images.

Concerning digital scanners let's say that they come with automatic paper feeding and hand-held scanners, which have disappeared in our time, leaving us with a developing group of flatbed scanners. They come in different sizes, some that resemble a laptop and some that look like a desktop photocopier. There are also those that combine the functions of a printer.

All flatbed scanners have a lid that covers the work area. Some have a light source built into the lid for scanning color slides and transparencies. They also have an interface port for connecting to a computer via a parallel USB or SCSI connection. The differences will be explained in subsequent chapters.

We're wrapping up the introductory chapter "Basics" and will now move on to chapter two, which will explain the different categories of digital cameras and setting options.

Putting your computer in order: programs that will make working with photos simple and convenient.

Since the advent of digital cameras and phone cameras, we've been creating, downloading, and storing hundreds of photos every day. Some of us have a natural gift for systematizing and organizing information, while others have to sort through gigabytes of files and folders with non-obvious names. And when you urgently need a specific photo, finding it can be very difficult, and sometimes impossible.

The image libraries that we use for our work deserve special attention. For example, designers can collect dozens of stock photos, textures and designs in one project, copying images from one folder to another and creating backup after backup. This not only eats up computer memory, but also complicates further work with images, because then it will be difficult to understand where the source is and where the already edited image is.

Fortunately, there is a solution. We will tell you about the most convenient methods and programs for organizing and storing images. With their help, you can not only quickly search and find the photos you need, but also assign ratings, create albums and much more without unnecessary copying.

Picasa

Free tool from Google. It shows all indexed photos in a convenient folder structure. You can let the program scan your entire hard drive for photos, or select specific folders. Double-tapping any image will expand it to full screen and show you basic editing tools: cropping, straightening, adjusting color and light, or removing red-eye, among others.

There are also convenient features such as facial recognition and geo-tagging. You can scan all the photos and then search the database for specific people. And geo-tagging will allow you to search by location. Photo viewing deserves special attention - the user-friendly interface and additional editing tools deserve to make Picasa your default viewer.

Zoner Photo Studio Free

Free version of the photo editor Zoner Photo Studio. The program can copy pictures directly from the camera and allows you to process them using basic tools and effects. You can also create your own collection of photos, organizing it the way you want, easily find the images you need, print them, send them by email and publish them on the Internet.

Zoner Photo Studio Free has four main control panels: Import for uploading photos, Manager for managing your archive on your PC, Editor for processing and enhancing photos, and Viewer for reviewing existing images. The Manager tab includes a tree system for displaying folders, navigation and information panels. If such a need arises, you can purchase an extended version with more functionality.

StudioLine Photo Basic

Editor and manager of digital images. With it you can organize your photo archive and edit photo parameters. There is an integrated image format converter function, as well as elements of a graphic editor.

Supports IPTC standard, reads and edits EXIF ​​metadata, RAW support. To use the program for free, you need to request an activation code on the developer’s website, which will be sent to your email.

Aperture

If you work on a MAC, then you need to pay attention to Aperture - an advanced and more professional analogue of the built-in iPhoto editor. This program will allow you to catalog, rank and edit photos.

In addition to its wide functionality and capabilities, another advantage of Aperture is that it only allows non-destructive editing of files. Instead of changing the source file, the program records and reproduces a list of operations performed on it. Any change made in Aperture can be “rolled back” without problems, which eliminates unnecessary duplicates and errors. True, sales of Aperture will be stopped this spring, as Apple will release a new product for working with photographs - Photos for OS X.

Phototheca

A free program for viewing photos and organizing personal photo libraries on your computer. A convenient Apple-style interface and a large number of different functionality are not all that this software can surprise you with.

In Phototheca, you can hide pictures, or rather, move them to sections designated Safe. With the program's default settings, images from the Safe section can only be viewed in Phototheca; in addition, the “safes” themselves can also be made invisible on the hard drive.

MAGIX Photo Manager 15

A powerful tool for organizing, editing and sharing photos. You can organize your images in a variety of ways, such as by name, date, or topic tags. There is a function to automatically organize photos by scanning and analyzing the content.

Among other things, the developers have taken care of the ability to restore photos deleted by mistake and find duplicates. You can also protect your pictures with a password.

XnViewMP

A multifunctional application for working with graphic files on a computer, which is an extended version of the XnView program. In essence, this tool can be considered a kind of media browser with viewer, converter and cataloguer options. Supports viewing of more than 500 different graphic formats, and when saving (converting) - up to 50 formats.

In XnViewMP you can convert pictures and photographs into various formats, including in batch mode, which is convenient when working with large amounts of data, you can view and edit EXIF ​​information, take screenshots, upload data to an FTP server, website or send by email, organize your graphics library according to certain parameters, and much more. Images can be cropped, rotated, resized, adjusted brightness and contrast settings, applied various effects, etc. We are also pleased with the well-thought-out interface of the product, which is designed like Windows Explorer, where everything is laid out and sorted for maximum productive use.

No matter which program you choose, you will get the order you want in your photos. There will be no more painful searches among thousands of scattered files. A clear organization will allow you to enjoy working or viewing memorable photographs without nerves or surprises. And the ability to edit pictures will eliminate the need to open Photoshop every time you need to correct some little thing.