Published on: Sunday, January 27, 2002

Digital Vacation: Film-free cameras let travelers snap happy

By Chris Oliver
Advertiser Staff Writer

Techniques for ensuring quality Simple techniques can make the difference between mediocre travel photos and great ones: • People: Fill the frame with the subject, not the background. Check what else is in the vicinity. You might get a great shot of the family by the monument but if there's a trash can off to the side, the picture is spoiled. Unless you have the proper lens, make sure you're not too close. Some cameras can't focus less than four feet from the subject. Put your subject a little off-center rather than smack in the middle; this makes the picture visually more interesting. Take shots of people relating to each other, rather than being passive or posing. Shoot tight when they're not paying attention to you. If possible, use a tripod or rest your camera on something solid. • Buildings: Look for interesting details on archways, gates, bridges, plaques. Try dramatic angles to make ordinary buildings more interesting. Silhouette bold shapes against bright backgrounds. Use people to show scale of buildings. Check the viewfinder for wasted space. • Landscape: Keep the horizon level. Use a mix of horizontal and vertical shots. Consider making a panorama using digital software. Frame distant peaks with nearby objects. Shoot early or late, avoid mid-day. • Make a travel journal: Tell a story with your travel pictures. Keep a short, sequential log of the places you visit. Create a mix of scenic shots with close-ups, buildings and people shots. Keep an eye out for interesting signs, especially humorous or foreign-language signs. You can intersperse photos with other mementos, such as ticket stubs, menus, sketches you've made and so on. — Chris Oliver

On the ski run at Whistler, British Columbia, a month ago, Vickie Pakele's daypack was full. Pakele was carrying not only her ultralight Fuji FinePix 4900 Zoom digital camera but had also tucked in her trusty 35 millimeter Nikon, plus an assortment of lenses.

Like many who have crossed to the digital realm of photography, Pakele loves her digital camera but can't quite leave her old one behind. A competent photographer who loves to "get in close and capture the details," Pakele will often rely on her Nikon, especially when it comes to photographing her two "moving target" children.

"(When it comes to details), I feel you compromise a little with a digital camera," Pakele said — digital cameras can't yet record in as fine detail as the best photographic film.

But Pakele also confessed she still was learning.

"I haven't fully mastered the Fuji well enough to completely switch over," Pakele said. "Like with any new technology, it's time-consuming, and I need more practice."

Pakele is having fun with the Fuji, which she said fits comfortably in the palm of her hand and includes a short video option, as well as allowing her to take up to 94 pictures before she must transfer them to her home computer. She finds it easy to focus on far-off objects and especially likes the camera's light weight.

"But the best thing is being able to delete what you don't want," Pakele said, "so you're not wasting money on film or developing."

Travelers like Pakele have embraced the the colliding worlds of photography and computers, where digital cameras are the hottest-selling items. They like digital cameras because you don't have to buy film, there is no waiting for photos to come back from the lab, and there are no processing bills.

Digital cameras are equipped with a small LCD (liquid crystal display) screen on the back — just like the color viewfinders on camcorders — that can be used to compose your image before it's shot and to check it the instant after you've pressed the shutter. If you don't like the image or failed to get what you want, you can hit delete and try again.

Instantly reviewing photographs, and producing great close-ups attracted Bruce Liebert to his Nikon CoolPix 990. Liebert and his family live in Manoa but spend time each summer in the mountains of Colorado.

"Backpacking in Colorado, for example, when wildflowers are in bloom, I can use the Nikon to get within an inch of the subject and to check whether the focus and lighting are correct, on the spot," Liebert said. "Because the depth of field in a close-up shot is so narrow, it is easy to take several photos before one is in acceptable focus. With my Nikon, it's easy to delete out-of-focus shots to recover the space on the memory card."

Tom Pochereva took his Canon PowerShot S10 digital camera on The Norwegian Star's inaugural cruise last month, and was pleased with the results. He found the camera compensated well for lighting conditions both inside and out. He recently upgraded the Canon's memory and can now store 500 pictures in the camera — an entire trip's worth.

There is a digital camera to fit all budgets from the versatile and stylish SiPix StyleCam currently at CompUSA for $69.99 to high-end models from Olympus, Fuji, Sony and Canon, costing the equivalent of a little red sports car.

If you own a home computer and printer and you're thinking ahead to your next vacation and ways to improve your holiday snaps, consider going digital. If you can operate a TV remote, you can handle a basic digital camera but there are things to know about before you buy.

Pixels

Instead of using rolls of film, digital cameras use light-sensitive computer chips to convert light coming through the lens into electrical impulses; these electrical impulses are then stored as pixels, computer-speak for "picture elements."

Pixels are tiny squares of data that are the building blocks behind image detail or resolution. The more of these tiny squares, the better. Fewer pixels (low-end consumer cameras) are fine if you want to post your vacation snaps on a Web site, e-mail them to the folks you met on holiday or make smaller prints. If you want bigger and better prints, you need a camera capable of delivering more pixels, at least mid-range in price and quality.

At the top end are cameras capable of storing millions of pixels, often used by professional photographers. If you plan to print photo-quality enlargements, cameras in the 3-megapixel range can deliver acceptable 8-by-10-inch prints.

Memory cards

The trade-off on pixels, however, is that they gobble up space on the camera memory card: The larger and more detailed the picture, the more memory is required, which means you can't shoot as many pictures.

Digital cameras rely on reusable memory cards (each about the size of a matchbook cover), which dictate how many pictures you can shoot before downloading the data to your computer. Card capacities vary.

When a card is full, you simply put in another (if your budget runs to more than one — they start at about $17 each), and shoot on. Most cameras use CompactFlash, SmartMedia or Memory Stick brand cards. Be sure the memory card you buy is compatible with your camera.

Zoom lens

Look for a camera with an optical zoom lens rather than a digital zoom. An optical zoom lets you move in from a wide angle to a close-up; digital zoom just magnifies the center of the image, reducing picture quality. "Anyone buying a camera with a digital zoom will probably be disappointed," said Scott Anderson, who lives in San Francisco but brings his Fuji FinePix 2600 Zoom on visits to O'ahu. "An optical zoom is the only way to modify the focal length and pull the object(s) in closer for a good-quality final shot."

Batteries

Many digital cameras run efficiently on rechargeable AA batteries — and, always, always carry a spare pair. Some digital cameras, such as Pochereva's Canon PowerShot and Pakele's Fuji FinePix require their own battery packs.

Software

Most cameras come with software that is PC — or — Mac compatible, but check that your computer has the right connector for the next step.

Getting pictures into the computer

Getting your images into your computer is pretty simple with a USB (universal serial bus) connector, an accessory that plugs into the back of your computer. When you want to download the camera's memory, attach a USB cable between the camera and the computer's USB port and turn on the camera and it will download the photos to your computer desktop. (You will have previously installed the appropriate software for this, which you purchase with your camera.)

Here's where the fun starts

Once in the computer, your photos can be sorted, rotated, cropped, enhanced and repaired. You can remove "red-eye" caused by built-in flash. You can e-mail snaps to friends around the world or post them on a Web site or print your own photo album.

Warning: It's easy to quickly accumulate hundreds of photos, which take up space on the computer's hard drive. Using a CD burner to transfer images to CDs for storage is one solution.

• Printing photos properly requires an ink jet printer and for best results, thick, glossy photographic paper, readily available in computer stores. Some Epson and Hewlett-Packard inkjet printers that cost as little as $100 can make prints almost indistinguishable from those available from the photo lab. If you plan to print a lot of photos, though, the cost of special photo paper and color ink can add up.

• Editing digital photos by cropping, enhancing color, removing braces, facial wrinkles, oddly-placed objects, even replacing the fountain statue's head with Uncle Charley's is possible with photo-editing software. Some of the less-expensive programs are Microsoft Picture It! Premium 2002 (microsoft.com) $59.99; Adobe PhotoDeluxe (www.adobe.com) V4 for Windows, V2 for Mac, both $49; or Adobe Photoshop Elements for Windows and Mac, $99.99.

More serious digital photography users might consider Adobe Photoshop LE, Jasc's Paintshop Pro 7 or Corel PhotoPaint 9, Digital Camera Edition.

• A growing number of people are now using online photo services such as Shutterfly, Ophoto and Snapfish, which, for a fee, store your photos on a password-access Web site, and can produce high-quality glossy prints, create greeting cards, calendars or other photo items.

At Snapfish (snapfish.com), the company allows you to send digital photos to the site, where they can be viewed by friends and family and then ordered as prints. The downside is that the photos may take a while to upload to the Web site.

Check for prices and services at:

• Fuji — Fujifilm.net

• Kodak — kodak.photonet.com

• Seattle filmWorks — www.sfw.com

• Shutterfly — shutterfly.com