PCs For Dummies® Windows®, 7 Edition

Chapter 25. The Whole Digital Photography Thing

In This Chapter

• Using a digital camera

• Getting images from your digital camera

• Setting up a scanner

• Creating images with a scanner

• Working with images in Windows

• Converting picture file formats

• Understanding resolution

• Setting the right resolution

Back up! Move left! Move right! Roger, you're not smiling! Okay, everyone, say "Cheese!" Such is the ritual of taking the traditional photograph. Captured on film and developed using a chimerical process, the picture would take a while to return to you from "the developer." Only then would you discover that, once more, Grandma had cut off the top of Uncle Ed's head in the picture. But never mind: It was a memory.

Today's images are captured digitally. After the shutter clicks, a quick check of the camera confirms whether the image looks okay. If not, you can delete that image and instantly snap another one. The outfit known as "the developer" has been replaced by the personal computer, which stores, organizes, and prints your photos and lets you fling them far and wide by using e-mail or a social networking Web site. Welcome to the 21st century version of photography.

The Digital Camera

Snapping digital pictures is easy. A digital camera is as simple to operate as the Brownie cameras of a century ago. No, the problem with a digital camera is how to move those images from the camera into the PC. After they're in the computer, you can store the pictures, edit, print, or send them off hither and thither ...