The former just gives you more information to work with. When shooting in the dark, the camera must work either harder to properly recreate the image in front of it.
(prHWY.com) November 5, 2012 - Sydney, Australia -- It's almost impossible to get away from cameras nowadays, yet most of us use them with the bare minimum of knowledge required to snap the nearest picture-worthy scene. That's not because we don't care about truly pretty pictures -- even casual observers know the difference between good and bad photography -- but have you tried to make an educated choice between cameras lately?
Since light is the only information your photograph collects, it should come as no surprise that well-lit scenes typically come out looking sharper and nicer than dark and moody shots illuminated only by a streetlight. The former just gives you more information to work with. When shooting in the dark, the camera must work either harder to properly recreate the image in front of it. That's where the invention of the flash comes in, providing a strobe of white light, synchronized with the opening of your shutter, its remarkable.
The key settings
If you're new to digital photography, the three things you should acquaint yourself with first are the ISO, aperture, and shutter speed. The three work in concert, and if you can manipulate and control them all, you'll take fabulous photos without even touching the rest of your camera. Together, they're known as the Exposure Triangle; because they control how much light you're exposing the camera to (aperture), how sensitive the camera is to that light (ISO), and how long your exposure lasts (shutter speed).
Shutter Speed
Shutter speed is as key an element to getting good photos as any. It controls how long the camera spends collecting light, as opposed to ISO and aperture, which control how much light is absorbed at once. It's measured in fractions of a second, so a shutter speed of "1/125" means the shutter is open for one 125th of a second. Higher shutter speeds mean the camera captures a shorter period of time, which is key for getting blur-free action shots, while lower speeds allow you to soak up more light, albeit at the risk of blurry results if your camera and subject aren't still.
Lens Sharpness
Most professional photographers will tell you that the paramount determinant of image quality is the lens. You can tweak your settings as much as you like, but without a truly sharp piece of glass to filter light through, your pictures will never look their best. The distinction between sharpness and softness in imaging is one of detail: sharp photos retain a clear separation between edges and colors right down to the pixel level.
Megapixels
Strictly speaking, a megapixel is one million pixels, but it's somewhat meaningless to know that your camera shoots 10 million pixels at a time. The megapixel count truly tells you, is how big you can make your image without having to enlarge it digitally.
Zoom
Zoom is a simple concept where you can get to whatever you're shooting, without having to physically move closer which is of great advantage.
Wendy Jamieson has her own photography business and thoroughly enjoys photography asboth a hobby and a business. She highly recommends
http://www.camerastore.com.au for great deals on cameras and you can also find cheap digital SLR cameras at
http://www.camerastore.com.au/digital-slr-cameras
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