Step by Step

Digital photography is so easy that you can almost forget you need to do anything after taking a picture. In the days of film, your pictures passed through a single system, the photo lab, to get developed. With digital there is no photo lab. The photographer is the one who processes and stores the images. And just as the photo lab technician followed certain steps to turn exposed film into photographs, the digital photographer needs to do a few things to turn the collection of data on a digital storage card into pictures.

The steps of digital "processing" are simple, and they're always the same. Photos must be downloaded from your camera into your computer, named, browsed, and archived. Additionally, with digital photos you have the power to print and share your pictures in a variety of ways (covered in the next chapter) that film could never offer.

Figure 6.1a and 6.1b. Many photographers have traded one type of photo mediafilmfor digital media that has different requirements. (Photo by Reed Hoffmann)

Figure 6.2. Google's Picasa, one of the most popular free photo browsers, offers many features. These shots were taken in shot in Yosemite National Park. (Photos by Reed Hoffman)