computers and digital cameras....Have you any tips to give to a complete novice.?

Question

I am an O A P (female) just getting used to a lap top...mostly having fun...I bought a simple digital camera yesterday and am looking for tips to make life simple.The last time I used a camera it was a Brownie Box...point and click...so any advice on using the camera....downloading snaps and I dont know the correct word...improving them when they are on computer would be most useful.I have a disc with the camera to download but wondered do I need extra software to improve them ? Any advice would be useful because I know NOTHING...never even used a flash.
So it does not matter how simple your answers are....Thankyou.

Answer 1

a lot of computer stores have intro courses on everything from the internet to digital photography. i would suggest making a few phone calls and finding one. they are inexpensive and they are a great tool for a novice and usually run for a few hours on one evening.

Answer 2

Hello; I think I can answer this question without pride & predjudice, like some of the others! The PC is about 8yrs old, and as a few of your ansewers have stated, it's a bit old for a hard drive (aka; hdd). The expected life of a hard drive is about 5-7yrs, but I've got several more than 10. That does't mean they all automatically die on that one day, when they reach a certain age, now does it? No, it doesn't. For the use you're describing, this machine is perfect! There'll be many older programs you can find on the internet for children to play (and learn while playing). Remember that you've most likely got a PIII, or AMD equivilent machine. I'd have to know your exact machine model name, so I could look up its' exact specifications, and advise you further. Back to the hard drive issue; A computer will say there's "no hdd" if there's a problme with the boot sector of the current drive. It cannot load the information that tells it, what that drive is, and what's on it, so it blankets a statement out that there's no drive. If your system has a drive, then this is what's happened. If that drive is taken out, and put into another computer, it can most likely be repaired. If you don't know about all that junk and don't wanna mess with it, then a low volume (10Gb 20Gb drive) can be bought for cheap money, off ebay or maybe theres a new (or lightly used) one lying around at the local PC store. The bottom line is, your system is not a total loss, and there's many alternatives to what you can do with it! I still have a home built system (Pentium III) I built in 2000, and it's actually still faster than many PC's coming out of your large dept stores (walmart, etc). The thing with a computer is; you get what you pay for! If you'd like more specific help, I'd be happy to oblige; simply email me or IM me with the product number, and I'll find your specs & advise you accordingly. Mac01843 (my ID on Y!)

Answer 3

In simple terms, there should be a couple of holes on the camera. You should also get a wire with everything. Plug the wire in the camera, and then the other end needs to go in your computer. There should be a hole (USB) in the front of the computer, if not, then have a look at the back. Just look at each end and match it up.

The instructions are usually pretty easy to learn how to take a photo and delete them. I usually work it out from just playing with the camera for half hour or so.

With the disc you get, just put it in the computer and let it run. This will install everything, so you can just plug the camera in and get the pics on your computer. You should get things on the disc, so you can edit your photos. This will include removing red eye, rotating them, cropping them, adding frames etc.

However, if you don't get such things as this, then go to the shop or look on ebay for a photo editor. They are so cheap, and as you're only a beginner, you don't really need a fantastically swish one. I got my photo editor as 3 for £1 from the car boot, brand new!

If you've got any other questions then email me and I'll give you a hand.

Answer 4

If you have Windows XP it will help you put the photos on the computer. Read the instruction manual that came with your camera to find out how to upload the photos to your pc, you just plug the right cable into the right holes.
Windows XP will then ask you what you want to do, select "save to a folder" and it will do it all for you, it will even make the folder.
You also need to learn how to delete the old photos from the camera to make room for new ones.

With some cameras you get another set of cables that lets you see your photos on the tv screen, you need a fairly modern tv but you get a full screen picture, which is fun.
The best thing about digital cameras is that you pay nothing to get your photos developed, and there's no wait. If you don't like what you see you just delete it and you haven't wasted any money. So you can practise loads.
I strongly recommend that you burn a copy of your photos to cd, if your laptop has a cd burner. It gives you a copy to put in a safe place. Also if there's any you really like, take them to a shop and get them printed out from a cd, its much better quality than printing from your pc and its cheaper! Plus you can get your best photos put on a mug or t-shirt, or a mouse mat. Most photo developing shops do that now. I recommend Snappy Snaps as they check every photo to make sure it prints out properly.

As for "image editing software" as its called, there's a free one that another person on here recommended, its called "Irfanview" I think, I'll go and look for it and come back. Its easy to download and use.
Personally if I were you I'd save up £80 and buy Photoshop Elements 4 and learn to use that. Its really fun being able to mess about with your photos, you can change all the colours, add objects or take them out, correct "red eye" , turn colour photos into black and white or sepia and lots more. Elements is the cut down version of Photoshop for home users and it really is more fun than you can shake a stick at.
Photoshop has great Help files, and you can also buy books from places like Waterstones, which I'd do as you can sit and wok through the lessons at your own pace.

I've bought a couple of photography books from second hand shops but didn't find them much use as they were too technical. I got a book on digital photography and it was a lot more helpful.
I'm glad you're enjoying your pc, I think that the camera is going to open up a whole new lot of possibilities, they are loads of fun.

Answer 5

I have three digital cameras. One great one, one that was great and is now second rate, and one that is too cheap to use for anything. This does not include the two that are on cell phones!
So, life is digital now. How to make it simple.
Joncob? gave you some good advice: IrfanView! Outstanding program. What to do with it?
1. Get organized. find your pics easily and put them where you want with IV.(IrfanView) [in prefs, one of the choices is THUMBNAILS. Do it. It will put a little checked button in the IV menu that will open the pic browser/tool window. That will show you images of the media files anywhere on your PC]
2. Size and improve the pics. You can lear this by googling for an IV tutorial. Many schools use IV and have online tutorials for their students.
3. Plan ahead. A pic of something on your computer is useful for several purposes. For example, slideshows, paper print-outs, email pics, etc. etc. etc. So, understand that these uses are best accomplished using different size pics. But you may want to print it, so that is the biggest of all and you don't want to shrink it, or it won't look good when you print it. But a pic like that is too big to send in an email. So, decide on a simple code system to help you organize your pics. First, name them with real names: turn DSC0034.jpg into JackBDparty.jpg (that is the original) In IV, enhance the colors and crop the pic to get out the stuff you don't want. Save AS JackBDparty1.jpg Then make a size suitable for slide shows on a PC. These are 800x600 or 1024x768 in size, what ever you wish. Save AS JackBDparty1S.jpg then shrink the pic down to eMail size which is 500-700 wide x whatever tall depending on the portrait or landscape of the pic. Save AS JackBDparty1E.jpg
Now you have useful sizes that you can use as you like, and the original as well in case you need it. It will be easy to pick the one you want when the time comes, cuz you planned ahead and coded the pics as you went along.
I have about 3500 pics in my library. Some came from pre-coding days, and it is a pain to look through a hundred DSC00####.jpg pics trying to find that stupid pic of Jack at the birthday party. Now, where in the heck did I put it???
You see. Plan ahead will help you in the future. Please don't send me the original 5 meg pic of Jack cuz my email ISP will reject the email because it is too big. Even Yahoo will fail if the file is over 10 megs! That is only 2 original pics in an email. But with 10 megs, I can email the whole roll of JackBDparty 1-45 in one email if I have shrunk them down to 1 or 200k each. Some ISP email accounts will not allow even 1 meg emails!

PS. When you take a pic with the digital camera, it is NOT point and click. The DC needs between .5 and 1 second to determine the exposure and focus, and charge the flash if needed. So you press the shutter release SLOWLY until the camera gives you the OK. This is usually a light or sound signal. Then continue to SLOWLY press down the shutter release an take the photo. Squeeeeeze your shots and you will get well exposed clear photos. Point and click will get you blurry dark photos.
;-D Have fun. I hope you send me some pics, and let me give you some advice re them!

Answer 6

Learn by doing.

The camera probably came with the software that you need. If you find the software cumberson, or it does not do what you need, then you might try Paint Shop Pro. This costs under $80 at a retailer like STAPLES. (the place with the Easy Button).

One tip. After you transfer your photos to your computer, learn how to make a CD, so you can store these photos somewhere OFF the computer.

You can bring the CD that you make to places like CVS, Walgreens or Wal-Mart and use the DO IT YOURSELF photo printer. This usually is cheaper than buying the photo paper and ink and printing it yourself.

You are on the right track. Ask qustions here, but also join Yahoo Groups, where you can meet people that discuss computer issues. Try mine at www.KeepYourComputerAlive.com and my group at Yahoo.

Answer 7

A digital camera is also point and click!

You can download images stored in the digital camera's memory card, to you computer by connecting the camera with your computer with the cable supplied with your computer. A menu usually appear on the computers screen with some option, eg click on "Download to Hard Disk".

You may need to install software FIRST! If the camera came with a CD, check if you need to install the software on the CD first, before plugging camera to computer. There may be a warning label on the cable to remind you.

For a beginner, the photo editing software that comes on the CD (which gets installed, as above ) will suffice. More advanced users can purchase Photoshop for example to edit images.

Answer 8

Personally (hey, I'm in the grey gang) I plug a MEMORY CARD reader in the USB port, slip the memory out of the camera (will tell you how to do that in the book that came with camera) Then slip the memory into the card reader.....no software for that.
Go to www.irfanview.com and download thier free program. Then, click on the file, it will install. You can then see (FILE>OPEN) a new drive on your system, its your memory card! and, all those pictures. I was in some woods, very dark, the camera images were ...black!!! In Irfan View then, piccy on screen, IMAGE>ENHANCE COLOURS...and shifted the 'Gamma' well, i had a picture! Have fun, play!!!!!

Answer 9

hi,
with regards 'improving' images, it depends on the camera you have bought and the software that you got for free. i use photoshop and the other adobe programmes, but they are very very expensive to buy. they can do pretty much anything to your images. what do you want to improve about the images? i recommend an apple computer! iphoto which you get free with a new apple is excellent for a beginner and will probably do all the improving you require. i am afraid i do not know the equivalent software for a standard pc! good luck.

Answer 10

taking the pics should be nice and simple - just point and click

transfering them to your PC requires a cable (probably supplied with camera) then a little bit of PC know-how to browse and transfer onto your PC file system

retouching them for red-eye of other artifacts on the image requires photo-editing software - you may have had some free software bundled on the CD that came with the camera - if not, do a web search for free photo-editing software - there's plenty out there