The entire world is going digital, and in such times photographers can be left behind. The transition to digital photography is well in its advanced stages. If you have not yet decided to take the digital route, go through these digital photography basics and hints which should be useful to get you started. You can also start your own photo blogs or enter contests held by photography magazines and suchlike. This will help you improve and compare your work.First thing is that digital photography requires a special type of camera- the one, which does not use a film. Instead, the digital camera uses a CCD or CMOS sensor which collects the light and color data just like a film. The sensor processes this light and color information and coverts it to digital format. This digital information is then sent to the storage part where it is either stored on the camera's inbuilt storage or on a memory card. Second thing is that unlike the popular perception, digital photography is not all about the camera's megapixel ratings. The race of megapixels has taken a back seat and the camera makers have started to focus on other things like optical image stabilization, better color sensitivity and improved speeds of cameras (how long it takes to snap a picture after you've pressed the buttton). Your photo will not always be better if it has more megapixels. It would be better if you can make sure that you are well versed with all the photography basics.Third thing is that if your serious about your pictures is would help to have a high powered computer for processing your digital images. We're not talking super computer here but one with reasonable specifications. The more work you do on your photos, the slower it can become. Be careful when you purchase your computer and especially the image editing software. Treat this like your own personal photo processing lab.Fourth thing is that while common printers can print images, they are not at all suited for photographic printing work. For this purpose you would need a special photo printer and photo paper. The photo printer comes with better six or eight color inks which provide wider control over color gamut. Moreover these photo printers can also do borderless printing which is not available in common print devices used at home. Fifth thing is that when you purchase a camera you might come across features like digital zoom. To keep the long story short, digital zoom is not good and can in fact ruin a photograph. It would add unwanted artifacts and blow the details to point of being completely pixilated or blurred. Never ever purchase a camera because it offers crazy amount of digital zoom like 50X or 200X. It is the optical zoom which matters. You see digital simply captures your image as is and enlarges it. As the image gets larger you lose quality. An optical zoom actually closes in on your target before taking the picture so there is no loss of quality.Finally when you start with digital photography, another basic thing you need to know is that you have to hold your hand still for much longer than was the case with a film camera. This is because of a problem called shutter lag. Work is underway to remove this problem and some high end and top midrange cameras do not have noticeable lag but entry level cameras might have shutter lag. With these digital photography basics, you can get better photographs.