What are digital files?

There's a photo contest my daughter wants to enter, and in the instructions it states that only digital files will be accepted. What exactly is a digital file and how would I (I will be the one sending this off for her) make a picture into a digital file to send. Would that be like a regular attachment to their form… I have no knowledge of computer files or imagery so please tell me in layman's terms so I can understand. She has use of a Nikon D80 camera if that makes any difference.

The most common digital file used for photographs is the jpeg, which will appear as filename.jpg or filename.jpeg.

The Nikon D80 is a digital camera that stores the photos as digital files on a memory card, in this case a specific type of memory card known as an SD card. When you remove the card from the camera, it is the photos on that card that need to be sent to the competition.

I don't know how exactly they want you to send the files, you suggested that there's a space on their online form to upload the file and that sounds entirely possible. But it might also be the case that they would accept entries as email attachments or something like that.

The people running the competition are basically trying to say that they do not want any hard copies of the photos (e.g.printouts, film negatives, slides… ). Most of which would not apply to you anyway given that you have a digital camera.

I'm assuming that your daughter knows how to get photos off of the camera, so just ask her for help if any of this is unclear.

In questions like this it is helpful to know if you use a mac or PC.

A digital file is pretty much anything that you can email. (so not a physical item) Yes, It would just be a regular attachment.

Your camera should come with a computer connection (check the manual). Plug it in to the computer and the camera. Turn on the camera.

If you have a mac:
"If you are using a Mac, the camera should just appear as an icon on the desktop." It would probably look like a large white icon -

If you use windows:
"If you are using a PC, you can browse your computer drives, and one of the drives should represent your camera. Some versions of Windows automatically detect that a camera has been attached, and ask you what you'd like to do with the photographic files."

A Digital pic is Virtual, it's a file on the computer.

Connect the Digital Camera, Goto Start menu, Computer, Locate and right click.
The Camera and hit 'Explore' Navigate throught the folders to find the pictures.
Then copy them to the computer and upload them in the form or send them.
In A Email Attachment. Hope Thats Simple Enough.