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Crash Course: Digital PhotographyTuesday, January 31, 2006 7:40 PM EST by James
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Whenever I browse through forums and look at pictures taken by members I can easily tell who knows how to use their camera and who doesn't. I am by no means a professional, but I figured it'd be good to give a few hints and tips to what all those buttons are on your camera and how you can attempt to take better pictures.
Getting Started
There are a few types of cameras out there as you've probably seen when you go to any store. We'll focus on digital photography in this article since it seems to be the most popular and the easiest to experiment with. Point and shoot (P&S) cameras are the most commonly purchased cameras. These types of cameras vary in size and features. Digital SLR's are those big cameras you usually see at car shows and weddings. These cameras have the most flexible options and are typically used by professionals willing to drop a large chunk of change on their cameras. My guess is many of you will be purchasing or already own a P&S camera. If you're looking to buy one, I think the most important mode a camera has to have is a manual mode where you can adjust shutter speed, ISO, and aperture (usually indicated with an "M"). These features will allow you to take pictures and adjust settings manually.
Megapixels
One of the biggest mistakes people think about when purchasing a digital camera is the false assumption that more megapixels = better camera. This is not the case and is probably used more as a marketing ploy to draw in uninformed consumers. The truth of the matter is, a camera with a higher megapixel count (or higher resolution) can take larger pictures for printing. So you might be asking if there is a difference between a 5 megapixel Canon and a 5 megapixel Sony? There sure is. The lens of each camera out there is slightly different and will take different pictures. Usually as the size of the lens gets smaller, the quality of you picture will also decrease with it, which makes those tiny pocket sized cameras not the most ideal for taking the best quality photos. Remember with a lousy lens it doesn't matter how many megapixels your camera has. A lousy picture at 3 megapixels is still a lousy picture at 7 megapixels. So when you ask your friends "how many megapixels is it?" you're really not asking the right question.
Settings
Every digital camera has various sizes that you can keep save your pictures at. Typically they are labelled "S", "M" and "L". This is the size and compression that your camera will use to store the images. The name of these is sort of backwards with it's meaning. "S" means the camera will compress the image the most which means it will reduce the quality in order to save space. "L" means it will not compress the image as much so more color detail is there resulting in a larger file. If you want to use your camera to its full extend you must set this value to "L" or better. Yes, the total number of pictures you can take will decrease, but let me put it this way. Using the "S" or "M" compression setting is like buying a car and never revving the engine past 3,000 rpm. And if you didn't get that I don't really know what you're doing on this site, but simply put you're underutilizing your camera. If you need to buy a new media card so you can fit more pictures on it, then do so. I see countless people buying 5 megapixel cameras and being able to take 2,000 pictures. If that's the case you should have bought a cheaper camera or just use your phone.
Taking Pictures
When you're taking pictures there are various scenarios that can lead to the use of different settings on your camera. The following describes a few of those situations and what I like to do to produce good results. As you experiment with your camera you'll learn more and more about the different manual settings you can play with. You should experiement as much as you can ... it's free anyway right?
The Auto Setting
Most of you are probably very familiar with this setting. Turn the camera on and click ... done. If your camera never leaves the "Auto" setting the rest of this article may help you be more adventurous. The auto setting is used mainly when you feel like the camera will know how to take the kind of picture you want to. I know that may sound confusing because you're probably asking "how am I supposed to know?". Well usually cameras handle day time pictures fairly well in this setting. When there is a lot of light and the subject is further than 2 feet away the auto setting would probably be a good choice at first. If any of those scenarios change, however, so do your settings. This is primarily when there isn't much light in your scene.
The Flash
The flash provides an alternative light source for your pictures. When it's dark in your setting the flash can light up your subject so you can see it, but it can often be too bright depending how close you are. When the flash is too bright or the subject is too close your picture will be washed out (white). Another problem with using the flash is that the subject matter in the background will often be completely black and unrecognizable. Depending on your intention of the picture this could be good or bad.
The Manual Setting
So the first thing I do when taking pictures at night time is I turn the flash off. Now you may say "then the pictures will be black!" and the answer to this is longer exposure or shutter speed. To understand how this works, here is a little analogy. Think of your camera as a black canvas hidden by all the surrounding light. The only way that light can hit the canvas is through the lens of the camera. When you take a picture the lens opens and light is permitted to shine on your canvas for a short period of time. In this analogy you can consider light to be just like paint. When it hits your canvas in different patterns and areas it creates a picture. This is basically how cameras work, but don't go telling everyone that light is painting on your black canvas inside your camera. Anyway this all just leads into the explanation of shutter speed. The longer that your lens is open the more time there is for light to paint it's picture. For these types of photos you will most likely need a tripod or something for the camera to rest on. You can experiment with the settings on your camera and the length the shutter is open. I usually take a group of pictures on different shutter speeds and then I pick the one I like the best later. To change this setting you usually need to change your camera to the "manual" mode and there should be an option for shutter speed. This will vary from camera to camera so consult your manual if you can't figure it out.
ISO
ISO is the number that indicates a cameras sensitivity to light. The higher the number, the less exposure (shutter speed) is needed. As you increase this number the more noise you will get in you picture. Noise is just like static and is undesirable, but a picture may need a higher ISO in low light scenes. I usually play around with these setting mixed with shutter speed to get the right photo. It's a little hard to see on the small LCDs on these cameras, but you can sort of get a good idea what settings do what after some practice.
Aperture
Aperture is controls the amount of light that touches your black canvas for painting. I know I know ... you're probably thinking "isn't shutter speed the same thing?" and you're right. Together both of these determine how much light is used to paint your picture. Again, this will take some experimentation when you begin taking pictures. Play around with all three of these settings and see what kind of results you get.
The Macro
I love taking macro shots. This mode is used when you want to get very close to your subject. Some lenses let you get within inches of your subject and the results can be astonishing. I typically use this mode when there is a good external light source. Using the cameras flash is almost impossible because you are so close to the subject.
Final Thoughts
With all of that said and done you should be ready to use those other setting on your camera by now. All it takes is a little bit of experimentation and a desire to take good pictures. The best advice I can give is to get a tripod and spend 30 minutes at night taking pictures. The pictures are free so shoot away.
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nice article.. I'm going to go take some more pics of my car now, haha
Posted by Gee on 3/12/2007 10:54 PM
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