Getting the Most from a Point and Shoot Camera

Jul 092011
 
 July 9, 2011  Posted by Habenero at 1:24 pm How To, Photography, Uncategorized , , , , , , , , , ,  No Responses »

With the advancements made in technology, point and shoot cameras are able to produce images that far surpass images made in the film world by what would be considered their equivalent! Often users of these cameras assume they are just a point and shoot device and never take time to read the manual or change the settings for optimal shooting.  This leads to pictures that are well made, but often could have been better.  Here are a few tips to ensure you get the best images possible from any camera without regard to make or model:

1:  If you can control the aperture, try shooting in aperture priority mode.  This allows you to control the depth of field.  A wide open aperture creates a shallow depth of field, which is often used for portraiture.  When only the subject is in focus, it will stand out and be notice better.  A closed down aperture creates a very wide depth of field with as much of the scene as possible kept in focus.  This makes for a better landscape image.

2:  By controlling the shutter speed, you can decide whether to capture single drops of spray from a fountain, or to create a milky texture from the water.  You may be able to stop the action of a race car, or let it blur a bit to indicate a fast object.

3:  In the days of film, ISO was set strictly by the film maker and could be manipulated through processing.  Modern cameras allow you to change the ISO on the fly.  The ISO determines how sensitive the sensor will be to the light hitting it.  A high ISO charges the sensor so that it responds faster and with more intensity and noise than a low ISO at the same light level.  IT is by manipulating the ISO that one can make the adjustments of aperture and speed fall into a range that creates a good image.

4:  White Balance is probably the most misunderstood adjustment modern cameras have.  In short, it adjusts the sensor’s idea of what white looks like.  The human eye can recognize a white object at many different light levels.  The films sensor can not do this.  A bright day with lots of sunshine has a color temperature of close to 5000 degrees kelvin.  An object that looks white in that light will look more yellow-red than white if viewed under tungsten light.  It might also appear a bit green under older style fluorescent lights.  A white balance control enables you to compensate for the lighting conditions at hand.

By taking the time to learn about these controls on your camera, you can start creating better images.

Camera Controls (part 1, ISO)

May 162010
 
 May 16, 2010  Posted by Habenero at 5:36 pm How To, Photography , , , , ,  No Responses »

I’d like to go over some basic digital camera settings, ISO, f-Stop, shutter speed, and white balance. The only functions not found on film cameras are ISO, which is determined by the film you have chosen to use in your film camera, and white balance, which is partially a characteristic of the film and the color temperature of the light it is being used in. The rest are the common functions every photographer should get to know intimately. In order to make good choices, one should at the very least learn what the functions on your camera do so that you can determine how they should be used for the image you wish to create.

I will start with ISO, for that is going to be the starting point whether you are putting film in your camera or adjusting the sensitivity of your camera’s sensor. ISO determines how much light is going to be needed to properly expose an image. The lower the ISO, the greater the amount of light is needed, and the finer the amount of noiseless data recorded. On film that means very fine grain, on a digital camera it means a higher image to background noise ratio. A high ISO means that less light is needed, but the grain size in film is larger, and because the sensor is charged at a higher voltage more random background noise gets recorded along with the image. Just as with film, I choose my ISO in order to optimize my choices in accordance with the light level, aperture, and shutter speed I plan to shoot at. If for example, I plan to shoot an auto race in bright light using an aperture of f-8 with my shutter speed set at 1/4000th of a second, my ISO should be set to 1000. The simplest rule of thumb for determining exposure is the sunny 16 rule, where for a normal bright day, ISO is equal to the shutter speed when your f-stop is f-16. With f-8 being 2 stops brighter than f-16, my ISO must be ¼ of the shutter speed. A common mistake is letting the camera determine your ISO, as if you do that, you will have no control over the noise levels in your images, which may not matter in some situations, but it will when you are shooting an event that has no repeatability.

Fast Lens or High ISO

Apr 232010
 
 April 23, 2010  Posted by Habenero at 5:32 pm How To, Photography , , , , , , , , , ,  No Responses »

When you use some of the newer digital cameras, you can shoot with very little noise at some ISOs that were unheard of in the days of film.  This is due to the new sensors and better noise reduction algorithms.  The question that pops up in my mind is do these cameras negate the need for high cost fast lenses?   The answer to that question is no.

Regardless of the improvements in camera technology, it is the lens that does the majority of the work in producing a clear image.  Think back 20 years ago, and what was the problem with the Hubble Space Telescope, a key lens was not correctly shaped which made it impossible to focus properly.  All the electronic and programming tricks that were tried couldn’t get around the problem.  When correct lenses were put in place, the images forever changed astronomy.  Quality glass is far more important in producing your image than any of the electronics.

Every lens has a sweet spot.  That is the f-stop at which it produces the sharpest images.  Here’s a hint, on a fast lens, it is not often at its widest opening nor its smallest.  You can find it by focusing on a grid and adjusting the aperture until you get the clearest result.  That is the ideal lens opening for the lens and most of your shots should be done at that setting.

It is the lens that has to create the sharp edges that the sensor has to interpret.  The better the lens, the easier the sensor has to work.  Most of the fast glass used in the older cameras can produce images that make the sensor’s job a breeze.  The only drawback to using some of the older glass is that it decouples your metering system.   If your metering doesn’t work well with the glass, try to remember that you are shooting digitally and can see instant results.  Take your camera off of the Program mode and shoot manually.  Adjust the exposure until the image looks great to you.

With high ISO, your images are more susceptible to degradation due to the higher voltages applied to the sensor.  Higher voltages lead to higher heat values when the image is snapped.  Higher heat means more electronic noise.  Of course the same kind of problem occurs with long exposures, because the sensor is held at charge for a longer time.

In order to have the best of both worlds, couple your great old glass to your camera, shoot manually, and adjust the ISO and exposure to take advantage of the sweet spot of your lens.

Post Processing

Jan 042010
 
 January 4, 2010  Posted by Habenero at 2:54 pm How To, Photography , , , , ,  No Responses »

I often hear or read comments to the effect of  “I am a great photographer because I get it right in the camera and don’t need post processing.”  When someone tells me that, I know they are either misinformed about post processing, or they are too lazy to take their work to a higher level of competence.  Any wedding photographer that doesn’t post process his work (or has a lab do it for him) is one to be avoided.  I have seen some really nice work come from straight out of the camera, but minor adjustments can take those shots from “Nice work” to “Wow, that’s fantastic”.  To understand the reason for this, you have to look at what photography is both in the past and in the present.

Negative film shooters had the option of making prints themselves, or letting a lab do it for them.  Most labs opted to make prints the fastest way possible, which meant that they would check the films density (often only on the very first image on a roll of film) and print towards making even flesh tones so the people looked good.  Dramatic scenes of red rocks and blue sky looked like crap when this was done.  I know this because I once relied upon my local lab to make my prints.  To create truly dramatic prints required a bit of dodging and burning, a bit of color adjustment when necessary, and treating each image as its own entity.

To get around the problem of making prints, some people shot slides.  They often thought themselves to be “superior shooters” because they had to get it right in the camera in order to make the slide look good.  While it is true that slide film had fewer stops of resolving power than the 9 stops of negative film, getting it right in the camera has always provided the best results.  The problem was that if a slide shooter needed to make a print, he too was at the mercy of the lab or had to make it himself.

Paper prints have about 5 stops of resolving power.  This means that of the 7 stops the slide had and the 9 stops of the negative, information will be lost.  It is knowing what to lose that a great print maker excels.  Film processing labs making prints for most people, don’t take time to make the best print possible, they make the fastest print that the average person will not complain about.

Digital cameras didn’t change the print making process.  There still are 5 stops of resolving power in paper, and about 7 to 8 stops in the digital sensors.  What has changed, is that now instead of being able to rely on the consistency of your favorite film, the camera manufacturer has built in some algorithms to adjust crate a template that the print making equipment can follow.  You have to realize that just as with slide film, some information is going to be thrown away and that the final image from the sensor has been optimized for an average image of people.  Drama is just not the forte of the camera’s software, nor the labs equipment.

Post processing is taking the image the camera gave you and giving it the minor tweaks that make the color right, the highlights stand out better and push the image from average to the best it can be.  Post processing is also making sure that the people look their best.  Brides on their wedding day are not looking to see themselves as they were.  The wedding is a fantasy and the photographs should reflect that fantasy.  Minor blemishes and distracting backgrounds can be easily remedied in the digital age, and those that give images straight out of the camera have missed the chance to make the wedding the magical day most brides cherish.  Post processing is their friend and can make the difference between referrals or getting a bad reputation.