An introduction to Camera Settings 2

Dear Viewers and Fellow Photographers,

This post is the second post to the An introduction of Camera Settings 1.

http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=3244&picture=camera-setting

The picture above is a photo of a normal settings dial on a camera. 

The preset 'Sports' mode is a very useful preset for fast moving subjects, and on some optical cameras is the option for 'Burst' mode. The preset sets the ISO high to capture moving objects sharp, (not blurred) and the shutter speed is also extremely fast. This preset is very useful, and is the third most used preset (after Auto and Macro). The Aperture changes according to what the camera detects, as lots of people use sports mode for many different reasons- one being they cannot hold their camera straight enough and so their photos always turn out to be 'jogged' or blurred.

The next preset is the Backlight option. In this image you cannot see clearly enough the symbol as it is different to many others, which have a tree in front of a sun. This mode increases the aperture by a significant value meaning that the photo is visible and is not just a plain silhouette. The photo however can lack sharpness and the normally low shutter speed doesn't help the situation. This preset is probably the least used preset, and this is probably because there are only a few occasions when people take a photo of something when the object is in the shadow (unless they are trying to achieve a desired effect).

The next preset, which is not shown on the dial in the picture above, is available on most cameras. This preset is extremely hard to use for some, however for the more experienced photographer, it is slightly easier. This mode enables you to take photos in the night, when there are low-light conditions and when the camera's Auto setting cannot cover (this might vary for some models - there is an Auto-Scenery options in some cameras which detects it is night time so it switches to it. This feature can be better on some cameras than others.) The preset changes the shutter speed to extremely slow and tries to keep the Focal Length as large as it can. This means that you can only successfully use this preset when you are using a tripod, not matter how steady hands you have. Some readers might already have experienced the flurry of wild colours when they were trying to take a night shot.

These are the rest of the Presets that come inbuilt to a classic digital Camera. The next post will be on the Manual setting modes.

Yours Truly,
Snapography

An introduction to Camera Settings 1

Dear Viewers and Fellow Photographers,

There is a lot of mathematics adjoined to the world of photography, and if people don't understand it, they remain constrained behind their camera's Auto setting, and many don't even experiment with it as they worry that they might end up changing their camera's settings so it 'breaks'. This never happens, as if you manually changed a setting, there is always a way to change it back.

http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=3244&picture=camera-setting

On the camera dial (shown in the picture above) you can see how it is split into two sections. The bottom half (including the green rectangle) are presets, options quickly accessible by the confident and also the not so confident. The green square is the Auto mode, a mode in which most people choose to shoot with - the camera is equipped with technology to detect the surrounding and find out about how much of Aperture and Shutter Speed will make the picture look 'good'. I say good because this technology varies to how good it can be on each camera.

On the presets, you can see the first one down is the 'Portrait' option with the Woman's face on it. The camera will have preset settings (which may or may not be flexible) which tell it to keep the aperture high, a short focal length and slow shutter speed. These are the sort of conditions you find when you are taking a portrait - you are close to the face so the light can be low, the face is close to the lens so the focal length is also low and the camera should not be moving because the people may be posing for the picture. This sort of setting can be flexible on some aspects like the shutter speed and aperture, but are around this area. In auto mode, the camera can only know if it is a portrait picture if the camera detects a face - this normally does not happen.

The next preset is the landscape option. This is indicated with mountains and a cloud on it, and the normal settings the camera will have is probably large focal length, low shutter speed and small aperture. This is most probably because usually when taking photos of a landscape, the object of capture is usually very far and large, and so the large focal length will allow it to keep distant objects in focus and the whole of the photo in focus. The shutter speed is low as in a landscape photo usually nothing is moving fast enough to blur the image, and the longer the shutter speed the better quality of the objects will appear. Aperture is low because in landscape photography there is a lot of natural light to brighten the picture.

The last preset for this post is the Macro photography option. This is usually represented with three petals and two leafs for the flower. The Macro option is usually very flexible, as it might be used for quite a lot of things, outside or inside. The shutter speed is low/medium, the aperture is low and the focal length is at it's bare minimum (except if there is a Super Macro option). The 'bare minimum' focal length depends on the type of camera and it's specifications, something to look out for when buying the camera (the more the range of the Focal Length the better). The shutter speed is set low/medium because when taking close up photo shots there is not a lot of movement, the aperture is low (but very flexible) because there is [usually] a lot of natural light.

Explanations for the other presets and Manual Modes will follow very soon - keep checking so you don't miss it

Yours Truly,
Snapography.

The Science behind Photography

Dear Viewers and Fellow Photographers,

To be able to use your camera well, you need to understand how it works. There is a lot more than just picking any camera up and clicking a photo, as you need to understand the typical scientific bits to actually be able to successfully take brilliant photos. Photographers who don't know what their camera is all about don't do very well in taking photos.

Let's start with the lens. (To see details on how the camera zooms, check out the last post Digital Zooming vs. Optical Zooming)

A lens in a camera is a curved clear glass. This glass is called convex because it is wider in the middle:

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/convex+lens

A simple science phenomenon takes place in a curved glass, refraction. Light rays change direction when they are hitting a more dense or less dense material (in this case more dense - glass). The glass above is biconvex, meaning the ray are converging, so therefore there is a point when the rays of light meet. This point varies from how strong the lens is, but gives you an idea for how the camera 'autofocus' or why if you move the focus ring you only get a sharp image on one single setting:

                                                         

http://photographyguide99.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/how-lens-works.html

So that's how a Camera focuses. The next thing to find out about how digital cameras make a photo from just light rays. The Camera has a magnetic film called a sensor fitted onto it. Every area of this sensor picks up a block of colour which it translates into a single pixel. This involves precision, so that too much light does not leak in or too little, so the shutter 'blinks', letting in a required amount. This can be altered for different things you are taking a photo of, such as a picture outside of a mountain or a picture inside a low-light party, and is called the shutter speed. Also, you can control the amount of light coming through; this is called Aperture. Both these options are very useful for photographers working outside the 'Auto' mode:                       

http://photographycourse.net/exposure-control

The image above is a literal drawing of what happens to the light rays. The upside down picture is flipped automatically by cameras. This explains how the camera can get receive a photo, and how the photographer has total control over it.

You must now have a little clue for how your camera works. Any other burning questions you want to ask, please feel free to comment, and I will reply promptly.

Yours Truly,

Snapography.

Digital Zoom vs. Optical Zoom

Dear Viewers and Fellow Photographers,

Zooming is sometimes a very difficult topic to get the hang around. Zooming comes in two different formats, digital and optical. In most cameras, optical zooming is available as well as digital.

You may have seen the words 'X times Optical Zoom', sometimes it is even written onto the lens. The difference between 'Digital' and 'Optical' zooming is when you zoom digitally, your camera is automatically magnifying the image, so it takes a normal picture and then essentially crops it. The image is not clear normally, and I don't recommend you take any photo with this feature enabled. The image quality is extremely bad, and most of the time you can't see the object you are trying to capture. I have never taken a completely clear photo with this function, and it is most probably impossible.

Optical zooming is much different. You can guess by the name what it does; it moves the lenses inside the camera to enlarge the photograph (hence Optical). This means the image quality doesn't decrease. However, many people are fooled by the fact that optical zooming makes the image less clear. It doesn't. The camera sometimes is not made to take photos at that amount of zoom, making it extremely hard for it to focus. This only happens to digital cameras and lenses which are retractable, and cannot be removed. Also, basic problems like movement can blur the image.

http://filmmakeriq.com/lessons/digging-deeper-into-the-dolly-zoom/

In the image above, you can see how the refraction of light rays can enlarge an image. In the paragraph above when I explained how the camera cannot cope with the amount of zoom it has been forced onto it, when the image is too large the sensor is not big enough to cope with the large image being projected on it. 

When you have a camera which has a detachable lens, each lens is made for its job; Macro, Wide-Angle and Telephoto (these are just the main three). The Telephoto lens is specifically made for zooming in, and it can focus well. 

Yours Truly,

Snapography.