Intro to Digital Photography

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Intro to Digital Photography

• By Mel Smith

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Cannon PowerShot A550
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Questions?
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9 ways to help improve success in digital
photography

• Not Close Enough
• mega pixels are very important.
• frame your shot because you can always crop
  your photos later.

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9 ways to help improve success in digital
photography

• 2. Not in Focus
• find your focus point (i.e. middle, left side,
  right side)
• hold shutter halfway down to set the focus.

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9 ways to help improve success in digital
photography

• 3. Camera Shake
• lighting usually causes this effect
• use a tripod, monopod, or steady the camera
  because it takes longer for the camera to read
  the light.
• use night mode or set timer.

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9 ways to help improve success in digital
photography

• 4. Boring Composition
• change point of view.
• use the Law of Thirds.
• 1.find the four
• connecting points

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9 ways to help improve success in digital
photography

• use the squint test
• -what stands out?
• -what is the dominant light source?
• look for lines
• space makes you think
• shoot high/shoot lo
• posed pictures vs. showing you doing something.

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9 ways to help improve success in digital
photography

• 5. Ignoring the background
• watch for things in the background that
  shouldnt be there.

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9 ways to help improve success in digital
photography

• 6. Missing the moment
• sports mode shoots faster but it also
  compromises the amount of light the camera takes
  in (i.e. underexposed shots)

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9 ways to help improve success in digital
photography

• 7. Too Much Flash
• Look at the natural lighting first.

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9 ways to help improve success in digital
photography

• 8. Too little flash
• shadowing (use your hand to check the shadow
  effects around your subject)
• digital flashes are good for about 8-10 feet.

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9 ways to help improve success in digital
photography

• 9. Digital Zoom
• Rule 1
• Dont do it!
• all it does is crops the optical zoom in camera
  and compromises the pixels in the shot.

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Questions?
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Resolution

• Pixels
• -camera manufacturers will also call this mega
  pixels.
• -pixels are dots in the height and width of a
  picture or simply information that make up the
  overall picture.
• -mega pixel is 1 million pixels

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Resolution

• 1280 X 1024 is 1280 pixels times 1024 pixels or
  do the simple math, 1280X1024 1,314,560 pixels
  or 1.3 mega pixels.
• The more mega pixels in your camera, the bigger
  the picture thus, the better the print.
• Remember that pixel dimensions will vary by brand.

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The big picture
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What is dpi?

• Dots Per Inch
• typical camera is set to 72dpi which is great
  for publishing to the web.
• 72-300 is a great range to measure from
  depending on your needs for the picture.
• remember to always uncheck the resample image
  square when resizing your picture.

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RAW

• Doesnt let your camera change the image.
• Cameras change white balance, sharpness, and
  various other features when in automatic mode.
  These changes vary by brand.

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sRGB and Adobe RGB

• The sRGB and Adobe RGB are software identifiers
  for color. These are the colors you see on your
  T.V.
• sRGB are synthetic fun and bright colors that can
  be identified but do not show true color scale.
• Adobe RGB are natural color spectrum specific
  that can be identified.

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Terminology

• What does ISO stand for, you ask?
• ISO stands for International Standards
  Organization, which refers to the group that set
  the standards for film speed. Luckily, this
  doesnt have anything to do with what you need to
  know about ISO.

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Terminology

• ISO, as it relates to digital photography, is an
  indicator of how sensitive to light your cameras
  sensor is, and most digital cameras allow you to
  adjust this sensitivity. The majority of low to
  mid-range digital cameras have an ISO range that
  goes from somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 or
  100 up to around 400 to 800. The lower the ISO
  number, the more light that is necessary to get
  proper exposure on a given shot.

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Terminology

• The higher you set the ISO, the more noise
  there will be, causing your pictures to come out
  grainy looking. FYI, the cameras auto setting
  doesnt always choose the lowest ISO possible.
• All things considered, the best way to approach
  ISO is to use the lowest possible setting, but
  dont over do itusing too low an ISO setting can
  result in blurry images caused by camera shake.

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Terminology

• Assuming that you are using a camera with an ISO
  range of 50 to 400, here are some rule of thumb
  examples
• -When shooting outside on a sunny day, use the
  lowest setting (ISO 50.)-On a heavily overcast
  day, or when shooting in heavy shade, use the
  next higher setting (ISO 100.)-When shooting in
  the early morning or late evening, use the next
  higher setting (ISO 200.)-If shooting at dusk
  or dawn, you would need to use your highest
  setting (ISO 400.)

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Terminology

• In photography the f-number (focal ratio)
  expresses the diameter of the diaphragm aperture
  in terms of the effective focal length of the
  lens. For example, f/16 represents a diaphragm
  aperture diameter that is one-sixteenth of the
  focal length (or the focal length is 16 times the
  aperture).

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Terminology

• Calibrated measure of lens iris aperture. Common
  F stops are F1.4, F2, F2.8, F4, F5.6, F8, F11,
  F16, F22. The higher the number, the smaller the
  iris aperture and the less light falling on the
  imager.
• A parameter used to measure the capability of a
  lens to collect light.

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Shutter Priority Mode

• Sport mode or Time value mode
• Shutter speeds range from 1/19 (slow) to 1/8000
  (fast).

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Aperture Priority

• Allows you to select the aperture and the camera
  will select the appropriate shutter speed.
• Controlling aperture will also change the depth
  of field.
• DOP (depth of field) is the distance between the
  nearest and farthest points that appear in
  acceptable sharp focus in a photograph.

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Aperture Priority

• Small aperture greater depth of field
• Large aperture less depth of field
• easier way of saying this is how much do you
  want in focus.
• -popular setting for close up photography and
  portraits.
• -camera companies will usually list these as A or
  AV on the camera while others list it as portrait
  mode vs. mountain mode.

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Exposure Compensation

• Changing the shutter or aperture will change the
  exposure of your picture.
• Overexposed image is lighter than desired.
• Underexposed image is darker than desired.
• Editing software can help you if your image
  exposure is not correct.
• its easier to fix underexposed than
  overexposed.

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Exposure Compensation

• You can preset the exposure level of your
  camera if you know you will be taking pictures in
  very dark or bright situations.

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White Balance

• An adjustment that can be made to the camera to
  ensure that the colors are captured accurately
  without any other color cast from lighting being
  used.
• Sunlight, florescent, and dominant color in the
  photo can actually cast a color that will
  permiate throughout the picture.

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White Balance

• your camera will auto white balance which for
  the most part will be fine enough.
• you can always use Photoshop or
• Picassa 2 to color correct.
• your camera may also offer different white
  balance settings as well as the ability to set
  your own white balance (i.e. sunny, cloudy,
  florescent, and snow)

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Lighting

• Lighting can enhance or destroy your picture.
• Look for natural light sources to see if they can
  enhance the picture.
• -use the hand test.
• Reflector bounce light onto subject area to make
  it stand out (i.e. use a white piece of paper or
  windshield cover)
• Change light sources for brilliant colors.

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Highlights

• Always use the paper recommended by your printer
  for photos
• -why? Because each company uses different color
  definitions.
• Remember to resize pictures before sending them
  to your friends.
• Use it or lose it!

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Thank you