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Taking Control – making better photos

 

  • Image size

Selecting the image size is one of the most important considerations in your set-up. There is no use in shooting all images at maximum image size if you are never going to make larger than a postcard size print or send them by email. The smaller the image size, the more pictures you can store on your CF card. Likewise, it is false economy to shoot all your images on 640x480 pixels if you want to achieve an A4 size photo-quality reproduction.

 

 

3. Try This! Scroll through your camera menu and set up an image size of 1800x1200 pixels or whatever dimensions are closest.

 

  • Compression

Squashing digital data down into smaller files is called compression. Compression does not alter the number of pixels. Compression techniques use ‘colour recipes’ for groups of pixels and as a result image quality deteriorates.

 

 

4. Try This! Scroll through your camera menu and set compression at the fine or best level. (Some cameras combine image size and compression into the one menu item.)

 

 

  • ISO

ISO stands for International Standards Organization. In film cameras it refers ti film speed. ISO 50 is slow film, 100 ISO is normal speed and 400 ISO is fast speed. In digital photography it is similar. ISO is still used to refer to CCD sensitivity. The wonderful advantage with digital is that you can change the ISO from shot to shot!

 

 

5. Try This! Locate the ISO adjustment on your camera and set the ISO to 400.

 

 

  • Flash

In camera flash, although convenient, has quite limited application and certainly limits any creative application. Your flash has a number of settings:

·        Auto flash

·        Flash off

·        Flash on (fill flash)

·        Red-eye reduction

 

 

6. Try This! Scroll through your flash sub-menu.

 

 

  • White balance

 

Digital cameras can be adjusted to prevent colour castes. This is a huge advantage over film cameras, which required the use of a large range of colour correcting filters to balance film to colour temperature.

 

 

 

 

7. Try This! Scroll through the white balance menu and select the icon that best matches the light in the room where you are now.

 

 

  • Macro/close up

The macro setting is usually symbolised by a small flower. This setting should show up on the LCD and indicates your camera is ready to do a macro or extreme close-up shot.

 

 

8. Try This! Select the macro setting. Check that it shows on the LCD. Then see how close you can focus on maximum zoom. Write the distance down here:

 

MACRO MIN DISTANCE  -------------------------------------------------------CMS

 

 

  • +/- Exposure

This adjustment to exposure allows you to fine-tune your camera on a shot by shot basis to obtain even more precise exposures. Professional photographers have traditionally used ‘bracketing’ to guarantee exposure accuracy. Making three shots of the subject does this. The first is at the metered exposure, the second at + 1.0 stop and the third at –1.0 stop.

 

 

9. Try This! Try a bracket of three exposures on a subject of your choice. If you have a histogram check out the accuracy of each exposure. If you don’t have a histogram check by eye to seed which exposure is best.

 

 

 

  • +/- Flash

Some of the better digital cameras allow you to fine tune the output of your flash. This is handy when attempting fill-flash in giving a more natural appearance.

 

 

10. Try This! Locate the +/- flash adjustment. Scroll through the adjustment range.