Digital Photography

1. Digital Photography Northern New York Library Network C3 - Crowley Computer Consulting Jim Crowley

2. Quiz • Who’s carrying analog? Digital? • Why did you go digital? • What’s your big question?

3. Basic pieces parts • Body • Lens • Mode selector • Shutter button • Zoom

4. Basic camera use • Use your simple or AE mode • Put your autofocus bracket on your subject • Hold your shutter button halfway to set focus and exposure • Move the camera as you need • Press the shutter!

5. Photographers – balancing needs, wants and budget • Professional • Prosumer • Consumer

6. General camera types • Cheap

7. General camera types • Cheap • Compact

8. General camera types • Cheap • Compact • Ultracompact

9. General camera types • Cheap • Compact • Ultracompact • Enthusiast

10. General camera types • Cheap • Compact • Ultracompact • Enthusiast • Superzoom

11. General camera types • Cheap • Compact • Ultracompact • Enthusiast • Superzoom • Digital SLR

12. General camera types

13. How a digital camera works…

14. Photo subject

15. Reflected light enters via lens

16. Image focuses onto beam splitter

17. CCD or CMOS sense each color

18. Storage to RAM

19. Processed image stored to long term memory

20. Shopping • Form factor • Balance size and portability • Smaller cameras generally have weaker flash and less zoom • Range of body sizes • Getting the shot • LCD • Optical

21. Shopping • Sensor • Photosensitive electronics either CCD or CMOS • Sensors do vary in quality and speed. • Megapixel = 1 million pixels

22. Shopping • Battery • Standard AA or AAA • Rechargable • Lens • Plastic vs. glass • Quality of optics • Zoom • Optical • Digital

23. Shopping • Memory - cards

24. Shopping • Memory - discs • DVD-RW • Mini-DVD • CD-RW • Floppy

25. Video • Video on a digital still camera is always inferior, Stills on an analog or digital video camera is always inferior. • Limitations • Duration and resolution highly dependent on camera. • Generally cannot change zoom once recording starts. • Your microphone is a piece of junk.

26. Fancy • Lens cover • Electronic image stabilization • Waterproof / water resistant • Multiple lens • Flash • Facial recognition • On camera photo editing

27. What is important and useful to you! Read your reviews! • There are bargains and there is garbage! • Be sure to compare information with what is current! • A few extra pixels won’t make up for: • Garbage lens • Lack of zoom • Lack of storage • Difficulty to access photos • Recommended computer and photographic web sites • Not general sites like Consumer Reports. • Trust reviews from professionals, take user opinions with a large grain of salt.

28. Transferring your pictures • Connection method • Cable • Card reader • Bluetooth

29. Transferring your pictures • Software • Windows • Vista • Xp • Paint application • Camera manufacturer’s software

30. Transferring via Vista • Connect camera or insert memory card to get the AutoPlay menu. • Click Import pictures.

31. Transferring via Vista • Add a tag to your pictures folder name. • You might want to check your options • Click Import

32. Transferring via Vista • These are what the options look like

33. Transferring via Vista • During transfer, you can choose to erase the picture from your memory card

34. Transferring via Vista • When finished, Vista generally offers to open the Windows Photo Gallery • 5 steps

35. Transferring via Xp • Connect camera or insert memory card to get the AutoPlay menu. • Click Import pictures.

36. Transferring via Xp • Blah, blah, blah

37. Transferring via Xp • You might want to check what pictures to transfer • Also, pictures can be rotated • Click Next

38. Transferring via Xp • Tag your photo names • Manually create a folder • Choose whether to delete the pictures from the memory card • Click Next

39. Transferring via Xp • Sit back and watch the transfer

40. Transferring via Xp • Sales pitch • Click Next

41. Transferring via Xp • When finished, Xp tells you it’s done, but you must open the folder by clicking the link. • 7 steps, complicated folder naming

42. Transferring via Canon software • Connect camera or insert memory card to get the AutoPlay menu. • Click Canon CameraWindow.

43. Transferring via Canon software • Images can be downloaded, listed or you can browse photos with ZoomBrowser • Options must be changed within ZoomBrowser

44. Transferring via Canon software • Sit back and watch the transfer

45. Transferring via Canon software • When finished, CameraWindow opens ZoomBrowser EX • 4 steps but no options

46. Definitions and concepts • Pixel – a single PICture ELement or dot in a digital bitmap. Each pixel is a record of hue and intensity. • Bitmap – a pixel by pixel picture • Vector – picture created by a series of formula, this has nothing to do with digital photography but is the “opposite” of a bitmap picture.

47. Definitions and concepts • Depth of field - distance in front of and beyond the subject that appears to be in focus. • Exposure - the total amount of light allowed to fall on the image sensor and is computed from exposure value (EV) and the brightness of the scene. Positive values allow more light.

48. Definitions and concepts • Shutter – device allowing light to pass onto film or amount of time sensor is read. • Shutter lag – time between pressing the shutter release and camera responds. Shutter lag is bad.

49. Definitions and concepts • Aperture • the size of the opening allowing light into the camera • measured in f-number or f-stop • Lower numbers are a larger opening, allowing in more light, reducing time shutter needs to be open. • Higher f-stops allow less light and increase the depth of field.

50. Definitions and concepts • Histogram • a graph that displays black to white across the horizontal axis and number of pixels present on the vertical. • A graph bunched to the left tends to be underexposed • Bunched right tends to be over exposed.