Motion - Part 1

Today’s topic deals with how use your shutter speed to control the appearance of motion in your image.

This posting is primarily for those of you that can control your camera either on manual or shutter priority mode. If you have a fully automatic point and shoot, sorry to say the tips won’t help but read on as you may learn a few things.

If you remember from a few postings ago, we pointed you to a site that discussed the interaction of the aperture and shutter speed in regards to exposure. Here’s a brief review. The aperture controls the amount (quantity) of light that enters through the lens to exposure the film or be read by the digital sensor. The shutter controls the amount of time the light coming through the lens is allowed to hit the film or sensor. The combination of these two items (along with ISO setting), determine the exposure of the image.

Aperture settings are standardized so that when switching from one lens manufacturer to another, the setting is the same in terms of the amount of light that is allowed to pass through the lens. In photography lingo, this measurement is discussed among photographers as an “F Stop”. Not to confuse you anymore, but the people that invented this lingo and measurement system decided that a smaller F stop number meant more light would hit the imaging surface. Shutter speed is measured in terms of seconds. Why, because quite simply the shutter speed is a measurement of how long the film or sensor is exposed to light. For example, a shutter speed of 1/125th means that for 1/125th of a sec, light passing through the lens was allowed to pass through the open shutters to hit the surface of either the film or the sensor. So, to recap, aperture (or f-stop) is “how much” light and shutter speed is “ how long”. Think of it as a part of a receipe…how much heat, for how long.

At this point, you may be asking “why do I care. My camera does this automatically so I can’t set this incorrectly and mess up my pictures.” While this is true, your camera does not set creative control over how you capture the image. It averages everything out to a neutral (18%) grey. What do we mean by this ? Say, for example it’s a cloudy day, and you are taking pictures of your kids at a little league baseball game. You camera, in programmed or auto, captures the images at ISO100, F5.6 and 1/100th sec (part of our receipe for that picture) using a 200mm lens. After the game, you get your images loaded onto the PC, or the pictures back from the processor and what do you see ? Some of the images are in focus, and some are blurry. Looking closer, the images that are blurry are ones where the kids are moving (running, swinging the bat, catching the ball, etc). All the other images where they aren’t moving are OK. Stupid Camera, right?? WRONG.

Because you had the camera in Auto/Program, it was only trying to set the proper exposure and shutter speed to the manufactures recipe for a good image. Again, it can’t interpret that you wanted a picture of the baseball stopped mid air just before little Timmy hit the ball with the bat. Your picture had the bat and parts of Timmy as a blur. Why ? Your shutter speed was too slow. You probably needed to have your shutter speed set at 1/1000s, depending how fast Timmy was swinging the bat, and how fast the ball was pitched. Maybe faster is Timmy is a playing on a World Little League team.

Here’s another way to think of this. Think of a painter. He can select the size of his brush and how much paint to put on the brush. Too big of a brush with too much paint, well, you have a blob and paint running everywhere. The same is true with light. If you have too big of an aperture for too long of time, light runs everywhere and you get the overexposed completely white print that we’ve all gotten at least once by accident.

Too small a brush with not enough paint, you’ll be wondering why you’ve been paying this painter for 6 hours of work to paint a 2” x 3” area that looks like your 4 year old hit it accidentally with his/her water color paints. Again, the same is true with light. Not enough, for too short of a time, there’s no detail and the image is underexposed. So, there is a delicate trade off between speed and exposure.

To stop fast action, such as someone swinging a bat, jumping in mid air, etc one needs to use a very short time of exposure of the image. If you think of the old 8mm movies, each frame captured a very small instant in time. Put together, it formed the movie. In your blurred images from the ball game example above, you would have essentially captured a portion of a movie (2 -3 frames) onto your single image (a singe instant in time). In otherwords, smudging the paint, or light, so that no defined single image was clear.

Here’s a simple rule of thumb that you can use.
1: Want to stop a fast action -> use fast shutter speed (>1/1000 s)
2: Want to show motion -> use a slower shutter speed

Unfortunately, we can’t give you the exact recipe (f-Stop, shutter speed), but your camera can help you. This is where shutter priority and manual control comes in. Ideally, you’d like to use shutter priority as your camera will adjust the aperture for you to get the correct exposure. In the case of manual, you’ll have to take a light reading and do the math and bracket your shots.

Now, there is a problem that crops up that we should briefly discuss. What to do if you can’t get the shutter speed you need because the lighting conditions won’t allow you to.
Let’s go back to our example of the ball game. If you remember, we said it was a cloudy day. From a planning standpoint, that should tell you that you may have some problems with lighting…meaning having enough light to use the quicker shutter speeds to stop action. If you have a SLR (or D-SLR), you may be able to use a faster lens (a F1.8, for example). Why would that help. Remember, the lower the F-Stop, the more light passes through the lens. More light = less time required (in general). In our example, we said the images were taken at 1/100s. For the purpose of this example, let’s say we need 1/800s to stop the motion. To get to that shutter speed, we don’t have the number of F-Stops alone to make that adjustment (trust us, we did the math).

So you don’t have to do the math, here’s a little trick for the digital camera users. Set you shutter speed to 1/800 s, and ensure your camera is on shutter priority. Your camera should be telling you that it’s too dark to exposure the picture properly. Adjust your ISO from 100 to 200 and check to see if your camera says it’s OK. If not, try ISO 400. Just remember, increasing your ISO will increase your noise. We really don’t recommend shooting above ISO 400 because the image can get real noisy. If you can’t get the shot at this point in time, either wait for a sunny day, kick back and enjoy the game, or settle for what you can get. Chances are, your flash won’t have enough power to reach little Timmy out in Center Field, so we wouldn’t recommend the attempt unless you enjoy spending money on underexposed pictures.

A word of warning: You CAN NOT adjust the ISO in this manner if you are using film unless you do it for the entire roll. Also, some films will not respond well to this technique. If you do expose an entire roll of film in this manner, you MUST tell the lab before they develop your film so they can correct the processing time. We don’t recommend film users do this unless it’s a last resort. Again, if you shoot with a film at a different ISO than the film is marked with, you must do so for the entire roll and inform the lab.

For the other end of the extreme where you want a slower speed, say 1/2 s, to show motion (maybe a waterfall), you may need filters for your lenses as there could be too much light (say on a sunny day at the beach). These filters are called neutral density filters and can help you get 1/2 – 2 stops less light in through the lens to allow you to use slower shutter speeds. You may also be able to use a polarizing filter.

There are a couple of techniques that can be used to show motion that require more than just adjusting the shutter speed of the camera. We’ll discuss those later…..

Rule of Thirds

It’s been challenging for us to determine where next to go with our blog, but after a few weeks of thought, we’ve put together a list of topics that we’d like to discuss before moving into the technical how to’s in Photoshop.

1: Composition – rule of thirds
2: Controlling motion – shutter speed
3: Controlling distractions – depth of field and background distractions
4: Natural lighting.

First, visit this web site then come back and we can discuss the rule of thirds, and how to apply it using your camera.

http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/rule-of-thirds/

Depending on the camera you have, you might have a menu option that allows you to turn on a grid that displays in your viewfinder or LCD screen to help you follow the rule of thirds. On a Nikon D70 or D200, this option is called “Grid”. If you don’t have this option, don’t despair. You can “eyeball it” or as the article states, apply it in post processing if you are shooting digital.

One question that often comes up is “Do you always have to use the rule of thirds?”. The answer is no. Many still images, especially those that are used for advertisement don’t use the rule of thirds. Their product is centered on the frame. When should you use the rule of thirds ? It’s really up to the images that you are taking, but in general one can apply the rule of thirds in about 90% of the images that are taken.

Take a look again at the image of the bee on the link above. If we were taking that image, the first thing we would have done is turned the camera 90 degrees. The flow of the image is longer than it is wider (if that makes sense). We would have placed the bee on the left grid line, and tried to keep the left edge of flower on or slightly right of the right grid line (or as close as we could have). The image as it’s taken here, appears to have the bee dead center. Another option would be to simply crop the image so that some of the green space behind the bee would be removed so the bee didn’t appear to be “targeted”.

One question that you may be asking is how you accomplish this with your camera. Depending on your camera, you may have selectable focus points on the grid lines, and even the intersect points. If you don’t, there is a simple answer in most cases. Simply focus on your subject using the center focus area. Once the camera has focused, keep holding the shutter release button (don’t press it to capture the image yet), turn the camera slightly to reposition the image in the viewfinder, then press the shutter release button to capture the image.

Personally, we try to follow the rule of thirds when capturing the image versus in post processing. Why ? Quite simply, more processing time equates to less time to spend doing other things, whether that’s sharing your images with friends and family, or capturing more images. One thing that you will probably hear us preach often is to capture the image correctly the first time. So many amateurs think “ I’ll fix it in Photoshop later”. Let us tell you from personal experience, that is not the right attitude.

Imagine that you are taking pictures of your child’s 1st birthday party. You’re inside, near a window, the sun is brightly shinning in and you using your new camera in Auto mode. As you are taking pictures, every so often you have a moment to look at them on the small LCD and they look OK to you, but could be better…no worries….you’ll tweak them in Photoshop later. Now, the party is over, and you have loaded them to you PC. You find that the pictures of the kid’s faces closest to the window are too dark, and everything behind them is blown out to white (no details). Those that are sitting farther away are fine, but everything behind them is too dark. You smugly say, I can fix this using Photoshop…well, yes you may be able to…but figure an average of 1 hour per image and that you need a fairly high level of skill using Photoshop to do so. The brightness/contrast sliders aren’t going to fix these images. It’s going to take the use of layers, layer masks, and a lot of manipulation. By the way, the white blown out areas…you can’t do anything to fix that area. There’s no information there…it’s been “blown out” (we’ll talk about this later when we talk about histograms). Bottom line, assume you can’t fix it and take it right the first time. To quote Sean Connery in the movie The Untouchables, “Here endith the lesson”.

In case you were wondering, yes, you can fix the lighting so that the images turn out well. If anyone needs to know now, post a comment to the blog and we’ll answer. Otherwise, we’ll address the problem when we get to natural lighting. By the way, the link above is a great resource. We recommend signing up for their weekly newsletters.

Photo Editing Programs

This week we’re going to discuss photo editing programs.

One of the questions we are most asked, besides which camera do we use, is what software do we use. We use Adobe Photoshop. For last several years, it has been the “gold standard” in photo editing programs. However, it’s price is not for the faint of wallet. Before you give up and decide to go back to film, there are several alternatives that perform well.

For the amateur and advanced amateur, we like to recommend Adobe Photoshop Elements 4. The interface is relatively easy to use for the beginner, but has many of the same powerful features that are found in the full version of Photoshop.

Adobe Photoshop Elements 4 includes Adobe Album, which used to be a separate program about 3 years ago. You need only connect the camera/card reader to your PC, and Adobe will import your images (from your camera or card reader) to the file folder you’ve chosen. If you haven’t chosen a location, don’t worry. Adobe sets a default location automatically and using the preferences menu you can change the default location anytime you wish. Once the images are downloaded, you can preview them using the new Organizer (formerly Album) feature. The images are organized initially by time/date taken. However, Adobe allows you to create tags to help you organize your images. The tags can be people, places, things…pretty much however you want to organize your photos so you can find them again. Another nice feature is the timeline feature. If you can’t remember the tag, or didn’t put a tag on your image, but you remember the image was taken on your summer vacation last year, the timeline feature allows you to move to the time the images were taken (from the metadata embedded in the image).

Within the organizer, you can choose to perform simple edits or advanced edits. For 80%+ of the images, the simple edit feature should meet your needs. The function and features found in the simple edit mode are the same ones found on many of the other photo editing programs, like Microsoft’s Image Suite. These functions include red-eye removal, cropping, and color, contrast, brightness adjustments. If you find that you need more than the simple functions, Adobe gives you the advanced editing mode, which is Photoshop Elements. Within Elements, you have many of the powerful editing tools like the healing brush, and cloning tool. Elements also has the ability to work with layers, channels, levels, and contains several filters to help enhance your image. The latest version of Photoshop Elements even includes the ability to extract a portion of an image easily and place it onto another image. Previous versions of Elements, as well as software from other OEMs, required tedious and careful selections.

One of the other reasons we recommend Adobe Photoshop Elements 4 is that once you learn how to use the features/functions in the software, making the transition to the full version of Photoshop is relatively easy compared to transitioning from another photo editing program like Image Suite, or Nikon’s Capture or Picture View. These programs cost about $79 - $129, depending on rebates, sales, and location purchased. At the time of writing this, the cost for the Adobe software was $99 less a $20 rebate. If you don’t meet the requirements of the rebate, Sams Club was selling the software for $89.

One of the biggest challenges for using any software is learning how to use it. There are many books written for “dummies”, “idiots”, and so on. How many of us have the time to read a 200+ page book cover to cover (not to mention usually a very dry book that would put even the worst insomniacs asleep in less than 5 minutes) ? Fortunately, there is a better answer. A few years ago we discovered a web site that provided online training, at a very reasonable price. The site is http://www.lynda.com/ . At the moment, they are only offering training for Photoshop Elements 3. The course is 11 hours in length. The cost is $25/month for access to ANY of their online training tools. So, if you finish Photoshop Elements training in a week, you can also take MS Office training, Digital Photography Training, and so on. It’s a great way to get hand on training.

Another source for Photoshop training (remember Elements has many of the same features as the full version, but not all) is http://www.photoshoptv.com/ . There is also a Photoshop Elements newsletter available that has tricks, hints to help you.

Here are on our blog, we will be starting to discuss different Photoshop and Photography tips.

Camera Selection - Final

Well, it’s been very hot weekend. We wanted to get out into the prairie this weekend to get picture of the wildflowers, but at 6:30 AM it was 77 degrees with a heat index of 85. Given the high temperatures and little rain, we’re expecting any flowers that had been blooming have withered and there’s little left other than dried up stems.

Today, we’ll continue in our discussion on cameras and talk about features. We won’t hit on every feature, but we will talk about the basic features you should consider and some that make using the camera a little easier. Again, these features are tailored more towards the digital camera, but there are some features that common between the digital and film camera. So, let’s get started.

LCD – Liquid Crystal Display. There are three things to consider in regards to the LCD: 1) size, 2) pixel size, 3) viewing in sunlight. In terms of size, go with the biggest you can so you can review you images easily. We can tell you from personal experience, it’s very difficult to tell if you’ve gotten good focus or exposure on any LCD, but it’s much more difficult on a smaller screen. In terms of LCD pixel size, you want smaller pixels. This will provide more resolution on the LCD. Finally, you’ve got to be able to see the screen in full sunlight or you’ll either have to invest in a Hoodman® or be constantly looking for a shady area to review your images (or risk lower back injury from turning constantly to make shade to review the display).

There’s another feather that’s handy and related to the LCD. It’s the zoom and pan (scroll) feature. By pressing a button or combination of buttons you can zoom in on your image that’s being displayed in the LCD and look closer to see if your picture is in focus, or if someone in making rabbit ears behind their younger sibling. Many digital cameras have this feature, but very few people use them to their own dismay when they see their captured image on their PC’s monitor screen.

Another handy feature is the histogram. It used to be that only the Pro cameras and D-SLRs had this feature, but as time has progressed many of the point and shoots now have this feature available to help people correctly expose their image. We’ll talk about histograms later, but we recommend having a camera with this feature.

If you’re shooting digital, critical features are sensor size (measured in pixels) and ISO. To figure the sensor size you need, you first need to figure out what is the largest image that you will want to have prints made. For example, let’s say 8” x 10”. Let’s also assume that you want to print at 300 dots per inch (most labs print between 240 – 300 dpi). To calculate the sensor size we multiply the length and width by the dpi. For our example, we have 8” * 300 and 10” * 300, or 2400 x 3000. This is smallest sensor size that we want to have if we plan on printing at 300 dpi. In terms of mega pixels, simply multiply the two sides together (2400*3000 = 7.2 mega pixel camera).

At this point, you maybe a little confused. You may know someone that has a 6 mega pixel camera and is printing 8 x 10’s that look great. Well, chances are they are making great 8x10’s. Remember, we took the upper end of the dpi range. If you use the lower end, you come up with 4.6 mega pixels. Many digital formats are closer to a 4x6 (8x12). We don’t like to have software programs add pixels to our images to create the larger size prints. This practice, often called interpolation, can add unwanted noise to the image. The larger the print, the more noticeable it becomes. The bottom line, buy the largest sensor you can afford.

Along the same lines, you will want the largest ISO range you can find. We’ve talked about this in a previous posting. An ISO of 100 – 1600 will allow you to shoot in most conditions. Be aware, that once you increase the ISO to about ISO 400, many cameras will start showing noise in the image. Several manufactures have built in noise reduction features to help reduce this noise. Also, many manufacturers have recognized the need to improve their sensors for lower level lighting conditions. Just keep in mind that if you were using 1600 ISO film, you’d be worrying about grain. Same holds true with digital, but it’s called “noise”.

The next feature we’ll discuss is flash. It’s probably one of the most mistakenly used features on a camera. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve shaken my head when I see parents taking photos of their kids from the back row of the auditorium with a point and shoot camera using the flash. I shake my head because I know what kind of picture they are going to see when they get home. The picture they wanted (of their kids on stage) will have the kids hidden in a shroud of darkness, but have perfectly exposed or overexposed will be the back of people’s heads. Why, because as light travels it is dispersed by the atmosphere. The little on-camera flash simply doesn’t have the power to light up the stage from 75ft+ away. All camera manufactures have a specification sheet that comes with their cameras. The specification sheet tells you how far (in feet) the flash will work effectively. The simple answer is to buy a camera whose flash will get you the furthest distance. The con in doing this is that it will use your battery power up faster. The best choice is to buy a camera that will allow you to use flash at normal distances (20-25 feet roughly) and either turn the flash off for the long distance shots, buy a camera with a hot shoe to which allows you to add a larger flash unit (remember, that’s more money you need to invest), or simply arrive 15 minutes earlier so you can sit closer. In a lot of cases, simply sitting closer will allow you to turn off the flash, adjust the ISO to 400 - 800, and you can get decent images. One last thing on flash. Look for the red-eye reduction feature, and the ability to turn this feature on and off as needed.

Another handy feature is the dioptic adjustment. For folks that wear eye glasses and want to look through the view finder (or need to in the case of a D-SLR), this little feature allows the user to adjust the image in the viewfinder so that the user doesn’t need to wear his/her glasses when viewing images through the viewfinder. However, keep in mind there is no dioptic adjustment for the LCD, so the user will find that he/she is taking their glasses on and off quite frequently.

AE and AF lock are great features as they allow the user to focus and expose the image one way and re-compose the shot. This is a cool feature when you are trying to shoot pictures of people with an interesting background or scenic view behind them.

Some cameras offer different exposure modes (portrait, scenic (or landscape), night mode, night mode w/portrait, and macro) and a movie mode. This is a nice feature to have if you don’t want to have to remember how to set your camera to take a picture. There are a few manufacturers that have expanded on these and added modes for fireworks, parties, and so on. They also show the user how to compose the image by showing an outline of where people/objects should be placed in the view finder. The most common exposure modes on more advanced cameras and D-SLRs are aperture priority, shutter priority, and manual. If you can get them on a point and shoot and have quick and easy access to use them as you increase you skill, you will be happier with your camera.

Another feature you may wish to have is a tripod mount. This will allow you to mount your camera to a variety of tripod (depending on the size of you camera) to help reduce camera shake (say for shooting fireworks).

Here’s a list of other features that you may want to consider: timer (for self portraits or group portraits), continuous focus mode (found on more advanced cameras for focusing on moving objects), continuous shooting mode (found on more advanced cameras for shooting multiple frames per second), programmable buttons, extra shutter release button (for when the camera is turned 90 degrees), sync cable ports (for using multiple flashed), IR or Wireless Flash Commander (for multiple flashes), Wireless (for sending images to a PC directly or over the internet via wireless access point to a e-mail account), threads or adaptors for mounting filters (non-SLR cameras), different color modes w/built in digital filters (i.e. black and white w/red filter found on the Canon 5D), and buffer size (number of pictures that can be taken before time is needed to write an image to the media card).

These are just a few features. Depending on your needs, some of these may be more important than others. Remember, your looking for a camera, which it’s prime purpose in life is to capture light onto a medium to allow you to create a print (either physical or electronic).

If you plan on capturing your images using a digital camera, today there are two popular cards that seem to have evolved into the standard. There the compact flash card, and the SD card. Some of you may know about Sony’s card, but we would recommend staying away from proprietary products as they allow the manufacturer to control the pricing and storage size of the media. Today many of these proprietary media devices are being driven by the market of the other cards, but that could change. Our recommendation is to stay with the SD or compact flash cards. Sony may come around eventually. Apple did.

Here’s a list of our favorite cameras. Some we’ve owned and used. If there’s a camera that’s not here, it doesn’t mean we didn’t like it. It just means that we liked these better.

New:

Point and Shoot Digital
Canon Powershot A620
Nikon Coolpix P3

Advanced Digital
Canon Powershot S3
FujiFilm FinePix S9000


D-SLR
Nikon D-70/70S
Nikon D-200
Canon 20D/30D
Canon 5D

Obsolete (may find on E-bay)
Advanced: Canon Powershot Pro
D-SLR: Nikon D100

We didn’t include the pro body D-SLRs in the list for three reasons: price, weight and sensor size. The Canon 5D and Nikon D200 will perform nearly as well as their heavier, more costly, more complex pro-body cousins. They also will make prints that the average person is more likely to use. If you need prints larger than 11/14, than you may want to look at the 12 mega pixel Nikon D2Xs (list at ~ $5000) or the 16 mega pixel Canon EOS Mark II (list price is ~ $7500 – body only).

Next post: Image Processing programs

Camera Selection - part III

This week, we’ll talk briefly about the basic controls of a camera so we can move into features of camera.

Overall, a camera has one major function. To capture light in a means so that it is recordable on some type of media to recreate the image on paper or digitally. The short version – to take pictures. Now you may be saying “duh” at the moment, but when looking at all the possible choices of cameras, sometimes people get caught up with all the bells and whistles that are available. Regardless of the type of camera you select (point & shoot, advanced, or SLR), the camera needs to have the ability to take good pictures. Granted, how you define “good” is based on your perspective and personal taste.

There are three basic “controls” for capturing light on almost every camera: F-Stop (Aperture), Shutter Speed (Shutter), and ISO setting (Film). Bottom line - when looking for a camera, you want the biggest range possible for these three controls (for SLRs, you can ignore the F-Stop until you get ready to purchase a lens). So, if you don’t want to read further, there’s the answer.

If you do want to read more on these controls, there is a good article written on how to use your camera in the manual mode. This article describes the controls, and how they relate to your ability to control light, focus, and noise. http://www.thetechlounge.com/article/287

To summarize the article in terms of our discussion, when selecting a non-SLR camera, one should try to find several models that have F-Stops with a low range of F1.4 – 1.8 and an upper range of F22 – F32. Shutter Speed should range on the low end from B(bulb) – 30s to 1/2000 – 1/8000 on the upper end. The ISO should range from 50-200 on the low end to 800-1600 on the upper end. Again, the greater the range of these, the more flexible the camera will be in different lighting conditions.

For SLRs, we’ll discuss lenses at a later date. If you can’t wait until then, go with the lowest F-Stop with the best glass rating (lowest distortion) that you can afford. Just remember to keep in mind the “magnification factor” of the camera you are looking at. For example, a full frame camera, such as the Canon 5D has a magnification of 1. So a 18-200 mm lens on this camera will appear as a 18-200mm lens. A Nikon D70s has a magnification factor of 1.5. In the case of the 18-200 mm lens, this lens would give you the same perspective as a 27 – 200mm lens on the Nikon D70s. Please note that this does not increase the magnification of the lens, only the perspective. When we discuss lenses in more detail, we include a link that discusses this in more detail.

Camera Selection Part II

Now that we’ve briefly talked about film and digital media, and the pros/cons of each, we need to focus on the different types of cameras within each group.

Film:
Point and shoot
-35mm
- APS format
Advanced 35mm
SLR 35mm (Consumer and Pro Body)
Medium Format
Twin Reflex
Stereo
Rangefinder
Bellows

Digital:
Point and Shoot
Advanced Digital
D-SLR (Consumer and Pro Body)
Medium Format w/digital backs
Rangefinder (in development)
Bellows with Digital back

We’ll focus this discussion on what the average person would consider when wanting to purchase a new camera; the Point and Shoot, Advanced, and SLR types. We’ll cover the others at a later date.

The next step in narrowing down you selection should involve these four questions:
1: What do I want to take pictures of ?
2: Do I want the camera to be fully automated, or do I want to control all of the settings manually ? Somewhere in between ?
3: Am I concerned about size, weight ?
4: Do I want the ability to change lenses ?

I. Point and shoot:
If your answer to #1 was anything except wildlife or something involving taking a photograph from a long distance, the point and shoot camera may be for you. These cameras typically have a 1 – 3x or 4x zoom lens. They are not suitable for taking pictures of something that’s in the distance. Some may have a “Macro” function that will allow extremely close up photographs.

Also, if you answered #2 as fully automated or somewhere in between, this camera could be a good choice for you. Most point and shoots are fully automatic, and some manufacturers allow partial or full control of your camera. Some also come with special exposure modes or even tell you how to compose your image.

If you answered #3 as yes, then this is might be the right camera for you. If you are looking for something small that can fit in your pocket or purse, and the first two questions indicated the point and shoot camera would be a good selection, then go no further. Now it’s time to settle on features/functions and quality. Now, if you’ve gotten this far, and want a pocket size, fully automatic to fully manual camera with the ability to take a picture of the eagle soaring 100 ft above you and get images like those in Outdoor Photography Magazine, I’m sorry to say that camera doesn’t exist. The same thing is true of you are expecting to get a close up of a son or daughter receiving their diploma at a graduation ceremony and you are setting on the top balcony row, ¼ of mile away. You need to either compromise on the size, buy a different camera for the long distance shots, or simply realize the amount of times you will need that capability is rather small and you just need to get yourself closer if you want a good picture. Someone may try to tell you that you can buy a magnification lens that snaps on to the end of your existing point and shoot camera that will magnify the zoom by a factor or 2x or maybe even 4x. Our experience with these has not been very good and we simply don’t recommend them. We’ve seen poor image quality.

Two last points and we’ll leave the point and shoot. First, the point and shoot does not require lens changes (unless you bought the sales person’s pitch and bought the magnification lens). Lastly, many point and shoot digital cameras, as well as the advanced digital cameras experience a “shutter lag”. We’ll discuss this more later, but basically shutter lag comes down to not getting the picture you expected when you pushed the shutter button when your subject is moving. For example, you press the shutter at the exact moment when your child or friend throws a water balloon at unsuspecting person (balloon has not left the person’s hand). When you review the image on the LCD, you find you have a picture of the balloon mid-way in flight. This delay is caused by the processing time of the camera to focus, determine the exposure, adjust the camera to meet the exposure, and capture the image. This time difference is called shutter lag, and it can be very frustrating at times….it’s not a problem for still images like when you have everyone is posing around Christmas tree.


II. Advanced
If you are still reading, then we’ll assume the point and shoot camera wasn’t for you or your not sure if want to compromise on size or zoom capability. It’s that, or you’re a glutton for punishment….

The primary advantage of the advanced camera over the point and shoot is that you often get larger zoom capability (12x-20x) without the need to change lenses. Most of the cameras in this type (group) allow fully automatic to fully manually operation, and some have the special exposure modes seen on the point and shoot cameras. The primary disadvantages are the size and price. Depending on the amount of zoom and manufacturer, some of the cameras in this group are as large as cameras in the SLR category. One benefit the advanced camera and point and shoot camera groups have over the SLR group is that they are sealed, and you don’t need to worry about dust getting on the sensor.

Another disadvantage, again depending on the features of the camera, could be blurry images when using the zoom at the higher range of the zoom. The blurry images are most likely coming from the camera shaking (from your hands shaking) and a slower shutter speed (to let in more light for the exposure). At this point in time, you either need a tripod, or an advanced camera with anti-shake feature. The last I knew, this feature was only available for the advanced digital cameras, and not the advanced film cameras. The advanced digital cameras also suffer from shutter lag.

The other consideration for cameras in this group is price. They can cost 2 to 4x as much as a point and shoot camera, although the prices have come down over the last year. Speaking from the digital perspective, an advanced camera could cost as much as a D-SLR (including a lens). If you want to compare the true cost of these two groups, you must determine the cost of the D-SLR body and the equivalent lens (say an 18 – 200mm). For example, the Sony Cybershot lists for about $1060. A Canon Digital Rebel with a Non-Canon 18-200mm lens is about $1100 (note: it will be 1.5 x the physical size and weight of the Sony with this lens). However, Fuji and Panasonic have advanced digital cameras for about $600. The bottom line on price is the advanced digital camera can be less expensive than a D-SLR, but it will most likely be more expensive than a point and shoot.

III. SLR

This is the last, and probably fastest growing group in the last year. As people start taking photos with their $200 point and shoot cameras, they quickly learn the limitations of cameras from that group. They want more control and zoom. They look at the price of the advanced cameras and often incorrectly determine that the SLR group is the more cost effective way to go. Often times, they purchase the camera body and lens in a kit, for less than the cost of advanced camera, but forget (or simply don’t know) the lens they get in the kit doesn’t have the same optical zoom as the advanced camera they passed over. They often end up spending more money for a 2nd lens to get the same focal length if they had purchased the advanced camera.

Folks, if you haven’t figured this out by now this how the salesperson gets you to trade up into a more expensive camera. They sell you the kit, knowing you’ll be back in 6-12 months for another lens. With the additional lens, you’ll need a new camera bag, lens filter, etc.. . If you don’t want to deal with changing lenses or cleaning dust off you sensor, don’t consider a SLR camera. (By the way, film SLRs also have a problem with dust…so it’s not just a digital problem !!) SLRs require maintenance. They require much more than the other two categories. They also require more care in handling and keeping dust of the body and lenses. For the average person, this camera is not a good fit.

Now, for the advanced amateur and professional photographer, this camera offers complete flexibility via lenses through focal lengths, F-Stops (size of the aperture (opening) which determines how much light enters the camera), and lens filters. The issue of shutter lag also disappears. There are some cool features that manufacturers add to make using the camera easier for the advanced amateur and professional. But when it comes down to the two basic controls of shutter speed and f-stop that control exposure, this camera is not really that different than a point and shoot or advanced camera that allow partial or full control of these settings. This is not totally true when it comes to auto-focus and metering and some of the mechanics on how the shutter and aperture function. Some of the higher end SLRs offer more focus points and better continuous focusing and metering algorithms/programs than low end SLRs, point and shoots, and advanced cameras. And the mechanics for which the aperture and shutter control light are different. However, the cost for these enhanced features are typically 2 – 4x more than a entry level SLR, which is 4-8x of that of a point and shoot, or 2-4x of that of a advanced camera. F2.8 at1/250 sec is still F2.8 at 1/250 s. I know there are advanced amateurs and professionals out there that will argue with me on this, but the basic function is the same. Unless you need these enhanced features for competition or a source of income or are shooting images where shutter lag will be a problem, there’s really no need to spend the extra money on a SLR if you can get what you need from a point and shoot or advanced camera. However, if you want to take the risk of dropping that cheap $350 lens (by the way . . . same price as a good point and shoot camera), and worry about dust, then feel free to spend more money than what you need to.

As a point of reference, we started in digital photography with an advanced digital camera (Nikon 5700). About 1 year later we bought our first D-SLR. We still use the Nikon 5700 quite a bit today for family parties, school events, and so on. Its size and flexibility are almost perfect (although it’s not pocket size), and the images we get are stunning. My only two complaints about it are the shutter lag and no ability to add a lens filters. When we were still considered amateurs a few years ago, we had a picture published using the Nikon 5700 in the Iowa 24/7 book (from the America 24/7 book series).

Next time, we’ll begin talking more about the basic functions of a camera (exposure, shutter speed). After that, some of the features that can be found on point and shoot cameras that relate to these primary functions (i.e. landscape exposure mode, night exposure mode, etc..).

When we wrap us this discussion in a few weeks, we are planning on presenting you our selections of cameras within each camera type, based on cost, features, and quality.

Camera Selection

Choosing a camera can be a difficult decision. There are so many makes, and models. To add to the confusion, many have the same functions, but call those functions by a different name in an attempt to try to persuade the buyer to purchase thier brand.

Today, we're going to start discussing the basic difference between film and digital cameras. In our next entry, we'll review the principle functions/features that you should be concerned with when purchasing a camera.

Lets start simple and build from there.

There are film and there's digital cameras, and within these two groups there are similiar models. The main difference between these is the media used to capture the image.

For film, many of the options have gone away over the last several years. There used to be 110 format, APS format, and 35mm format (to name the more popular formats). Let's not forget about the polaroids either. Today, 35 mm is the most common film platform for the amateur photographer. For Professionals, there are still some medium format films and plate films, but those too are starting to vanish. Nikon, Canon, Fuji, and Minolta used to be the predominant 35mm camera makers. About 6 months ago, Nikon announced they would stop production of all their film cameras, except for the high end pro camera (F6). The others, with the exception of Canon, are starting to follow. In the next few years, it may be increasingly difficult to find lower end amateur 35 mm cameras and purchase/process film cost effectively. However, today you can pick up a good film camera on e-bay for about half of what it cost just 5 years ago. The same is true with darkroom equipment. A buddy of mine picked up a $600 enlarger (in new condition) on e-bay for less than $60 + shipping. If you want to go with film, nows the time.

For digital, the good news is that over the last 5 years, prices have become more affordable, and the technology has improved significantly. While digital does have the benefit of allowing you to see your image almost immediately, since the boom of the digital camera the number of prints being made has gone done drastically. There was recently a story written about how the 1-5 year age group is one of the least documented generations since the early 1900's. With digital, comes more time (yours) is required to process and print images. What was once down at the film processor is now being done by at home on the PC using a image processing program, such as Photoshop. In today's world, many folks have busy schedules (working 46-50 hours weeks and rushing their kids to evening activities). As a result, many of these images are being stuffed onto hard drives or flash cards and are never printed.

While one may think that digital is cheaper, the initial investment is typically alot more. This is due to the additional cost of media cards, PC upgrades (or purchases), and image processing programs. Don't forget the cost of your time behind the PC trying to make your shots perfect.

Personally, we love the digital era. It has opened up so many creative outlets and opportunites that we could never do with film.

If you live in the Cedar Rapids IA area, shoot digital, and want quick, easy prints without the fuss of image processing program. Check out Photo Pro on Collins Rd. They are a little more expensive than Walmart/Walgreens/HyVee, but they do the work that you don't want to...the color balancing, exposure tweeks, etc.. You can also send your images to them online.
www.photoproonline.com

Have a great week.