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• Photography Composition
• Cropping Photos

Cropping photos refers to removing parts of the image to emphasize the subject and remove distractions. What you choose to include in your image declares what you want to call attention to.

Cropping pictures can be done in camera, but also in post-processing. Of course, it is always desirable to get as close as you can to the final image in camera, but there’s nothing wrong with cropping photos after the fact. There’s nothing sacred about the aspect ratio of your particular camera format. You should crop your photograph to the best advantage of the image.

Cropping Pictures: In or Out?

When we look around the scene with our eyes, we can take in a vast area. We can see ahead, and to the sides; up and down; our peripheral vision extends that range of sight quite far. Making a photograph involves selecting a bounded area out of the whole scene. Where you choose to place the boundary of the image frame is significant. And what you choose to leave out of the frame is just as important as what you include. When cropping photos, make sure that you only include elements within the frame that contribute to your story, and don’t distract from it.

In the image below, I’m photographing fishermen on a bridge in Istanbul. But where is the real interest in this picture?

Version 1
© Julie Waterhouse Photography

To me, it’s the gentleman whose pants are too short, and who is so short himself that he needs to stand on a crate! It’s better to crop tighter to eliminate the non-essential elements, and leave just enough to tell the story.

Version 2 – a tighter crop
© Julie Waterhouse Photography

 

Cropping Pictures: Horizontal or Vertical?

Most novice photographers tend to always shoot with their camera held horizontally, producing pictures in landscape format. Sometimes it’s better to hold the camera vertically, and shoot in portrait format. How do you when to use which format?

The terminology "landscape" and "portrait" gives us a hint. Landscape indicates a vast scene, which lends itself to a horizontal format. A portrait implies a picture of a person, and people are usually sitting or standing vertically. The bottom line is that the frame should compliment the form. In other words,
when cropping photos, match the orientation of the frame to the orientation of the subject.

In the first image, we have a portrait of a duck. The subject is oriented vertically, and it makes sense to orient our frame that way too.

Portrait of a duck
© Julie Waterhouse Photography

In the second image, we have a pair of ducks. They fill the frame more naturally in a horizontal format.

A pair of ducks lends itself to a horizontal format.
© Julie Waterhouse Photography

What about when the choice is less obvious? Sometimes, with a landscape stretching out in front of you, there are good compositions to be had in either format. What do you think about the following photography composition?

© Julie Waterhouse Photography

I see a horizontal line of trees, and a horizontal line through the grasses, and a landscape that runs horizontally! The image seems to be forced awkwardly into this vertical format.

Consider instead the following image from the same area. It works much better in a horizontal format.

© Julie Waterhouse Photography

 

Frame Boundary

We have said that composition involves arranging picture element within a frame. This latter idea is significant. Where you place the boundaries of the image relative to the elements within the picture space contributes to the overall design of the image, which in turn underscores the image’s message.

The image frame itself can create shapes within the image. For example, one side of the frame may form the side of an equilateral triangle, or the edge of a rectangle. Learn more about this in the section on shapes.

© Julie Waterhouse Photography

In the image of the lily, the edges of the outline form two sides on the inner triangle. It is the edges of the picture frame that form the third side. In addition, the frame edges form two sides of the triangles whose bases lie long the bottom picture edge.

Exactly where you place the frame interacts with the elements within the frame to create shapes.

 

That’s all for photography composition! Next, you may want to visit the Examples and Exercises page to check whether you’ve made sense of all the material.

 

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• Basic Digital Photography
• Digital Camera Basics: Sensors

Digital Camera Basics III:
Sensors

Learn a few digital camera basics. Understand what a sensor is. Find out the difference between a full-frame sensor and cropped sensor, and which one is right for you. Discover what a crop factor is.

What is a Sensor?

How your camera’s sensor works is basic photography information that every photographer should know. The image sensor on your camera converts an optical image to an electrical signal. It is the digital equivalent of film, in that it is the light-sensitive recording medium of the image. An image sensor is typically one of two kinds: a CCD (charge-coupled device), or a CMOS (complementary metal–oxide semiconductor).

CCD is a technology that has been around for over twenty years. CCD sensors are found on digital cameras that produce high quality images. CMOS is a much newer and less expensive technology, and its arrival has contributed to the drop in prices of digital cameras. Since their introduction for inexpensive point and shoot cameras, CMOS sensor have vastly improved in quality and are now found in high end digital cameras as well. Both technologies can produce excellent images, and the sensor type should not be a deciding factor in which camera you buy.

Full Frame Camera versus Cropped Sensors

 

Digital Camera Basics: Sensor Sizes

Camera sensors are available in a variety of sizes, and size does matter!

A number of higher-end DSLR cameras have "full frame" sensors, which means they are equivalent in size to 35mm film. The sensor measure 36mm in width by 24mm in height, giving a 3:2 aspect ratio. Full frame camera sensors include the Canon 1Ds and 5D series and the Nikon D3 and D700.

Other DSLR cameras are made with sensors that are smaller. These are referred to as having a crop factor.
The crop factor is the sensor’s diagonal size compared to a full-frame 35 mm sensor. For Canon cameras like the 50D and 7D, the crop factor is 1.6. For Nikon cameras like the D40X and D300, it is 1.5.

The reason for the name "crop factor" is because when you are shooting with a 35mm lens, the sensor effectively crops out that much of the outside edge of the image because of the smaller sensor size.

© Julie Waterhouse Photography

Throwing away the outer part of the image is not all bad. Lenses are typically sharpest in the middle of the image, so with a cropped sensor, you are throwing away the least sharp part of the image, which can be helpful when using low quality lenses.

Digital Camera Basics: Effective Length of Your Lenses

The focal length multiplier of a lens is equal to the crop factor. It relates the focal length of a lens used with a smaller sensor to that of a lens used with a full frame camera sensor that produces the equivalent angle of view. For example, a 100mm lens used on a sensor with a 1.6x crop factor would produce the same field of view as a 1.6×100 = 160mm lens on a full frame sensor.

This means that when using a cropped sensor, you are forced to use a wider angle lens to produce the same angle of view as you would get with a larger sensor.

Be careful with the term "focal length multiplier," as it is somewhat misleading. The focal length of the lens does not change, no matter what size of sensor it is used with. Only the angle of view changes.

Digital Camera Basics: Impact of Sensor Size on Image Quality

Image sensor size might be a more important factor, in terms of its impact on image quality, than the number of megapixels it can record.

Image sensor size affects depth of field, dynamic range, and noise. Let’s examine each one.

Depth of field. Depth of field is much shallower for larger format sensors. Why? In order to fill the frame with your subject, a larger sensor means that you have to move closer to your subject, or use a longer focal length lens. Correspondingly, the depth of field will decrease for a given aperture. This means that your must use progressively smaller apertures in order to maintain the same depth of field with larger sensors.

Dynamic Range. Dynamic range is the range from light to dark in an image, outside of which, whites become "blown out" and blacks become "blocked up" with no texture or detail. Larger sensors generally (although not always) contain larger pixels. Larger pixels have greater volume, and can hold more photons of light. This generally gives them greater dynamic range.

Noise. Sensor size can also impact noise. Larger pixels (usually found on larger sensors) receive a greater amount of light over a given exposure duration (at a fixed aperture), so their light signal is much stronger, producing a higher signal to noise ratio, and a less noisy image.

I hope those digital camera basics were helpful!

 

Next, you may want to visit the first digital photography basics page to learn more about noise.

• Home
• Basic Digital Photography
• Digital Camera Basics

Digital Camera Basics:
DSLR vs Compact Digital

Let’s start with a few digital camera basics. What’s the difference between a DSLR and a compact digital camera? Which one is right for you? With the price and feature gaps closing between DSLRs and compact point and shoot digital cameras, buying decisions are becoming more confusing. This article may help to clarify your choices.

DSLR versus Compact Digital

 

What are the Differences?

Compare cameras: which one is right for you?

Let’s examine the pros and cons of each type of camera.

The advantages of a DSLR over a point and shoot are:

1. (1) the viewfinder on an SLR looks directly through the lens on the camera. This means that your viewfinder shows you a much more accurate representation of the final image than with a point and shoot.
2. (2) SLR cameras have interchangeable lenses, allowing the photographer more variety of choice and quality. 
3. (3) Most DSLRs also have a function that allows the photographer to preview of depth of field.
4. (4) The
   larger sensor on a DSLR allows for greater depth of field, reduces noise, and produces better image quality.
5. (5) Although newer compact digital cameras are beginning to provide more control over settings, they are still limited. A DSLR will give you much more flexibility and control over your photographs.
6. (6) If you want to capture motion (like children playing or pets running around), you may be frustrated with many compact digital cameras on the market. There is often a delay between when you click the shutter, and when the image is taken. Sometimes, your subject has moved out of the frame by the time the image is made! Talk to your camera retailer if this is an issue for you. Some point and shoots are better than others in this regard, although none will match a DSLR.

 

Digital Camera Basics: DSLR camera
© Julie Waterhouse Photography

 

The disadvantages of a DSLR are:

1. (1) DSLRs are dropping in price, but still tend to be more expensive than a point and shoot. This is especially true if you begin to invest in a number of lenses and accessories.
2. (2) A DSLR tends to be bulkier and heavier than a point and shoot. If you like to be able to drop your camera in your purse or pocket, you may not want to lug around a DSLR, lenses and a tripod.
3. (3) There’s a steeper learning curve with a DSLR. You have more controls to master if you want to take full advantage of all the features available to you.
4. (4) DSLRs require a little more maintenance than compact digital cameras. When interchanging lenses, sensor dust may get on the sensor, and need to be carefully cleaned off. Newer DSLRs have self-cleaning mechanisms, but they are not perfect.

Digital Camera Basics: Point and shoot camera
© Julie Waterhouse Photography

 

I hope these digital camera basics have helped you to compare cameras, clarify your needs, and make a purchasing decision.

Next, you may want to visit the next digital camera basics page to learn What is a Pixel?

 

• Home
• Tips for Taking Digital Photography
• Digital Photo Books

Here are some hints and tips so that you can create digital photo books that wow! Find inspiring topic ideas, and learn how to choose the right images, lay them out on the page, and more.

Advantages of Creating Digital Photo Books

First and foremost, creating your own photo books is fun! It’s exciting to go through your images to choose favorites, and extraordinarily satisfying to see them come together in a professional-looking finished product. To me, a photograph is not a final product until it is in printed form.

In the digital age, we tend to take lots (and lots!) of pictures, but print very few.
Photos get lost and forgotten, languishing on your hard drive. Digital photography books are a great way to resurrect the old photo albums but with a modern and more sophisticated twist.

Photo books are a great way to show off your images to family and friends that they will enjoy much more than sitting though a long slideshow in your laptop! Creating a book forces you to cull your collection, choosing only the best of the best, and presenting them nicely in a portable, easy to handle way. This will definitely please your audience!

Another advantage of photo books is that you can make several copies to share with family and friends!

What Should Your Book Be About?

There are endless possibilities for subjects for your digital photo books. What will make your book stand out, however, is giving it a coherent theme, rather than making it a random collection of pictures. A good photo book does more than present images; it tells a story. Try to find a thread that you can weave through the book so that the pictures relate to one another.

Here are a few ideas for themes for your digital photography books.

Memory Books

• Vacations. Making a photo book about your vacation is a great way to capture and share your memories. It could be an exotic trip, or it could be Summer life at the cottage.
• A Person. You could make a retrospective about someone’s life, or you could document a year in the life of a child.
• A Child’s Perspective. Create digital photo books with a child from photos that they have taken themselves, for example on a trip to the zoo or a family vacation. Involve the child in choosing and arranging the photos for a fun collaboration.
• Family. Choose photos to represent everyone in the family doing their favorite activities, interacting with one another, and participating in important family gatherings. Make sure to print a few copies, as everyone will want one!
• Your Pet. A book with pictures of Fido or Whiskers is always popular, and a wonderful way to honor and remember an important member of your family!
• Recipes. If you are a cook as well as a photographer, take some photos of your culinary creations, and include the recipes with them in the book. This one makes a great gift for friends, or to pass down to your children.
• An Event. Choose a set of photos to commemorate a wedding, a shower, or a birthday party.

• A Relationship. A great gift for your partner, your photo book can include photos of places you’ve been and things you’ve done together. Get creative, and scan in movie tickets, maps, brochures, and other mementos, to accompany the photos.

Fine Art Books

• Your Passion! Flowers, landscapes, nature, urban architecture, rusty cars, city-scapes... what’s your "thing? Your subject can be anything that you are passionate about photographing.
• A 365 project. If you are doing a 365 project (taking a photo every day for a year), a photo book is a great way to document the finished product. You can put 7 images on each page so that a page represents a week.
• Favorite quotations. Pair a (themed) collection of your images with quotes. This is something I did, pairing my close-up flower photography with inspirational quotes from great thinkers.

 

Making it Look Great

Choosing Images

The most important factor in making your digital photo books look great is selecting your best photos. That may sound obvious, but it’s not always easy to do. One of the hallmarks of a great photographer is being able to edit your work. You need to be really tough on yourself. It can be difficult to separate the emotion you felt in the moment of taking the photograph with how successful the resulting photograph actually is. Sometimes, it helps to choose a few images, and then walk away and come back later with a fresh perspective. Edit, edit, edit. Keep on brutally narrowing it down until you’re left with the cream of the crop.

Remember how we said that a good photo book tells a story? An effective way to do that is by selecting a mix of overview pictures, medium close-ups, and close-ups. In a good story, you first set the scene with an overview image, then you move in closer to describe more of the "plot," and finally, you include some interesting details that people might otherwise overlook. In your digital photo books, you might have a single progression from overview to details, or you may move through that pattern rhythmically a few times.

If there is a chronology or an evolution to the images, make sure you include them in that order.

And did I mention? Be a brutal editor!

Designing Pages

Once you’ve chosen your images, you need to lay them out on a page. Most of the companies that produce digital photo books provide tools and templates to help you choose themes, page styles, and background colors to achieve a polished look.

You may want to have a very simple layout with a single image on each page. Especially if you are creating a fine art photo book, a simple layout keeps the attention on the pictures. You want people to be looking at your photographs, not the embellishments on the page.

On the other hand, stories can work well with groupings of images, and a less formal layout and background style can add fun to a memory book.

When you are selecting which pictures to place together, choose colors that complement one another. If the colors are similar, you will achieve a more soothing and harmonious look. If they are opposites, you will generate energy. What works best depends a bit on your story; just make sure to give it some consideration.

© Julie Waterhouse Photography
An example 2-page spread from my book of quotations.
I paired a close-up with a medium distance shot, and
selected images with the same color palette.

Also, don’t forget that when you open a book, you see the left and right pages at the same time, so make sure that the photos on both sides flow together well.

Finally, you may want to add text to your photos in the form of captions or descriptions. If you do so, I recommend
keeping the font consistent throughout the book for a more unified and polished look.

 

Cropping

Not all applications for making digital photography books allow you control of how your image gets cropped when you place it within a template. Make sure that if you are not designing your own pages from scratch using an application like Adobe Photoshop or In Design, that you choose your images carefully to match the available space. Think about whether a photo in portrait or landscape orientation will work best, and pay attention to what, if any, parts of the image are cut off. Some photo book applications allow you to move the image around within the frame window.

Consider whether you will create your digital photo books in portrait or landscape orientation. Landscape seems to be more common, but portrait has its advantages. You can place a landscape image into a portrait-oriented book as a full two-page spread.

Color Management

Is "calibrate monitor" a regular on your todo list? If you are not working in a color managed environment, keep in mind that what you see on your monitor may not be what you get when you print your photo book. If you don’t want to bother with calibration, then you’re probably best off to err on the side of making your images look a little brighter, since they often tend to print darker.

If you are working in a color managed environment, then see whether the publisher/printer for the digital photo books provides a color (ICC) profile that you can download and use to soft proof your book.

Tips

1. To avoid working online, which can be slow depending on the speed of your connection, many digital photo book companies allow to download their software and create the book offline, on your own computer. You can then upload the finished product.

2. Edit your photos in your own software (such as Lightroom, Photoshop, or Aperture) before including them in your book since most book production software is fairly limited in terms of photo editing. If you do this, then also remember to turn off any image auto correction settings in the book-making software.

3. To get an idea of what works in terms of layouts, check out other people’s books. Learn by seeing what works, and what doesn’t. You can find examples online at many of the companies that produce digital photo books.

4. Share a draft of your digital photo books with a trusted friend or three before you publish it to get some constructive feedback. It’s much less costly to fix things before you’ve sent a batch to be printed!

5. A somewhat sneaky way to get a discount on your digital photo books is to download the book-making software, and then wait some time before you send a book to print. Not always, but quite often the company will send you a discount coupon to encourage you to complete your book.

6. Creating a photo book is an excellent learning exercise for any photographer. After you create your books, you will revisit them many times, and you’ll continue to learn and improve with each new one.

***C2_invitation_27358957***

 

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• Tips for Taking Digital Photography
• Digital Photography Histogram

Digital Photography Histogram:
Interpreting the Graph

What can a digital photography histogram tell you about your image? What information does the shape of the graph give you, and how to you correct your image when the image histogram indicates a problem? In this section, we explain all that and more!

Interpreting the Digital Photography Histogram

First of all, let me set the record straight. There’s no such thing as a “bad” histogram! I cringe when I hear people say that. A histogram just tells you facts about your image. It may tell you that you have a problem with your image, but a histogram is not inherently "bad" or "good!" Understanding histograms helps you to know how to improve your image.

The following histogram is pushed up along the left side of the graph. We call this "clipping," i.e., the histogram is "clipped" on the left. This tells us that a lot of pixels in our image will be rendered as pure black, which means that we have lost detail in that area of the image. We refer to this as our shadows being "blocked up."

Histogram showing blacks “blocked up”
Image source: dpreview.com

To correct blocked up shadows, you must increase your exposure. Understanding histograms, we know that this will have the effect of shifting the histogram to the right.

 

The next digital photography histogram, shown below, has the opposite problem. The histogram is pushed up against the right side of the graph. This tells us that a lot of pixels in our image will be rendered as pure white. Just as in the last case, this means that we have lost detail in that area of the image, and we refer to that as our highlights being "blown out" or "burnt out."

Histogram showing whites “blown out”
Image source: dpreview.com

To correct blown out highlights, you must reduce your exposure. Understanding histograms, we know that this will have the effect of shifting the histogram to the left.

 

The digital photography histogram below is clipped on both left and right, so we have a combination of the above two problems: both blocked up shadows and blown out highlights at the same time. This is an indication that the dynamic range (the range of contrast from light to dark) of the scene was greater than what the camera could capture. This can easily happen on a bright, sunny day. There are about 12 stops of light in an average sunny day scene. Although the human eye has the capacity to see detail in the highlights and shadows under such conditions, the camera cannot. It is limited to capturing only about 5 stops of brightness.

Histogram showing that the image’s dynamic range
has exceeded what the camera can capture.
Image source: dpreview.com

To address this problem is more difficult. If we increase our exposure to fix the blocked up shadows, we just aggravate the blown out highlights more, and vice versa. In this situation, we somehow need to reduce our dynamic range.

A graduated neutral density filter used in the field can help. This is a filter that is dark gray at the top, and fades to clear at the bottom. When shooting a landscape, for example, the filter can be placed over the lens with the darker part lined up to cover a bright sky, and the clear part to cover the foreground. This effectively darkens the sky relative to the land, and reduces the overall dynamic range of the image.

The problem can also be solved using HDR, or high dynamic range techniques. This involves taking multiple images of the same scene (using a tripod so that they are identical) at different exposures. At least one image will have properly exposed each part of the scene. The images are then combined using software to produce a complete well-exposed image.

Finally, if you can, come back to the scene at a different time of day when the light is less harsh, and there is not as much contrast. The last solution may sound facetious, but is meant seriously.

 

The final digital photography histogram, shown below, has no pixels that are white, or even near-white, and no pixels that are black, or even near-black. The majority of the pixels are in the mid-tones. The image corresponding to this histogram will appear flat, without much contrast. This can easily be adjusted in a camera raw editor to increase the contrast.

Histogram showing low contrast image.
Image source: dpreview.com

 

Understanding histograms:
Next, you may want to visit another digital photo tips page to see some histogram examples, showing actual images and their corresponding histograms.

 

• Home
• Learning Digital Photography
• Digital Photography Techniques

Too often, we fixate on getting perfectly sharp images. We spend a lot of time worrying about crisp focus, sturdy tripods, and fast shutter speeds. What if, instead, we try some new digital photography techniques that embrace the concept of motion? We just might surprise ourselves with some fresh, creative images! Enjoy these great ideas from Barbara, and start experimenting.

Get Moving!

by Barbara Bender

© Barbara Bender

We are told that moving our bodies is good for our health and keeping in shape. Movement can be beneficial photographically as well.

Most of the time, when we make a photograph, we do everything we can to hold the camera steady. Some place great value on photographs where everything is sharp, in focus and recognizable The use of a sturdy tripod, a beanbag support, or bracing ourselves, along with the selection of fast shutter speeds, are some of the ways we can avoid having our images ruined by camera shake or subject motion.

What happens, though, if we deliberately induce camera movement or allow the parts of our subject that are in motion, to freely move? If we experiment with these digital photography techniques, we can create photographs which can be expressive, evocative and impressionistic in nature if we are willing to try something new, make mistakes and view such images from a different perspective.

© Barbara Bender

Many mistakes will be made in learning to do this, and even those who are experienced in creating such images can have a high failure rate since there are so many variables which can affect the final outcome. Digital cameras are perfect for this kind of work because you can get an indication if your results are in an acceptable range by looking at the playback, and if not, settings or technique can be adjusted accordingly. Also, without film and processing costs, hundreds of images can be made and experimented with; all that is required is a lot of memory cards and batteries.

© Barbara Bender

In order to get the slower shutter speeds necessary for these digital photography techniques, use the lowest ISO possible, select a small f-stop to decrease the amount of light, and use a neutral density and/or polarizing filter on the lens.

 

 

 

 

 

Subjects That Are In Motion

Instead of cursing the wind which blows the flowers and grasses about, or getting aggravated when people walk through your scene, embrace this motion, and play with it. With the camera supported on a tripod, select a slow shutter speed, and when you make your exposure, let things move about. The parts of the scene that are stationary will be sharp and in focus while the elements that move will be registered as soft swirls of colour. Each shutter speed will give a different effect, so keep trying different settings to see what works best. Eventually, with practice, you will find that certain ranges of shutter speeds are most effective in specific situations. The only way to learn this is to experiment and make mistakes. Remember, there are no magic numbers that work perfectly every time, so try several shutter speeds even within the range of numbers that seem best. Shoot at least 5 frames for each speed, with each setting. Elements move at different rates and patterns, so each picture will be different.

© Barbara Bender

 

Camera Motion Techniques

These digital photography techniques can be done either with the camera on a tripod, or handheld. Try both and see which works best for you. You may find that certain situations are better suited to one or the other. Again, use a variety of shutter speeds, and try moving your camera different ways. You can pan your camera in a smooth motion during the exposure, or you can try quick, jerky movements. The camera movement can be horizontal, vertical, circular, or even random jiggles. Begin your movement just before you depress your shutter, and continue for a second or two after the exposure has been made. The speed at which you move the camera, your shutter speed, how far away you are from your subject, and your focal length are only some of the variables that can affect the final outcome of your photograph.

© Barbara Bender

Another way of creating motion effects is to rotate the barrel of a zoom lens from one extreme focal length to another during the exposure. Try zooming in and out, or out and in, and vary the speed that you do this. You can also attempt to do this while panning the camera at the same time.

© Barbara Bender

These digital photography techniques of motion can be done on stationary subjects as well as in situations where the subject is moving. Experiment with all different types of subject matter and situations. Sometimes your subject will be identifiable, and sometimes the wash of shapes and colours appear very abstract. The most ordinary scene can appear unfamiliar and unusual by simply moving the camera deliberately or allowing the elements to freely dance and move.

Every image you make will be individual and unique; it is impossible to be precise, so keep an open mind and evaluate the results on their own merits instead of what you hoped to see. Often you can make "happy accidents."

I wonder if all this motion this can be counted as part of my daily exercise routine.

No?…didn’t think so! Too bad!

 

About Barbara Bender

 

Barbara Bender is a freelance professional photographer and writer who uses various creative techniques, emphasis on design, and simple, often graphic composition to make photographs which are frequently expressive in nature. Her photographs have been featured in such publications as Nature’s Best Awards Issue, Black and White Magazine, and Color Magazine. A series of articles on photographic Creativity and Playfulness was featured in PhotoLife Magazine in 2010. Over forty-five of her images have been used as book covers for Guernica Editions. As an active member of the Greater Toronto Council of Camera Clubs, she gives presentations and workshops on various photographic topics.

www.BarbaraBenderPhotoArt.com

 

Next, you may want to explore your photographic creativity with some creative photography ideas.

• Home
• Tips for Taking Digital Photography
• Digital Photo Tips: Live View

Digital Photo Tips:
Live View

Looking for some useful digital photo tips? We examine what Live View is on a DSLR camera, and how you can use it to improve the accuracy of your focusing on stationary subjects.

What is Live View?

Live View on a camera simply means that the rear LCD displays what the lens is seeing in real time. In lieu of looking through the viewfinder, you can preview the image you’re going to take by looking at the continuous display on the screen instead.

Those of you who have used a compact digital "point and shoot" camera may be wondering what the big deal is! Compact digital cameras have always worked this way. In a compact digital camera, the sensor activates as soon as the camera is turned on. Since there’s nothing in between the lens and the sensor, the light coming in through the lens immediately forms an image on the sensor, which is then displayed on the LCD screen.

Things are different in the world of DSLRs, however. There’s something in the way between the sensor and the lens! A DSLR camera works by having light from the lens reflect off a mirror, and be bounced up to the viewfinder. The image you see when you look through the viewfinder is actually coming from the mirror, not the sensor. When you release the shutter, only then does the mirror lift, and allow the light to pass through and form an image on the sensor. That’s why the viewfinder goes dark for a moment when you take the picture. For more information, see a digital camera basics discussion comparing DSLR vs compact digital cameras.

That design presents a problem for implementing a camera live view feature on a DSLR. This problem has been solved in newer DSLR cameras, however. A second sensor has been added in the path of the light coming from the mirror.

Digital Photo Tips
© Julie Waterhouse Photography

 

Digital Photo Tips: Focusing with Camera Live View

Accurate focusing with your DSLR can be challenging. When using autofocus, it’s difficult to tell whether your focus is as accurate as possible. Certainly you can see when the autofocus point lights up in the viewfinder, but you can’t always be sure it’s focused on the right point. And are you confident when setting your focus manually on a subject a moderate distance away that you have nailed the focus? Part of the problem is that viewfinders are designed more for displaying a bright image than as a focusing aid.

Live view can help with focusing. If you use live view, you can magnify a portion of your image on the screen and check for accurate focus. This makes it much easier to see the point of optimum focus.

Live view can also help to overcome poor calibration between camera and lens, a real issue for focusing accuracy. Calibration means making sure that the lens is accurately focused, and not just within an acceptable tolerance. Many DSLRs now come with a lens calibration feature to address this. Using the camera live view feature, however, can help you overcome any calibration issues by letting you see exactly what part of your image is in focus.

Digital Photo Tips: Disadvantages of Camera Live View with Autofocus

Using live view can really slow down autofocus, and the actual taking of the photo. This is because additional steps have to take place:

1. The mirror, which has been lifted up to achieve live view, must now drop down (autofocus requires the mirror to work).
2. The autofocus system engages and locks focus on the subject.
3. The mirror lifts up again.
4. The camera takes the picture.

In addition, on many cameras, autofocus in camera live view mode requires you to use a different button than the shutter release, which can be confusing and awkward.

Technology is already improving, and the above issues are being addressed.

Update: There are already cameras that do not need to lower the mirror to focus. You should check your manual, because not only does it vary by brand, but also by specific model.

 

Next, you may want to visit another digital photo tips page to learn about histograms. What is a histogram?

 

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• Digital Photography Basics: Noise

Digital Photography Basics:
Noise

It’s time for some digital photography basics. What’s all the noise about noise? Understand what digital image noise is, and whether there’s anything you can do about it.

What is Digital Image Noise?

Image noise is the digital equivalent of film grain. It manifests as "speckles" in an area of an image that should be of constant color or brightness. In technical terms, it is a (usually undesirable) variation of brightness or color information in images produced with a digital camera sensor.

Digital image noise in a magnified image of the sky.
© Julie Waterhouse Photography

Definition: SNR. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is a way of comparing signal to noise for any electronic unit (including a camera sensor). If you have a high SNR, then image information clearly stands out from any background noise.  On the other hand, a low SNR means the signal and noise in the image is similar, and it’s harder to distinguish the image from the noise.

Digital Photography Basics: Factors Affecting Noise

Brightness. Noise becomes less apparent as tones in the image become brighter.  This is because brighter regions receive more light, giving them a stronger signal, and consequently, a high SNR. This means that darker, or underexposed images will have more visible noise, even if you make them brighter during post-processing.

ISO Speed. SNR is affected by the ISO setting your choose when you take the picture. A higher number means the sensor is more sensitive to light. For example, a photo taking at ISO 400 will take half as long to reach proper exposure as a photo taking at ISO 200 (all other settings remaining constant). Digital cameras adjust the sensor sensitivity to achieve these different ISO settings by amplifying image signal settings. This signal amplification causes greater noise in images taken at higher ISO settings.

Sensor Size. A small sensor containing lots of pixels will have more
noise than a larger sensor with
the same number of pixels. This is because the pixels are packed in tighter together on the sensor, causing signal interference.

In addition, larger sensors tend to have larger pixels. A larger pixel can collect more light, allowing it to produce a stronger signal. This means that cameras with physically larger pixels will generally appear less noisy since they have a higher SNR. However, a stronger signal does not necessarily result in lower noise. Cameras with larger pixels may still have less sophisticated electronics that result in poor SNR, i.e., poor signal relative to noise.

Digital Photography Basics: An Example of Digital Image Noise

The first image of the bears was taken at ISO 100, and the second was taken at ISO1600. At this size, you can’t see much difference.

Photographed at ISO 100.
© Julie Waterhouse Photography

Photographed at ISO 1600.
© Julie Waterhouse Photography

If we look more closely by enlarging various parts of the image, the noise becomes apparent. The top pair of samples was pulled from the wall behind the bears. The middle two were pulled from the bears’ fur in the middle of the image, where the two bears’ faces touch. The bottom pair of samples was pulled from the black leather couch on which the bears are resting. In the last sample, it’s difficult to distinguish the noise from the texture of the leather.

Samples on the left are from the ISO 1600 image.
Samples on the right are from the ISO 100 image.
© Julie Waterhouse Photography

 

What Can You Do About Digital Image Noise?

Let’s investigate a few digital photography basics that will help you resolve issues around noise.

Camera Choice

Which camera you buy will definitely affect the amount of noise you have to deal with, particularly at the higher ISO settings. As we’ve discussed, sensor size has a significant impact on noise, with larger sensors generally being better. However, as we’ve also pointed out, the quality of the electronics has some bearing too, so it pays to do your homework, and research some comparisons on the internet first.

Noise is composed of two elements: fluctuations in color, and in luminance (brightness). Both kinds can be reduced using software. Be aware that the relative amount of color and luminance noise can also vary significantly from one camera model to another.

Image Editing Programs

Digital image noise can be fixed pattern or random. Although fixed pattern noise looks worse because the pattern is easy to discern because of its repetitiveness, that same repetitiveness also makes it easy to eliminate. Cameras can simply "subtract" the repeating pattern from the image. On the other hand, random noise is very difficult to remove, as it it difficult to distinguish it from random surface textures.

There is some excellent noise reduction software on the market that addresses both color and luminance noise. You may wish to investigate Noise Ninja by PictureCode, which is a leading program in the industry.

Use Flash in Low Light

I know many photographers prefer natural light at all times. However, photographing in low light requires longer exposure times or higher ISO speeds. These are the conditions that make your image more susceptible to noise. You may want to consider using flash in this situation if noise becomes an issue.

You may want to visit the next digital photography basics page to learn about shooting in RAW vs JPEG.

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• Beginning Photography Tips
• How to Take Good Pictures: Podcasts

 

Two Minute Photo Tips: Podcasts

Each audio podcast will open in a new window with a built-in media player.

Family Photo Tips

Learn how to take good pictures of your family and friends. Get creative with your family photos! Stop getting everyone to say "cheese" in a formal pose, and start capturing more natural portraits.

Podcast on family portrait ideas

 

Bracketing

What is exposure bracketing, anyway? How do you do it? How can it help you?

Podcast on bracketing

 

 

 

Mirror Lockup

Mirror lockup is useful when you’re shooting on a tripod, and want super-sharp images. It is especially useful when you are shooting macro or close-up.

Podcast on mirror lockup

 

 

 

 

Selective Focus

Selective Focus is a technique used to draw attention to a particular element of a photograph by making it the only piece in focus. Find out how to achieve this professional-looking effect.

Podcast on selective focus

 

Next, you may want to read an article by special guest writer, Larry Monzcka, with basic photography tips to take your pictures from snapshots to wall-worthy. It’s all about the details.

 

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• Beginning Photography Tips
• Exposure Basics: ISO

Understanding exposure basics is crucial to making a great photograph. What is ISO? Invest some time to understand all the ingredients of exposure. Make sure you read the introduction first. Here we discuss film or sensor sensitivity, which is controlled by the camera ISO setting.

What is ISO?

ISO stands for the International Organization for Standardization. Before you ask why that isn’t IOS, I don’t know! But that’s what it is. The International Organization for Standardization manages standards for all kinds of things, from standards for good software processes, to standards for film sensitivity.

Film sensitivity means how much light has to hit the film before it is correctly exposed. For example, it requires twice as much light to expose a piece of ISO 100 film correctly as it does a piece of ISO 200 film. In our our analogy of filling a bucket of water, the ISO is equivalent to the size of the bucket. A smaller bucket (more sensitive film) holds less water (needs less light to arrive at a correct exposure).

In the days of film, you wanted to know that if you bought a roll of Fuji film rated at ISO 100, that it would display the same exposure characteristics as a roll of Kodak film rated at ISO 100. That’s where the standards organization comes in. It sets criteria that the film companies much follow so that ISO 100 means the same thing for everyone.

Film? Why all this talk of film? Well, it’s a bit easier to explain things in terms of film, but the same principles now apply in the digital world. The advantage now is that you can change your camera ISO setting at any time. In the days of film, you had to shoot an entire roll at ISO 400 before you could change to ISO 100. As a result, many photographers carried two camera bodies, each loaded with a differently ISO-rated film, so they could be prepared for any lighting condition.

© Julie Waterhouse Photography

Measuring ISO

Like all three components of exposure, ISO is measured in stops. Standard ISO ratings are:

ISO 50, ISO 100, ISO 200, ISO 400, ISO 800, ISO 1600…

How do you choose the right camera ISO setting?

By default, you want to use a lower ISO setting, typically ISO 100. The lower the ISO setting, the less noise in the image.

There are times when you must choose a higher camera ISO setting because there’s not enough available light to allow a suitable aperture or shutter speed. For example, when light is low and you want to stop motion with a fast shutter speed, there comes a point when the lens is as wide open as it will go, and the image is still under-exposed. At that point, your only recourse is to increase the sensitivity by increasing the ISO setting.

Improvements in noise reduction are continually being made in the newer cameras, and you can now choose quite high ISO settings in the higher-end DSLRs without seeing much noise.

I hope you can now answer the question "What is ISO?"

Next, read about another of the exposure basics: shutter speed,

Or, you may want to skip ahead to read about aperture.