Digital Cameras – Get to know your digital camera
Why modify this digital camera setting? Experiments in exposure time can produce dramatic effects. For example: Take a photograph of a roaring waterfall in a well-lit area and adjust your digital camera’s exposure speed to take pictures as quickly as possible. In great lighting, and with some modern digital cameras, you may be able to see the individual drops of water falling!
If the histogram is balanced towards the middle, your exposure settings should be correct. Your photo should have a normal exposure. Exceptions can occur, so even if the histogram ‘looks’ right you should visually verify how the image will look with your viewfinder or LCD. If the histogram is weighted towards the sides, chances are your image contains a complex combination of brightness and darkness. Waterfall photos or other areas of dark foliage next to a bright sky may exhibit this trait. In this case, you should experiment and bracket your photos, then pick out which one looks the best to you.
If you are out and about in everyday life with your camera and there is a picture that you absolutely cannot miss but you don’t have a tripod, what do you do? Obviously you can’t carry your tripod everywhere you go: Change the ISO film sensitivity to allow your digital camera to take pictures with shorter exposure times. This can result in grainier images, so you’ll need to experiment. Refer to your camera manual for details. Use your digital camera’s portrait mode to reduce camera shake. Set your camera to take a picture 2 or 10 seconds after holding and releasing the shutter button, and you’ll eliminate camera shake that would have normally resulted. Just remember to keep the camera as still as possible while waiting for the picture to be taken.
If your digital camera has an optical viewfinder and not an electronic one, you should never, never use this when pointing your digital camera towards the sun, especially for sunrise and sunset photos! As your digital camera’s optical viewfinder is not tinted, it’s almost as bad as just pointing your head and looking straight at the sun. This could cause serious eye damage. Looking through a viewfinder versus the LCD helps you hold the camera sturdier and closer to your eyes, thus reducing camera shake. However, in this instance, you should use your digital camera’s LCD. If you’re worried about camera shake, use a tripod. However, especially with the sunrise, due to the brightness of the sky, your digital camera should normally be able to take very fast photos, minimizing any camera shake.
If you have a good optical zoom, here is an experiment you can do while taking digital camera photographs. When taking pictures of homes, skyscrapers, cabins, etc., zoom in on individual pieces of architecture. Take a minute to really look at your subject, and you may be able to find individual engravings, sections of paneling, or dents and scars in the wood of a cabin that may result in interesting pictures. The trick to taking better photos is to really observe a subject and see it from all angles. Go downtown, find some office buildings, and really take a minute or two to study them. You may find engravings or sculptures on or around the buildings that you have never noticed before.
Don’t damage your digital camera equipment, or yourself, when traveling on double-decker buses! Some tour buses in large towns use double-decker buses for large groups. That way, those who want to take photos can do so without having to shoot through the glass of windows. While this offers a good opportunity for photographers, especially if there is ample light to take fast pictures to offset the speed of the vehicle, be careful with yourself and your equipment! Some of these buses may pass very close to low-hanging trees or stoplights. Thus, you should never stand up taking photographs while the vehicle is moving, no matter how incredible the subject. If you are not paying attention and stand up at the wrong time, a limb or other object could knock your camera right out of your hand, or worse, something can knock you in the head!
While you should always try to take digital photos at nighttime that avoid the blurred results of ‘camera-shake’ due to long exposures with an unstable digital camera, realize that blur is not always undesirable. Some blurring can be used creatively, such as that created by cars driving on an interstate at nighttime. This effect is best performed if the roadway is next to a lit skyscraper or cityscape. Frame a photo containing the cityscape and roadway, and take an exposure of half a second or longer as necessary (use a tripod!). The skyscrapers should look clear and crisp, and the roadways will turn into streams of light.
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