Digital Photography For Dummies. Julie Adair King

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СКАЧАТЬ Auto mode, this level of camera typically also offers scene modes, which automatically dial in settings deemed most appropriate for specific types of photos, such as portraits and sports shots. (These modes are usually represented by symbols such as the ones you see in the figure — the woman’s head represents portrait mode, for example.)

      The problem with scene modes is that they're geared to producing a certain effect, and you can't deviate from that result. For example, in Sports scene mode, the camera can only freeze action; you don't have the option of blurring motion. And in Portrait mode, the camera blurs the background as much as it can. That's fine for most portraits, but you may have times when you want the background to be as sharp as your portrait subject.

For more photographic control, I suggest a camera that offers these three shooting modes: shutter-priority autoexposure, aperture-priority autoexposure, and manual exposure. These modes enable you to precisely control not only exposure, but also all the other characteristics I discuss at the start of this chapter and more. Many cameras also offer P mode, which stands for programmed autoexposure. This mode typically enables you to choose from different combinations of exposure settings, so it’s a step above full auto. But it's not quite as convenient as the the other three modes I just mentioned when you know exactly what settings you want to use. Check out the first part of Chapter 2 for specifics on these and other common shooting modes.

      Image stabilization

      One cause of blurry pictures is camera shake. If the camera moves when the shutter is open, the entire image may be blurry even when focus is perfectly set. The longer the exposure time, the longer you have to hold the camera still to avoid this type of blur. Shooting with a telephoto lens makes things even more difficult, especially if that lens is long and heavy.

      You can avoid camera shake by mounting the camera on a tripod. But a feature called image stabilization can enable you to get sharper shots when you handhold the camera. The feature may go by different names depending on the manufacturer: vibration reduction, antishake, vibration compensation, and the like. Whatever the name, the feature is implemented in one of two ways:

       Hardware-based stabilization: With this method, sometimes called optical image stabilization, the antishake benefit is produced by a mechanism built into the camera or the lens. This type of image stabilization is best.

       Software-based stabilization: This type of stabilization — sometimes known as electronic image stabilization, or EIS — is applied by the camera’s operating software rather than a hardware mechanism. It works differently depending on the camera.In some cases, the camera applies some complex correction filters to the image when motion is detected. Other cameras address camera shake by automatically increasing the ISO setting, which makes the camera more sensitive to light. When the camera is at a higher ISO, you can use a faster shutter speed, which means that the length of time you need to hold the camera still is reduced. Unfortunately, a higher ISO often brings the unwanted side effect of image noise, as discussed in the earlier section “High ISO performance (low-light picture quality).”

Even the best possible stabilization system can’t work miracles; you still need a tripod for very long exposures. But you can expect to get a steady shot at shutter speeds slower than what you can enjoy without stabilization. How much slower depends on the capabilities of the camera or lens as well as your ability to hold the camera still.

      Long story short (too late, you say?): This is one camera feature that I highly recommend to photographers of any level.

      Viewfinder: Optical or electronic?

      

Cameras that lack a viewfinder force you to frame your shots using the monitor. That causes two problems: You have to hold the camera a few inches away to see the monitor, and unless you keep your hands very steady, camera shake can cause a blurry picture. Additionally, monitors wash out in bright light, making it hard to see what you’re shooting. For these reasons, I consider a viewfinder important.

      But not all viewfinders work the same way, and because this component plays a critical role in your camera use, it's worth understanding the differences. Here's a look at your options:

      Optical viewfinders

      This term is used to describe a standard viewfinder — the kind that's been used for a long time in both film and digital cameras. Optical viewfinders come in two forms:

       TTL (through-the-lens): The display is created by light coming directly through the lens.

       Non-TTL: For technical reasons I won’t bore you with, a TTL lens requires a larger, bulkier camera design. As an alternative, some cameras have non-TTL viewfinders, which simply means that the placement of the viewfinder is such that it has a slightly different angle on the scene than the lens. This results in parallax error: The viewfinder doesn't show exactly what the lens will capture, making it difficult to precisely frame a photo.To help solve the problem, most cameras include framing marks in the viewfinder to guide you; when camera shopping, be sure the framing marks are easy to see. And note that not all viewfinders of this type are created equal — the amount of parallax error varies from camera to camera, so do your research.

      Electronic viewfinders (EVFs)

      With an electronic viewfinder (EVF), the camera sends the live feed that's normally displayed on the camera monitor to the viewfinder, and because the monitor shows the same area as the lens, this viewfinder option offers the same improvement in accuracy that you get with a TTL optical viewfinder. But the EVF system has two other benefits: First, you can not only use the viewfinder to compose your subject, but also see everything normally displayed on the camera monitor. You can review your photos through the viewfinder, for example, and see camera menus. I love these features when I'm shooting in bright sunlight. Instead of having to look for a shady spot where I can clearly see what the monitor is displaying, I simply look at the viewfinder display. However, EVF displays vary in display quality, size, and performance, so this is one component you should test in person.

      Video-recording capabilities

      Most digital cameras can record video as well as still pictures. In this book, I don't provide much video-recording information, for two reasons. First, if all you're after is basic recording, there's not much to it: You press the Record button to start recording and press it again to stop. On the other hand, if you want to get serious about digital cinematography, you're probably after a lot more information than I have room to offer in this book.

      That said, I realize that you may want a little guidance as far as knowing which video-related specs are most important, so the following list gives you an introduction:

        Video resolution (frame size): Just like photos, digital videos are created out of pixels, and the resolution, or frame size, indicates how many pixels are used to produce each frame of video. The highest resolution found on most cameras is 1920 x 1080, known as Full HD (high definition, as in HDTV); the second highest, 1280 x 720 pixels, which is Standard HD.Many cameras now also offer 4K video, which delivers approximately 4000 horizontal pixels and is designed for the hot (for СКАЧАТЬ