Basic Digital Photography

Digital Cameras - these days everyone has one, and without the costs associated with developing films, people are taking more photographs than ever before. But are we taking better pictures? In this article on basic digital photography I will explain what is going on inside your digital camera, look at some common mistakes we make and give you 3 simple steps that will improve your photographs - no matter what sort of camera you have.

We've started to take our cameras for granted. We choose them for their size, convenience and (god help us) sometimes their pretty color! But crammed inside each of these shiny little boxes is a huge amount of technology that is quietly going about the complex business of recording every scene you point it at.

Most contain features that would have cost an arm and a leg twenty years ago - like complex exposure metering, a flash and a zoom lens. Of course we rarely give these things a second thought, because 9 times out of 10 the camera does its thing when we press the button. But if we want to get better results, and cope with that 1 time in 10 then we need to have at least a basic appreciation of what is going on.

When you press the shutter release the camera has to do two main things

1. Measure how bright the scene is and use that to calculate the correct exposure (how much light to let fall onto the camera's sensor) and whether the flash is appropriate
2. Focus on the subject

That first one bears looking at in a bit more detail - because thats pretty much all of photography right there. So how does it do it? How can the smallest compact camera get so many shots right, time after time?

18% Grey

The first thing to know is that cameras believe that every scene should have an average brightness level known as 18% Grey. But show it a polar bear in the snow, or a black cat at night and simply measuring for 18% Grey is going to fail - the snow scene will be too dark and the night not dark enough.

This one issue on its own accounts for a great many poor photographs. However most cameras now go a step further. They go on to add information like the subject distance and zoom position, and compare this against an internal database of similar settings to spot those occasions when 18% Grey will be wrong - and then they use the database to correct the shot.

Add onto that the latest camera's ability to detect faces and the camera can be even more accurate; knowing that a face in the foreground of a shot is probably the subject, the camera will focus on the face automatically and set the exposure so that the face is correctly lit - even if it has to use the flash.

Focusing

I touched on it briefly already, but another key cause of failed photographs is focusing. You know the sort of thing; the angelic looking child is all blurry but the potted plant behind him is perfect! This has been a problem since the dawn of auto-focus cameras, but with modern point and shoots, it is even more common - the whole process of taking the picture is so fast, who has time to wait to see if the camera has worked out who you are pointing it at!

Now we have spent a bit of time working out what our cameras are capable of, here are a few simple steps that will help you help your camera to take better pictures.

1. Move your feet: your camera can only record the scene you point it at, so make sure you get into the best position first. Think about the lighting and the background: For portraits try to get some distance between the person and the background; this will reduce the horrible shadow that flash will produce, and push the background nicely out of focus, which makes the subject stand out more.

Think about the direction of the lighting – that old rule about having the sun over your shoulder is way out of date. Cameras with a flash can cope with side or back lit subjects (i.e. where the sun is behind your subject) by using a fill-flash to balance the light. This creates much more interesting portraits – and ones where your subject isn’t squinting into the sun.

2. Choose the right zoom setting: don’t be tempted to frame your shots by zooming in and out. For portrait style shots avoid the wide-angle end of the zoom, as this will distort the picture – magnifying anything close to the camera and potentially giving your loved ones enormous bubbleheads! Stick to the mid to long end of the zoom where possible.

3. Pre-focus then compose: camera’s shutter release buttons have two stages; when you half-press it the camera focuses, but it doesn’t take the picture until you fully press the button. Get into the habit of using these two stages to your advantage. With your subject in the middle of the frame, half-press to focus and then re-frame the shot to get the best composition. Composition is a topic in itself (see link below) but suffice to say that the most interesting photographs don’t usually have the subject in the middle of the shot.

To recap then, here are my 3 steps to better photography:

1. Choose the best point to shoot from
2. Select the right zoom setting for the shot
3. Pre-focus, compose then shoot

Good luck and happy snapping!