Photographer’s badge – dealing with faults Friday, Mar 18 2011

Over the last few weeks, we’ve looked at the details around taking a picture and the photographs badge.  By now, we know what makes a good picture.  However, unless we do this all the time – and give ourselves the opportunity to make the picture “perfect” there will always be something that we’ll see later that shouldn’t be there, or isn’t quite right.  It might even be a setting that we had the camera on.  As we know from last week, there are a few edits we can make, but we do need to be mindful that we can only work with what we’ve got.

examples of under & over exposure

The above two images show under exposure and over exposure, when there isn’t enough light, or the picture has been subject to too much light.  Depending on how under or over it is, it may be restorable.  You might also overexposure when you decide to use a flash directly at the object without softening it in some way.

camera shake ruining a reasonable picture

This is an example of camera shake.  This is different from motion / action photography – simply because NOTHING looks right, everything is shaky.  In truth, there’s very little that can be done to restore such a picture.  You will find that making yourself as stable as possible, or using a tripod will help get round this.  Sadly, these are never discovered until you see the picture on a larger computer screen – or worse, as they print out…

 

Of course, it might just be that you “meant” to set it up….

is that really a flag sticking out of his head? And what's with the Stormtrooper?

 

 

Leave a Response »

 

Photographer’s badge – functions of a digital camera and compressions; types of memory Friday, Mar 4 2011

This week, we’ll start with the types of digital camera.  Effectively, cameras fall into three types:

Digital SLR (Single Lens Reflex)

Compact camera

Hybrid.

The DSLR, like the original SLR, are set up so that as the photographer you will see the image that is directed through the lens and not having been processed by the computer chip.

Left: Hybrid, Middle: compact, Right: DSLR

The photographer using the Compact Camera will see the image that is read by the computer chip – or via a small window box in the corner of the camera (this is normally found on the older cameras that make use of film).  The Compact camera rarely has space for any accessories such as filters.  The phone on the digital camera is an example of the Compact camera.

The Hybrid is effectively a compact camera, but looks more like a DSLR and will often accept additional lenses, filters etc to focus and set the picture.

Quite often, a camera will promote such features as 3x Digital Zoom, 6x Optical Zoom and 6MP quality.  So what does that mean?

Let’s start with the types of zoom feature.  The optical zoom uses lenses to make the object look closer and fill more of the screen size.  The image is then taken of this picture.  Digital zooming works on the image once it has been taken – so it effectively crops into the picture.  The effective result is that the picture looks “blocky” because the image is expanded to fill the size.

original pic

Optical Zoom - no change on picture quality

Digital Zoom - you can see the blocks appearing

 

We can see from these images how this differs.  And this leads us neatly to Megapixel and compressions.  When we take a picture, the computer chip will break down the image into a series of blocks, or pixels.  The more pixels make up the picture, the more detailed the image is (the better quality).  So a 10MP image is going to look a lot better than a 3MP – but it is going to take up more memory space (because there is more information needed about the picture).  Some cameras have a computer chip that can take these detailed images, others use clever software to calculate what the “missing” pixels might be – and boost the quality of the picture.

Finally, the types of memory.  There are many different formats of memory available – MMC, Card – each effectively providing the same function – to store the pictures.  Typically they all have their own inherent limits to the amount of data that they can hold – this is often measured in Megabytes.  There is a high crossover here with the world of computing.  The smallest amount of memory is a byte of memory.  Without getting overly technical it is easy to remember that 1,000 bytes is a Kilobyte (Kb). It’s actually 1024, but that’s really only worth points in a pub quiz.  1,000Kb is a Megabyte (Mb).  1,000Mb is a gigabyte (Gb).  Actually, each is 1,024 – but as I said, knowing that is just a little sad really – when you run out of space, you run out of space!

Various types of memory card (and of course, there's a little bit in some compact cameras too!

A 3 Megapixel image might take about 500Kb (depending on content), so a 10MB memory card would take 20 images before running out of space; a 2GB card would allow you about 2,040 images.  Of course, keeping all your pictures on the camera introduces a “single point of failure” – there are external hard drives (and computers!) that you can copy your pictures to.

Leave a Response »

 

Photographers Badge – Pictures and Framing Friday, Feb 25 2011

Over the next few weeks, I will be working towards some of the educational aspects of the Photography Activity Badge. I’m going to focus on Alternative A – Still photography.  The requirements of this section are as follows:

1. Choose one of these two activities:
   1. Produce twelve prints of photographs (negative or digital), taken by yourself, covering at least two different aspects from this list:

• portrait
• still life or similar
• land or seascape
• sport or similar action
• flash-gun
• time-lapse photography

1. Produce six black and white photographs where you have undertaken some part of the processing.
2. Choose one from the following two activities:
   1. Show knowledge of the main functions of a film camera, including shutter speed, aperture, film speed, depth of field and lens focusing.
   2. Show knowledge of the main functions of a digital camera including resolution, digital compression and how these affect the final print. Show knowledge of the types of removable memory available.
3. Discuss the different types of camera and the accessories available.
4. Choose one from the following activities:
   1. Describe the process of developing black and white films and prints, including the use of an enlarger.
   2. Describe the processes and equipment needed to produce prints from a digital camera, including the use of editing software.
   3. Describe the processes and equipment needed to scan prints or negatives from existing photographs, including the use of editing software.
5. Diagnose faults that occur both at the photographing or printing stages, such as over/under exposure and high/low contrast. Explain the difference between camera shake and subject movement.
6. Demonstrate that you know how to care for a camera and accessories.

My plan is that this week we’ll look at the photograph formats in (1) and also a quick look at “framing” the picture.

Next week (4 Mar) we’ll look at the functions of a digital camera, digital compression and memory.  We’ll also look at the types of cameras available.

On the 11 March we’ll review how to produce a print of an image and also editing images.

Finally on the 18^th March we’ll look at faults and other things, such as improving the picture.

I will be focusing on the digital camera aspects rather than the 35mm film option as I think that’s what most people have access to now.  It’s important to note that you DON’T need an expensive camera – even the camera on your mobile phone can be used to take pictures (and as you’ll see below… I have!).  The knack is knowing what makes a picture over a quick “snap”.

So, let’s begin!

Firstly, let’s look at framing a picture.  Anyone can point a camera at the subject and press the button.  Typically, that’s what a lot of people do – and spend very little time “framing” the picture, or considering what they are taking the picture of.  Whilst we will look at this in a little more detail later on, there is a simple “trick” to making a picture look better.  The “trick” is known as the Rule of Thirds.

2 Ninjitsu - not as exciting as it could be.

sometimes you get the opportunity to get a really interesting picture - the wasp was eating the sweets!

If we divide our picture frame into 9 blocks, using two vertical lines and two horizontal lines, then we have a guide to where things should be.  When we take the picture, we want to make sure that our subject items are on the lines.  The challenge that we have with the simplest of cameras is that they tend to focus on a single, central point.  You may find that the camera will allow you to “hold” the focus – as you press the button the camera will focus, and then as you further press it takes the picture.

So what do the aspects mean?

Portrait

Portrait photography is taken a photograph of a person or group of people.  It becomes a challenge for several reasons, not least the fact that you need people to do as they are told!  However, it does not need to be formal and with the right framing can make the image look quite interesting.

The image above was taken using a normal camera phone!

Still life

Still life is photographing a collection of items.  The challenge here is how the objects are arranged, where the photographer places the focus on the picture and how the scene is “lit” – this might be by natural light, flash, or even reflected light.

as you can see - sometimes the Lego people can't wait to get in the picture!

I used a tripod to stabilize the camera – also the draped sheet of clean paper; the paper takes away distracting background and creates a backdrop that has no “end”.

Land or Seascape

Probably the second-most common photograph taken on holiday!  This is when the Rule of Thirds really comes into its own to make something interesting.  Using editing tools, you can “stitch” a collection of pictures together and make even more interesting pictures!

Ilfracombe harbour - 3 pictures "stitched" to make a panorama.

Sport (or action)

This type of picture is always an interesting challenge.  When you take the picture, you need to be “telling a picture” – in this case it may be speed, or some form of dynamic action.  If you’re going for a “speed” shot by following the subject (the image below is a motorcycle going round Druids Bend at Brands Hatch) the race track becomes blurred – and so speedy.  This speed is also shown by the water spray  that’s being spat by the back tyre.

Flash-gun

Flash gun isn’t just for night time!  Using a Flash gun will provide additional light.  Using walls, reflectors etc you can “bounce” the light which will create other effects with the lighting.  Additionally now, you can use editing software to take out “red eye” – an unfortunate side effect when the light bounces of the back of a person’s eye.

This was taken at 11:30 in the morning – two flash guns set apart created the dark and moody image.

Time-Lapse photography

Time-lapse photography is quite interesting.  You will need a tripod or be able to fix your camera to limit movement as it will allow more light into the camera.  This will result in either blurred lines where something has moved; or more clarity for dark pictures (such as late night photography).  This style of photography will not use a flash gun.

the hard part about timelapse is the camera (and subjects) must remain still.

Leave a Response »

 

2010 Fundraising Calendar Tuesday, Dec 1 2009

As part of the fundraising for Kandersteg, we have produced a calendar for the coming year.  Each calendar will cost £5 and the money will primarily go towards the cost of the expedition.

The Scouts selling the calendars will receive some of the money – which will reduce their contribution to the expedition. 

Those Scouts not going to Kandersteg will also benefit from this fundraising – we have a camp in January and a small amount of their sales will offset their contribution to the Fire and Ice camp.

If you are interesting in purchasing a calendar (or even more than one!) forms have been passed out to Scouts – but please contact frog@magpieschest.co.uk for an order form if you have not received one.

Leave a Response »