MSCC Waffle – Digital Cameras Many club members own digital cameras. This waffle is about taking the time to know you’re camera and some handy user techniques. Why? It doesn’t matter how good a photo editing program is, you can’t do much with an out of focus, low resolution or blurred photo. But you can often enhance a well focused and lit photo into that very important ‘stun the kids’ one. Instruction Book. Do read it. I know, I know, they are often horribly written by someone with somewhat dubious language skills and/or use terms you don’t understand. If you don’t understand a term then ‘Google it’! Some important stuff to know is what the indications mean in the display, how to turn the flash on and off, where the settings are for resolution and red eye, how to use the delayed shutter. Shutter button. The shutter button works in two stages. The first ‘half press’ of the button makes the camera adjust its speed, aperture and focus. Usually a green light or other indication will then come on to indicate they have been set OK. If a red light comes on, or warning noise sounds then it could be that the light level is too low and the camera reckons the flash is required. (This is where prior reading of the manual is handy). Pushing the button the rest of the way actually takes the photo. Just pushing the button straight down in one foul swoop will often result in an out of focus photo, or there will be a very noticeable delay before the camera actually takes the photo. Shutter delay. This is a follow on to the previous paragraph. One thing you quickly notice with a digital camera is a small but noticeable delay between pushing the shutter button and the camera actually taking the photo. In that short period of time a baby’s beautiful smile can be gone, or the dog jumping through a hoop is missed etc. This is where lining the camera up with where you are going to take the photo, pushing the shutter down halfway so it does all its calculating for speed and focus etc, and then holding the shutter in this half held down position just waiting for the precious instant can eliminate or greatly reduce that time delay. Try it. Flash. I always have mine turned off and only turn it on when I want it. Why? Anything past 3 or 4 meters and the flash doesn’t give enough light. How many times do we see the twinkle of hundreds of people taking photos of a show from grandstands – not only doesn’t the flash have a hope of lighting the arena, but it fools the camera into thinking it will! Quite often the lighting in an arena, or on a stage is enough provided you have the flash turned off and can hold the camera steady. Sometimes the flash will simply spoil the photo – eg a flickering fire or a child waving a sparkler around. Many cameras have special settings for low light or night light conditions – read the manual!! Fill Flash. What’s that? This is where you use the flash to light up something that would otherwise be in shadow. Typically this is taking a snapshot of people when there is a very bright background such as sunlight, water, snow beach etc. In this case you force the flash to operate and provide light on the faces. Read your cameras manual, many have special modes just for this.

Red Eye. I always have mine turned off. Mostly they don’t work very well, use up your battery life and seriously delay the actual taking of the photo. It’s far better to use the redeye removal tool in editing programs like Picasa etc. Low light photos. These are photos such as the inside of a large room, night lights, sunsets, clouds at dusk. These can be tricky as you know the flash won’t give enough light, or it will spoil the picture. And you know you can’t hold the camera steady enough. A simple way is to use the delayed shutter setting – ie the one where you can be part of a photo. I’ve taken many beaut photos this way: • Turn the flash off so the camera doesn’t get fooled. • Set the camera up for the delayed shutter operation, • Put the camera on a small tripod, or a small bean bag or some surface that lines up with what you want to take the photo of. Zoom as appropriate. • Finally push the shutter and keep your hands away from the camera until it’s taken the photo. Resolution. Do set your camera at the highest possible resolution it’s capable of. This setting will be in the menu system. Higher resolution means you won’t fit as many photos on your cameras memory card. However memory cards are so cheap it’s a shame to waste the high quality ability of your much more expensive camera. With a high resolution photo you can be far more creative with cropping and still get a great print. If you only use low resolution then any prints may well be poor quality and you are far more limited with cropping etc. Date stamp. I don’t use it as it may spoil a good photo. Just make sure the date and time are set correctly in your cameras menu settings (that darn instruction manual again). Many people are not aware that every digital camera automatically saves the date and time with each photo plus a lot more as well. Other items saved are the brand and model of camera, the aperture and shutter speed used, even whether the flash was used. I notice that some of the latest cameras can even record your GPS coordinates so you can tell exactly where the photo was taken. Editing. Many a so-so picture can be made into a ‘knock their socks off’ photo with some very simple editing. (Hence the tip about using the highest possible resolution your camera is capable of). Most cameras come with some editing programs, some of these are good, some very ordinary. I like the free program Picasa and I’m sure others will have their favourite too. My advice is to try a few and pick the one you find easiest to use and that suits your needs. Then take the time to explore all of its features. Backup. Do backup those precious photo files. It’s so easy to lose them as we found out the hard way last year when my wife’s laptop was stolen and I had failed to back the photos up. Back up to a DVD or CD and/or a small hard disk. Just remember to keep the backup medium somewhere else in case of fire or theft. Or you can save them on the internet using facilities such as Windows Live, Picasa Web Albums or facilities provided by ISP’s such as Bigpond.