Digital camera photography skills

With the increasing popularity of digital technology, digital cameras (DC) are no longer rare objects. In today's digital era, new requirements have been raised for people based on their original shooting techniques. Many novice users have reported that the pictures taken by digital cameras are dimmed, lack of energy, noise, light depth of field (especially in macro mode), color, and so on. However, photography is a bridge between the mind and the light. It is not easy to master traditional shooting techniques. Next, let me give you a brief description of what digital cameras need to pay attention to during shooting, as well as some before and after shooting.

1. Browse Manual
Many users do not like thick and tedious product manuals. They generally like to explore the product after purchasing a digital camera. Of course, there will be some surprises during the exploration process, but it will take a lot of time, and you cannot learn the features of your products in the shortest time; if you have read the instructions and try again, you can avoid some incorrect operations. Therefore, when you are new, you should first look at the instructions carefully compiled by the manufacturer to familiarize yourself with the basic menu and functions of digital cameras. In the future, you can flip it over when you are not clear about it.

2. Reasonably choose the image format
We all know that the quality of digital photos is related to pixels (resolution). The higher the pixel, the better the image quality. According to the actual situation, a digital camera of 2 million pixels has the same digital image acquisition capability as a scanner of 1200 dpi, A 6 million pixel digital camera can be considered the same as a 2400 DPI scanner. If you only use a general platform scanner to digitize photos, a digital camera only needs 2 million ~ 3 million pixels can easily beat a 35-mm camera. However, if 4 "x 6" is output, about A6 size, the use of 200-3 million Xiangsu can meet the needs of ordinary people. However, if it is only used for a computer 72 dpi display, the requirement is lower. The resolution is 1024x768, which is about 0.8 million pixels. Any 2 million-Level DC can be used easily. Because the digital camera storage space is limited, so we need to adapt to local conditions, reasonable choice of resolution, such as: Only for PC, for my Sony DSC-S75 general use 1280x960; such as used in printing, generally, 1600x1200 is used. Of course, 2048x1536 is used when taking photos of life. In the case of low requirements, the compression standard also uses standard, which can save more than half of the images than the fine compression standard!

3. Architecture and thinking
Users who have a certain understanding of photography can clearly understand the importance of accurate composition. For example, if a close-up is not taken, the subject should generally be placed at 1/3 of the screen, and the background should be avoided as much as possible, shooting from a special perspective, and capturing the details and personality of the object as much as possible, using the background diagrams of some diagonal lines or curves will make the overall picture more vivid.

In addition, we should be good at observing with two-dimensional eyes. Because photography only has two-dimensional space, it expresses the space sense through the perspective relationship (I .e., the effect of light and shadow is a reference object), different from the three-dimensional human eyes that observe things from two different angles. However, most of the current digital cameras have visual LCD screens, and their field rate is above 90%, with some close to 100%, for example, s75 reaching 99%. You can directly observe whether the sense of space and the sense of distance are sufficient to make timely adjustments. However, the LCD resolution of a general digital camera is relatively low, and the resolution is generally unsatisfactory, but the pen is quite satisfied with s75. Either way, you can't be superstitious about it, because in actual use, we found that the display on the LCD is slightly over-exposed, and the display on the computer's monitor is exactly the same. This is also the reason why some users always make dim pictures. Moreover, LCD Power Consumption has always been a headache for "color friends". Therefore, many "color friends" are still used to using the optical viewfinder during shooting. Considering that the field rate of the optical viewfinder is only 80%-90%, when shooting close-up, remember that it is an off-axis! Of course, if you want to take a spectacular picture, you have to close your eyes and use the thumb and forefinger of both hands to build a "frame ", think of the current scene as a picture printed in a book or on a wall ......

In short, the camera is the end of shooting, and the previous process is the key.

4. Do not be superstitious about the automatic mode of DC.
First, the biggest difference from traditional cameras is that DC has a white balance. This is a bit similar to the color temperature in traditional photography. It is precisely because beginners do not pay attention to this white balance that it will produce partial colors. DC generally provides four modes: automatic, indoor, outdoor, and manual. Beginners always rely on auto, and the pictures they can usually take are in a certain color, as long as we pay close attention to the LCD window, we can see it. When we have just shot a certain kind of object, this kind of object usually focuses on a certain color. If it is blue, the white balance of DC will be automatically biased towards blue, when shooting other objects again, it will naturally be partial. Although this will be reflected in the LCD, it is generally not noticed by beginners. At the same time, some models are not perfect, such as Sony's DC in indoor mode all have the "Blue syndrome" status quo, so we should try to use manual white balance as much as possible. In addition, we need to pay close attention to the color changes of the LCD. Once we find that the white is not white, we have to re-correct the white. In addition, some digital cameras also have an automatic surrounded White Balance Function to record accurate color information.

Second, aperture and shutter control. We recommend that you use the manual mode if you have a manual image, because the image is usually dimmed in the automatic mode, especially in the window, with more noise. Because in the indoor shooting, DC will automatically increase the ISO value, such as: Sony DSC-F505V in the indoor generally up to 282, and the sensitivity and image quality is inversely proportional to the relationship, that is, the higher the sensitivity, the worse the image quality. This is similar to the characteristics of traditional photosensitive materials, but it is more obvious on digital cameras. Because in traditional photography, we can change the sensitivity of a video by choosing a different sensitivity film or by "increasing the speed", but digital cameras cannot, it can only improve the reaction speed of CCD by improving the sensitivity of CCD and the gain of the circuit, that is, at the cost of filtering performance and resolution indicators. In this way, a signal noise problem will occur, in the end, it leaves traces on the screen, which is very similar to the coarse particles of traditional high-sensitivity films. Therefore, when shooting with a digital camera, if you want to obtain a good imaging quality, you should try to choose a Low Equivalent sensitivity, or directly fix it at the minimum value.

Again, DC has a macro mode, and the wide angle of the digital camera is generally large, up to around f2.0. In automatic mode, the camera program also tends to use a large aperture to shorten the shutter time and prevent vibration. But photography knowledge tells us that the shrinking of the camera lens is generally from the maximum aperture to the left and right of the two levels of shooting the best effect. Especially in the macro mode, such as: Sony DSC-S75 in some mobile phone buttons, only the middle part of the clear and delicate, the surrounding are slightly blurred. Therefore, we 'd better use the aperture prerequisite or full manual mode, using a smaller aperture to expand the depth of field. If the camera does not have the aperture priority function, you can try to increase the ambient brightness as much as possible so that the camera can automatically select a small aperture or use the flashlight to improve the image quality.

5. Correct light usage and dialog with light
Light is the soul of photography. Therefore, we need to pay attention to the changes in light, not only the intensity of light, but also the direction of light. For example, the sunset turns the sunset into red, symbolizing romance. The dark sky shows a gray cool color, symbolizing melancholy. the shade of the tree removes a bunch of sunshine and emits joy and pleasure .......

Resolution Light Intensity
Hard dimming is usually triggered by a single light source, such as the sun, spotlight, flashlight, or single light bulb. Under such illumination, the contrast between the subject and the details and texture are highlighted. You can use this light to get the documentary effect.
In contrast, diffuse light produces less light. Indirect indoor lighting, outdoor shuyin and overcast weather are all in this situation. Shooting portraits and quiet outdoor scenery in such light conditions are far from ideal.

Light usage
Different from the light angle, the texture of the subject is reinforced or weakened accordingly, and the shape of the subject is highlighted or diluted. The tone of the photo is pleasant or melancholy, and it may vary with the angle of light. The light projected from the top or back of the camera (usually called the front light) reduces the sensation of the subject because the front light is not conducive to creating highlights and shadows. A better choice is to place the light source on one side, which is the side light with a large angle of about 45 °, so that the shape and details of the subject can be well displayed.
When the light is directed at the camera, the backlight is generated. The shooting object is quite dramatic in the backlight. When taking a portrait, the backlight creates a beautiful * silhouette at the margin of the character's hair. The contrast of high backlight can produce the effect of silhouette.

Digital camera photography skills
In traditional photography, a color temperature problem that cannot be ignored or easily grasped no longer exists in digital cameras because digital cameras can be adjusted by white balance, the relationship between the color temperature of the light source and the negative film does not need to be considered. This is a major advantage of digital cameras. Compared with traditional photosensitive materials, especially new dye-type photosensitive materials, digital cameras have no advantage in the exposure width index, therefore, accurate exposure is still the basic principle for digital cameras to achieve good image quality. In actual use, we found that digital cameras have higher requirements for light and are especially important for indoor shooting. Therefore, we should try our best to use the flashlight when shooting outside the room.

6. Several misunderstandings

UV filters
For traditional photographers, UV mirrors are essential. However, because the DC light sensitivity interval is shifted to the long wavelength, it is sensitive to red light and infrared light, but not to blue violet light (especially ultraviolet light. Therefore, adding a UV mirror to a digital camera will not achieve the expected benefits, while a UV mirror with poor optical performance will also have a negative impact on imaging. So, UV is no longer required.

Tripod is yellow yesterday
Don't think that except for professional photographers or those enthusiastic photographers, a tripod is no secret to digital cameras. To take a clear image, you must hold the camera firmly. Even the slightest jitter may cause blurred images, and we are often helpless with such results, this effect cannot be eliminated through post-production.
　
Of course, this problem also exists in general film cameras. However, due to the low light sensitivity of digital cameras, a series of circuit processing and shutter delay problems are required, such: the shutter delay of s75 is nearly 0.1 s, which takes longer exposure time than the film camera using the fast film, especially when the light is weak. To stabilize the camera, try to clamp your elbow during shooting and place it to the most stable position of the person-forehead, and gently press the shutter. But the best way is to put the camera on a tripod, or put it on a desk, counter, or other non-moving objects. Especially when taking close-up or macro photography, you can use a tripod to get better shooting results.

Ignore post-processing
Only a few of the digital images taken with a digital camera look perfect. In fact, they are also taken with a normal film camera. Of course, the advantage of digital images is that they can be processed later, but some people will think that this has lost the true meaning of "Fidelity. In fact, it is still on the basis of photography creation, through creative ideas, using a variety of digital technical means, the photographic material optimization or combination, so as to become a magic re-creation of artistic works.

As long as you take advantage of image editing tools, such as Photoshop, you can make the photos that are not outstanding. You can highlight underexposed images, correct color balancing, and cut out the distracting background to cover some small defects (such as the hotspot caused by reflected light ), you can even combine several photos or images (see figure ). Being able to edit photos is one of the main advantages of digital cameras.

7. Value of knowledge in application-practices
Not necessarily "skilled workers", but "skilled workers" are required, and digital photography is no exception. Therefore, try to take more photos in different light conditions. When shooting, record the camera settings and light conditions used for shooting, and study the results to see which conditions are best set. When taking a photo, a professional photographer always takes a photo of the same image several times. We should also change the shooting angle or exposure time. Most digital cameras have an LCD display. You can use it to easily observe and delete images you don't like, so you don't have to worry about insufficient storage due to "abuse, although you can safely take multiple kinds of exposure images, at least one good photo will be taken.