Knowing Your 'Point n Shoot'

The nuts and bolts of taking amazing photos with nothing more than your everyday compact sized camera!

Disclaimer
This report has been written to provide information to help you become familiar with your compact camera. Every effort has been made to make this report as complete and accurate as possible. However, there may be mistakes in typography or content. Also, this report contains information only up to the . The purpose of this report is to educate. The author and publisher do not warrant that the information contained in this report is fully complete and shall not be responsible for any errors or omissions. The author and publisher shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this report. If you do not wish to be bound by the above, please discontinue reading or take what I say with a grain of salt :-) In other words, I've given as much information as I can possibly think of for the basics of photography with a compact camera. This is from personal experience as well as some of what I hold to be true.

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Table of Contents
Introduction........................................................................................................................page 3 Simple Mechanics of a Photograph - Exposure Explained...............................................page 4 Camera Settings ISO.......................................................................................................page 6 Picture Size........................................................................................................................page 8 Image Quality...................................................................................................................page 10 JPEG Explained...............................................................................................................page 12 White Balance Made Simple...........................................................................................page 12 AWB Setting....................................................................................................................page 13 Auto Focus.......................................................................................................................page 15 Guidelines........................................................................................................................page 17 Exposure Mode (Metering)..............................................................................................page 17 Exposure Compensation..................................................................................................page 20 Built-in Flash...................................................................................................................page 21 Flash Setting....................................................................................................................page 22 Red Eye Reductions.........................................................................................................page 24 Macro Setting...................................................................................................................page 24 Self Timer.........................................................................................................................page 25 Burst mode.......................................................................................................................page 25 Conclusion.......................................................................................................................page 26 Recommended Reading...................................................................................................page 27

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Introduction
How many times have you taken a photo and been excited to think youve taken the most amazing shot only to discover, when you see the picture on your computer or in print, that everything is so dark that you cant tell who is who? Are you completely in the dark when it comes to your digital compact camera, cant tell your ISO from your AF? Would you like to get a better understanding of the way your compact camera works, but noone seems to want to explain it in a simple, straight forward way? This small report will take you to the beginning, and helps to lay a solid foundation of photographic knowledge. In simple laymans terms that can be understood by young and mature alike, it starts you on the journey toward greater understanding and better pictures. In this first part of the series, we take a look at basic common camera controls that you need to use to take a photograph what they do, how they work, any disadvantages or draw backs to them and how to get the best results from them. Even with these basic principles, you will be able to improve you pictures and get yourself ready to move on to more complex techniques and camera controls.

You need 3 fundamental things to take a photograph:

A subject Lighting A camera/recording device

In this first part of the series, were going to start with the camera. The first step on the road to taking something even resembling a good picture is to know the camera youre about to use its strengths, its weaknesses and its limitations. In short you need to know how it works in order to use it properly. Whilst many people buy a new compact camera every couple of years, and technology becomes better, the fundamental principles of photography are constant. The whistles and bells on the cameras may change, but light is light, a subject is a subject and the ultimate end result hoped for is a reasonable photograph.

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How many times have you tried to read a camera manual, only to give up in frustration because the terminology is unfamiliar or you dont understand the concepts involved? This report will run through some of the controls common to most compact cameras and give, in laymans terms, how and why they work. Armed with these fundamental principles, you will be able to not only understand why a picture may not turn out the way you had planned but also to begin to work around your cameras specifications to produce consistently better photos. Who knows, you may even be the next Annie Leibovitz or David Bailey!

Simple Mechanics of a Photograph

When it comes down to producing a photograph, whether youre a professional or an amateur, everything comes down getting three things right: 1) Getting your subject correctly framed in the camera view screen (no point in your family portrait having no heads!) 2) Getting everything you want in focus 3) Getting the picture correctly exposed. Lets start with the physical mechanics of how a photograph is produced. You will often hear about using the correct exposure. Heres why..Exposure will make or break a photograph. Theres no point in having the greatest shot in the world if your picture is either too dark to make anything out or so light that all the details been bleached out! Exposure how much light the camera needs to allow in to give a well illuminated final photograph with a full range of contrast (blacks, whites and mid tones). The exposure is made up of two components:-

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 Aperture This is the size of the hole (or gap) inside the camera lens through which light enters the camera. It works like the iris in the eye it can be larger when the light level is low to allow more light in, or it can close up very small when it is very bright. Shutter speed This is the length of time that light is allowed to come through the aperture to fall onto the sensor that records your picture. Its like opening and closing the curtains. Compact cameras work on the same principle as their big cousins to take a photograph. When you press the shutter button, a lens made up of various components brings an image into focus on the recording sensor of the camera. The camera then takes a measure of how much light is falling on the sensor. This determines how long the camera will allow light to enter through the aperture together with how large an aperture there will be. (The relationship between aperture and shutter speed, together with how each can be used to produce various effects, are discussed in another part of this series for camera users). The sensor is then uncovered to allow light coming from the subject to reach it. When sufficient light has entered, the sensor is covered. The camera processes the information, and then records (writes) the final image onto the digital memory card in the camera. All in a fraction of a second! This is what your camera has to do. But how can you use your camera settings to get the best out of your photos? Before you can use them to the full, you need to know what each setting controls within your photograph.

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Camera Settings - ISO

Most people leave their camera on Auto ISO basically because they have no idea what the heck this is! Quite simply, this is the speed that your camera sensor (or film) reacts to light. ISO stands for International Organization for Standardization (dull but true!). ISO came about during film photography, when there was, not one, but two main film scales, ASA and DIN, both of which indicated how fast a film reacted to light, rather like we use two different scales to measure temperature Fahrenheit and Centigrade or to measure distance inches and centimeters. Two different ways of measuring the same thing. Having two different scales caused some confusion, so along came the International Organization for Standardization and ISO was born as the standard. Each ISO number is set to respond to a specific level of light. In a compact camera, the ISO range can run from 50 through to 1600 or even 3200 on some of the higher specification cameras, but an average range is 100 to 800. ISO 100 reacts the slowest to light, so is used in really bright conditions when there is a lot of light around, such as a sunny day. Every time you double the ISO value, the sensor can react twice as fast to the light conditions, i.e. ISO 200 reacts twice as fast as ISO 100, ISO 400 reacts twice as fast as ISO 200, etc. So, if you were to take a picture using the same sized aperture throughout, something that took 1 second to be photographed at ISO 100 would only take second at ISO 200 because ISO 200 is twice as fast. If you then used ISO 400, it would be twice as fast again, so it would only take second to photograph. What this actually means is that your camera has a way to take pictures in different light conditions. How does this relate to the pictures you want to take?

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Well, because our eyes are so good at adjusting to, and coping with, a wide range of light levels, we dont always appreciate that in some circumstances, there simply isnt enough light there to let the camera take a picture at a high enough shutter speed to avoid things like camera shake or motion blur, both of which give an out of focus picture that lacks detail and definition, or the picture is too dark. One way to help the camera is to increase the ISO setting. The opposite is also true. Sometimes, there can be too much light around, e.g. a very sunny day at the beach or in a sunlit building with white walls. Too much light results in pictures becoming over exposed and things start to become ghostly and white. By reducing the ISO setting, the camera sensor becomes less responsive to light and so is better able to cope with this light excess. ISO 100 is useful on sunny days on the beach or in snow where light is reflected more readily off the surface. ISO 400 is twice as fast as ISO 200 but 4 times as fast as ISO 100, so on dull or cloudy days use your camera at ISO 400. The higher ISO values, while they react to light faster, start to introduce color 'noise' you begin to see areas, especially within shadow detail, where it appears to have clumps of colors particularly blue. This color noise gives horrible mottling when printed out but can be minimized by using the lowest ISO that produces suitable pictures. Why set the ISO yourself? After all, isnt that what the cameras paid for? Well while its true that the automatic camera setting does the job, sometimes it will choose an ISO slightly higher than is necessary, in order to give a slightly quicker shutter speed. By choosing your own ISO speed, you can begin to control the quality of final photograph. For example, you may wish to minimize the amount of noise present in a landscape or night shot. By keeping the ISO down to 100 and putting the camera on a tripod or solid surface (a wall or ledge) you can get a nice crisp image. By keeping the ISO low, you can also force the camera to use a longer shutter speed which allows you to deliberately capture movement in the photograph. Or by turning the ISO high, you can do away with having to use the built in flash.

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Image Quality & Picture Size

The Less is More principle is at work here for both image quality and picture size, but many people mistakenly go for quantity over quality, when quality should always win! People often mistake picture size and image quality for the same thing. Although they are linked, they are very different, but because of this, people can overlook one or both when setting up their camera. They try and cram as many pictures on the memory card as they can. So why is this wrong? Because Picture Size and Image Quality have a direct effect of photographs when theyre printed out! Picture size is the dimensions of your final picture in pixels (the little building blocks that make up the image). For example, a picture with the dimensions of 1800x1200 would be 1800 pixels wide and 1200 pixels high, giving a total of 2160000 pixels making up the final image.
1800 px

Your camera offers you the option to increase or decrease the number of blocks (pixels) that make up the image, which in turn affects how many pictures you can get on your memory card.

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WHAT PICTURE SIZE? Imagine your photograph as a jigsaw made up of lots of small squares. You have a choice to make this image up from 100 squares or to make the same image up with 25 squares.

(a) Image of 10 x 10 pixels

(b) Image of 5 x 5 pixels

When you look at both images, you can still initially identify what the picture is. But which one would contain the most detail? The answer would be (a) the 10 pixel by 10 pixel image. If you made the pictures bigger, which one would start to show the edges of the pixel building blocks first? Obviously it would be (b) - the one made up of the fewest pixels the

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5 x 5 pixel image. (This is called pixilation and you see this effect when you try to enlarge a photo too much for the picture size.) So whilst reducing the number of pixels in your picture size allows you to get more pictures on the memory card, the images contain less detail and definition which produces inferior quality photographs.

Image Quality
Image Quality dictates how the camera processes and stores the final JPEG image. When you press the shutter, the internal processor in the camera has to convert the light that has brought the image of your subject into the camera down into bits of digital information that it can then store on (write to) the memory card. Its like the mechanics of turning speech into written text. Your brain acts like the processor in the camera to allow you to convert what you hear into written words on a page. Your brain can then decipher the written words at a later time and allow you to convert them back into a verbal sound that (hopefully) makes sense to someone else. In a similar way, your cameras processor converts the image of what your camera sees into a different format (digital information) which it then stores as an individual file of information on the memory card. This can then be read and converted back into a digital image either by a computer or printer. So why do you have several settings? This is because in order to save space, the processor has to compress (or squash) the image down. It does this by looking at the image overall and then removing bits (pixels) of information in order to get it down to a certain size. The pixels that are removed from the image are then discarded deleted out of the image.

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These deleted pixels cannot be restored. The smaller the size you tell the camera you want, the more information it removes from your picture before storing it. It's a bit like telling it you want to store it in a small, medium or large box. The bigger the box you ask for, the more of the original information you keep and so the better the quality you keep in your photographs. You may find your camera has two or three different setting Fine, Medium, Small/Normal. These give a misguided impression that the lowest image quality will still produce a good acceptable image, but this is not necessarily the case. (Further examination of image quality and print resolutions is discussed in a further part of this series). Going back to the analogy of converting spoken words into written words, imagine trying to convert the written speech (1) below back to verbal sounds. Using the cameras compression criteria for producing Fine/Best setting for image quality, (1) thn ther wil b som los of detail, bt u cn mak out wht is beng rcrded. However, if you decide to use a lower image quality setting, (2), more of the original letters of the verbal speech will be removed. (2) Tn i wl tk ot mr f te ptgh t rdce i dn (actual translation Then it will take out more of the photograph to reduce it down). To convert the digital file back into a photograph, the computer has to make an educated guess at what color pixel originally filled the gap taken out by the camera processor, a bit like trying to put the missing letters back into the sentence. The larger the area the computer has to fill in the harder it will be to accurately put back all the detail that was taken out. How much more difficult was it for you to make sense of the second sentence because there were fewer points of reference to associate the words with? Image quality is the same - the smaller the image quality you ask for, the less of the original remains, and the bigger the gaps for the computer to rebuild so as to convert the file back into a visual image.

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If the image quality is too small, then your image becomes unusable as a printed picture. So never compromise quality for quantity. It is far easier to take the quality out than to put detail and quality back in once it has been deleted. Always try to use your camera on the best settings. If needs be, get a larger memory card, or carry a spare!

JPEG Explained
JPEG You will see the file extension letters .JPG attached to each pictures file name when you download your pictures from your camera onto a computer. When you open the folder that your pictures are in, more often than not there will be a small version of each picture (called a thumbnail) and beneath that will be the name your camera has given to each picture followed by the .JPG format file extension the camera processor has converted the image to, e.g. MG8002.jpg. The JPEG format of pictures, standing for JOINT PHOTOGRAPHIC EXPERTS GROUP (who are the people who created this system of image storage), is a way of compressing images that trades off some of the images quality for a reduction in the overall size of the images final stored size the image has a varying amount of the total number of pixels removed on closure to give a compressed image size.

White Balance Made Simple

White Balance is not always an easy concept to grasp or recognize. Although it may not look it, light from different sources has a different hue - or Color Temperature. We see objects and colors by the light that is reflected from them. We see white because it reflects all the different colored parts of visible light, but we see colors because they absorb some of the visible light and reflect the rest.

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Using the White Balance settings, the idea is to produce a photograph so that the whites appear as pure white as possible, with little or no color tone. The standard comparison for White Balance is Daylight around mid day, since sunlight too can range from warm red to cool blue. Light produced from an artificial light source such as a Tungsten light bulb has an orange/yellow color temperature; light from a Fluorescent tube is greener in color. Test this out. Our eyes are sensitive enough to see this but because were not looking for it we dont always register the subtle differences in tone and hue. If youre sitting in a room lit by a light bulb; look around you. Can you see everything has a slight yellow tinge? It is especially noticeable with pale natural colors. Now look out the window things are a different overall hue. Whites in the daylight have less of a color tint, or cast. You are seeing examples of different color temperatures of light, which is why, when you take a picture under normal indoor lights without a flash, you will sometimes find an orange/ yellow look (cast) in your pictures, because you are seeing by light being produced in a different color tone. How can a white surface reflect white, when the light shining on it is not white to begin with but yellow?

AWB (Auto White Balancing)

Most cameras have an auto white balance setting (AWB). This setting tries to correct any color cast produced by the light source and reproduce the colors within the photograph as if they had been taken in daylight. In effect, the camera tries to compensate for any light that is a different color to normal daylight. Page 13

AWB does a reasonable job in a lot of instances, but it can still allow color casts to creep in with artificial lighting. You will find that your camera has additional white balance settings in a submenu, several for outdoor photography as even daylight color temperature varies according to the conditions. Each icon depicts a different lighting situation. These are the most common:

Sunny - Used outside when there is bright sun and blue sky conditions, with slight to moderate cloud.

Cloudy/Overcast conditions Used to take photographs outside when there is little or no direct sunshine due to heavy cloud cover. Also use on gray overcast days.

Shade or Shadow Used to take photographs outside when standing in shade or shadow, e.g. under a tree or overhang, on the shaded side of a building.

Fluorescent Use this when taking photographs indoors where the artificial lighting is by fluorescent tube. Fluorescent lighting is common in many social halls and Public buildings.

Tungsten Use this when taking photographs indoors where the artificial lighting is by light bulb. Useful when you cannot using the camera flash, e.g. in a place where flash photography is prohibited such as a museum or stately home. These settings assist the camera in trying to reproduce colors as if they had been taken in daylight. By telling the camera in advance what approximate color temperature of light you

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are taking a picture in, the camera can try to make a color correction for the difference, in effect it tries to bring the color of the light back to match daylight. You can see for yourself what effect these settings have by scrolling through each icon and watching on the cameras viewscreen how the overall colors change. There are a few other white balance settings and you may even have a custom white balance setting on your camera which allows you to manually set the color temperature for the precise conditions you are taking pictures in. (Setting custom white balance and using individual white balance settings for special effects is dealt with in the part of this series dealing with advanced camera controls and photographic techniques.)

AF (Auto Focus)
This is the system your camera uses to bring the subject you want to photograph into focus. To activate the focusing in the camera, you need to half press the shutter. This then activates the little focusing sensor points in the camera which use the contrast within a scene (the differences between blacks and whites) to bring objects into focus. On the back view screen of your compact camera, you may see one or more little squares appear in the picture when you attempt to focus. Once they turn green (or white or your camera may beep), this shows the camera has been able to focus on something and it will allow you to fully depress the shutter and take the picture. However, if the focus points turn red, then the camera has been unable to focus on to anything and it wont allow a picture to be taken until it has been able to focus properly. You may have to re-press the shutter until it can find something to lock on to. Auto Focus works well in decent lighting, but it does rely on having enough light around to create sufficient differences in contrast, and on having enough contrast within the subject for the camera use.

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You may find that when you try to take a photograph in a dimly lit place, the camera has a hard time focusing the photo and wont allow you to take a picture. This is because there isnt enough light to give sufficient distinction between dark and light everything begins to appear gray and flat and there is nothing the camera sensors can lock onto. If this happens, find a vertical or horizontal line or edge near the subject and try to get the camera to focus on that. You may have to move the camera slightly off centre to get the focus to lock on to it but as long as you keep the shutter half depressed you can move the camera back onto the subject before you take the picture. The other situation auto focus struggles with is when you are trying to take a photo of something that is very plain and uniform such as a blue sky with no clouds, a plain surface with little or no contrast, such as a table top or concrete wall. In these situations you again need to find something which is about the same distance away from you as the plain object, focus on that then re-frame the picture, again remembering to keep the shutter half depressed while you bring the camera back into the right position to take your picture. You may find that your camera has several different settings on the Auto Focus, which allow you to control which part of the image or frame the Auto Focus selects to focus on. One of the more common settings now appearing on compact cameras is Face Recognition. This allows your camera to search within the frame for up to 7 faces (depending on your camera type) and it then selects the most appropriate setting to bring as much of your subject into focus as it can. It also ensures that if you are taking a photograph that has one or more people in it, the camera know that is what you want in focus. It will then ignore or override anything else that may be in the centre of the frame, the area of the picture that the camera normally uses to determine focus, giving the person the priority of focus.

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There are advanced Auto Focus settings with multiple focus points and patterns which allow you to further control the focusing. (Further discussion of Advanced Focus settings is discussed in another part of this series dealing with advanced camera controls).

Guidelines
Guidelines These are a crisscross formation of graphic lines that can be turned on or off on the cameras viewing screen but which do not appear on your photographs.

Guidelines usually show as a grid formation, which divide the image up into 4/6/9 or more equal parts. They are used to assist with picture composition by showing on the view screen focal points of the picture, internal framing, etc. (Discussion of photographic composition is discussed in a further part of this series.)

Exposure Mode (Metering)

When you press the shutter whilst using the camera on automatic exposure, the camera has to determine what exposure it will take a photograph at, so it can capture the most evenly and well lit picture overall. Many compact cameras now include several exposure settings which change how the camera works out the exposure for each picture, so even though you are asking the camera to make the exposure calculation for you, you can still have some input into which part of the subject you want the camera to take into consideration when it is working out the exposure for the picture.

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Evaluative metering - In the main, most compacts will have a general mode of metering, normally called evaluative or average, because the metering sensor looks at every part of the subject contained in the camera frame (the area of the subject you are looking at through your camera and can see on the view screen or through the view finder), considers the light coming from all areas and then it works out what exposure will give the best shot. This is a good reliable mode of metering for normal day to day photography, where everything is fairly evenly lit, no big bright spots. Centre Weighted metering - Another mode of metering, called centre weighted, works almost identically to Evaluative metering, with one small addition. It too considers the entire frame when deciding on the exposure, but it also looks a little more closely at the subject at the centre area of the frame and gives an overall exposure that suits the centre most of all. It gives more weight, or preference, to the subject at the centre, so if you are taking a picture of something that is in the centre of the shot, it will have a better overall exposure for that subject. These metering systems work well under normal conditions but start to struggle to give correctly exposed photographs when there are large areas of brightness or darkness in the picture, or when the light source (the sun or indoor lighting) is directly in front of the camera. Because the sensor evaluates the whole scene that the camera is looking at, if there are large dark or bright areas, the sensor can be fooled into thinking that there is more or less light than there really is, so it over compensates for the large area. The resulting photo is either too dark because the camera thought the large white area was a lot of light, or the photo is too bright because it compensated too much for what it thought was an area of deep shadow. When the light is in front of the camera, such as when you are trying to take a picture with the sun directly in front of you, the sensor cannot make enough allowance for the bit of the subject you are really trying to capture. When this happens, too much light from the sun (or any other light source) goes into the camera. What does that mean to you trying to take a photograph?

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At one time or another, most people have tried to take a picture of a person standing in front of a window. What happened? You got a nicely exposed picture of the street but the persons face was in such deep shadow you couldnt really make out who it was. This is a prime example of the way the metering sensor can be tricked into giving the incorrect exposure. We see objects because light hits them and then comes to our eye. When something we want to photograph is standing with a strong light source behind it, that light source is going to go straight into the camera, but the subject may only have whatever light is being reflected off the walls to light it. Since the light source is more powerful than the light being reflected off the actual subject, it will overpower the sensor and make it think that what you want to take a picture of is brighter than is actually is. What you will get is a nicely exposed picture of the light source but little else. There are a number of ways you can rectify this kind of situation. Well look at two ways here. You could change to a different metering mode, spot metering, or you could use a little trick most compacts have up their sleeve Exposure compensation. Spot metering Unlike evaluative and centre-weighted metering, spot metering takes the exposure reading only from a very small point at the centre of the frame. Because of this, it is not affected or influenced by any other part of the scene and so will produce the correct exposure for your subject if you keep that subject at the centre of your picture frame, even if you stood a person against a black wall or a white wall. With spot metering, as long as the person was standing in the centre of the picture, the camera would only take an exposure reading from the person and ignore whatever else was around them, and the exposure would be precisely correct for them.

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Exposure Compensation (EV+/-)

Many compacts now have a quick facility to override and make an adjustment to the cameras exposure reading when the lighting conditions will fool the camera into either under or over exposing the photograph (as described in the section on metering solutions). Exposure compensation allows you to quickly tell the camera to allow more or less light in for the exposure. On your camera, you will find an EV scale that has a zero centre and extends 2 or 3 stops in both + and direction, in 1/3rd increments.

If you go up the + side, you are letting more light in, so increasing the exposure. If you go down the side, you are giving the picture a shorter exposure, letting less light in. Try moving up and down this scale whilst watching the back view screen of your compact camera. You will see the way this changes the overall lighting on the screen and ultimately within your photograph, making it lighter or darker, depending on which way you move along the scale. With practice, you will be able to use the exposure compensation to enhance the look of your pictures by being able to compensate quickly when lighting conditions call for your main subject to be given more or less exposure.

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So the next time you want to take a picture of someone standing in front of a window, you can dial in 1 or 2 stops on the + scale and amaze your friends by getting them perfectly exposed when their own photo will be too dark!

Built in Flash
This is an additional lighting source provided by your camera for when the normal lighting conditions get too dark to take photograph without showing movement or camera shake. Most compact cameras now have at least 3 flash modes to help take a better picture, but when using any flash setting, it is always useful to be aware that any part of the subject that is nearer the camera than others will get hit with more light from the flash. This could cause part of your subject to be completely over exposed and bleach out much of the detail in some areas, very bad if it happens to be someones face! So when taking a photograph of a group with the flash turned on, try to make sure everyone is about the same distance away from the camera. Light is a very destructive force, and can literally leach the color from paper, fabric, photographs, color pigment, etc, which is one reason most museums and galleries do not allow flash photography. Flash can irreparably damage the works of art. It is also dangerous to use flash to photograph sport, motor sports or when driving. But you must know the limits of your cameras small built in flash unit. It is not a powerful halogen beam that can travel great distances to light up buildings, concert or sporting arenas or the whole of a street. It has limited power and so the flash does not illuminate a great distance from the camera for the purpose of taking a photograph. That is the reason why, when you take a picture at a school concert from the 10 th row, you get a nicely lit picture of the back of the heads of the people in front and not necessarily a nicely exposed picture of your child in their school production. Thats not to say you cant use it to creative effects, just dont expect too much from your humble flash!

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Flash Settings
(May also appear as lightning bolt with A)

Using the automatic flash mode allows the camera to assess whether there is enough light about to take a reasonably exposed photograph without having to use too slow a shutter speed, which would risk the photograph being blurry due to camera shake. It means that you dont have to think about putting the flash on, and so dont need to worry about missing a picture if it gets too dark. A disadvantage though is that it can sometime fire unnecessarily, which may give an unnatural look to a photo that could have been taken using the available light quite successfully, No Flash

This is the symbol which shows that you have turned your flash off completely. It will not now fire under any circumstances, no matter how dark it gets.

Forced Flash

This setting means you are making the camera flash every time you take a photo, whether there is a need to or not. You can use this to great effect when a subject is back lit that is the light source (the sun or other light) is behind the subject but in front of you. Although there is enough light to take a picture of sorts, using the forced flash mode will allow you to light the subject from the front. If you use the Forced flash mode with someone standing in front of a window, it can make it look like it was night outside if not carefully balanced. (Further discussion of advanced flash modes and techniques, including fill-in flash, are discussed in another part of this series).

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One very big problem with most compact flash units is the dreaded Red Eye making every person look like a blood-thirsty vampire and every animal look like its come straight from the bowels of hell. Red eye is caused when light enters the eye in a straight line and then bounces straight back out off the retina, illuminating the blood vessels at the back of the eye and so giving the human eye its red glow.

Animal eyes turn green because of a special coating on the eyes retina which acts like a mirror. This coating helps them to see even in very dim lighting conditions, but it also means that animal eyes are very reflective even with very little light. As most compact cameras have the flash almost directly over the lens, the light coming out of the flash has nowhere to go but straight into the eye, and since the eyes pupil will almost certainly be very dilated because of the dim light, the flash will cause red eye in most cases. One simple solution is to try and get people to look slightly off centre to minimize the amount of parallel (straight) light going into and out of the eye. The camera, however, has another flash setting.

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Red Eye Reduction

Red Eye reduction

Red eye reduction setting is found within the flash menu. When this mode of flash is set and the shutter is pressed, it causes the camera to send out either a bright beam of red light or it will set off a burst of flash first, before it takes the actual picture. This to get the iris to contract and make the pupils smaller, which in turn allows less light to bounce in and out of the eye, and so minimizes the amount of red eye experienced. Red eye reduction mode can cause much confusion, as people think the picture has been taken sooner than it has because of the first flash. If you use this flash setting, best to warn people that there will be 2 flashes and that the photograph will be taken on the second one. Better you tell them than end up with a photo where half the people have turned away thinking it was all over.

Macro Setting

This allows you to focus on a subject that is very close to the camera. On compact cameras, the macro distance can range from 1cm to 30cm. Without putting the macro setting on, your compact camera will have a minimum distance it needs to be away from the subject if you want it to be in focus. If this distance for your camera is, say, 50cm and you try to take a photo of something that is only 30cm away from the camera, then your subject will be out of focus. By using the macro setting, it allows you to get much closer to something, to create a highly magnified image but still get it in focus. When using the Macro setting, you would not use either the digital or optical zoom functions. As soon as you use any amount of the zoom, it Page 24

stops the very close macro focus. (Exploration of the use of the macro function in creative photographic techniques are discussed in a further part of this series)

Self Timer
Self Timer

This is on almost every compact and allows you to focus on subject, press shutter and get into position in front of camera before the camera takes the photograph. Some cameras allow different time periods, from 2 to 15 seconds, before the picture is taken. Its useful if you want to be on the picture but there isnt anyone around to take it for you, on holiday for instance, when you want a family group. Kids love to do this press the button and then run into the picture. Hours of fun! You can also use it if you want to take a landscape or scenic picture but haven't got a tripod. You can use a flat surface to stand camera on for longer exposure or to avoid camera shake (which makes the picture blurry and you lose detail out of it).

Burst Mode (not on all cameras)

This camera setting allows a number of pictures to be recorded in one go. This means that merely by keeping your finger on the shutter, instead of the camera just taking one picture, it will take a whole batch of them, one after the other. Why would you use this? Well, all compact cameras have a lag this is the delay you experience when you press the shutter but the camera doesnt take the photograph at that precise moment. Rather, there is a delay of anywhere from second up to 2 seconds from pressing the shutter to the photo being taken. This makes it really difficult to capture a precise fleeting expression, a moment in sport or any other subject that moves like your dog or your small child! Page 25

If you set your camera to fire of a burst of photos, then youre much more likely to capture the moment youre after. And the beauty of digital is that you can delete some or all of the pictures if theyre not what exactly what you want. But you could end up with a great run of photos that would look fantastic framed as a series, or running in a digital photo frame. Compact cameras have a number of more advanced settings and gadgets, which can be used to create better photographs and utilized in photographic techniques to enhance the visual impact of the image. These are discussed in the next part of this series.

Conclusion
I hope you've found this small report useful to you. I've spent a good deal of time writing it up and doing what I can to provide real value to you at no cost whatsoever. Anyhow, please take a look at the resources below if you are looking for even more information and want further explanations (from a VERY credible and reliable source). Take care,

Jeff Thomas

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Recommended Reading:

Photo Nuts and bolts Know your camera and take better photos If you're looking for more information about this topic, I honestly could not find a better resource than the Photo Buts and Bolts ebook from the guys over at Digital Photography School. Inside this ebook you learn 10 extremely important lessons in the fundamental theories and mechanics of photography. Here is a small screenshot of the table of contents:

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And, here is a sample page from the ebook itself:

This ebook is for beginner to intermediate photographers, and is recommended to read in it's entirety (and in order) as well as follow the homework at the end of each lesson to gain a full knowledge of what's being taught. I stand behind Photo Nuts and Bolts because it's an book that lays the perfect foundation for photography in a very meaningful and concise way. It's great for any kind of camera (point and shoot or dSLR's) and perfect for anyone who wants and needs to learn more about photography and taking better photos with their camera. Two thumbs up from me! Go download it now and let me know how you like it after you read it :-)

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