Camera Care
Perhaps a commonly overlooked practice among non-professional photographers is camera maintainance. It's simple and should be done absolutely every time before an investigation. By maintaining your lens, you'll capture less "orbs" and prolong the life of your lens.
The best cloth to use on your lens are those manufactured of microfibre. A great place to pick one up is a vision center, they're marketed for cleaning glasses. A soft cotton tee can be used in a pinch, however, the vision center clothes are so small they can easily be slid into the smallest of cases. Don't use paper - tissue, towel, or otherwise - the micro-strand structure will scratch your lens.
Another cleaning tool for your lens is canned air. Be in mind, compressed air will chill your lens and on hot and/or moist locations you may experience condensation which will need to be cleaned away quickly. However, can air is still a great tool for keeping the tiny inset lens of some many models clean. Of course, you can use those tiny "wind-wand" style brushes but beware of breakage of the bristles.
Don't forget to clean viewfinders and digital screens as well. A smudge or dust particle on one of these may give you a false view of your field of study. Just wipe them with the same cloth you wipe your lens with.
Store your camera in a case. One, this will protect your investment. Two, this will cut down on dust contamination when not in use. It doesn't have to be a fancy metal case, a simple neoprene velcro case will work. A consideration might be a belt loop or carbiner clip for easy toting on investigations.
Keep fresh batteries for your camera. Low batteries can result in poor image results and malfunctions - blurring, abnormal color processing, poor JPEG down-processing and other abnormalities.
Types of Rechargeable Batteries
In the case of digital camera's, rechargeables are your best bet since they literally eat them. Understanding battery performance may help in some cases. (Refer to your owner's manual for the best battery for your camera.)
Nickel Cadmium - NiCads- NiCd batteries have a longer life cycle and hold a charge longer. NiCd's can also withstand a "deeper" discharger than most rechargeables - meaning you can push the battery a little further, like periodic rest to let the cell to rebuild and try more shots. However, the NiCd's have two drawbacks - cost and poor functionality at cold temperatures.
Nickel-Metal Hydride - NiMH batteries have higher voltage output than your NiCd's but discharger quicker and their lifespan is limited. The NiMH experiences a voltage drop as it discharges which may impact the image and functionality of your camera.
Lithium-ion battery is one of the latest marketed rechargeable batteries and most widely used by consumers. As so far, it features the greatest technology - it doesn't retain a memory of it's previous charge, so it will fully charge each time; the energy-to mass ratios are much improved over it's predecessors, so more energy in the smaller technology; and it's ambient energy loss when not in use is much lower than it's predecessors as well.
A few tips...
Always be aware of your surrounding. Yes, basic, but there's nothing like having your camera in hand and sidestepping to get a shot and falling right over something. If your lucky-- you break neither the camera or yourself when you fall.
An environmental contaminate may impact your shot. Reflective surface - mirrors, metal, glazed pottery (which oddly enough, can luminesce awkwardly depending on composition of the clay or glaze components). An unnoticed light source - a night light, a street nearby, activity lights on motion sensors or fire sensing equipment. Air conditioner vent that may dump dust when it kicks on or causes movement in objects. A list that could go on forever.
If you're using a 35mm, pick the correct film.
400 - the most basic, not for closeup
Outdoor use - sports with some blurring possible
Indoor use - is for moderate light and is suggest to shoot one with flash, one without
800 - Indoors -nighttime use with extended the flash distance
Outdoors - stops fast action and allows for higher shutter speed
Helps reduce blur in fast-action situations
Captures subjects in low-light conditions
Easy to get, moderately priced, and can be used in place of 1000 and 1600
1000 - Low light and stops fast action
Not for enlargement - nothing over 5x7
1600 - Is best suited for nighttime photography and extreme low light conditions
Can be expensive and using flash with this film can make it look like day in your exposures
Not for enlargement - 5x7
Understanding Shutter speed
Looking at a 35mm camera - there is often a dial that features a series of numbers (something like):
B, 1, 2, 4, 8, 15, 30, 60, 120, 250, 500, 1000
B - Bulb, holds the shutter open. (depending on the camera, as long as you hold the shutter button)
1-30 - require a tripod, hold the shutter open for a period of seconds
60-1000 - can be handheld, but steadied
By adjusting the dial you can either add or subtract the amount of time your shutter is open. Your dealing with seconds, but in the case of film it can make a big difference. In darker situations, by moving toward the B you extend the amount of time the shutter is open and thus allowing more light to impact the film and getting more detail. In brighter situations, by moving away from the B and towards 1000, you shorten the time the shutter is open and decreasing the amount of light hitting the film.
This is, of course, the most rudimentary explanation of how these number impact your exposure/film. If you want more information on film photography, I recommend the Ansel Adams series on photography. (I, personally, stumbled onto one of these books and have fallen in love with it. It's much better than the textbook I had to have for photography at University recently - yes, I recently attained a degree in Art. Though I've been photographing for nearly 20 years, it's hard for me to explain to others how I do it and the Ansel Adam's book has helped.)
Digital features
This section will be hard to address since the models differ so much. It is key that you read your manual to see if you have features that will allow the adaptation to low lighting or speed. Most digital camera's feature a little running figure - this is your high speed setting. It will stop actions and minimalize blur - as long as YOU don't move.
I have a feature that allows for shots at night with a tripod. It will stop action in extreme low light but I cannot hand hold for it. I, therefore, purchased a tabletop tripod at the Dollar Tree (yay, one dollar). I can adapt the tripod, I've used it against walls or door frames as well to steady the camera. Just because it's small and says tabletop doesn't mean just leave the camera on the horizontal. Get creative - sometimes the situation requires it.
Most people operate their cameras in auto mode, never considering other settings. You can get some nice shots on auto - I won't deny it. Review the manual and you might be surprised what it can actually do.
Inside Digital Imaging - RAW vs JPEG
(AKA Perhaps a Tad Too Technical Explanation To How Your Camera Sees and Records an Image)
According to Adobe.com color in RAW format - the image is achieved by the use of a 2-d area array that collects photons that record the image. The rows and columns are comprised of either charge-coupled devices or complementary metal oxide semiconductors. The role of the filter array is to turn the raw grayscale image into a color image. The array conductors are either coated in a red or green or blue filter that will be the only color that particular array will capture. It is possible for the filters to be cyan or yellow or magenta which allows for more light filtration.
So, the initial array captures a grayscale image. It is the filters atop each array that add the color artifact. (Artifact- the color being reflected by the object.) It is also the encrypted metadata the allows for the later creation of a color image. The metadata defines not only the camera model, serial number, shutter speed, aperture, focal length, and if the flash was initiated but the positioning of the type of color filter sitting atop of a particular array. Metadata of the image files allows for interpolation between the color artifacts to fill in any missing pixels by using its neighbor's information.
In JPEG images, the raw converter is built into the camera and compresses all that data into a 8 x 8 pixel block foundation. The metadata will be stored into the JPEG file. However, many manufactures have JPEG compression algorithms discard bit of usable range that may impact the production or editing of the image at a later time. This applies is a heavy color compression and can lead to color degradation especially in editing. JPEG is limited to 8 bits of tonal information per channel versus the raw capacity of 12 bits. An additional drawback to JPEG is that it will be unable to benefit from upgrades in technology and software unlike RAW files.
http://www.adobe.com/digitalimag/pdfs/understanding_digitalrawcapture.pdf
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Since I have thoroughly succeeded in providing more information than most care to know about the JPEG, I think I'll stop at this point and encourage all camera operators to review their manuals and what form their image is stored in, and constantly clean your lens.
As always, I welcome any questions, comments, criticisms and so on.
Original Myspace post: May 27, 2008
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