Photography Parts of a digital camera Camera controls and menu options Flash and lenses How a digital camera works Photo-styles

Parts of a Digital Camera Shutter Control: The shutter button on a digital camera is in reality a switch that sets a whole series of complicated electronic operations in gear. Windows: You view the subject through the view finder window while other windows are used for auto-focusing functions. Flash: A built-in flash is handy for working informally in low light conditions. Zoom Lens: Many digital cameras offer a zoom lens so you can easily change the field of view. But extreme wide-angle effects are harder to obtain. LCD Screen: The LCD enables the camera to display images within seconds, as well as providing information on the camera settings used. Setting Buttons: Combinations of buttons and LCD information enable a large range of settings to be made, adding to the camera’s versatility. Zoom Control: Buttons used to control the zoom lens.

Camera Controls Control: A switch or button that sets different modes of operation, such as the image-quality settings. Setting Buttons (flash, frames, timer, focus, menu): Combinations of buttons and LCD information enable a large range of settings to be made, adding to the camera’s versatility. Zoom Control: Controls the field of view. On/Off Switch: Turns camera on or off. DISP. Button: Controls whether you want the current photo information displayed on the screen or not. Menu Options Full-Auto Mode: Camera automatically sets all settings. Portrait Mode: Camera sets a wide aperture that makes the subject stand out against a softly blurred background. Landscape Mode: Camera sets a narrow aperture so the background and foreground elements are sharp. Close-Up Mode: Camera allows a close focusing distance. Sports Mode: Sets a fast shutter speed. Night Portrait Mode: Combines flash with a slow synch speed to correctly expose both the person and the background. Flash Off Mode: Camera does not use flash or an external flash.

Lenses Zoom Lenses: Allow focal length and field of view to be adjusted without affecting focus. Provide choice of subject framing and magnification from the same shooting position that cannot be achieved with a normal lens. Lenses covering a great range: wide angle to telephoto offer versatility being able to wide shoots and close ups. But quality comes with a price. And the lenses often have low apertures making them suitable mainly for outdoor use. The lenses are often large and heavy and require a tripod to get the best photo quality. Specialist Lenses: Shift/tilt lenses have a mechanism to move the lenses (rotate adjust angle) which can increase/decrease foreground focus without moving your position. Macro lenses offer the highest image quality. Often used for close up shoots when trying to capture very fine details. Super telephoto lenses are great for sport and wildlife photography but come at a very high cost and tripods are required to get sharp images. Catadioptric lenses use mirrors and lenses in constructions making them more compact in relation to their focal length but usually come with a fixe aperture. Extreme Lenses: ultra wide-angle and wide- ranging zooms offer the extreme limits of shooting styles but are limiting in what must be done to achieve good quality shoots.

Flashes Built-In Flash: Convenient easy to use however have weak outputs and prone to create red eye effects On-Camera Flash: Delivers good amount of light and fast recharge time but can be expensive and may unbalance camera. Handle-Bar Flash: Very powerful, rapid recharge and versatile can be bulky and expensive. Ring Flash: Great for close-ups giving shadow less or modeled lighting and are fully automatic, due to specialized nature can be very expensive to buy.

How your Digital SLR works Digital camera have a similar construction to a film camera, but with the space occupied by the film and its transport mechanism its taken up by electronic components for processing electronic image data -Instead of film, in a digital camera there is a static photo-sensor. Photo- sensors convert the image captured into an electronic signal. The Photo Sensor Technology microprocessors and memory chips are sensitive to light and are used within all digital cameras -Sensors array is the technology used in order to capture the picture CCD sensor array is many sensors that read the image one by one, and the charge is sent down row by row - by each individual sensor CMOS make up for CCD with versatility, simpler to make and sending a clear signal. -CMOS sensor array, work at a single, low voltage, sending the image with X-Y addressability -X-Y addressability has its own transistor and circuitry, so each sensor can be read individually CMOS is charges are processed across and down the charge Triple-Well Sensors A triple well CCD sensor measure color (of light) in a sophisticated design that depends on how deeply each color penetrates the sensor. -With Triple-Well sensors there is no need to seperate color filter array and the sensor (in theory) is able to pick up more information -Each senor picks up blue, green, and red light

Photography Styles Commercial Commercial photography is probably best defined as any photography for which the photographer is paid for images rather than works of art. Advertising photography: photographs made to illustrate and usually sell a service or product. These images, such as packshots, are generally done with an advertising agency, design firm or with an in-house corporate design team. Fashion and glamour photography: This type of photography usually incorporates models. Fashion photography emphasizes the clothes or product, glamour emphasizes the model. Glamour photography is popular in advertising and in men's magazines. Models in glamour photography may be nude, but this is not always the case. Crime Scene Photography: This type of photography consists of photographing scenes of crime such as robberies and murders. A black and white camera or an infrared camera may be used to capture specific details. Amateur An amateur photographer is one who practices photography as a hobby and not for profit. The quality of some amateur work is comparable or superior to that of many professionals and may be highly specialized or eclectic in its choice of subjects. Amateur photography is often pre-eminent in photographic subjects which have little prospect of commercial use or reward.

Still life photography usually depicts inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which may be either natural or man- made. Food photography can be used for editorial, packaging or advertising use. Food photography is similar to still life photography, but requires some special skills. Editorial photography: photographs made to illustrate a story or idea within the context of a magazine. These are usually assigned by the magazine. Photojournalism: this can be considered a subset of editorial photography. Photographs made in this context are accepted as a documentation of a news story. Portrait and wedding photography: photographs made and sold directly to the end user of the images. Landscape photography: photographs of different locations. Wildlife photography that demonstrates life of the animals. Photo sharing: publishing or transfer of a user's digital photos online. Paparazzi