There’s an old photographer’s saying: the best camera is the one you have with you. The day you’re faced with a photo op and your multi-megapixel wonder machine is stashed in your sock drawer at home, you’ll be thankful if there’s a cameraphone in your pocket a cellphone with a tiny, built-in lens that takes tiny, built-in pictures.
Of course, cameraphones don’t have all of the handy settings that you’ve come to adore on your digicam, but they can still take perfectly good shots. Here’s a look at the most common cameraphone settings and how they can help you take better pictures.
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Movie making probably wasn’t what you had in mind when you bought a digital still camera. Even so, most cameras offer this feature, and it can come in handy now and then. Movie mode lets you capture digital movies with QuickTime or AVI format videos (both kinds play on Windows and Apple computers) with sound included. You save the videos to your memory card right alongside your still pictures. Some cameras permit only 30 seconds of video per attempt; others let you keep recording until the memory card is full.
Most new cameras these days capture video with frame dimensions of 640 x 480big enough to fill a TV screen on playback. Once you’ve transferred a movie to your computer, you can play it, email it to people, post it on a Web page, or burn it to a DVD. Just keep these pointers in mind:
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Many museums permit photography, provided you keep the flash off and don’t use a full-size tripod. Digital cameras are particularly well suited to these assignments.
Once you’re in, here are some techniques to consider:
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Most people usually photograph people and places. Every now and then, however, you’ll need to photograph things: stuff you plan to sell on eBay, illustrations for a report, your personal belongings for insurance purposes, and so on.
The macro (close-up) mode of your digital camera makes it easy to shoot objects. All you need to do is set up and light your shot; the camera does the rest.
1. Setting Up Your Home Studio
The trick to lighting any object professionally, whether it’s a painting or a teapot, is to position two lights, each at a 45-degree angle to the plane of the subject. Buy a couple of lamps at a hardware store. Sometimes called shop lights, they have clamps and ball joints to lock the lamp at a certain angle.
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Digital cameras may be small and compact, but they’re often accompanied by just as much accessory junk as film cameras.
Here’s a pre-trip checklist:
1. Batteries.
The laws of photography dictate that you’ll run out of juice just when the perfect shot appears. If your camera comes with a rechargeable battery, consider buying a second one. Charge both batteries every night, and take them both with you during the day. If your camera accepts AA-type batteries, you have much more flexibility. Bring a set of NiMH rechargeables and charger. Also pack an emergency set of disposables, like alkaline AAs or Duracell CRV3 lithium disposables, if your camera accepts them.
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For years now, camera manufacturers have been inflicting red-eye reduction mode on their customers. It’s a series of bright, strobing flashes that’s not only annoying to the people you’re photographing, but doesn’t even work.
What causes red eye? In a dimly lit room, the subject’s pupil dilates, revealing more of the retina. On cameras where the flash is close to the camera lens (as it almost always is), the light from the flash shines through the dilated pupil, bounces off the retina, and reflects as a red circle directly back into the lens. (The same thing happens to animals, too, except that the color is sometimes green instead of red.)
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A discussion of nature photography wouldn’t be complete without some underwater shooting tips. After all, every school kid knows that 70 percent of the earth’s surface is under water. Most people hesitate to take pictures underwater, with good reason: Water is the mortal enemy of digital cameras. Still, you can buy waterproof enclosures for many camera models, which opens up a whole new world of photographic possibilities.
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When you shoot natural landscapes, you become as much explorer as photographer. Beautiful shots are all around you; it’s your job to locate them in time and space. As you wander through nature with your camera, you develop a new way of looking at the world. You learn to see the subtle differences in lighting at different times of day, for example, and how shadows affect your photograph. The most important principles of nature photography follow.
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Nighttime portraits can be extremely interesting, especially when your subject is in front of a lit monument or building. The key to this shot is a very wide aperture, to admit as much light as possible. You can use nighttime flash mode, but if your camera has aperture-priority mode, you can get more control over the results. Either way, use a tripod and follow the general guidelines for twilight portraits in the previous section.
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