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camera settings
Sunday, September 30th, 2007 02:37 pmTrying to understand the settings on my new digital camera.
ISO speeds - a higher number makes the camera more sensitive to light. That means it can use a faster shutter speed in order to get an image of the same brightness, which means the photo will be less likely to be blurred due to any camera-shake. This is good when taking photos in dark locations without a flash, while holding the camera. However, the trade-off is that using a higher ISO setting increases the amount of graininess and noise in the photo.
Long shutter speed setting - this keeps the shutter open longer, allowing more light to be picked up, resulting in a brighter image. But this means that the image is more likely to be blurred by camera-shake if you are holding the camera. So it is probably best to only use this option when using a tripod, or when not holding the camera in one's hands.
If you set a long shutter speed plus a high ISO speed, the image comes out even brighter than it seems to your own eyes. I took a photo of the inside of my kitchen corner cabinet, which is rather dark inside, but the resulting photo looks as if a bright light is shining onto everything inside there. Neat! Yet there is also noise in the photo, so perhaps it is better to not use too high an ISO speed and rather edit the photo afterwards to adjust the gamma? (note, do this and compare the quality of the photos each way).
Exposure compensation - this setting seems to be mutually exclusive with the long shutter speed setting. According to this page, this setting may cause the camera to either change the aperture or the shutter speed. It suggests that this setting can be used when there is a big difference in the brightness of your main subject and the background.
ISO speeds - a higher number makes the camera more sensitive to light. That means it can use a faster shutter speed in order to get an image of the same brightness, which means the photo will be less likely to be blurred due to any camera-shake. This is good when taking photos in dark locations without a flash, while holding the camera. However, the trade-off is that using a higher ISO setting increases the amount of graininess and noise in the photo.
Long shutter speed setting - this keeps the shutter open longer, allowing more light to be picked up, resulting in a brighter image. But this means that the image is more likely to be blurred by camera-shake if you are holding the camera. So it is probably best to only use this option when using a tripod, or when not holding the camera in one's hands.
If you set a long shutter speed plus a high ISO speed, the image comes out even brighter than it seems to your own eyes. I took a photo of the inside of my kitchen corner cabinet, which is rather dark inside, but the resulting photo looks as if a bright light is shining onto everything inside there. Neat! Yet there is also noise in the photo, so perhaps it is better to not use too high an ISO speed and rather edit the photo afterwards to adjust the gamma? (note, do this and compare the quality of the photos each way).
Exposure compensation - this setting seems to be mutually exclusive with the long shutter speed setting. According to this page, this setting may cause the camera to either change the aperture or the shutter speed. It suggests that this setting can be used when there is a big difference in the brightness of your main subject and the background.