Have you ever wondered how a photographer gets such clear, detailed photos of things like flowers or insects? Capturing such close-up pictures is most often done with a setting that comes as an option on many digital cameras this is called the macro setting.
What the macro setting on your camera essentially does is focus on a very small area. The background often appears unfocused to further bring out your intended subject matter. Getting in close to capture all the detail of a small object is almost always impossible with the regular setting on a camera. Anything closer than about two feet becomes blurred. The macro setting changes the distance your camera will be able to focus and often allows you to take crystal clear pictures from as close as two or three inches.
This camera mode allows for a lot of experimenting. Try taking a picture of a bee sitting on a flower petal or a close-up of frost on the window. You will be amazed at the details brought out. You will be able to almost feel the furriness of the bee and the ice crystals are beautiful.
If you are planning to sell at online auctions, a macro setting on your camera will help with taking better pictures–and better pictures help with sales. You can take close-up photos of such objects as stamps and coins, show the engraving on an object or allow a viewer to see that a piece of jewelry is flawless.
Don’t save your photo taking for big events exclusively. Take a walk and notice the little things like the pattern on a tree trunk or an ant carrying a bread crumb twice his size. There are interesting photos everywhere once you start to look, and the macro mode on your digital camera is the perfect tool for capturing them.
Many digital cameras offer both digital and also optical zoom. These two often confuse the average camera buyer.
Optical zoom works much like the zoom lens on a 35 mm film camera. It changes the length of your camera’s lens and draws the subject closer to you. The optical zoom keeps the quality of the picture. Digital zoom works differently. It simply takes the picture and crops it then enlarges the part that is left. It causes the quality of the photo to be reduced.
What this means in terms of output is you may have a larger view of an object with the digital zoom, but chances are your image will become unfocused. Details will become lost. It is actually best to turn off the digital zoom feature of your camera if possible. This will prevent you automatically zooming in too close as the digital zoom is often an extension of the optical.
There are a couple of things you can do if you want a closer view of a subject but want the quality of your picture to still be good. Try moving in closer when you take the picture. Often only a foot or two will do the trick. If this isn’t possible, you can set your camera to take a picture at its highest file size. This will result in a photo that can be cropped to include only your desired subject, yet allow for an image that is still clear.
Digital zoom has its place. It can be used if the only destiny of your photo is the internet. Photos online can be a much lower quality in the camera and still appear acceptable when sent through e-mail or posted on a web gallery.
It helps when learning to use your new digital camera to also know what some of the more common terms mean.
Automatic Mode — A setting that sets the focus, exposure and white-balance automatically.
Burst Mode or Continuous Capture Mode — a series of pictures taken one after another at quickly timed intervals with one press of the shutter button.
Compression — The process of compacting digital data, images and text by deleting selected information.
Digital Zoom — Cropping and magnifying the middle part of an image.
JPEG — The main format used for image compression in digital cameras
Lag Time — The delay between the time the shutter button is pressed and when the camera actually captures the image
LCD — (Liquid-Crystal Display) is a small screen on a digital camera for viewing images.
Lens — A circular and transparent glass or plastic piece that has the function of collecting light and focusing it on the sensor to capture the image.
Megabyte — (MB) refers to the amount of information in a file, or how much information can be contained on a Memory Card, Hard Drive or Disk.
Pixels — Tiny units of color that make up digital pictures. Pixels also measure digital resolution. One million pixels adds up to one mega-pixel.
RGB — Refers to Red, Green and Blue colors used on computers to create all other colors.
Resolution — Camera resolution describes the number of pixels used to create the image, which determines the amount of detail a camera can capture. The more pixels a camera has, the more detail it can register and the larger the picture can be printed.
Storage Card — The removable storage device which holds images taken with the camera, comparable to film, but much smaller
Viewfinder — The optical “window” to look through to compose the scene.
White Balance — White balancing adjusts the camera to compensate for the type of light or lighting conditions in the scene so it will look normal to the human eye.
CANON IXUS80 FR CASE by Canon
Digital camera + free case (Cosmo Online Only)
Price : GBP 169.99
Order CANON IXUS80 FR CASE here
OLYMPUS FE-200 DIGITAL by OLYMPUS
6 million pixels, 5x Optical Zoom, 4x Digital Zoom, 2.5" LCD Screen, 10 scene modes, Movie recording with sound, 1 button, 1 function design principle, Olympus Master Software, Inc Lithium-ion battery, XD Memory Format
OLY FE-200 DIGITAL
Price : GBP 199.89
Order OLYMPUS FE-200 DIGITAL here
