Digital Cameras

2 Painting “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” by French artist Georges Seurat – a master of a technique known as pointillism, in which scenes are composed of millions of tiny dots of paint, created by dabbing the canvas with the tip of a paintbrush. Stand across the room from a pointillist painting, the dots blend together – only when you get close can you distinguish the individual dots.

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 3 Pixels Digital images work like pointillist paintings. Rather than being made up of dots of paint, digital images are composed of tiny squares of colour known as pixels. Pixel is short for Picture Element

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 4 How Digital Cameras Work They have a sensor, which under a microscope looks like a honeycomb. Each cell is a mini light receptor. Cells are subjected to light via the camera lens. The degree to which they are filled corresponds with how bright a pixel becomes.

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 5 Sensors Digital cameras use either CCD or CMOS sensors.

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 6 CCD & CMOS Sensors CCD – charge-coupled device. CMOS – complementary metal oxide semiconductor. Originally most cameras used CCD because CMOS sensors were considered inferior. Recent advances have made them competitive with CCD. CMOS consumes less energy.

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 7 Resolution The quality of a digital image depends on the number and density of pixels within it.

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 8 Resolution A sensor with 1280 pixels by 1084 pixels would have a total of 1280 x 1084 or 1,310,720 pixels (1.3 Megapixels) What are the common resolutions available in cameras today?

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 9 PRACTICAL Start Windows Explorer and navigate to: C:\Student\AIT\Demo Images Open Barcelona.jpg in Photoshop Display File Info What are the dimensions of the image? What is the megapixel “size” of the image? (______ x ______) / 1,000,000 = What is the size of the image file on disk?

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 10 Autofocus and Focus Lock Images from

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 11 Autofocus and Focus Lock PRACTICAL –Take a photo of the person sitting next to you using the focus lock technique –Take another photo not using the technique –Compare the 2 images, using zoom to determine if the person is in focus in each shot

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 12 LCD Display PRACTICAL –Turn on your camera and check the info shown on the display –Can you turn on additional info via a menu option?

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 13 Zoom Olympus 550 demo demo

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 14 Composition General guidelines to follow rather than compulsory rules –Question – What is the purpose of the photo? –Question – How will I guide the viewer’s eye? –Question – How will I give the image depth?

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 15 Purpose of Photo

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 16 Purpose of Photo

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 17 Frame the Subject

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 18 Amount of Background Moved closer to fill frameZoomed in to fill frame

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 19 Fill the Frame

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 20 Fill Frame, Check Background Person larger and beach visible

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 21 Rule of Thirds Divide the image into thirds both hoizontally and vertically. This will result in 3 rows and 3 columns. Place the subject at one of the four points where the dividing lines intersect. This means that you have to overcome the natural tendency to place the object of interest in the centre of the frame.

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 22 Rule of Thirds - Applied For more information:

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 23 Works in Portrait as well

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 24 Thirds and Filling the Frame

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 25 Rule of Thirds - Partial Horizon can’t be lower Pay close attention to horizons - generally the horizon would be no more than the top third or quarter of the frame unless the sky is the main subject. Aim to position the horizon on one of the horizontal lines.

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 26 Rule of Thirds - Applied

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 27 Rule of Thirds - Broken

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 28 Horizons and the Rule of Thirds Three other Rules involved here Leading space for motion Symmetry Silhouette

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 29 Avoid Clutter or Distractions Images from

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 30 Avoid Clutter or Distractions Images from

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 31 Repetitive Images Make Good Compositions

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 32 Repetition

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 33 Creating Depth

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 34 Depth and Interest

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 35 Watch for Merging Images from

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 36 Look into Photo (at camera) Images from

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 37 Depth and Balance Images from

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 38 S Bends and Crescents Photograph by one of Australia’s most famous photographers – Max Dupain

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 39 Max DuPain Sunbaker

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 40 Max Dupain Bondi

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 41 Use Curves

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 42 Use Curves

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 43 And Lines into Corners

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 44 Angles to Draw Attention

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 45 Perspective Images from

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 46 Camera Orientation

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 47 Use Lines

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 48 Use Lines

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 49 Leading the Eye

Canning College Computing Centre - Vicki Thomas 50 Thirds and using Diagonals

"The so-called rules of photographic composition are, in my opinion, invalid, irrelevant and immaterial" Ansel Adams Rules are made to be broken