RAW files are like unprocessed film. The raw processing software you use to edit them is like the film developer.
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Nikon lens jargon explained
Like other lens makers, Nikon has its own technical jargon for the features and specifications of its lenses. The first bit of Nikon lens jargon is the name – Nikon brands its lenses ‘Nikkor’’ – though some reviewers and retailers us the name ‘Nikon’ instead, just to be clear about who makes them. Nikon camera […]
Dynamic range and exposure
Dynamic range is the camera sensor’s ability to capture detail in very bright and very dark parts of a scene. Cameras (or sensors) with a low dynamic range record dark shadows as a solid black or bright highlights as a featureless white. In the days of film, this was known as a film’s ‘exposure latitude’. […]
Picture styles and film simulation with digital cameras
Digital cameras typically offer a range of ‘picture styles’ to suit different subjects or different tastes in color rendition. Canon calls these Picture Styles, Nikon calls them Picture Controls and other camera makers have their own names. They include options like ‘Vivid’, ‘Landscape’, ‘Portrait’ and ‘Black and white’, but the key point with all of […]
Battery types and uses
All digital cameras and some camera accessories rely on batteries. Some accessories like flashguns may use regular AA batteries, but almost all cameras now use rechargeable lithium ion cells which have a longer life and deliver a more consistent power output between charges. AA batteries, as used in some flashguns and older battery grips, come […]
Sensor spots and what to do about them
Any DSLR or mirrorless camera that takes interchangeable lenses can collect dust or other debris on the sensor surface. Sensor dust can be annoying at best, because it produces dark diffuse spots in your images that become more even more obvious if you use heavy contrast and sharpening adjustments. The risk of getting dust on […]
Video basics: resolution and frame rate
Video jargon can quickly get complicated, and can seem even worse to stills photographers who’ve learned a whole lexicon of photography concepts and terms and now have to do the same with the very different world of video. But the video basics are comparatively simple and easily learned, and the rest can follow from that. […]
LCD displays on cameras
Just about all cameras have an LCD display on the back. It’s used for playing back photos when they’ve been captured and for camera settings and menu navigation. On most cameras it’s also used for composing pictures – in fact, on cameras without viewfinders, it’s the ONLY way to compose your shots. These screens are […]
Tripod heads and the different types
Tripods essentially come in two parts: the tripod legs, used for support and height, and the tripod head, which is used for positioning and pointing the camera. Often, a tripod is sold with a head as a single item, but with more upmarket tripods the legs and head are usually sold separately so that you […]
Lens aberrations and what you can do about them
No lens is optically perfect. In the ideal world, every lens would produce a sharp, undistorted, evenly illuminated image that’s sharp from edge to edge. Some lenses come close, but the fact is that lens designers have to work within the limitations of the laws of physics and the glass materials they have available, and […]
Shutters: what they do and how they work
All cameras have a shutter mechanism to expose the sensor for exactly the right amount of time. The shutter opens to begin the exposure and then closes again to end it. Most cameras have mechanical shutters, though you can also get electronic shutters, which we’ll come to a little later. Mechanical shutters come in two […]
Lens aperture and how it works
Lens aperture is one of the key tools for photographers for adjusting the exposure and for achieving specific creative depth of field effects. The lens aperture is an adjustable hole created by a diaphragm within the camera lens. When you change the size of this hole, you change the amount of light allowed to pass […]
Depth of field and bokeh
Depth of field is the near to far sharpness in your pictures. A picture with shallow depth of field has only the main subject in focus, and everything in front of it and behind it is blurred. The opposite is a picture with deep depth of field, where everything is sharp from right up close […]
Mirrorless cameras and what makes them different
Mirrorless cameras are a bit of a buzzword at the moment. At one time, any serious photographer or hobbyist would get a DSLR – but now mirrorless cameras increasingly offer the same image quality, versatility and features in a smaller, lighter body. The difference between mirrorless cameras (also called ‘compact system cameras – CSCs’) and […]
ISO (sensitivity) and how it works
ISO is the unit used to measure and adjust the camera sensor’s sensitivity to light. With film, the ISO setting (or film ‘speed’) is part of the film’s physical and chemical properties and can’t be changed. With digital cameras it’s possible to ‘turn up the volume’ on the sensor to make it more sensitivity to […]
Noise and noise reduction
Noise is the digital equivalent of grain in film. It’s random electrical signals captured by the photosites on the camera sensor, and usually this background noise level is so low compared to the brightness of the captured picture itself that you just don’t notice it. But if you start increasing the camera’s ISO setting, the […]
Memory cards and what to look for
Almost all cameras use removable memory cards to store photos and video. A few smaller devices use fixed in-built memory instead, but these are relatively rare. Memory card types Memory cards come in many different types, though many have slowly been phased out and others are very specialised. The most common type is the SD/SDHC/SDXC […]
Tripods and their features
Tripods are essential for many kinds of photography because they hold the camera still during long exposures – and when you’re using telephoto lenses where the slightest wobble will blur the picture. Tripods are also useful for slowing down the pace of your photography, for holding the camera so that you have both hands free […]
Flash photography basics
Sometimes the ambient light level is too low for successful for photography, or it’s the ‘wrong’ kind of light. This is where photographers turn to flash (or ‘strobe’, if you’re in the US). Flash works by emitting a very short, very powerful burst of light. Energy is stored in a capacitor in the flash head […]
Camera bags and what to look for
If you’ve got camera gear, you need a camera bag to carry it around in. But there are lots of different types and sizes of bag on the market, and we all have different requirements, so here’s a run through of what’s out there and how to choose the bag that suits you best. Camera […]
Focal length vs ‘effective’ focal length
Lenses are always identified by their focal length. It’s not just a physical measurement, it’s an indication of the type of lens it is, for example, a wideangle lens, standard lens, telephoto and so on. In other words, the focal length of the lens gives you an indication of its angle of view. Or at […]
Lens types and what they’re used for
The advantage of interchangeable lens cameras like DSLRs and mirrorless cameras is that you can change lenses for different kinds of photography. There are many different types of lenses, often with specific names. Lenses are usually characterised or grouped by their focal length. It might be more useful to use their angle of view instead, […]
Viewfinders on cameras and the different types
Not all digital cameras have viewfinders. Digital cameras and smartphones have LCD screens for composing photos, and it’s only on higher end cameras that you get a viewfinder too. But they are worth having. Sometimes it’s difficult to see an LCD display properly in the bright glare of daylight, and sometimes it just feels more […]
Autofocus basics explained
Just about all digital cameras have autofocus systems, and while there’s a wide range of different autofocus (AF) technologies, the basic principles of how autofocus works is the same across all of them and boils down to two things: AF modes and AF points. AF mode: WHEN the camera focuses If you’re taking one picture […]
Camera types and what they do
If all you want to do is take pictures and you don’t know much about cameras, the range of camera types on the market is bewildering. Even if you do know a bit about cameras, it’s not easy to weigh up one type against the other and make a decision about which to get. So […]
Camera shake and how to avoid it
Camera shake is blur caused by camera movement during the exposure. It happens with indoor shots or outdoor shots in poor lighting or at night, when the low light levels mean the camera uses a longer exposure and hence a slower shutter speed. The slower the shutter speed, the more likely it is the camera […]
Continuous shooting and how it works
Digital cameras are usually used to take one shot at a time, but they generally offer a continuous shooting mode too. In this mode, the camera keeps taking shots in succession for as long as you hold down the shutter button. Some camera makers also call this ‘burst mode’. You’ll find it amongst a number […]
Exposure and how it works
Exposure is all about making sure the sensor gets the right amount of light. Without camera exposure controls, pictures taken at night would be pitch black, and those taken in bright daylight might be burned out. There is actually a fairly narrow ‘window’ of light intensities which sensors can record, and real-world lighting conditions vary […]
Filters and when to use them
Even in an age of digital photo editing, there are still some lens filters that either can’t be reproduced digitally or are more effective than their digital equivalents. These include protective UV filters, polarizing filters, graduated and neutral density filters. UV filters are used these days purely as a protection for the front element of […]
Aspect ratios and why you need to know about them
The aspect ratio of an image is the ratio of its width to its height. The larger the ratio, the ‘wider’ the image; the smaller the ratio, the ‘squarer’ the image. Digital camera sensors have their own ‘native’ aspect ratio, and this is generally tied in to the sensor size. The small 1/2.3-inch sensors or […]
Sensor basics
There’s probably more talk about sensors in digital photography than anything else, so here’s a run-down on sensor basics and everything you need to know to make sense of the jargon. First of all, sensors are made using two types of chip technology. They’re often used in sensor descriptions so it makes sense to mention […]
Lens mounts explained
SLRs and mirrorless cameras take interchangeable lenses, but the fitting, or ‘lens mount’, varies from one brand to another, so can’t usually use one brand of lenses on another brand of camera. Independent third-party lens makers offer their lenses in two, three or more different lens mounts to fit different camera brands, but lenses made […]
Camera shooting modes explained
Digital cameras offer a range of different shooting modes, usually on a main mode dial on the top of the camera. These may be referred to as exposure modes, since they are mainly to do with the camera’s exposure settings. Just about all cameras offer a point and shoot Auto mode, often marked in green […]
Color spaces, profiles and color management explained
The whole topic of color management can get pretty dry and technical, but stick with it because there’s information here that’s useful and puts lots of other things in context. Color management is essentially all about making sure you get the colors you expected when you capture photos, view them on a screen, edit them, […]
Bits and bit depth explained
All digital data is made up of ‘bits’, and that includes digital images. In computing, ‘bits’ are either on or off, so there are only two possible values. But when you use them together the combinations are multiplied so you can record a much wider range of values. The number of bits used is the […]
White balance and how it works
The color of light can vary considerably depending on the time of day and whether you’re shooting in natural light or under artificial light. Our eyes and brains constantly adapt, but the camera records color exactly as it is, which can lead to unexpected color casts and shifts in pictures. Digital cameras can correct these […]
Sensor size and why it matters
In the days of film, it was well understood that the bigger the negative, the better the quality of the picture. The same is true with digital cameras, only here the ‘negative’ is the sensor. The larger the sensor size, the better (generally) the picture quality. Megapixels do confuse the issue somewhat because you can […]
Metering patterns and when to use them
Digital cameras work out the correct exposure by measuring the light levels across the scene you’re photographing. But they can split the scene up in different ways to make these measurements, using different metering patterns, or metering modes. By default, cameras analyse the scene by splitting it up into segments. This is called ‘multi-segment’ or […]
Image stabilization and how it works
An image stabilizer is used to get sharp photos at slow shutter speeds which would normally be spoiled by camera shake. The minimum ‘safe’ shutter speed depends on the conditions and the lens you’re using, but an image stabilizer can let you use shutter speeds up to five stops slower – or more. Image stabilizers […]