Digital cameras don’t capture ready-made images. The data captured by the sensor has to be processed first. This happens automatically and instantaneously if you set the camera to shoot JPEG images. Many cameras don’t give you any other option. However, more advanced models like high end compact cameras, DSLRs and mirrorless cameras will also let […]
RAW file
Usually when you take a picture the camera will process the data captured by the sensor into an image file. More advanced cameras can save the image in its unprocessed state – a RAW file – so that you can do the processing yourself later on your computer.
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]