Monday, May 22, 2006
Colour Mode and Movie Mode in Digital Camera
Color Mode
.
You know that black and white pictures were ruling the field of fine arts for decades and decades. Even now the fact that black and white images need not be compressed as much as color images is an advantage. Their image quality is also higher. They offer scope to create moods and contrast.
Even color digital cameras have a provision to capture images in ’Black and White’ or ‘Sepia’.
In a pull down menu of the camera, the color mode is set to ’ Full Color’ or ’ B&W’ or ‘Sepia’.
The default setting of this functional mode in other normal capture modes is Full Color.
Movie Mode
Many digital cameras come with a movie mode. But they can never be considered equal to camcorders.
However, you can create short movie clips with certain limitations in quality by following the guidelines in the manual of your camera. The latest models provide a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels, which is just fine for displaying the movies in a TV. Sound also gets recorded in most of the cameras and you can create music videos. In a standard camera you can take a movie in 640 x 480 format for approximately 2.5 minutes when using a 64 MB SD memory card.
There may be a time limit for continuous shooting, the usual range being 30 to 240 seconds. If there is no limit
you are free to shoot till the memory card is full.
Time - Lapse movie mode is additionally available in some cameras. This mode enables you to take movies at a delayed frame rate so that when you play the movie back, the action appears speeded up. Settings of x2, x5, x10, and x20 may be available for you to choose. When you set at x2, the frame rate is reduced to half and if you set it at x5, the frame rate is brought down to one fifth. In the former setting, the play back will appear to be at twice the normal speed and in the latter setting it will appear to be at five times the normal speed. Sound will not get recorded at time-lapse movie mode.
The movies are made in AVI or MPEG4 mode at a frame rate of approximately 30fps.Provision for editing the movies will be available in the software supplied with the camera. This software may also have certain limitations. You may need additional encoder software to transfer the movie clips to your PC.
Flash is not available in movie mode and you have to choose a brightly lit area and ensure a good composition. You have to use a table or a tripod and capture shots in close up range at different angles. Different positions of camera may also help to provide a live change in effect.
Movie mode certainly helps to capture and keep alive the happy moments in a holiday!
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Contrast Setting and Fill-in-Flash in Digital Camera
Contrast
When you shoot in a cloudy day, or slightly before dawn, at dawn, slightly after dawn or an hour before sunset the light is soft and warm in color and you get excellent results in green mode itself. Here, default normal setting itself controls contrast automatically.
But, in conditions of extremely bright sunlight, the digital images show a very high contrast. Image editing software can correct this to some extent. Total correction is nearly impossible and texture and details are generally lost. The contrast level adjustment control helps in such cases. By slightly lowering the setting, very bright highlights and dark shadow areas can be minimized. Images can then be further edited in the relevant software.
On just a bright sunny day, changing position will help to overcome undesired contrast. If images of people are to be captured, they can be moved to a shady area and fill-in flash can be used to light up their faces to remove shadows and add sparkle to their eyes.
Fill-In Flash
This function, as its name suggests, serves to fill in light where it is deficient, though it may be called by different names by different camera manufacturers.
If the subject is backlit, the bright background will misguide the camera and the faces of the subjects will become dark. Fill-In flash will remedy such situations. Even when the background is not backlit, if shadows are cast over the subject, you should resort to fill-in flash.
The fill-in flash function ensures that a regulated and reduced amount of light is added to the normal outdoor light, to fill up light over shadows and reduce contrast. It enables image capture to be metered and exposed in a diligent manner.
Fill-In flash has to be selected to be ‘on’ or ‘off’ in menu list.
