Working with the camera for better photography

Understanding photography and its importance in message
communication/ story telling
Getting/buying a good camera
Tips for better photography
Photo editing software
Simple tips for editing photos
Organising photos
Sharing the photos E.g. printing, albums, publishing
Sharing your photos
Mak DIJ Multimedia Production Techniques April 2012 Gerald
Businge

Importance of Photos
Photos as a medium of communication
Capturing the humanity, nature &
situation
Enhancing message comprehension
(1,000 words)
Evidence (authority, empathy, humility
and passion) “cameras never lie”
Mak DIJ Multimedia Production Techniques April 2012 Gerald Businge

Getting/Buying a good camera
To take photos, you must have a camera
(phone)
Battery Life
Number of Megapixels
Zoom Lens
Exposure Control
User Controls

What type is your camera

Battery life
 This has got to be one of the most overlooked features
in digital cameras. I know many people who go for the
latest and greatest digital cameras which are short in
the battery life department. If you want to take good
photos, your camera needs to powered for extended
periods of time. I've found that cost and battery life
don't go together - many cheap cameras have good
battery life, while some high-end models drain your
battery really fast. Make sure you choose a camera that
has good battery life.
Mak DIJ Multimedia Production Techniques
April 2012 Gerald Businge

Number of Megapixels
 The megapixel rating of a digital camera determines
how much fine detail you can capture in your shots.
Typically, the number of megapixels can range around
from 2 megapixels to 8 megapixels. How do you decide
how many megapixels you need? As a rule of thumb, if
you're only interested in taking small snapshots to
send via email or for posting on the Web, you won't
need more than 2 megapixels. If you want large print
outs of your gorgeous photographs, then you'll
probably want to get 5 megapixel cameras and above.
You may want to refer to this guide for more
information.

Zoom Lens
 You'll definitely want a camera with decent optical
zoom. Now the keyword here is optical zoom (as
opposed to digital zoom). Optical zoom physically
moves the camera lenses to zoom in on a subject.
Digital zoom, however, digitally averages and
magnifies the image within the camera's microchip -
resulting in poor picture quality. Many manufacturers'
advertisements talk about digital zoom instead of
optical zoom - so do be careful when choosing. I'd
recommend getting at least 3x optical zoom in any
camera you buy.

Exposure Control
 The ability to control exposure settings such as shutter
speed and lens opening is critical to professional
photographers. Cheaper digital cameras only allow you
to shoot photos in automatic mode - just press the
shutter release and voila, your picture is taken. More
advanced users prefer to tweak the shutter speed and
aperture to capture fast moving objects or blur the
image background. Choose a camera with good
exposure control if you foresee yourself taking on
photography as a serious hobby or profession.

User Controls
 If you are getting a point-and-shoot camera, make sure
you find one that's easy to use. User controls to set
resolution, macro mode, flash and exposure should be
within easy reach. Of course, if you're a serious
photography buff who wants to take the time to tweak
all sorts of manual settings, then this many not be so
critical.

Tips for Better Photography
 Know Your Camera
 Learn to control the flash
 Play with the macro mode
 Hold the camera level
 Keep still
 Use the tripold stand
 Play with ISO setting (Your camera's ISO speed number
stands for the sensitivity of the digital sensor. Slower ISO
speeds result in less noisy pictures -- even on a digital SLR;
but this is especially important on a point-and-shoot
camera.

Photography tips cont’d….
 Have enough memory capacity
 Take many pictures
 Composition rules

Photography tips cont’d
 Take your camera along
 Start off with automatic mode
 Protect and secure your lens
 Set your white balance (auto better)
The white balance dramatically alters
the tone of a picture; these four
photos were taken at the
Auto, Daylight, Cloudy (or Shade)
and Tungsten settings.

 Fill the frame with your subject
 Try an interesting angle
 Focus
 Get closer instead of zooming in
 Hold camera two points away from centre
 Squeeze shutter slowly, gently
 Relax when you push the shutter button
 Avoid red eye by using flash judiciously

 Select the best from among your photos
 Practice, practice and practice
 Get inspiration from others’ work
 Use your camera neck strap
 Take photos off your memory card asap
 Keep a notebook to note what worked well, captions
 Ask for permission where necessary (avoid trouble)

Editing/touching up your photos
 There are free and paid for photo editing programs you
can use e.g. paint, windows fax viewer, GIMP or buy
Photoshop, downloading and installing or Paint.NET
among others.
 After starting your image editor, you can remove red
eye, rotate and crop the photo, play with
colour, blurring effects, resize, sharpen
 Converting photos

Sharing photos
 Printing the photos
 Storing the photos on CD and DVD
 Emailing the photos
 Uploading the photos to a website
One of the best ways to share digital photos is to upload them
to a website. There are many online photo storage sites
available. www.flickr.com, www.picasaweb.google.com/, a
re some of the best photo sharing sites. It allows you to
upload photo albums and determine who can view those
albums. In addition, you get links or embed codes to share
in your websites. ###

Working with the camera for better photography

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