A lot of people never consider the space constraints within cell phones as the primary reason why they fail. It is a good segue to explain some detail around the question
@Null had about megapixels and image quality.
To what extent do megapixels matter and where is the overall "quality" of an image coming from with a digital camera? Megapixels do in fact matter up to a point, but they represent a measure of quality that can easily be subsumed by marketing jargon. Your camera has a charge-coupled device (CCD) which is commonly known as the camera's sensor. This sensor is what has taken the place of film in a digital camera and it even sits in the exact same spot at the rear-center of the camera body behind the lens. In the old days a ratcheting mechanism would advance strips of film across the lens opening and expose things that way; nowadays your CCD sits in that spot and eats up all the light you throw at it to create an image.
With digital cameras, you will find three general CCD sizes that matter and I will briefly outline what they are and where you find them. You will find small CCDs in most point-and-shoot cameras and that chip is going to be about the size of your pinky fingernail. It is small, but it can capture a lot of detail. Moving up the scale to a DSLR, these cameras usually have a CCD that is roughly half the size of a single frame of a 35mm film negative. You can capture significant detail with these cameras and produce excellent prints. Lastly you will encounter full-frame cameras or "professional" DSLRs; these contain a CCD that is the size of a single frame of 35mm film and the amount of detail these can capture is extreme. Even though the physical sizes of these CCDs are not that different relatively speaking, the difference in both quality and overall cost from a small CCD to a large CCD is significant. This is what makes up the bulk of the price tag when you walk through the store and start looking around.
The size of the CCD is relative to the overall megapixel count; however, some manufacturers can squeeze higher megapixel counts out of smaller CCDS to give you a better result, though your mileage will vary here and many of these solutions end up being filtered or otherwise digitally manipulated within the camera itself. You'll see it later, but nothing is free. If you want something in photography you need to sacrifice something else. The most apparent benefit of higher megapixel images is that you can zoom in further before the image begins to degrade or otherwise artifact due to low resolution. High megapixel images from space allow you to zoom right in on license plates.
But what about the actual features of these cameras for you and me? They all offer a suite of attractive automatic features, inline filtering systems, AI assistance and quality-of-life perks... how do they actually work? What is a camera and what is it doing when I start adjusting the various knobs?
Moving beyond simple automatic camera control is a daunting task. But it does not have to be exceptionally difficult. Your two keys to the kingdom are
aperture and
shutter speed. In the old days you had to worry about film "speed" or ISO/ASA as well as other contributing factors involving the chemical makeup of the emulsions on the specific films you were using. But nowadays all of this is condensed into a single menu in your camera options and most people never deal with it. In fact, most people that advance beyond full-auto will learn the basics of aperture and shutter speed and be done with it... and they'll be a more competent photographer than most of the population. This puts you in the category of that aunt or uncle you had that always took family pictures (and saved you all a ton of money) at events and would mail you cute little albums or packets of pictures. And if you have any experience with this, you know how valuable that person was and the amount of memories they were able to capture in vivid detail.
I feel talkative today (aka I've had a beer) so let's give a basic rundown of how a camera works. If this explanation seems logical and sensible to you, you'll probably be able to wrangle the advanced features of your camera; if you are confused or lost or bored, stick with auto mode and remember not to get too annoyed if your pictures stop coming out well during twilight and night time.
- Aperture: the aperture setting or "f-stop" is the measure of the amount of light that your lens allows to strike the film/CCD. You've seen apertures before if you've played video games like Portal. But for the sake of clarity I will include illustrations:
- Aperture settings are measures on a scale. A "wide" aperture or "fast" aperture are going to reside at the lower end of the spectrum and these allow large amounts of light to pass through the lens. The major benefit of wide apertures are that they allow you to play with depth of field to extreme degrees. Being able to throw the background out of focus is one of those very simple things that will make your pictures appear "professional" to the majority of people. I'm not joking. It really is that simple. But consider that because most camera phones and consumer-tier point-and-shoot cameras are smaller and/or lack significant optics, most people are locked out of this degree of control and can never utilize what is ostensibly a Photography 101-level technique.
- The automatic modes on all cameras, point-and-shoot, DSLR and film will default to an aperture or f-stop of f/5.6 (with a shutter speed of 1/60, more on this later). Any photography course will teach novices the fundamental technique of working your way out from f/5.6 because it is simple and effective. You are in the middle of the scale and have plenty of options in both directions based upon your lighting conditions and the relative speed of your subject.
- Not to neglect the other end of the scale, smaller apertures will let in much less light, but you will be give a much higher degree of focus including "unlimited" focus which will put the entire image in focus up to the point that sheer distance and natural phenomena begin to impede your view.
- Also be aware that the scales included in this image are not the entire scale. There are lenses which will offer you much lower and much higher numbers; however, these lenses and aperture ranges are considered less-common and have specialized uses for low-light or high speed situations, as well as extreme close-up (macro) photography and will also have a requisite increase in price.
- Portrait photographers will use low aperture settings combined with a knowledge of lighting setups (a proper portrait/studio setup will include a minimum of a back light, a hair light and two foreground lights) which can draw out striking detail and contour, as well as rich color data that the human eye may overlook during the motion of life.
- Shutter Speed: a camera's shutter speed is the measure of the duration within which light is allowed to strike the film/CCD. Here are some illustrations:
- I hope these make sense to you; shutter speed has always been the hardest thing for me to explain to people. Be aware that these illustrations represent SLOW MOTION RECREATIONS of the exposure process. When you press the button and hear the camera make that "click" or that "camera sound", what you are hearing (or were back in the old days) was the shutter of the camera cycling. We are talking fractions of a second here, and that is how the scale works.
- In terms of shutters speeds, 1/60th of a second (or simply 1/60) is considered default. Point-and-shoot cameras and camera phones will natively use 1/60 as their normal setting and adjust outward from there. And with good reason, because working out from 1/60 is a fundamental skill all photographers are taught early on in their education. When in doubt, set your speed to 1/60 (with a f-stop of 5.6) and begin to work your way out.
- I want to draw extra attention to the second image of the Minolta camera firing. You can see the shutter action as well as the mirror action. These are where your classic "camera" sound come from, generally speaking. In my last post I mentioned "mirrorless" technology; cameras with mirrorless construction are built without the need for a mirror mechanism that retracts out of the way (that mirror is there because it is attached to the viewfinder which your eye looks through; when you fire the camera, the mirror slides aside to allow the CCD/film directly behind it to become visible) and light floods your shooting medium of choice at your desired settings.
- The reason I draw your attention to this is because in my previous post I included an aside about mirrorless cameras. This brief explanation outlines in generalities the basic form and function of these cameras. Because they have no mirror mechanism which as you can see takes significant time to move when we're talking about fractions of a second, a mirrorless camera can rapid-shoot as fast as the shutter mechanism can flicker... which can be quite fast. What ever benefits you lose from having an optical viewfinder (as opposed to a digital viewfinder or offset viewfinder) will have to be weighed against being able to shoot at three, five or even ten frames per second.
- Bring it together: Okay, so you've got aperture which determines amounts of light and shutter which determines the duration of time within which that amount of light is allowed to strike the shooting medium. The Golden Rule with anything photography related is as follows: You will never get anything for free; to gain something in one area will cause a deficiency in another area. In ideal conditions, which would be late afternoon or early evening or the late-morning when the sun is at a lower angle and shadows have some length to them, you can work from a f/5.6 at 1/60 and come to a reasonable result without a ton of adjustment needed; a camera flash would almost certainly not be needed and a flash brings a whole other set of considerations into play vis-a-vis shutter speed which are better left for an intermediate course.
- But what about conditions when lighting is not ideal? That is to say: what about most of the day? Mid-afternoon, early-morning, evening and night are not considered ideal times to shoot. During these hours you will see your cellphone cameras and point-and-shoot cameras fail. If you only use your DSLR on automatic mode, you will begin to see your camera fail to get the shot. Automatic modes have come a long way, I will not deny that. You'll get a lot of great night shots and modern auto modes can really handle camera flash well and take the work out of getting it right.
- Changing your aperture requires a change in your shutter speed, which will impact the way light strikes the shooting medium and considerations about ambient light levels. During the day or in a high-light situation, when you run your aperture wide open because you want to get that awesome effect from the depth-of-field, you need to shoot at a higher shutter speed. Think about it:the aperture is wide open, letting in the maximum amount of light; therefore, you want your shutter speed to be on the faster side of 1/60 to limit the amount of light getting through so you can avoid an overexposure which will lead to your whites being washed out and bright highlights of pure white space.
- Conversely, in the dark or a low-light situation during which you want to take the same picture, you'll want to pair your wide aperture with a slower shutter speed to actually let all of that light soak into the shooting medium and deliver the detail you seek. All well and good... EXCEPT! At shutter speeds below 1/60 such as 1/30 or 1/4 you need to have a tripod or some sort of stability assistance. Why? Because 1/60 is your magic number in terms of natural focus; shooting slower than 1/60 of a second means your camera will now begin to pick up your body movements, interference from the movement of camera mechanisms and most importantly the movement of your subject matter. Maybe you want your subject to be blurry but everything else in-focus? To do that you need a tripod to stabilize the camera to its environment while the subject moves through it.
- These are just basic examples but you should be able to extrapolate out several of the ways in which these two powerful functions of your camera enable a knowledgeable photographer to capture pictures in most situations.
- Camera flash is a whole other category of discussion because you can piggyback off of the speed of light (aka the camera flash) to enhance your effective shutter speed and capture pretty much anything in a perfect frozen moment; but this is a highly-technical aspect of photography that involves a great deal of understanding over light, light conditions and spatial reckoning.
- The ISO/ASA or "film speed" are lesser considerations for most photographers nowadays and processes like "push photography" are slowly becoming a lost art form. But your digital camera (even a point-and-shoot) will give you control over ISO and you can use this to create some interesting effects or to widen your effective shooting range in odd lighting situations. This stuff is pretty advanced. I'm telling you that it exists but you're going to have to seek me out or pursue it on your own if you want a proper lesson on it. ISO is well beyond the scope of a basic photography lesson and should not ever come into play during your purchasing decisions.
- Lenses??: Lenses are going to be another world of consideration if you go the DSLR or mirrorless route. Be aware that many kits are "body only" and include no lenses; but these should be obvious to discern. Most kits will give you a "kit lens" which is a average lens offering a typical range of f-stops and range of zoom. Telephoto lenses or "zoom" lenses are rarely packed-in, though you can find some nice bundles out there. A well-rounded set of lenses for a beginner would include your kit lens, some sort of telephoto lens with a maximum focal length of ~200mm and a portrait lens. With these three lenses you can take just about any picture you want. Further consideration may be taken for macro lenses to take extreme close-up pictures of small objects. You may also find an interest in a nice set of polarizing filters to screw onto the ends of your other lenses, as most lenses are threaded at the end to allow for filters and those filters also have threads.
- A quick note on filters: I like to keep a crystal clear filter on the end of my lenses just as an extra layer of protection. Better to accidentally scratch it on my sweater than the lens itself when I forget to use a lens cleaner. Otherwise the most common filter people use is a polarizer, which is a filter that looks like a blue-tinted piece of glass. They are generally inexpensive and during normal lighting conditions will draw out deep blues in the sky and striking greens in the grass and trees. Sometimes you want to take this thing off though. And don't use it at night. Beyond that there are lots of types of filters from any color you can think of to patterns to fractal overlays that shatter your image like a kaleidoscope. You can screw multiple filters onto the end of a lens but you should be wary of this. Remember that anything you put between your film medium and your subject is ultimately just another obstruction.
That's enough for now. I can give dissertations on printers and paper and film but that's beyond the scope of where you are at right now. Please be sure to let us know when you get a camera. I will post a few outlines of basic techniques that will enhance your pictures and give you a head start on getting the results you desire.
As always, feel free to ask any questions and thank you for your time. I'll come through later to do another proof-read and spell check pass.
