Digital Cameras Spy Digital Cameras

Digital cameras make it easy and fun for amateurs to capture endearing images of their pets. Tiny dogs, big dogs, beautiful dogs, scruffy or ugly dogs; they all have an innate grace about them. The lift and tilt of their head, the quizzical look when you address them, the body-posture of anticipation; we love them and we want great photos. If you want memory-maker photos, try these easy tips:

Choose Bright Light and a Familiar Location: Plan to shoot outside, if possible. The light outside is brighter, and brighter light is best. Pick a familiar outdoor spot, probably your backyard. Think about what kind of shot you want: Do you want a playful, vigorous and alert shot of Max or do you want to see his gentle, sweet and mellow-side? The sun must be to the side of your pet, not behind him. Put Max in the spot where you want to photograph him. Get down eye-to-eye with him and check the background. Is there good contrast between his fur and the background? Are there shadows falling from a roof-line or garage? Is the background messy with children's toys, a trash can or lawn furniture that you don't want in the shot? If so, something has to go -- either the unwanted props or Max. Let Max be the star.

Take Time to Practice: Practice setting up the shot you want. If your dog,(we'll call him "Max") is trained to sit, then you have a great shot right in front of you, if not, then it's a bit like teaching him a new trick. Most dogs do not like to pose but you'll encourage him through repetition. Kneel or lie down close, with the camera positioned at just below his eye-level. Zoom-in and fill the frame with Max. He'll certainly be curious and move in and out of the shot. While Max is getting familiar with you "down there," you can see the lighting and composition of the photo in the LED. Use his favorite toy to distract him or wait-him-out...just relax in position. He'll tire of you, eventually, and suss out the birds or squirrels. Lure him back to the photo spot with a favorite biscuit or snack. He will quickly learn that a treat is in store when he is in the photo spot, and that will mean a good camera shot for you.

Persistence and Repetition: Repeat the practice steps for a week or so, taking photos each day, with and without the flash, and always using the Sport Mode shutter speed. Let Max get to know and expect the flash. After the session is over, you'll make an educated decision about using the flash or not. Delete the practice photos, if you want, and start again tomorrow. The drill is to get Max familiar with the camera in your hand, the flash and the same location every day.

For bold and beautiful still shots: Use the vertical camera position and get close-up to capture his facial features, expressions and the texture of his fur. Start shooting the moment he settles down, and keep shooting. Don't stop to checkout the shot-quality. The best shots will be when he isn't looking directly at you. His eyes are the most compelling feature but it's also important that his ears are up and his nose is moist. Pull back for a medium or full-length shot, using the horizontal camera position.

For vibrant and high-spirited action shots: You know Max well, so you know where he scampers, ferrets and has the most fun. Does he like to roll in the grass, nudge a ball with his nose, or crouch for a low-flying bird? With the digital setting on Sport Mode, snap away. Most digital shutter speeds are not fast enough to capture a moving image at just the right moment, but lots and lots of pics, shot in quick succession, will yield some very good photos of your pet's shenanigans.

Flash Tips: In natural light (outdoors), your flash is probably limited to a range of 10 to 12 feet. Try both flash and no flash to determine what works best. Most digital cameras have a "fill-in" or "force flash" setting. With this option on, you'll get a flash every time you press the shutter button, which should bring out unique details such as the color and texture of fur and luminous eyes. The "fill-in" flash may over-expose and the auto-flash may not activate because it isn't dark enough. Practice, practice, practice and be familiar with your camera to maximize its options.

Indoor tips: Lighting indoors is a special challenge. Use simple lighting and then judge what you need to add or take away. Pay close attention to backgrounds: make sure your pet has a contrasting background and avoid busy patterned fabrics or upholstery.

Tips for dogs and kids: Children can get their pets to do amazing things. Can the kids get Max to wear a hat for a still shot? Great "chase" shots are taken with a child in the lead. Get a shot of your dog "kissing" a child, grandma or gramps, by putting a spot of butter or honey where you want the kiss to be.

General Tips: Have your dog brushed and clean. Consider removing his collar as light can reflect off of it. Keep the atmosphere fun. If you are tense, irritable and impatient your pet will be too. Take lots and lots of shots and you'll get more than a few very good ones.

Copyright 2006, Ian White

Author Ian White specializes in helping people who are interested in finding a live-in pet sitter (house sitter) in their town. House sitters provide free pet minding, gardening and home security in exchange for accomodation. To find out about these services, visit http://www.housecarers.com.au This is a free service for homeowners. Free registration for confidential matching with house sitters in your area.

# posted by polaroid-digital-cameras20659 @ 11:09 AM 0 comments

The hottest thing in the digital camera market is undoubtedly the digital SLR, which is better known as a dSLR. While dSLRs are flying off dealer shelves, many new users are confused about the terminology. Most people know that SLR stands for "single lens reflex." Since nearly all SLRs accept interchangeable lenses, it would appear they should be known as multiple lens reflex (MLR) cameras.

If you want to understand how the SLR received it's name, you have to dip into the history of the camera. Early cameras were similar to the view cameras used today. The photographer looked through the lens, focused, composed and then inserted a single film plate behind the optics to make an image. While the entire process was crude by modern standards, the photographer enjoyed great control, since he looked directly through the actual imaging lens to compose the shot.

While this was fine for still life, portraits and landscapes, this process did not lend itself to action photography. These early cameras could only record a single image at a time. Which is why you have never seen a motor-driven view camera.

Realizing the need to offer sequences of exposures, camera makers begin to experiment with various roll-film designs. With a roll of film in the camera, the photographer could fire off numerous images without reloading. Although this improved throughput dramatically, it caused another problem. The roll of film had to pass closely behind the camera's optics, which meant that the photographer could no longer look through the camera lens to compose and focus.

Rangefinder cameras appear to keep things in focus

The lower-end, consumer roll-film cameras generally used an inexpensive "fixed-focus" lens, so a simple viewfinder was sufficient. Better quality optics, however, require the lens to be focused, and since the photographer could not look through the lens with a roll-film camera, this was a major problem. One of the first solutions to this problem was the Rangefinder -- a type of camera that offered a distance measuring scale in the viewfinder. By determining the range from the viewfinder, the photographer could then adjust the focus to match -- usually with very good results.

Twin Lens Reflex cameras offer another solution

While the rangefinder type cameras worked well, the camera industry is always evolving. A second method of allowing the photographer to focus and compose appeared in the "Twin-Lens Reflex" cameras. These cameras used two identical lenses, arranged one on top of the other in the manner of an over-and-under shotgun. The film winds past the lower lens, while the photographer can focus through the upper lens. The twin-lens cameras were fairly bulky, so designers added a mirror and ground glass to the top of the camera, hence the term "reflex.

Now the user could hold the camera at waist level and look down at the ground glass which previewed the image via the mirror behind the upper lens. As the user adjusted the focus on the upper lens, a gear mechanism moved the lower "taking lens" to match.

While both rangefinders and twin-lens reflex cameras offered a credible way to focus and preview a shot, neither allowed the photographer to actually look through the lens. This sometimes made exact composition difficult.

SLRs take cameras another step forward

In their quest to allow users to see through the actual "taking" lens, camera makers turned to the periscope -- a simple device using two mirrors placed at opposite angles to bend the light path. Periscopes are easy to understand -- any kid can construct one from a couple of mirrors and some scrap wood.

In a camera, the lower mirror is placed at a 45 degree angle directly behind the lens. Light striking the mirror is projected upwards to a ground glass. While a second mirror would show the image on the ground glass to the user, it would not appear right, because mirrors tend to reverse things. So camera designers added a prism arrangement that corrects the reversed image. When you peer through the viewfinder on a SLR, you look through a prism, which displays the image on a ground glass, which displays the projected image from the mirror located behind the lens.

There is just one problem. If you have been paying attention, you have no-doubt realized that the lower mirror blocks the light path to the film (or digital sensor as the case may be.) Now the photographer can look though the lens, but the image cannot be projected on to the filmplane.

So the camera designers had to add another wrinkle. They had to move that mirror. Just long enough to make an exposure, since when the mirror moved, the photographer could no longer see anything through the lens. So they designed the "instant-return" mirror. At the instant of exposure, the mirror flies upward, the shutter fires and the mirror snaps back down. It is a incredible feat, when you consider that instant return mirrors have to flip up and back in a heartbeat, over and over for the life of the camera.

Once the instant return mirror was perfected, photographers could once again design their images by looking through the lens. Unlike the twin lens reflex, this new breed of camera needed only one lens to focus and shoot with. So they became known as... you guessed it.... Single-Lens Reflex cameras.

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Tom Bonner provides photography and web design services to clients in the Gastonia, North Carolina area. You can find out more about Tom at http://adventuresindesign.com

# posted by polaroid-digital-cameras20659 @ 9:11 AM 0 comments