A gray card is a special card of various dimensions. It is used in digital photography to set the white balance and for measuring the exposure. A gray card set might contain a white, gray and black cards. In general, it’s better to use an 18% gray card, as a white card might be too [...]
Metering is a photography term which roughly means “light measurement”. In many “point and shoot” digital cameras, and in all DSLRs, several metering modes let you control the exposure of your photos. While digital camera manufacturers name them differently, there are three main metering modes found in modern digital cameras. Matrix Metering (Evaluative, Multi-Zone, Multi-Segment) [...]
RAW is not an abbreviation. It’s an image format that doesn’t use lossy compression. A RAW image holds the raw data that comes directly from the digital camera sensor. It preserves every single detail captured by the camera. Like the negatives in film cameras, RAW images need to be processed first. They then have to [...]
Lenses have different focal lengths. Normal lenses have a focal length of about 50mm. They are known as normal because they “see” as a human eye does. A telephoto lens has a focal length of 70mm or more, and it is used to bring the subjects closer, or magnify them. A telephoto lens with a [...]
Before explaining what macro photography is, let’s define the word “macro”, just to be clear. Macro means large, big. Not every lens is capable of macro photography, but, in general, zoom lenses have this capability; the photographer only needs to turn this setting through a menu or dedicated button. And while some lenses cannot focus [...]
As its name implies, an intervalometer is a device that performs a specific function at regular intervals. In digital cameras, an intervalometer makes it possible to automate the process of taking tens, hundreds and even thousands of pictures without us even touching the camera. It makes Time Lapse Photography a lot easier. Time Lapse Photography [...]
The term “pixel”, or picture element, is not only used in photography. As the name says, a pixel is the smallest element of a picture, just like a letter is the smallest element of a word. It is used to define the resolution of a screen or a digital camera sensor. The color of each [...]
The focal length is the distance, measured in millimeters, between the optical center of the lens and the focal point (film or sensor), when the lens is focused on infinity. Various lenses have various focal lengths. Wide angle lenses have a focal length of less than 35mm in film cameras and full-frame DSLRs; lenses are [...]
The speed of a lens is determined by the maximum aperture of the lens at a given focal length. For example a 50mm f/2.0 lens is faster than a 50mm f/2.8 lens, because the first one has a smaller f-number (larger aperture), which means that it allows more light through the camera’s diaphragm and onto [...]
EXIF Data is the information stored in an image file, and you can access it in a variety of ways. If the camera you purchased came with bundled software, and, of course, if you installed this software, then it might have an option that shows you the EXIF data. But you can access this information [...]
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