WEBVTT - Digital Camera Tips 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.960 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.240 --> 0:00:08.760 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology with 0:00:08.920 --> 0:00:12.879 tech Stuff from how stuff Works dot Com. Join Josh 0:00:12.880 --> 0:00:15.280 and Chuck, the guys who bring you stuff you should know, 0:00:15.600 --> 0:00:17.680 as they take a trip around the world to help 0:00:17.720 --> 0:00:20.720 you get smarter in a topsy TRV economy. Check out 0:00:20.760 --> 0:00:23.439 the all new super Stuff Guide to the Economy from 0:00:23.440 --> 0:00:27.240 how stuff Works dot Com, available now exclusively on iTunes. 0:00:27.640 --> 0:00:33.080 Hello there, everybody, it's time for tech Stuff. Welcome to 0:00:33.080 --> 0:00:35.800 the podcast. My name is Chris Poulett. I'm an editor 0:00:35.840 --> 0:00:38.320 here at how stuff Works dot com, and as usual, 0:00:38.440 --> 0:00:40.880 I have sitting right here next to me, senior writer 0:00:40.960 --> 0:00:44.400 Jonathan Strickland. Hey there, except today you're gonna have to 0:00:44.479 --> 0:00:48.360 picture this in your head because we're talking about pictures again. 0:00:49.040 --> 0:00:51.920 We just did this with the megapixels. I was even 0:00:51.920 --> 0:00:54.840 going to say, can you picture that? And I realized, wait, no, 0:00:55.000 --> 0:01:01.000 I already did that. So someday your prince will come nice. 0:01:01.080 --> 0:01:04.880 I get it. Prince p R I N T. S. C. Pallette. 0:01:04.880 --> 0:01:07.080 There did a puny. Let's listen for him to do 0:01:07.120 --> 0:01:09.000 another one. He's got two down. No, no no, no, no no, no, 0:01:09.319 --> 0:01:11.440 I'm stopping here because we have to get into our 0:01:11.760 --> 0:01:16.119 digital camera tricks and tips. Yes, So when we when 0:01:16.160 --> 0:01:19.760 we did the Megapixel podcast, we actually had several people 0:01:19.840 --> 0:01:22.520 right in and thank us for it. They were people 0:01:22.520 --> 0:01:25.520 who were who were shopping for digital cameras and they 0:01:25.520 --> 0:01:27.640 were happy to hear that. You know, megapixels are not 0:01:27.720 --> 0:01:29.800 necessarily the end all be all when it comes to 0:01:29.840 --> 0:01:32.479 shopping for a camera. I mean, it's an important consideration, 0:01:32.520 --> 0:01:35.480 but not the only one. And uh so we thought 0:01:35.520 --> 0:01:38.800 we'd we'd share some information about ways to use your 0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:41.800 digital camera effectively and get the best out of it. 0:01:42.240 --> 0:01:45.480 And so away we go. You want me to start, 0:01:45.760 --> 0:01:49.880 go right ahead, Okay. So one of the the big 0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:52.920 issues with taking pictures with any kind of camera really, 0:01:52.920 --> 0:01:56.040 but digital cameras in particular, are it's you know, you'll 0:01:56.080 --> 0:01:57.800 you'll see like pictures will come out a little blurry 0:01:57.920 --> 0:02:00.480 or it just doesn't it looks a little off. Um, 0:02:00.480 --> 0:02:02.800 it's because you really need to steady yourself before you 0:02:02.800 --> 0:02:05.200 take a picture. I mean this is just very basic stuff. 0:02:05.520 --> 0:02:09.040 Uh taking a picture with one hand, Um, that's probably 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:12.639 gonna give you the worst picture possible for that particular snapshot. 0:02:12.680 --> 0:02:14.920 I mean, you might get lucky and be have you know, 0:02:15.120 --> 0:02:19.160 nerves of steel, but really you should use both hands. Uh. 0:02:19.360 --> 0:02:23.000 If you can prop yourself against something to hold yourself steady, 0:02:23.080 --> 0:02:25.600 that might be even better. And of course the best 0:02:25.760 --> 0:02:28.120 choice of all is to use something like a tripod. 0:02:28.680 --> 0:02:32.680 Or have you seen the gorilla pods? The gorilla pods? Yeah, 0:02:32.720 --> 0:02:35.920 gorilla pods. Okay, this is this is something that I 0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:40.639 think is uber cool. Gorilla pods are special tripods. They 0:02:40.639 --> 0:02:46.560 have articulated legs. Each leg is a series of ball joints, really, 0:02:46.919 --> 0:02:49.800 and you can use it to set your camera on 0:02:50.080 --> 0:02:54.520 uneven surfaces to create an even plane when you're taking pictures, 0:02:55.040 --> 0:02:57.760 and you can even wrap them around objects like say 0:02:57.840 --> 0:03:00.640 a lamp post, So you wrap the little legs of 0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:03.000 the tripod around the lamp post and you can hold 0:03:03.080 --> 0:03:05.839 the the camera up higher than you would be able 0:03:05.840 --> 0:03:08.760 to stand. And of course the best part is if 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:11.320 you use the timer on your camera, you can be 0:03:11.360 --> 0:03:14.840 in your own pictures. So you've got you've effectively turned 0:03:14.880 --> 0:03:18.160 the world into your own photographer. Um, you can use 0:03:18.200 --> 0:03:21.280 this little gorilla pod to hold up your camera wherever 0:03:21.360 --> 0:03:23.520 you like, pretty much as long as there's a surface 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:27.800 or or verticals structure that you can attach it to 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:30.520 you can use it. And they have different models for 0:03:30.560 --> 0:03:34.120 different kinds of cameras, everything from your basic little compact 0:03:34.160 --> 0:03:37.640 point and shoot to uh to a full sized professional 0:03:37.720 --> 0:03:41.840 camera uh neat things. Um, so that's a there's a 0:03:41.840 --> 0:03:43.880 tip for you. Make sure you you keep your camera 0:03:43.960 --> 0:03:48.080 nice and steady and if if possible, use whatever is 0:03:48.160 --> 0:03:51.160 at your disposal in the area, and that way you 0:03:51.200 --> 0:03:55.280 can you can get a much sharper picture. Yeah. Speaking 0:03:55.280 --> 0:03:58.520 as a former newspaper reported a small paper, UM, you know, 0:03:58.560 --> 0:04:00.880 we had to we had to do a little of everything. Um, 0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:06.160 you know, writing, editing, uh, paste up, layout, photography. Um, 0:04:06.360 --> 0:04:07.920 I could tell you that. Um, you know, if you 0:04:07.920 --> 0:04:12.760 don't happen have a tripod handy, especially in events where 0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:14.960 people are doing a lot of moving around or you 0:04:15.000 --> 0:04:17.960 need to pick up and move quickly, um, say for 0:04:18.000 --> 0:04:22.719 example sports. Um, you can always use yourself, you know, 0:04:22.720 --> 0:04:24.839 if you can get yourself in a steady position or 0:04:24.920 --> 0:04:28.200 lean against something and steady your arm. Um, just having 0:04:28.200 --> 0:04:30.880 a poll or something to to kind of lean up 0:04:30.880 --> 0:04:34.440 against and and take some of the uh you know, 0:04:34.920 --> 0:04:38.520 humanity out of it. Yeah, exactly that that'll go a 0:04:38.600 --> 0:04:40.880 long way. And uh, you know another thing that I 0:04:40.920 --> 0:04:43.359 was thinking about, you know, just that you you know, 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:47.640 suggest about blurry pictures. Um, light has a lot to 0:04:47.680 --> 0:04:49.560 do with it. Yes, you're gonna have to keep in 0:04:49.600 --> 0:04:52.839 mind if you're using especially you know, using a digital camera, 0:04:53.320 --> 0:04:57.200 that the less light you have, the more likely, uh 0:04:57.240 --> 0:05:01.800 it's going to have a problem focusing. So, um, it's 0:05:01.800 --> 0:05:05.320 gonna try and compensate for the light, the lack of 0:05:05.440 --> 0:05:07.080 light in the room. And when it does that, it's 0:05:07.080 --> 0:05:09.320 gonna leave the shutter open a little bit longer. And 0:05:09.400 --> 0:05:13.440 if you're moving, you're gonna blur the picture, so try 0:05:13.480 --> 0:05:16.440 to That's gonna be especially important to try to keep 0:05:16.480 --> 0:05:19.480 steady when you're in a low light situation because of 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:22.440 that of that problem. Yeah, you can actually adjust the 0:05:22.440 --> 0:05:26.080 shutter speed on many cameras, so you could theoretically make 0:05:26.120 --> 0:05:28.440 the shutter move faster, but in a low light environment 0:05:28.440 --> 0:05:30.599 that may mean the camera cannot get enough light for 0:05:30.680 --> 0:05:34.360 that picture to come out very well. But uh, there 0:05:34.400 --> 0:05:37.360 are ways to fix that in post, as we like 0:05:37.480 --> 0:05:40.560 to say. So, uh So, really when it comes to 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:43.320 lighting and and if if you've become familiar with some 0:05:43.440 --> 0:05:47.080 photo editing software, you might be able to compensate for 0:05:47.360 --> 0:05:49.839 dim lighting a little better than you could for say, 0:05:49.920 --> 0:05:52.720 a blurry picture. So if you have to choose between 0:05:52.720 --> 0:05:56.680 the two, I would go with UH making the shutter 0:05:56.720 --> 0:06:00.880 speed a little faster UH and dealing with the dim 0:06:00.920 --> 0:06:04.320 condition rather than UM than having to try and compensate 0:06:04.320 --> 0:06:06.039 for a blurry picture. But here's the nice thing about 0:06:06.040 --> 0:06:09.440 digital cameras. You can see what the picture looks like 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:13.400 immediately after you take it, and it's in a digital format. 0:06:13.520 --> 0:06:15.640 You don't have to keep it. You can delete it 0:06:15.760 --> 0:06:18.440 right then and there, and you can keep on taking pictures. 0:06:18.720 --> 0:06:23.080 So here's another tip for you. Try out your cameras settings. 0:06:24.040 --> 0:06:26.520 Now I'm really guilty of this. I tend to use 0:06:26.600 --> 0:06:28.720 three or four settings a lot because I happen to 0:06:28.720 --> 0:06:31.719 know they worked pretty well, but I don't necessarily try 0:06:31.760 --> 0:06:35.120 all of them. And I remember I was using my 0:06:35.160 --> 0:06:38.720 digital camera UM at an event and I had accidentally 0:06:38.839 --> 0:06:42.080 changed the settings because it used a little wheel to 0:06:42.279 --> 0:06:44.800 set the settings, you know, and I accidentally thumbed when 0:06:44.800 --> 0:06:46.719 I opened it up, I thumbed the wheel to a 0:06:46.720 --> 0:06:50.880 different position, and my pictures came out very very well, 0:06:50.920 --> 0:06:52.640 and I was like, wow, I'm I've gotten a lot 0:06:52.720 --> 0:06:54.599 better at taking photos and I was like, wait a minute, 0:06:54.640 --> 0:06:57.960 this isn't on the setting. I oh, and I realized 0:06:58.000 --> 0:07:00.240 that the setting I was using was not necessarily the 0:07:00.279 --> 0:07:02.680 most effective one for the situation I was in. So 0:07:03.040 --> 0:07:07.200 my suggestion is test out your different settings and doing 0:07:07.240 --> 0:07:10.320 in a different and several different environments, so you know, 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:14.160 just just play with it. Find out which settings seem 0:07:14.240 --> 0:07:17.240 to work in the best situations. So for things that 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:19.840 where you're doing a lot of fast action and bright lights, 0:07:19.880 --> 0:07:23.680 you could clearly you could make the shutter speed much 0:07:23.720 --> 0:07:26.920 shorter than um. And if it's in a damn situation, 0:07:27.000 --> 0:07:29.160 find out if it's better to keep a longer shutter 0:07:29.160 --> 0:07:31.600 speed or if it's better to just try and deal 0:07:31.720 --> 0:07:34.520 with the dim images in a photo editing program later 0:07:34.560 --> 0:07:39.080 on down the line. Yep, yep, that's true. Um. And 0:07:39.240 --> 0:07:41.400 you know, it's it's funny that that you would say 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:47.360 that talking about different settings on your camera. I mean, um, 0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:49.640 that little book that they give you in the box 0:07:49.960 --> 0:07:51.960 with the camera, they will actually tell you what all 0:07:51.960 --> 0:07:55.600 those buttons and gizmos do. You are kidding me. But 0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:57.880 and this isn't really a tipper trick, but this is 0:07:57.920 --> 0:07:59.600 just sort of a thing to think about. And I 0:07:59.640 --> 0:08:01.160 don't think a lot of us think about. I think 0:08:01.160 --> 0:08:04.119 we you know, haul our camera off to shoot something 0:08:04.160 --> 0:08:07.800 in our kids soccer game, or you know, to some 0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:11.440 some other event, family event, and we shoot pictures and 0:08:11.440 --> 0:08:13.640 then we just don't think about it. You know. That's 0:08:13.640 --> 0:08:15.800 one of those cool things about a digital camera. You 0:08:15.840 --> 0:08:19.120 can shoot as much as you want. So why not 0:08:19.320 --> 0:08:21.880 take your camera out when there's nothing riding on it? 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:24.840 You know, there's no there's nothing big going on, there's 0:08:24.840 --> 0:08:26.880 nothing to ruin if you go out and play around 0:08:26.880 --> 0:08:29.200 with your camera settings. And it's not like you have 0:08:29.240 --> 0:08:31.640 to go spend a lot of money on film developing. 0:08:32.280 --> 0:08:34.600 You know, it's a digital camera. You can delete everything 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:36.800 if you want. You could buy an extra smart card 0:08:37.000 --> 0:08:40.920 for a fairly low amount, curatively speaking. And then you 0:08:41.000 --> 0:08:43.000 even have a couple of smart cards that you can 0:08:43.080 --> 0:08:46.000 swap out and you know, fill up one and you're like, well, 0:08:46.080 --> 0:08:48.720 let's try it on. Let's try taking those same photos 0:08:48.840 --> 0:08:52.280 but on a different resolution setting. That's another good tip 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:57.319 is if you are finding that that your camera capacity 0:08:57.360 --> 0:09:00.560 fills up far too quickly, it might be that you 0:09:00.640 --> 0:09:03.920 might have set the quality standards a little too high. 0:09:04.679 --> 0:09:06.599 It turns out like that. This goes back to the 0:09:06.640 --> 0:09:10.640 megapixels discussion we had earlier. Uh, if you said it 0:09:10.760 --> 0:09:13.199 to the to the highest settings and start taking pictures, 0:09:13.200 --> 0:09:17.240 those individual pictures are going to be very large files. Uh, 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:20.840 and won't necessarily make your picture look better either, unless 0:09:20.880 --> 0:09:24.240 you're taking something like a very wide photo and you 0:09:24.280 --> 0:09:28.000 want the ability to zoom in afterward to a specific 0:09:28.040 --> 0:09:30.680 point and you don't want the resolution to suffer because 0:09:30.679 --> 0:09:33.560 of that. If you're or if you want to print 0:09:33.640 --> 0:09:36.920 a really large print. In either of those cases, than yeah, 0:09:36.920 --> 0:09:40.200 you probably want to use the highest resolution possible. But 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:43.439 otherwise you probably don't need the highest resolution and you'll 0:09:43.480 --> 0:09:45.480 be able to take far more pictures that way because 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:50.079 the file sizes will be much smaller. That's true. And 0:09:50.120 --> 0:09:53.559 you know, I was thinking, and I was actually reading 0:09:53.559 --> 0:09:57.680 on a post by Rick Mishleski of MacLife. I hope 0:09:57.679 --> 0:10:00.600 I got his name right. Um, he did at an 0:10:00.720 --> 0:10:04.120 essay on maclif dot com about sports photography because he 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:08.240 was shooting pictures of his daughter's rugby game. Apparently she 0:10:08.360 --> 0:10:12.280 played for Stanford, and um, he was talking about shooting 0:10:12.320 --> 0:10:16.200 practice photos. But um, what he said was you need 0:10:16.240 --> 0:10:18.400 to uh, and this is this is again sort of 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:21.880 not a camera trick, but it kind of is. Um, 0:10:21.920 --> 0:10:24.120 he said. One thing that to do is, if you're 0:10:24.120 --> 0:10:27.280 gonna shoot something like sports photography, watch the people, like 0:10:27.320 --> 0:10:30.280 find out who the players to watch are. If you 0:10:30.320 --> 0:10:33.480 know number fourteen is the playmaker. Will get yourself in 0:10:33.480 --> 0:10:35.280 a situation where you're gonna be able to get a 0:10:35.320 --> 0:10:39.800 clear shot at this particular person and um kind of 0:10:39.800 --> 0:10:41.680 watch for a few minutes to see what he or 0:10:41.679 --> 0:10:44.880 she's gonna do. Because um, if you get an idea 0:10:45.040 --> 0:10:47.640 from body language that something bigs about to happen, that 0:10:47.640 --> 0:10:49.800 they're going to make a break for the ball or 0:10:49.840 --> 0:10:52.360 something like that, you can set yourself up to get 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:55.560 a great shot. And the better you can focus on 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:59.280 their face even more so than the action involved. You 0:10:59.320 --> 0:11:02.360 might get a really fantastic sports photo that you might 0:11:02.400 --> 0:11:05.280 not have gotten. But um. On the other hand, it 0:11:05.320 --> 0:11:08.120 also helps to have the right equipment because some cameras 0:11:08.160 --> 0:11:11.920 aren't set up to do sports photography. You need, you know, 0:11:12.200 --> 0:11:14.839 the the ability to um to shoot a lot of 0:11:14.880 --> 0:11:19.839 photos quickly. UM, sort of like the cannon or no, 0:11:20.080 --> 0:11:22.600 not cannon, the Cassio camera that we saw at CS 0:11:22.640 --> 0:11:25.920 two thousand and eight. That shoots uh sixty frames per second. 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:30.320 It's usually called burst photography exactly. Um something that will 0:11:30.360 --> 0:11:33.760 shoot that and and it will even um shoot photos 0:11:33.800 --> 0:11:36.040 before you if you hold down the you know, sort 0:11:36.080 --> 0:11:38.360 of half pressed the shutter button, it will actually start 0:11:38.360 --> 0:11:41.240 shooting photos before. So it's sort of like a TVO. 0:11:41.400 --> 0:11:43.520 You can sort of back up and look at some 0:11:43.559 --> 0:11:45.360 of the photos before. So if you happen to be 0:11:45.480 --> 0:11:47.040 just a fraction of a second off and go, oh, 0:11:47.080 --> 0:11:49.080 I messed a shot, you can back up and look 0:11:49.080 --> 0:11:51.480 a seat, maybe you actually did get it scares me. 0:11:51.520 --> 0:11:54.680 It's a camera that knows you want to take a picture. Yeah. Yeah, 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:57.240 But the thing about that is is that's not you. 0:11:57.400 --> 0:12:00.160 That's really the camera itself. It's not a trick that 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:03.160 you can learn to do. That trick is getting the 0:12:03.200 --> 0:12:06.200 right spending the money for it. And that was a 0:12:06.200 --> 0:12:08.080 at the time of release. And I think they've come 0:12:08.080 --> 0:12:10.280 out with a camera that supplants that even it was 0:12:10.320 --> 0:12:12.400 a thousand dollars worth of camera and a lot of 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:14.600 us can't afford that. Yeah, there's a six hundred dollar 0:12:14.720 --> 0:12:17.840 Cassio now that takes I think forty a second, so 0:12:17.880 --> 0:12:21.439 it's a little slower, but it's also significantly cheaper. Um. 0:12:21.480 --> 0:12:23.400 But yeah, yeah. The wonderful thing about that is, of 0:12:23.400 --> 0:12:26.319 course you can flip through all those different photos and 0:12:26.320 --> 0:12:29.000 and you know there you might think, wow, did I 0:12:29.040 --> 0:12:31.760 catch that one moment? And there's a good chance you did. 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:34.319 If it's taking that many a second infect you may 0:12:34.320 --> 0:12:37.000 find like five or six pictures that you really have 0:12:37.080 --> 0:12:41.400 trouble deciding on between the group of them. Um. I've 0:12:41.400 --> 0:12:45.120 got a similar, very very basic tip she kind of 0:12:45.120 --> 0:12:48.080 touched on there, which is that if you are preparing 0:12:48.120 --> 0:12:50.120 to take a photo and you know that something is 0:12:50.160 --> 0:12:53.200 about to happen, and you know, this happened to me 0:12:53.240 --> 0:12:55.680 a lot before I realized there was a very simple 0:12:56.000 --> 0:12:58.520 solution where I would take a photo of something, but 0:12:58.559 --> 0:13:01.160 I would get the moment me lee after the moment 0:13:01.160 --> 0:13:05.200 I wanted to catch, hold down the button halfway. That 0:13:05.240 --> 0:13:09.160 will prepare your camera. It'll lock focus, so it'll find 0:13:09.160 --> 0:13:12.480 the It'll essentially it it focuses on the central figure 0:13:12.559 --> 0:13:15.080 that's in the frame. Um, it'll lock the focus and 0:13:15.120 --> 0:13:17.760 prepare for a photo. So when that moment happens, all 0:13:17.760 --> 0:13:19.200 you have to do is press it down the rest 0:13:19.200 --> 0:13:21.719 of the way and it'll take the picture. Um, this 0:13:21.760 --> 0:13:25.800 will save you the heartache of Wow, I got the 0:13:25.840 --> 0:13:29.000 back of my daughter's leg in the frame while she 0:13:29.080 --> 0:13:33.480 ran by because I was preparing a second too late. Uh. 0:13:33.559 --> 0:13:36.360 And in a similar vein, let's say that you want 0:13:36.360 --> 0:13:38.199 to take a picture and you don't want to do 0:13:38.280 --> 0:13:40.719 the normal like let's have the person standing in the 0:13:40.760 --> 0:13:43.319 middle of the frame of the photo. You want something 0:13:43.360 --> 0:13:45.520 a little cooler. You want them to be off to 0:13:45.600 --> 0:13:47.280 the side of the frame, and you want to have 0:13:47.320 --> 0:13:49.480 a little bit of the background in there. But every 0:13:49.480 --> 0:13:51.480 time you try and take the photo, you're getting the 0:13:51.520 --> 0:13:54.240 background in focus, not the not the person, not the 0:13:54.760 --> 0:13:58.400 person you want to capture. Uh. My suggestion then is 0:13:58.679 --> 0:14:01.520 first frame the picture as if that person is in 0:14:01.559 --> 0:14:05.160 the center half and press that button halfway down. That'll 0:14:05.200 --> 0:14:08.439 lock the focus. Then you can adjust your position so 0:14:08.520 --> 0:14:11.240 that you are pointing in the You've got the picture 0:14:11.280 --> 0:14:14.080 frame the way you really want it, and the focus 0:14:14.120 --> 0:14:15.959 will stay the same. You can press the button the 0:14:16.000 --> 0:14:18.520 rest of the way down. You got your picture. There 0:14:18.559 --> 0:14:21.880 you go. I actually have a two that sort of 0:14:22.000 --> 0:14:24.840 relate to, uh, to the things that you touched on 0:14:24.920 --> 0:14:29.040 just then. Um. One was I was reading some of 0:14:29.320 --> 0:14:32.240 David Pogue of the New York Times. He had a 0:14:33.640 --> 0:14:36.240 post where he talked about some different things that you 0:14:36.280 --> 0:14:39.760 can do to improve your photography. And I have a 0:14:39.760 --> 0:14:42.840 a C S two thousand eight. Again, I had my 0:14:43.080 --> 0:14:46.480 little Olympus two point one megapixel, which shoots pretty good 0:14:46.480 --> 0:14:49.320 photos really, but um, there's a problem. You know, it's 0:14:49.360 --> 0:14:51.440 a it's an older point and shoot, and I kept 0:14:51.440 --> 0:14:54.320 having trouble getting the moment like I would. I would 0:14:54.320 --> 0:14:56.000 set up and I got where I wanted to go, 0:14:56.400 --> 0:14:58.680 and I pushed the button and nothing would happen. That's 0:14:58.680 --> 0:15:01.640 called shutter lag. And pressing half pressing the button down 0:15:02.040 --> 0:15:04.680 and and having the camera focus also produces the shutter 0:15:04.760 --> 0:15:07.000 lag time because the camera is ready to take a picture. 0:15:07.040 --> 0:15:09.280 So when you completely press the button down the rest 0:15:09.320 --> 0:15:12.240 of the way, it should go ahead and take the 0:15:12.240 --> 0:15:15.920 picture without that that extra shutter lag because there the 0:15:15.960 --> 0:15:17.960 camera is not trying to figure out what's going on. 0:15:18.600 --> 0:15:21.680 But um, I read a National geographic and uh, you 0:15:21.680 --> 0:15:24.360 know they're reasonably decent with therefore talking. They know a 0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:28.320 thing or two about taking pictures, maybe even three. Um, 0:15:28.920 --> 0:15:31.880 they were suggesting that when you're composing your picture, you 0:15:31.880 --> 0:15:34.880 should imagine that the screen is divided up into nine 0:15:34.960 --> 0:15:38.600 segments basically like a tic tac toe board, and um, 0:15:38.640 --> 0:15:40.720 you want to center your subject at the intersection of 0:15:40.760 --> 0:15:44.200 the lines. Basically it's called the rule of thirds, and 0:15:44.240 --> 0:15:48.520 you're trying to get them in that position, uh, to 0:15:49.640 --> 0:15:52.560 basically help you compose the picture better and get more 0:15:52.600 --> 0:15:56.360 of a better composition. Um, you know, and hopefully you 0:15:56.400 --> 0:15:59.560 won't cut off the top of their head or something. Well, 0:15:59.560 --> 0:16:02.760 that's that's actually really important because uh, you know, all 0:16:02.760 --> 0:16:04.280 the tips and tricks are not going to help you 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:07.200 if you don't. If you don't you develop your own 0:16:07.240 --> 0:16:10.800 skill as a photographer. Um, you might get some practice, right, 0:16:10.840 --> 0:16:12.640 you might get some nice pictures, but you're not you know, 0:16:12.720 --> 0:16:16.440 you're not gonna maximize your your use of that camera 0:16:16.520 --> 0:16:19.040 without a little work on your part. Um, I've got 0:16:19.040 --> 0:16:22.960 another basic tip that I learned about while researching this 0:16:23.040 --> 0:16:25.120 I had. It's something I did not know. If you 0:16:25.120 --> 0:16:28.360 want to take a portrait photo of someone, and the 0:16:28.480 --> 0:16:31.120 thing I read was that the best the best way 0:16:31.160 --> 0:16:32.800 to take a portrait photo is let's say you have 0:16:33.120 --> 0:16:36.800 a camera that has three to five times zooming capability. 0:16:38.040 --> 0:16:41.600 The suggestion was to zoom all the way in like 0:16:41.640 --> 0:16:44.800 as as tight as possible and then hold the camera 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:48.480 vertically so you get the vertical portrait picture and then 0:16:48.920 --> 0:16:52.440 move towards your subject until your subject fills the frame 0:16:52.520 --> 0:16:55.400 the way you want, and then take the photo that way, 0:16:56.040 --> 0:16:57.760 so to actually zoom in all the way. Now, if 0:16:57.800 --> 0:17:00.320 you have a camera has a more powerful zoom, like 0:17:00.360 --> 0:17:02.360 an eight to ten times, you would only zoom in 0:17:02.400 --> 0:17:05.879 about halfway for that. But that this will help you 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:09.960 get a better photo of your subject. And I didn't 0:17:09.960 --> 0:17:12.800 know that, um. Another good one that I didn't know 0:17:13.280 --> 0:17:15.600 is that if you're taking a picture outside, you may 0:17:15.600 --> 0:17:18.960 want to still turn your flash on. It can help 0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:23.400 the flash from your camera and the the ambient light 0:17:23.960 --> 0:17:26.719 your camera can can take all of that into consideration. 0:17:26.840 --> 0:17:30.480 It's called fill in flash, UM, And this will help 0:17:30.520 --> 0:17:31.840 you if you want to take a picture of a 0:17:31.880 --> 0:17:35.159 subject that perhaps the lighting sources to the side or 0:17:35.200 --> 0:17:39.200 maybe slightly behind that person or object, the flash can 0:17:39.200 --> 0:17:42.000 help fill that in. However, you have to keep in 0:17:42.080 --> 0:17:47.400 mind camera flash has a very limited range. Uh, anything 0:17:47.400 --> 0:17:50.520 beyond about ten feet is not going to be effective, 0:17:50.600 --> 0:17:53.320 so you want to keep that fairly close. So you mean, 0:17:53.359 --> 0:17:55.520 if you if you took your little point and shoot 0:17:56.119 --> 0:17:58.879 with the little any bity flash and you go to say, oh, 0:17:58.920 --> 0:18:01.360 I don't know, be Alympics and you're in the nosebleed 0:18:01.400 --> 0:18:03.480 section and you have the flash turned on. You're trying 0:18:03.480 --> 0:18:05.679 to get something that's going on down in the field. 0:18:06.160 --> 0:18:09.160 The flash might not illuminate that. Yeah, I was actually 0:18:09.160 --> 0:18:13.399 thinking of WrestleMania. If you're at WrestleMania and you are 0:18:13.440 --> 0:18:15.399 in the nosebleed section and you want to get a 0:18:15.400 --> 0:18:18.680 picture of the Undertaker as he delivers a tombstone pile 0:18:18.760 --> 0:18:22.960 driver to John Cena thug Life, then it's that flash 0:18:23.000 --> 0:18:24.920 is probably not gonna help. Despite the fact that every 0:18:24.920 --> 0:18:27.000 time I watch WrestleMania, I'll I see our flashes in 0:18:27.040 --> 0:18:29.879 the background, people cut it out. Actually it's kind of 0:18:29.880 --> 0:18:31.760 cool looking for those of us watching at home, but 0:18:33.400 --> 0:18:35.320 for those of us who actually have attended the event, 0:18:35.359 --> 0:18:38.600 it's just really annoying. Okay, all right, you seem to 0:18:38.640 --> 0:18:42.119 have a personal investment in this and really happened to 0:18:42.400 --> 0:18:48.360 enjoy the art of the squared circle. All right, okay, okay, um, 0:18:48.440 --> 0:18:53.000 so oh I had another one about an outdoor shot. Okay, 0:18:53.400 --> 0:18:56.880 polarizing filters. Oh yeah, So let's say that you want 0:18:56.920 --> 0:19:00.280 to take a shot of a a scene that's really 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:03.679 really bright, there's maybe some glare, uh like I was. 0:19:04.000 --> 0:19:07.160 I took a cruise up in Alaska several years ago 0:19:07.880 --> 0:19:10.159 and there was this gorgeous glacier. I wanted to take 0:19:10.200 --> 0:19:13.359 a picture, but it was a cloudless day, and the 0:19:13.400 --> 0:19:17.520 problem was that the ocean, water, the glacier, and the 0:19:17.560 --> 0:19:22.080 sky were almost all the same color. It was this very, 0:19:22.280 --> 0:19:25.520 very very whitish bluish color, and it was really hard 0:19:25.560 --> 0:19:28.359 to tell where the ocean ended, the sky began, and 0:19:28.400 --> 0:19:32.240 where the glacier was at all um A polarizing filter 0:19:32.320 --> 0:19:34.480 can help take that down a little bit, so you 0:19:34.480 --> 0:19:37.240 get a little better definition. But let's say that you 0:19:37.280 --> 0:19:39.560 have a regular little point and shoot camera. You know 0:19:39.640 --> 0:19:43.960 you don't have the polarizing filter. What do you do then, Well, 0:19:44.440 --> 0:19:47.480 if you happen to have a nice pair of sunglasses, 0:19:48.359 --> 0:19:51.439 this can actually work. You can hold the sunglasses in 0:19:51.480 --> 0:19:53.879 front of the lens of your camera and take a 0:19:53.880 --> 0:19:56.879 photo there and it will act as a polarizing lens. 0:19:57.160 --> 0:19:59.280 You do want to make sure that you don't have 0:19:59.400 --> 0:20:02.440 any of the edges of the sunglasses in the frame 0:20:02.440 --> 0:20:05.639 when you take the picture, but it does work. It's 0:20:05.680 --> 0:20:07.639 not as good as a professional filter, not by a 0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:10.119 long shot, but it can work in a pinch. You know, 0:20:10.119 --> 0:20:13.280 professional filters aren't really all that expensive. And that's something 0:20:13.320 --> 0:20:15.680 else that you can do to uh, you know, fool 0:20:15.680 --> 0:20:18.240 around with and and start seeing how what kind of 0:20:18.280 --> 0:20:21.280 effects you can have with your photos. Um. Another nice 0:20:21.320 --> 0:20:23.960 effect that a polarizing filter has that has nothing to 0:20:24.000 --> 0:20:26.000 do with any of that is if you happen to 0:20:26.080 --> 0:20:29.639 keep one on your camera and something scratches the filter, 0:20:30.320 --> 0:20:32.159 you can replace the filter, but you may not be 0:20:32.640 --> 0:20:35.639 able to replace the lens. Or if you if you 0:20:35.680 --> 0:20:38.040 have a camera where you can replace the lens, it's 0:20:38.040 --> 0:20:40.560 gonna cost you more than a filter would. Yeah. Yeah, 0:20:40.680 --> 0:20:45.160 so it's um, you know, it's just something to consider. Um. 0:20:45.359 --> 0:20:47.680