Raise the ISO Speed in Low Light

Virtually all digital cameras have a flash that provides instant light in situations when the existing or "available" light is very low. Flash is handy, but it's rarely very attractive. The reason is simple: the light from a built-in flash is coming from the same place that you're standing and it provides a flat, often over-powering light that pretty much erases the mood of the ambient lighting.

Fortunately digital cameras provide an alternative to using flash and that is the ability to raise the ISO speed when you encounter dim settings. The ISO setting is merely a rating of a digital sensor's ability to respond to light and the higher the ISO, the more sensitive it becomes to low light. In the film days you had to buy separate rolls of film for different situations: a low ISO film speed for bright daylight and a faster one, such as ISO 800, for darker surroundings. But digital cameras, bless their little microprocessor hearts, have an "adjustable ISO" that lets you change the ISO speed from frame to frame.

In other words, if you were photographing the exterior of a cathedral in bright sun, you could use a relatively low ISO, such as ISO 100 (the typical default speed of many digital cameras). If you then wanted to move indoors, where the light is extremely low and flash is not allowed (or very desirable), you could raise the ISO high enough so that you can shoot at a safe handheld shutter speed. To photograph the candles, for example, I raised the ISO to 1600 (the maximum for my Canon camera) and was able to shoot handheld at 1/60 second without any need for flash. Had I used flash the candle light would have disappeared and I would have gotten a great deal of glare from the votive glasses.

Incidentally, the benefit of using lower ISO speeds when light allows is that the images are free from digital "noise" which is the grainy-looking appearance that higher ISO settings often create.
Many cameras have an automatic exposure mode (usually the green "A" mode) that continuously adjusts the camera's ISO setting as the light intensity changes. Read your manual to see how your camera handles setting different ISO settings. Knowing how to adjust that setting will provide a lot more flexibility in changing lighting conditions.

Save Camera Batteries: Use the Peephole

Ever since the invention of digital cameras, easily the most popular feature has been the LCD viewfinder. And why not? Instead of mushing your face up against the back of the camera and squinting into the peephole (optical) viewfinder like we did with film cameras (back when dinosaurs roamed the earth), the LCD lets you compose images while holding the camera at a comfortable distance from your face. It's easier to see, you can hold the camera at weird angles.

The problem with LCDs (other than that they are hard to see in bright daylight) is that they drain batteries very fast. The more you use your LCD to compose and review photos, the sooner you'll have to recharge your batteries. So when using the LCD isn't critical, or when you're shooting in bright daylight and the LCD view is hard to see anyway, try going back to using the peephole viewfinder. Some manufacturers have started doing away with optical viewfinders, which in my mind is a mistake--so that's one thing to consider when buying a new camera. If you shoot a lot and take your camera on trips, charging batteries is not always that convenient and that old-fashioned peephole can save you a lot of otherwise wasted battery power.

Turn Your Scanner Into a Camera

If you have a flatbed scanner attached to your computer then you might not know it but you have one of the world's best digital cameras sitting on your desktop. Your scanner is not only great at copying old photos and documents, but it can take a scan (i.e. a photograph) of anything that you can fit on the platen: an arrangement of seashells, your antique button collection, or even some flower blossoms fresh from the garden. I laid these flowers on my Epson scanner (two separate scans), turned off the room lights (to get a black background) and scanned it. The great thing about scanners is that, while they can only "see" one surface of your subject, they have incredible depth of field (near-to-far sharpness) so almost everything the scanner sees will be sharp. I was surprised by the "tubes" in the green flower, could not see that with the naked eye, wild, isn't it?

Here are some quick tips for success:

Scan at a high (300 dpi) resolution so that you can make really nice prints.
Keep the glass clean.
Turn off the room lights or use a sheet of black paper over your subject to keep the background black.

3 Ways to control White Balance

You could go forever without adjusting white balance, left on Auto, your camera will usually get it right. But sometimes you want to be in charge. Here are three ways to take power over white balance.

1. Use a preset WB.
These settings are simple to understand and can be useful when shooting under multiple light sources, which can fool Auto. Use Tungsten (usually denoted by a light-bulb icon) indoors under incandescent lighting—it makes the colors in photos less yellow (i.e., cools them down). The Fluorescent setting compensates for greenish artificial light, warming up your shots. Cloudy and Shade settings will also warm up cool, blue tones.

2. Create a custom WB.
If even a preset won't do it in mixed light, make your own setting. Photograph a neutral gray under the light in which you'll be shooting, and select this frame in the CWB mode. Your camera will "correct" it to neutral gray and apply the same correction to ensuing photos. Result: cast-free color.

3. Fix it in post production.
If you don't want to bother making adjustments while shooting, or if you got it
wrong, there's always hope. In Adobe Photoshop, use the Gray dropper in the Levels command or the one-click white-balance tool in any RAW converter to click on any area that's supposed to have neutral color. The rest of your photo's color will fall in line.

Using the White Balance Settings on Your Digital Camera

These days, there are so many menus and settings on digital cameras that it is difficult to learn them all. Most casual photographers learn the basic settings or rely strictly on the automatic modes of digital point-and-shoot and SLR cameras.

With a little experimenting, you will find that you can command great control of your camera and more importantly, your images.

The white balance setting is one that can have a large effect on the outcome of your images. Understanding white balance and learning how to change the white balance setting in your camera can help you turn an average picture into an exceptional picture.

To put it simply, white balance is the reference point in which your camera determines the true color of white. If you tell your camera that a particular object in the room is white, the camera will calculate the color temperature of your images based on that information.

First, lets look at the different types of environments that we find ourselves in. Sunny days with bright light overhead, overcast days where the light is muted, outside in the shade or under a tree, inside a home with incandescent lights placed randomly throughout, or a gymnasium with florescent lights (one that poses a challenge to many amateur photographers).

Each of these scenarios presents a very different light for you and the camera to deal with. With a few simple adjustments to your digital camera (provided that it has white balance settings) you can "tell" your camera how to handle the lighting conditions.

Many of the newer digital cameras have preset white balance settings for some of the more common conditions. If you are taking pictures under less than ideal lighting situations, it is best to change your camera to one of the white balance the preset modes for this lighting.

If you want to take this your photography to the next level, you can learn to create custom white balance settings and take even more control of the situation. Setting a custom white balance will produce better color than your camera's auto and preset white balance settings under many different conditions.

You can do this, in many cameras, by switching from auto white balance to custom white balance. Take a picture of a white surface, in your shooting environment, then use this image to program your camera to understand that, in this location, this image is white. To get the best results, you can use a "Grey Card" (a card printed with 18% grey).Each picture taken thereafter, until you change your white balance setting, will be color balanced. You'll get healthy skin tones, red reds and yellow yellows.

Sure, many of the lighting problems can be fixed in image editing software like Adobe PhotoShop or Corel's PaintShop Pro, but editing each image takes time. Taking the time to set your white balance before shooting your pictures will save you lots more time in the post-capture phase.

One piece of advice: You must also remember to reset your white balance or turn off custom white balance when you switch shooting environments, or your images will be captured with potentially incorrect color balance.

Once you learn to set the white balance of your camera, you will find yourself using this feature at every important shoot. Heck, it's there, why not use it?

Card Capacity: What it Means to You

Whether you're a professional photographer or just dabbling with your new digital camera, it's important to be informed about memory cards and the differences between them.

Digital cameras come with little, if any, memory of their own, so if you're interested in maximizing your shooting capacity, you need to consider purchasing a high-speed memory card.

More Power
Image quantity and quality. High-end DSLR cameras offer higher megapixel counts, and adding a high-speed memory card can increase this even further. This means whether you're shooting a slew of photos or using your camera's video function, you're getting more images at a much higher resolution. High-capacity cards allow you to shoot even more, higher quality photos using JPEG high-resolution and RAW formats for even better results.

Chart Your Capacity
There's no exact standard amount of photo capacity on a memory card because it's based on content, compression, and file type, all of which can vary. But you can use the chart below to help determine the approximate number of still images that can be captured on different capacity cards.


*Actual number of photos and minutes will vary depending on camera model, format resolution and compression, usable capacity, and bundled software. Actual usable memory capacity may vary. 1MB equals 1 million bytes. 1GB equals 1 billion bytes.

For prosumers or professional photographers, capacity is critical. Ask anyone shooting a wedding or faced-paced sporting event. There's no time to change out cards. And for photographers working in extreme conditions-underwater or aerial photographers, for example, the opportunity doesn't even exist to be able to swap out cards.

In-camera processing time. The internal RAM of a DSLR camera can also work with a high-capacity memory card to deliver faster in-camera speeds. A memory card can also affect the processing speeds from memory card to camera memory and camera memory to computer. While these speed changes may not be significant for a point-and-shoot camera, it definitely makes a different to professional photographers or those taking multiple shots in short time spans.

Memory Card Types-CompactFlash and Secure Digital
Once you've decided to add capacity to your camera, you need to check which type of memory card your camera supports. Cameras using CompactFlash (CF) memory cards are generally more professional-level, offering many capabilities and shooting options, while cameras using Secure Digital (SD) cards fall more into the point-and-shoot category and sometimes offer video capabilities.

Regardless of type, these cards can provide incredibly fast image read/write speeds that can fully leverage a DSLR camera's high-speed processor and accelerated image download times. The seamless workflow slashes your processing time and lets you enjoy more time shooting.

The Perks of Added Capacity
The basic advantages are obvious-you can easily shoot many more photos before ever needing to worry about swapping out cards. This always gives you the benefit of having the card space to take many more photos before you need to review and delete unwanted photos. But there are many other advantages to take into consideration.

Enjoy more freedom in your photography. A high-capacity memory card gives you the freedom to be creative in your photography. Have fun experimenting with the correlation between light and shutter speeds, take a slew of photos without worry of needing to immediately switch cards to continue, or take full advantage of the video option on your point-and-shoot camera. You can enjoy a multitude of capabilities with peace of mind, knowing your memory card gives you that freedom.



Choosing a high-capacity card gives you the freedom to experiment and explore new photographic frontiers knowing your camera has huge memory capabilities. For anyone serious about photography, it's important to have multiple high-capacity cards to ensure you are always ready for that next photo.

Memory Card Do's and Dont's

Purchase the fastest card you can afford from a reputable maker. Cards in the neighborhood of 300x are now readily available and the price keeps dropping! Fast cards mean you are less likely to miss action shots while the buffer is being filled. Faster cards also translate into faster download times.


Test out your new cards before leaving for your photo trip. If a card is going to fail, chances are it will fail early in its life. So format your cards in your camera and take some images.

Buy high quality cards from a reputable dealer. A friend of mine bought a counterfeit card on eBay. I'm certain it looked like an original but it sure didn't perform like one!


Format your cards after each download. Some folks insist on leaving favorite images on cards forever. Cards work best when reformatted, as reformatting cleans up the file structure. Almost every card failure I have seen has come when images are individually erased while in the camera. I never erase an image in-camera. Rather, I wait until I have downloaded images from the card, then after making a backup, I reformat the card. I have seen too many photographers accidently erase all their images by pressing the wrong button!


Do not open the memory card door and remove it while images are being written to it. This would most commonly happen after shooting a burst of images. In the heat of the moment, it is easy to want to change your cards quickly. Every camera has some sort of warning you should heed. By disconnecting a card from its power source, you can cause file structure failure.


Never push your camera's batteries to their maximum. It increases the possibility that the battery will run out of power just as you are taking an image. You risk losing images due to this power failure or worse, file structure damage to the whole card.


Be careful when loading cards into the camera. I have seen folks jam cards into the camera upside down and backwards. This generally results in damage to camera contacts rather than to the card. It is usually more expensive sending the camera in for repairs than buying a new card. Memory cards are, for the most part, very durable and I have heard stories of cards being run over or washed with clothing and still working.


Before using a new card, make sure that your camera has the most recent firmware updates. This is most important if you are using older camera models. Some older models may not be compatible with newer cards, so be sure to check your camera's compatibility.


Good memory card readers can mean the difference between a quick, easy and reliable download and a slow, difficult one. Spend a little more and get a decent memory card reader. Cheaper readers may wear out earlier than those with quality made components.


Have a system in place so you do not reuse a full card before you download images from it! Most photographers I know use some sort of digital memory card wallet. After I have filled a card with images I turn the card over in my wallet so the back is facing up, that way, I know not to use this card again until I have downloaded and reformatted it. Something this simple can keep you from copying over a full card!

Five Things to Know About Your Digital Camera

Five Things to Know About Your Digital Camera

Digital cameras offer photographers more choices for operating settings than film cameras. For best results, digital photographers should do their homework by studying the camera’s instruction book. Here are five settings that make for better photographs.

1. Flash Adjustment: Learn how to turn the flash on and off, even if the camera has an automatic flash mode. Sometimes flash will ruin a photo. It may be better to try a longer exposure in natural light. For example, if you use the flash when shooting through a glass window, the flash usually reflects back into the camera lens causing a flare. Ambient light can also capture a more natural look to your photography in most cases. Finally, see if there is a “Fill Flash” setting on your flash menu. If so, use the “Fill Flash” setting in bright sunlight to illuminate harsh shadows in portraits, which are caused by overhead sunlight. Remember, most built-in flash units can only operate at a maximum distance of about 10 feet from the camera to the subject.

2. ISO Setting: The ISO setting determines the camera’s sensitivity to light. For example, on a bright sunny day ISO 200 or ISO 100 (or lower) is perfect for picture taking. Many cameras permit the ISO to be adjusted to 400, 800, and even 1600. These higher ISO settings are best used for low-light indoor picture taking, or nighttime photography, since they are the most sensitive to light. Also setting the camera to a higher ISO setting also allows you to stop action better. But remember a higher ISO also means more noise (grain). Usually a camera’s LCD menu allows you to select the right ISO for the job.

3. Erase Pictures: You have to be careful about erasing photos in the camera, but it can be done. First, learn how to erase just one photo at a time. This is useful when you snap a bad photo and you want to retake the picture without cluttering up your camera’s memory card with a bunch of poor images. Next, learn how to erase all the photos on the memory card, so that the card can be used again. Only do this after you’ve downloaded the images to your computer. And don’t get the two settings mixed up, or you can lose all the photos! And let’s not forget that deleting the image is permanent, how many of us hate the photo taken of ourselves last week, but love the silly photos that were taken ten years ago? Photography is about creating memories, we are not perfect people, so your photos don’t have to perfect either.

4. Image Size: Most digital cameras allow you to adjust the image size, which is the number of pixels used to make up the photo. The general rule is the larger you want to print a sharp photo, the more pixels you need. Therefore, if you want big prints, use the maximum image size. For example, on an 8-megapixel camera, the largest setting is 3,264-by-2,448 pixels. This can be adjusted downward several times, to 2,560-by-1,920, 1,600-by-1,200, or 640-by-480 pixels. Why would you want to do this? First, with a lower setting, more individual photos can be put on the card. Second, if you are only interested in viewing photos on-screen, monitors can’t use all the pixel information (all photos look good on a monitor, but that doesn’t mean they will look good as a print). Third, if you only want 4-by-6-inch snapshot prints, the 3,246-by-2,448-pixel setting takes up too much of the memory card’s memory and some data has to be dumped anyway. But remember, if you want to do enlargements you will want to use the largest image size setting.
5. Image Quality: Also associated with image size is image quality. This is usually identified on the camera’s LCD menu as “Standard,” “Fine,” “Extra Fine,” and “TIFF.” Not all camera makers use the same words, but you get the idea. In addition to image size, image quality also affects the number of photos you can take on your memory card. For making the largest, sharpest prints, “TIFF” is the best setting, particularly when a high image size is selected. For snapshot-size prints, you can select one of the lower image quality settings. One way to find out what you want or need is to take some unimportant photos at different settings, to discover if you can see any difference. Then pick the lowest settings for the pictures you like best. Remember, this is for prints … almost everything looks great on a computer monitor. But once again, if you want to do enlargements you will want to use the highest image quality setting.

Your camera manual will have a lot more information, and you should read it closely! If you are still having problems understanding how to adjust camera settings, take your camera and manual to a local photo retailer and ask a salesperson to explain the settings to you. They are the experts, and should be happy to help you, while also suggesting any camera accessories you may need.