Thursday, 5 January 2017

Camera Terminology Explained Series, Part 2 (C-D)


Continuous Auto Focus

Cameras with the Continuous Auto Focus feature are continually working all the time, i.e. they are continually focusing without you pressing the shutter button.  This gives you the ability to take shots quickly without worrying about delays or having to give the camera time to focus.


Chromatic Aberration

Chromatic aberration is also referred to as purple fringing.  This is where an unwanted purple highlight is found in photographic images, usually around or between dark/light objects.  This can typically be a common problem with low megapixel cameras or long telephoto zoom lenses.


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Depth of Field

Depth of Field (DOF) determines the range of sharp focus of a scene.  The Depth of Field is determined by your choice of focal length together with aperture (f/stop).

A wide aperture (i.e. a low f/stop number like f/2.8) gives a shorter depth of field and helps to keep close up objects in focus while blurring out the background, whereas a small aperture (i.e. a high f/stop number like f/22) gives a longer/sharper depth of field for objects further away.


Digital Zoom

Zoom lenses help you to get a closer view of far-away subjects.

Cameras with a Digital Zoom adjust the image in the camera itself as opposed to an Optical Zoom which adjusts the lens.

With a Digital Zoom, the camera enlarges the image area at the center of the frame and cuts away the outside edges of the picture to bring the center of the image closer to you, similar to the way you would crop and enlarge a picture in an editing program on your computer.

Digital zoom affects the quality of the image, as it enlarges the pixels and reduces the resolution, so your zoomed image won’t be as sharp.


Diopter Adjustment

Some cameras come with a Diopter Adjustment Dial which allows the user to adjust the optical viewfinder’s magnification factor and sharpness to compensate for differences in eyesight.


Dynamic Range

The Dynamic Range of an image is the difference between the brightest and the darkest areas of your photo.  A good Dynamic Range will help give your photos definition, contrast, and a good tonal range.  It should also help to prevent light colors looking washed-out or dark colors becoming solid black blobs in your photos.

Dynamic Range can be altered by increasing or decreasing the Exposure Value, i.e. aperture and shutter speed.  Dynamic Range generally increases with the use of a lower ISO speed.

If your camera has a histogram display, you can check this to see if there is a problem with your dynamic range.  If the histogram is chopped off on the left of the scale, it indicates that the darkest parts of your picture are likely to appear as a solid black blob.  If the histogram is chopped off on the right of the scale, it indicates that the brightest areas of your image have been over-exposed and are likely to appear as a solid white blob or looking washed out.


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Further reading/articles in the Camera Terminology Explained Series:

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