ChApter 1. digitAl CAmerAs & imAges
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Composing images...
When choosing a digital camera, one of the first things to decide is whether
you want one with both a monitor and viewfinder. Many of the latest small
cameras have dropped viewfinders, partly to make more room for a larger
monitor. This is a mixed blessing because the primary roles of these two fea-
tures are quite different, although there is some overlap. If your camera has
no viewfinder, you are forced to compose all of your images using the moni-
tor. This means you have to deal with glare on sunny days and find a way to
avoid blur in your images caused by camera movement while holding the
camera out at arm’s length.monitorS
Monitors are small LCD color screens built into most cameras. Their size,
usually between 1.5 and 4 inches, is specified using the diagonal measure-
ment. Most have brightness adjustments that you can change manually, or
which the camera adjusts automatically in different lighting situations. These
screens are used to display menus and play back images you have captured.
However, on many, but not all cameras, you can also compose an image on
the monitor. Most digital SLR cameras don’t let you do this because they use
a mirror to bounce the image formed by the lens into the viewfinder. The im-
age sensor only creates the image when the mirror swings up out of the way
and the shutter opens. A few SLR cameras use a second sensor in the view-
finder to continuously feed an image to an LCD monitor—a process called live
view. This not only lets you use the monitor to compose images, it can also be
used to capture movies, something other SLRs can’t do. Only time will tell if
this feature catches on and spreads.- Image review displays an image on the screen for a few seconds immedi-
ately after you’ve taken it. Some cameras let you keep the image on the screen
longer so you can delete it or perform other image management functions. A
few cameras seamlessly integrate image review and playback mode so after
reviewing the current photo you can scroll through other photos and use all
of the playback commands. - Histograms are graphs showing the distribution of brightnesses in your
image so you can check that the exposure is correct. Most cameras that offer
this feature only let you view a histogram after capturing a photo, but a few
let you see the histogram as you compose the image.
If your camera lets you compose an image on the monitor (not all do), the
displayed image is taken directly from the image sensor, so it is a true TTL
(through-the-lens) view. However, there are times when you may not want to
use the monitor to compose images for the following reasons. - Battery drain. Large monitors drain batteries quickly, so it’s best to keep
them turned off as much as possible and use the optical viewfinder for taking
pictures. - Glare makes the image on the monitor hard to see in bright sunlight.
- Steadiness is diminished when you hold the camera at arm’s length. This
tends to introduce blur into your images through camera shake.
Despite the drawbacks, there are a few situations in which using the monitor
to compose an image is very useful.
Monitors show you
what the view looks like
through the lens.
The best monitors are
those that swivel and
tilt to any angle, called
a vari-angle monitor.
With a swiveling
monitor, you can put
the camera on the
ground and shoot up
as was done with this
newt.
Portrait mode shows the
image vertically.
Landscape mode shows
the image horizontally.