Practical Photography - UK (2020-04)

74 PRACTICAL PHOTOGRAPHY

I’ve been told I should

calibrate my new monitor

but there aren’t any

instructions in the user manual.

What should I do?

Reggie Harper, Barnet

Kirk says: Calibrating your monitor

is a wise move, but it requires

the purchase of a special tool.

Calibration kits are widely

available, and each tool comes

with a measurement device

and corresponding calibration

software. The software flashes up

va rious colours and tones on your

monitor, while the measurement

device records the colours and

tones being displayed. The tool

then tweaks the colour profile of

yo ur monitor so that the displayed

colours match the colours the

software intended. This effectively

corrects for any colour casts on

your monitor’s display. Without

calibration, it’s virtually impossible

to accurately adjust the coloursin

yo ur shots when editing, and so

it ’s a vital tool for anyone who

needs colour precision, or wants

to print their images.

What is monitor

colour calibration

and do I need it?

Know Your Stuff

Why is my electronic

shutter so slow?

Why does my maximum flash

sync speed drop when I change

to electronic shutter? Isn’t the

shutter speed that the flash can sync

with set by the flash unit?

Raymond Brown, Edinburgh

Adam says: Flash syncspeed

is related to the speed

of your shutter, not

necessarily your shutter

speed – although

the two are linked.

Confusing, I know.

A mechanical shutter

has two curtains – a

fr ont and a rear curtain.

The shutter mechanismis

only quick enough togetan

exposure of around1/200secor

1/ 250sec fully open,so to getfaster

exposures, the frontandrearcurtain

tr avel across the image just exposing one

thin slither that passes down the frame.

This results in an effectively faster shutter

speed without needing the shutter to be

any faster physically. The problem is that

the flash duration is much shorter than

1/250sec, so if the flash fires while you

are on a faster shutter speed, the light

will only illuminate the part of the

sensor that isn’t blocked by the front

and rear curtains.

What about electro?

Electronic shutters work

in the same way as

mechanical shutters,

except that the sensor

turns off the photo

sensitive sites rather

than having a physical

shutter to block light.

Sensors can’t turn off

instantly. They have to

beshut off after the data

hasbeen read, which is done

sequentiallyline by line. So an electronic

shutteris limited by how quickly the data

can be read, often at 1/30sec. A shutter

speed any faster than this will not catch

the entire sensor engaged, and so the

flash will only be illuminating the scene

on part of the image.

I sh ot withouta card – help!

I’ve just got back froma family

tr ip and I didn’t havea memory

card in my camera. I tookloads

of photos, can I get them back?

St anley Porter, Ipswich

Chris says: Unfortunately not, those

shots just haven’t been recorded on

anything for them to be recovered from.

They existed only briefly in the camera’s

internal memory. Unfortunately they’re

gone.It soundslikeyourcamerahas

beenleftin a demomode,usuallyused

toallowcustomersto testcamerasin

shopsbeforedecidingto purchase.

Thereis a menuoptionto turnit off

and to lock the camera from shooting

if no card is present. We recommend

whenever buying a new camera making

sure you change this so you can’t shoot

without a card. It won’t help if you forget

to bring a card out with you though!

Above& leftOn fastershutter

speedstheshuttercurtains

bl ockthelightfromtheflash.

TIP

STICKTO

MECHANICAL

Forbestresultswithflash,

usea mechanicalshutter.

It will allowyouto have

a muchhigher

flashsync.

VITALII PETRUSHENKO

SUBBOTINA ANNA

MMXEON