pyro
12-01-2007, 03:53 PM
Some help for those of you with digital pocket cameras:
I'm constantly seeing postings with blurry close-up photos of parts for sale (with the rest of the room or background in focus) Cameras are designed to focus on objects at least 4 feet away under normal conditions in AUTO mode. Your camera won't take good close-ups unless you TELL it to do so.
Every point and shoot digital camera also has a MACRO button for close-up photos. I get the feeling that this feature isn't widely understood. This is the button marked with a "flower pot" icon on your camera. This will allow you to shoot sharp photos of objects only inches away. With macro enabled, the camera's autofocus will give priority to close-up objects. This is how you take pictures of piston tops, spark plugs and such. Most cameras will lock the auto-focus on whichever object is centered in the little target box at the center of the frame. Macro allows this target to be an object only inches away from the lens.
Using bright room lights and DISABLING the flash will produce a better end result for close-ups, as long as you can hold the camera steady enough to avoid blurring , since the shutter will be much slower without the flash. The brighter the room lighting, the faster the shutter will fire.
I took these example photos with a Canon SD750 pocket camera. Almost ANY $120 digital camera can do this.
The WRONG way: Default settings. The camera won't normally focus this close, so it chooses a point farther away instead. Flash fires automatically, whites out the highlights. Oh well, at least the body is in focus :rolleyes:
http://i17.tinypic.com/8ggc5jc.jpg
Getting better. MACRO is ON, camera now focuses on the object in the middle of the frame. Flash still blows out the details to pure white. Foreground blur looks horrible with a flash. Auto chooses 1/60 sec @ f/8.
http://i8.tinypic.com/7x4a93t.jpg
This is done properly. MACRO is ON, and flash is DISABLED. The camera chose 1/8 sec. exposure this time, which is SLOW, almost impossible to shoot without camera-shake blur. I was bracing the camera steady for the shot. Brighter room lighting will allow a faster shutter speed. Shoot the same shot several times and choose the sharpest one, where the in-focus area looks crisp. Notice how you can now see the details in the color of the metal frets. The camera shot this one still a bit dark, I lightened it slightly in Photoshop. Original was 1/8 sec @ f/2.8
http://i11.tinypic.com/864ah48.jpg
One added benefit of using NO flash, is that your camera will likely select a wide-open aperture (maybe f/2.8) for more light exposure. As with all cameras, this wide aperture will cause the foreground and background to be much more blurry than usual, while the target subject at center remains crisp and "isolated" by this effect. This is quite visible above, where the flash photo with f/8 aperture shows a broader "in-focus" zone, while the wide-open f/2.8 no-flash photo brings only a narrow distance zone into focus.
Pocket cameras usually have auto-ISO. In the third photo, the camera likely used a higher ISO setting to boost the brightness of the photo and permit reasonable exposure settings in exchange for less smooth shading. Higher ISO boost increases noise, the "speckly" look visible in the dark background areas. This is normal.
-Chad
I'm constantly seeing postings with blurry close-up photos of parts for sale (with the rest of the room or background in focus) Cameras are designed to focus on objects at least 4 feet away under normal conditions in AUTO mode. Your camera won't take good close-ups unless you TELL it to do so.
Every point and shoot digital camera also has a MACRO button for close-up photos. I get the feeling that this feature isn't widely understood. This is the button marked with a "flower pot" icon on your camera. This will allow you to shoot sharp photos of objects only inches away. With macro enabled, the camera's autofocus will give priority to close-up objects. This is how you take pictures of piston tops, spark plugs and such. Most cameras will lock the auto-focus on whichever object is centered in the little target box at the center of the frame. Macro allows this target to be an object only inches away from the lens.
Using bright room lights and DISABLING the flash will produce a better end result for close-ups, as long as you can hold the camera steady enough to avoid blurring , since the shutter will be much slower without the flash. The brighter the room lighting, the faster the shutter will fire.
I took these example photos with a Canon SD750 pocket camera. Almost ANY $120 digital camera can do this.
The WRONG way: Default settings. The camera won't normally focus this close, so it chooses a point farther away instead. Flash fires automatically, whites out the highlights. Oh well, at least the body is in focus :rolleyes:
http://i17.tinypic.com/8ggc5jc.jpg
Getting better. MACRO is ON, camera now focuses on the object in the middle of the frame. Flash still blows out the details to pure white. Foreground blur looks horrible with a flash. Auto chooses 1/60 sec @ f/8.
http://i8.tinypic.com/7x4a93t.jpg
This is done properly. MACRO is ON, and flash is DISABLED. The camera chose 1/8 sec. exposure this time, which is SLOW, almost impossible to shoot without camera-shake blur. I was bracing the camera steady for the shot. Brighter room lighting will allow a faster shutter speed. Shoot the same shot several times and choose the sharpest one, where the in-focus area looks crisp. Notice how you can now see the details in the color of the metal frets. The camera shot this one still a bit dark, I lightened it slightly in Photoshop. Original was 1/8 sec @ f/2.8
http://i11.tinypic.com/864ah48.jpg
One added benefit of using NO flash, is that your camera will likely select a wide-open aperture (maybe f/2.8) for more light exposure. As with all cameras, this wide aperture will cause the foreground and background to be much more blurry than usual, while the target subject at center remains crisp and "isolated" by this effect. This is quite visible above, where the flash photo with f/8 aperture shows a broader "in-focus" zone, while the wide-open f/2.8 no-flash photo brings only a narrow distance zone into focus.
Pocket cameras usually have auto-ISO. In the third photo, the camera likely used a higher ISO setting to boost the brightness of the photo and permit reasonable exposure settings in exchange for less smooth shading. Higher ISO boost increases noise, the "speckly" look visible in the dark background areas. This is normal.
-Chad