Side View of DSLR Camera
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Flash ButtonZoom Ring-
Turning the ring allows the lens to zoom in or out
Focus Ring-
This button triggers the pop-up flash. Holding this allows you to adjust flash exposure comp.
Rotating this ring allows you to adjust focus
Function ButtonLens Retract Button-
press this button to initially “zoom” the lens into its operational position, and again to retract it when you’re done shooting.
This allows you to assign a feature of your camera to the function button.
Drive Mode Button-
This lets you control the camera’s drive mode, allowing you to take a single shot, shoot continuously, or use a countdown timer.
Lens Release Button-
Press this button to unlock the lens mount and detach the lens by rotating it.
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Top View of DSLR Camera
Power SwitchVideo Start/Stop-
This turns the camera on and off.
Shutter Release-
This button is to take a picture.
Used to start and stop videos. It is decorated with a red dot.
Exposure Compensation/ Aperture Button
Hold this button down to control aperture. This button allows you to adjust exposure comp. (brighter/darker)
Live View Switch-
This locks the mirror in a DSLR blocking optical viewfinder and allowing you to preview your image directly on the LCD screen
Command DialMode Dial-
This sets the camera to your desired shooting mode
This lets you adjust shutter speed and aperture (when exposure comp button is held)
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Back View of DSLR Camera Info Button-
Diopter Adjustment-
While shooting, pressing this button will cycle through the camera’s various information displays. During image playback, it can display metadata, a histogram, and other pertinent information about the photo at hand.
Focus/ Exposure Lock-
When using autofocus and autoexposure, holding this button down will lock those settings, even if you move the camera.
The diopter adjustment lets you focus the viewfinder.
Image Playback Button-
Press this button to review images (and videos) on the LCD screen.
Menu Button-
i Button-
This brings up the camera’s menu, where you can change image quality, autofocus settings, and everything else about your camera.
Pressing this button brings up a set of functions on the camera’s LCD screen, which can be controlled directly. This can be useful for adjusting ISO, white balance, and drive mode settings on cameras that don’t have dedicated buttons or dials for said features.
OK Button-
This is used primarily for selecting menu items, but on some cameras, it will also center the active focus point when using single-point autofocus.
Magnify Button-
This is for magnifying an image during playback, allowing you to see greater detail, which is often useful for ensuring the camera focused where you wanted it to.
Demagnifying Button-
This is the opposite of the aforementioned magnify button, but will also let you expand the playback view to show multiple image thumbnails at once.
Delete Button-
Denoted by a universal trash can icon, pressing this button will let you delete a photo from your memory card during playback.
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Digital Equipment: Hand Held Devices & LightWeight Cameras A handheld device is ay portable device that can be carried and held in one’s palm. A handheld device can be any computing or electronic device that is compact and portable enough to be held and used in one or both hands.
A point and shoot camera, also known as a compact camera, is a still camera that has an auto focus and a built in flash component.
The lenses are usually focus free having stationary apertures. They are much simpler to operate than single reflex cameras but they do not give much control over the final image. It is widely used by non professionals because it is easy to use and comes in user friendly. They lack interchangeable lenses and other creative features such as adjusting lighting and settings.
A smartphone camera is a mobile phone which is able to capture photographs and often record using one or more built in digital cameras. Most camera phones are simpler than separate digital cameras.
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Digital Equipment: Medium & Large Format Cameras
Large format cameras refer to any imaging format of 4x5 inches or larger. The main advantage of large format is higher resolution at the same pixel pitch or the same resolution with larger pixels or grains.
Sensor Plane
Lens Plane
Lens axis Rear Standard
Front Standard
Plate Camera
Medium format camera captures images that are slightly smaller than the large format size but are much bigger than those taken using full-frame sensor. They are known for producing high quality images and delivering near perfect accuracy when it comes to colour reproduction.
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Digital Equipment: Sports Camera
Sports cameras, or action cameras, are associated with outdoor sports. They are often attached to helmets, surfboards, or handlebars.
Action cameras are therefore typically compact and rugged and waterproof at surface level. They typically record photos in burst mode and time lapse.
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Digital Equipment: Manual and Automatic Mode A DSLR camera (digital single lens reflex) have removable lenses that have reflex mirror which allow live optical viewing through the lens taking the image. They are best known for delivering sharp and spectacular images.
DSLR Camera Automatic Mode Automatic mode is when the camera chooses the optimum shutter speed, aperture, ISO and flash setting for your shot.
Manual Mode
Manual mode on the camera allows the photographer to determine the exposure of an image by letting them select an aperture value and a shutter speed value.
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Camera Support: Tripod
Tripod Head
Centre Column
Leg Section
Leg Lock A tripod is a three legged stand device which is designed to securely and steadily stabilise a camera or other photographic equipment. They come with a different variety of heads (mounting point) to suit different shooting styles.
Leg Brace The main purpose of a tripod is to allow photographers to capture images using slow shutter speeds (long exposure). To achieve this, a tripod is needed so the images do not come out blurry as a result of your hand movements.
Using a tripod is essential for all types of photography as they can take sharp, precise photos that we cannot due to hand movements. Examples of photography which best suits tripods are: long exposure, still life, studio photography and close ups.
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Camera support: Monopod
They are perfect for photographers who have to carry their photography equipment around lot, such as sports photographers. This is because they are light and easy to carry and quick to set up.
Handle/ Strap
Tripod Head
Centre Coulmn Using a monopod would mean saving more time when setting up and taking pictures however the con of this means having less stability and ease when using.
Leg Lock A monopod is similar to a tripod. It can also be used to stabilise cameras just like a tripod. However while a tripod has three legs, a monopod only has one. A tripods legs are adjustable which steadies and levels your photography equipment, where a monopod only has one leg and is not as stable as a tripod.
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Camera Support: Drone
Drone photography allows images and audio/video to be captured that might not be otherwise possible for human photographers. Drone photography often enables first person view that would normally be impossible to achieve. Basic drones usually consist of 4 propellers and one camera.
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Lighting: Reflectors
In photography, a reflector is an improvised or specialised reflective surface used redirect light towards a given subject. Reflectors primary purpose is to fix shadows.
Board reflectors come in many different types and colours. A traditional white reflector simply bounces light and the light is soft. A silver reflector doesn’t change the light but it us brighter than the light being reflected off the white one. Gold reflectors are designed to change the colour of the light by warming it up with an orange tone.
Reflectors primary purpose is to fix shadows. Reflectors can also come in different forms. Umbrella reflectors are designed to direct light so that it projects only in the 180 degrees in front of the flash head.
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Lighting: Natural Lighting Natural lighting is the light that is naturally illuminating a scene without any additional light that has been added by the photographer. Another term for natural light is existing light. Existing light cover all natural light from the moonlight to the sunshine. Natural lighting is good for producing high quality photos. It is simple when using natural lighting as photographer will not need to carry extra equipment. When used correctly, natural lighting can make images look striking and interesting.
Directional side natural light can add mystery to the photo. By using side light, the photographer can hide or reveal what they like.
Soft subtle natural light can blend easily with the environment and makes the image look peaceful and the subject look innocent. Flooding the area with bright natural light will cause shadows in the photographs to be sharp, the shadows will stand out more.
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Lighting: Under and Over Exposure Under exposure is the one in which the captured level of light/ exposure is too low in a photograph. Therefore the photo appears to be dark and most of the details of the picture are lost in darkness
Over exposure is where the captured level of light/ exposure is too high in the photograph. The picture appears to be brighter and the details are lost in brightness. A photograph which is over exposed may be hard to look at due to the harshness of the excessive light.
Lighting: Colour Temperature
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Colour temperature is the measure of lights colour. Mastering colour temperature will have your photos looking accurate a free from unnatural colour casts. Colour temperature is measured on a kelvin scale. low colour temperature is the warmer, more yellow to red light. Where highcolour temperature is the colder more bluelight
7000k
2000k
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Lighting: Portable Flash A portable flash is used in photography to produce a flash of artificial light. It also allows you to control the light which comes out of it and what light hits the subject.
The good thing about portable flash is that it has its own battery life, therefore it will not take any battery life of your camera. Portable flash has more power which means you can illuminate subjects at a greater
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Lighting: Studio Lighting
In photography, Tungsten light refers to an artificial lighting source (like a lamp or ceiling fixture) that emits heat and produce a warmer or reddish colour. It is distinguished from fluorescent lighting (which generates much lower heat), and strobe lighting.
Tungsten Lighting LED lights are the latest technology in energy efficient lighting. LED stands for ‘Light Emitting Diode’, a semiconductor device that converts electricity into light. LED lights are super energy efficient, using approximately 85% less energy than halogen or incandescent lighting. LED lights also have a much longer lifespan than other types of lighting LED Lighting
A softbox diffuses the light into a pleasing soft, even light. When used properly, it reduces harsh shadows. The closer the softbox is to the model or subject, the softer the light appears, emulating window light. The shape of a softbox can vary from rectangular to octagonal to square to a long strip of light.
Soft Box
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Exposure: Auto Bracketing Exposure Auto exposure bracketing is a feature on advanced camera such as DSLR camera, where the camera will take several shots (often three) each at different exposure.
Auto Exposure Bracketing is very useful for capturing high contrast scenes for HDR (high dynamic randge). However, AEB wasn’t intended for HDR initially, but for ensuring that one of the shots taken is correctly exposed.
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Exposure: High Dynamic Range
High dynamic range (HDR) is a term used to refer to the difference between the lightest and darkest areas of an image. HDR aims to add more dynamic range to photographs.
Hdr uses three photos taken at different exposures. The difference in shadow between the deepest shadow and the brightest highlight is called dynamic range.
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Image Manipulation: Resizing Images Image resizing is necessary when you need to increase or decrease the total number of pixels.
When an image is enlarged, the photo editor must create and add new pixel information to achieve a larger size which typically results in either a very pixelated or very soft and blurry looking image.
When an image is resized, its pixel information is changed. For example, an image is reduced in size, any unneeded pixel information will be discarded by the photo editor.
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Exporting and Storing Files: File Transfer
Digital camera usually are packed with a USB cable that connects the camera to a computer USB port. Once you connect the usb to the camera then to the computer, your computer will appear as hard disk drive on your system. USB
Digital cameras come with a removable SD (secure digital) memory card that has the capacity to store hundreds of digital photos. When using an SD card, remove from the camera and insert into SD adapter in the computer slot. Open file explorer and select the SD card name. open the DCIM folder and it ill show all your images. You can then choose how you would like to export them i.e. copying and pasting into new folder on computer or emailing
USB Port
SD Card SD Card Slot
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Exporting and Storing files: File Formatting
Pictures are saved in a specific file format, like JPEG or PNG. You can convert from one file format to another.
To change the files first you must open the file you want to change. Then click on the file manure and then select save as. Once this has opened, choose avplace where you want your file to be saved and give a name to the file. Next, underneath the name boxthere should appear a ‘save as type’ box. Drop down using the small arrow selection and choose the format you want to save it in. lastly, save this file and open it again to check if it has worked.
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Exporting and Storing Files: File Compression File compression is a data compression method in which the logical size of a file is reduced to save disk space for easier and faster transmission over a network or the internet. Filecompression is also known as zipping. File compression is enabled through a file or data compression software that creates a compressed version of each processed file.
Lossless compression reduced a files size with no loss of quality. This can be applied to both image and audio files.
In comparison, lossy compression results in lost data and quality from the original version. The ‘lossyness’ of an image file may show up as jagged edges or pixilated areas. In audio files, the lossyness may produce a watery sound or reduce the dynamic range of the audio.
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Exporting and Storing Files: Storing A memory stick is a small device that connects to a computer and allows you to store and copy information.
Cloud storage is a cloud computing model in which data is stored on remote servers accessed from the internet, or “cloud.� It is maintained, operated and managed by a cloud storage service provider on a storage servers that are built on virtualisation techniques.
The hard disk drive is the main, and usually largest, data storage hardware device in a computer. The operating system, software titles, and most other files are stored in the hard disk drive.