Photography in the digital age
Part II: Making your images bright, sharp and clear
by Gary Clites
The advent of digital photography has changed the way scholastic journalists do business in significant ways. It has put powerful tools into the hands of teachers and students, but with that power has come challenges. Last time, we focused on resolution as the key to much of dealing with digital photography (contact me at gclites@chesapeake.net for a copy). This time, some tips on shooting and dealing with digital photos successfully.
Why do so many of my student’s digital pictures come out fuzzy?
Digital photos tend toward the blurry for a number of reasons. The principal answer is that most digital cameras just aren’t as fast as many traditional print cameras. In theory, they may be, but most cameras today, even if they have a fast shutter speed, deploy much of their resources not to taking the perfect still shot, but to shooting digital video to fill the onboard video display. In use, cameras can be fairly slow.
Most digital cameras also suffer a significant delay between the time the actuator is pressed and the photo is actually taken, sometimes well more than a second. In the hands of inherently amateur student photographers, this can create serious problems. Students may be working to hold the camera still as they click, but lose control over the time it takes the camera to flash. This is doubly a problem with posed photos when the subjects assume the photo is taken at the “click.”
What to do? The answer is a tried and true one. Urge your staff to use a tripod when shooting. In the age of tinier and tinier cameras and ultra-portable photography this seems counterintuitive, but the reality is that smaller, lighter cameras are easier to jiggle when taking a picture. Tripods can be light and portable. Remind your staff that professionals always set up for a shot when they can.
Additionally, photos which look fine in the tiny 2-inch or smaller screen on most cameras often turn out blurry when enlarged to normal print size. The only solution to this is overshooting to guarantee that enough photos will make the cut.
Also, note that some digital cameras have a “burst” mode, or similarly titled feature designed to allow photographers to take a blast of photos very quickly. This should not be used when shooting for publication, because the camera gains in speed by cutting the quality of all the photos being taken, sometimes radically.
To flash or not to flash?
When using digital equipment, that really is the question. Digital video and stills do not require nearly as much light as traditional film media. Using normal room lighting, you can often achieve excellent effects. In fact, introducing the flash in a medium-lighting environment can deprive portions of your shot of light. How? In a deep shot, a flash will fill the area near the camera with light, and plunge the rest of the picture into darkness.
Remember that most flashes will only reach eight to 12 feet, less in an open area (like a school). Since digital cameras can take acceptable photos even in moderate light, at least train your staff to take both flash and non-flash shots of important photos so that you have an option. Oddly, you will find that many non-flash pics turn out brighter.
Conversely, one of the best places to use the flash is outdoors. In situations where the sun is bright, or at least present, you can bring up the faces in your subjects by “forcing” the flash, or using it when the camera would normally shut it off. Outside, using it will not darken the background. This can often make the difference between a dull, dark photo and a bright, vibrant one.
By the way, the one skill you should definitely teach your students beyond where the “shoot” button is on your cameras is how to turn the flash on the camera on or off depending upon the situation.
What format should I use for photos?
Many digital cameras and photo manipulation software packages have their own formats for storing photos. To make your images useful, you will often need to translate them to a more universal format. The most commonly used choice is JPEG, and many staffs make the most popular choice assuming it must be best. It’s not.
JPEG’s are popular because they are a compressed form of digital photo that holds its quality fairly well. Unfortunately, any compression technology lowers photo quality somewhat. TIFF, another popular format originally developed for the Mac but equally useful on Microsoft computers, is a high-quality format that is much less likely to degrade image quality. Better, it works very well in PageMaker, In Design or Quark. For publications, turn your images to TIFF’s and you will probably see an improvement in quality.
Online is a different story. On the ‘net, compression is a necessity. JPEG’s work fine, though they may not compress photos enough. For really quick-loading web images, try turning your photos to. They look okay, but are compressed amazingly small and work with most web generation software.
Digital photos are different from film, but teaching your staff a few simple keys can let your publication take advantage of everything the new technology has to offer.
© Gary Clites, 2003