Digital Photography

Understanding the Basics

Let's say you want to take a picture and e-mail it to a friend. To do this, you need the image to be represented in the language that computers recognize -- bits and bytes. Essentially, a digital image is just a long string of 1s and 0s that represent all the tiny colored dots -- or pixels -- that collectively ma e up the image. If you want to get a picture into this form, you have two options:

You can take a photograph using a conventional film camera, process the film chemically, print it onto photographic paper and then use a digital scanner to sample the print (record the pattern of light as a series of pi el values!" You can directly sample the original light that bounces off your sub#ect, immediately breaking that light pattern down into a series of pi el values -- in other words, you can use a digital camera"

Camer foto digital

$t its most basic level, this is all there is to a digital camera" %ust like a conventional camera, it has a series of lenses that focus light to create an image of a scene" &ut instead of focusing this light onto a piece of film, it focuses it onto a semiconductor device that records light electronically. ! computer then brea s this electronic information do"n into digital data. !ll the fun and interesting features of digital cameras come as a direct result of this process. 'he key difference between a digital camera and a film-based camera is that the digital camera has no film. #nstead, it has a sensor that converts light into electrical charges. 'he image sensor employed by most digital cameras is a charge coupled device ((()!" *ome low-end cameras use complementary metal o ide semiconductor ((+,*! technology" -hile (+,* sensors will almost certainly improve and become more popular in the future, they probably won't replace (() sensors in higher-end digital cameras" 'hroughout the rest of this article, we will mostly focus on (()" .or the purpose of understanding how a digital camera works, you can think of them as nearly identical devices" +ost of what you learn will also apply to (+,* cameras" 'he (() is a collection of tiny light-sensitive diodes, which convert photons (light! into electrons (electrical charge!" 'hese diodes are called photosites" In a nutshell, each photosite is sensitive to light -- the brighter the light that hits a single photosite, the greater the electrical charge that will accumulate at that site" ,ne of the drivers behind the falling prices of digital cameras has been the introduction of (+,* image sensors" (+,* sensors are much less e pensive to manufacture than (() sensors" &oth (() and (+,* image sensors start at the same point -- they have to convert light into electrons at the photosites" If you've read the article /ow *olar (ells -ork, you already understand one of the pieces of technology used to perform the conversion" $ simplified way to think about the sensor used in a digital camera (or camcorder! is to think of it as having a 0-) array of thousands or millions of tiny solar cells, each of which transforms the light from one small portion of the image into electrons" &oth (() and (+,* devices perform this task using a variety of technologies" 'he ne t step is to read the value (accumulated charge! of each cell in the image" In a (() device, the charge is actually transported across the chip and read at one corner of the array" $n analog-to-digital converter turns

each pi el's value into a digital value" In most (+,* devices, there are several transistors at each pi el that amplify and move the charge using more traditional wires" 'he (+,* approach is more fle ible because each pi el can be read individually" (()s use a special manufacturing process to create the ability to transport charge across the chip without distortion" 'his process leads to very high-2uality sensors in terms of fidelity and light sensitivity" (+,* chips, on the other hand, use completely standard manufacturing processes to create the chip -- the same processes used to make most microprocessors" &ecause of the manufacturing differences, there are several noticeable differences between (() and (+,* sensors"

(() sensors, as mentioned above, create high-2uality, low-noise images" (+,* sensors, traditionally, are more susceptible to noise" &ecause each pi el on a (+,* sensor has several transistors located ne t to it, the light sensitivity of a (+,* chip is lower" +any of the photons hitting the chip hit the transistors instead of the photodiode" (+,* sensors traditionally consume little power" Implementing a sensor in (+,* yields a lowpower sensor" (()s, on the other hand, use a process that consumes lots of power" (()s consume as much as 133 times more power than an e2uivalent (+,* sensor" (+,* chips can be fabricated on #ust about any standard silicon production line, so they tend to be e tremely ine pensive compared to (() sensors" (() sensors have been mass produced for a longer period of time, so they are more mature" 'hey tend to have higher 2uality pi els, and more of them"

&ased on these differences, you can see that (()s tend to be used in cameras that focus on high-2uality images with lots of pi els and e cellent light sensitivity" (+,* sensors usually have lower 2uality, lower resolution and lower sensitivity" /owever, (+,* cameras are less e pensive and have great battery life"

Resolution

Senzor de imagine CMOS

'he amount of detail that the camera can capture is called the resolution, and it is measured in pi els" 'he more pi els your camera has, the more detail it can capture" 'he more detail you have, the more you can blow up a picture before it becomes 4grainy4 and starts to look out-of-focus" *ome typical resolutions that you find in digital cameras today include:

056 056 pi els - You find this resolution on very cheap cameras" 'his resolution is so low that the picture 2uality is almost always unacceptable" 'his is 65,333 total pi els" 673 783 pi els - 'his is the low end on most 4real4 cameras" 'his resolution is great if you plan to email most of your pictures to friends or post them on a -eb site" 'his is 93:,333 total pi els" 1016 ;10 pi els - If you are planning to print your images, this is a good resolution" 'his is a 4megapi el4 image si<e -- 1,13;,333 total pi els" 1633 1033 pi els - 'his is 4high resolution"4 Images taken with this resolution can be printed in larger si<es, such as 8 13 inches, with good results" 'his is almost 0 million total pi els" You can find cameras today with up to 13"0 million pi els"

You may or may not need lots of resolution, depending on what you want to do with your pictures" If you are planning to do nothing more than display images on a -eb page or send them in e-mail, then using 673 783 resolution has several advantages:

Your camera's memory will hold more images at this low resolution than at higher resolutions" It will take less time to move the images from the camera to your computer"

'he images will take up less space on your computer"

$n the other hand, if your goal is to print large images, you definitely "ant to ta e highresolution shots and need a camera "ith lots of pixels.

What picture resolution will give the best quality prints my inkjet printer
'here are many different technologies used in ink#et printers" In general, printer manufacturers will advertise the printer resolution in dots per inch (dpi!" /owever, all dots are not created e2ual" ,ne printer may place more drops of ink (black, cyan, magenta or yellow! per dot than another" .or instance, printers made by /ewlett =ackard that use =hoto>?t III technology can layer a combination of up to 0; drops of ink per dot, yielding about 9,533 possible colors per dot" 'his may sound like a lot, but most cameras can capture 16"8 million colors per pi el" *o these printers cannot replicate the e act color of a pi el with a single dot" Instead, they must create a grouping of dots that when viewed from a distance blend together to form the color of a single pi el" 'he rule of thumb is that you divide your printer's color resolution by about four to get the actual ma imum picture 2uality of your printer" *o for a 1033 dpi printer, a resolution of 933 pi els per inch would be #ust about the best 2uality that printer is capable of" 'his means that with a 1033 ;33 pi el image, you could print a 7-inch by 9-inch print" In practice, though, lower resolutions than this usually provide ade2uate 2uality" 'o make a reasonable print that comes close to the 2uality of a traditionally developed photograph, you need about 153 to 033 pi els per inch of print si<e" @odak recommends: =rint *i<e -allet 7 5 inches 5 : inches 8 13 inches +egapi els 3"9 3"7 3"8 1"6 Image >esolution 673 783 pi els :68 510 pi els 1150 :68 pi els 1596 1307 pi els

Capturing Color
Anfortunately, each photosite is colorblind" It only keeps track of the total intensity of the light that strikes its surface" In order to get a full color image, most sensors use filtering to look at the light in its three primary colors" ,nce all three colors have been recorded, they can be added together to create the full spectrum of colors that you've grown accustomed to seeing on computer monitors and color printers.

/ow the three basic colors combin to form other colors

'here are several ways of recording the three colors in a digital camera" 'he highest 2uality cameras use three separate sensors, each with a different filter over it" Light is directed to the different sensors by placing a beam splitter in the camera" 'hink of the light entering the camera as water flowing through a pipe" Asing a beam splitter would be like dividing an identical amount of water into three different pipes" ?ach sensor gets an identical look at the imageB but because of the filters, each sensor only responds to one of the primary colors" 'he advantage of this method is that the camera records each of the three colors at each pi el location" Anfortunately, cameras that use this method tend to be bulky and e pensive" $ second method is to rotate a series of red, blue and green filters in front of a single sensor" 'he sensor records three separate images in rapid succession" 'his method also provides information on all three colors at each pi el locationB but since the three images aren't taken at precisely the same moment, both the camera and the target of the photo must remain stationary for all three readings" 'his isn't practical for candid photography or handheld cameras" $ more economical and practical way to record the three primary colors from a single image is to permanently place a filter over each individual photosite" &y breaking up the sensor into a variety of red, blue and green pi els, it is possible to get enough information in the general vicinity of each sensor to make very accurate guesses about the true color at that location" 'his process of looking at the other pi els in the neighborhood of a sensor and making an educated guess is called interpolation" 'he most common pattern of filters is the &ayer filter pattern" 'his pattern alternates a row of red and green filters with a row of blue and green filters" 'he pi els are not evenly divided -- there are as many green pi els as there are blue and red combined" 'his is because the human eye is not e2ually sensitive to all three colors" It's necessary to include more information from the green pi els in order to create an image that the eye will perceive as a 4true color"4 'here are other ways of handling color in a digital camera" *ome single-sensor cameras use alternatives to the &ayer filter pattern" $ company called .oveon has developed a sensor that captures all three colors by embedding red, green and blue photodetectors in silicon" 'his C9 technology works because red, green and blue light each penetrate silicon to a different depth" 'here is even a method that uses two sensors" *ome of the more advanced cameras don't add up the different values of red, green and blue, but instead subtract values using the typesetting colors cyan, yellow, green and magenta" /owever, most consumer cameras on the market today use a single sensor with alternating rows of greenDred and greenDblue filters"

Fovenon X !ehnology
Antil now, you haven't been getting the picture" $t least not the complete picture" 'hat's because revolutionary .oveon C9 technology features the first and only image sensors that capture red, green and blue light at each and every pi el location" $ll other image sensors record #ust one color per pi el location Ethat's why .oveon's direct image sensors deliver increased sharpness,

better color detail and resistance to unpredictable color artifacts" .rom point-and-shoot digital cameras to high-end professional e2uipment, .oveon C9 technology offers a wealth of benefits to consumers and manufacturers alike" $t the same time, it paves the way for other innovations, such as new kinds of cameras that record both video and still images without compromising the image 2uality" 'he revolutionary design of .oveon C9 direct image sensors features three layers of pi el sensors" 'he layers are embedded in silicon to take advantage of the fact that red, green, and blue light penetrate silicon to different depthsEforming the world's first direct image sensor" 'o capture the color that other image sensors miss, .oveon C9F direct image sensors use three layers of pi el sensors embedded in silicon" 'he layers are positioned to take advantage of the fact that silicon absorbs different wavelengths of light to different depths, so one layer records red, another layer records green, and the other layer records blue" 'his means that for every pi el location on .oveon C9 direct image sensors, there's actually a stack of three pi el sensors, forming the first and only direct image sensors"

Antil now, all other image sensors have featured #ust one layer of pi el sensors, with #ust one pi el sensor per pi el location" 'o capture color, pi el sensors are organi<ed in a grid, or mosaic, resembling a three-color checkerboard" ?ach pi el is covered with a filter and records #ust one colorEred, green, or blue" 'hat approach has inherent drawbacks, no matter how many pi els a mosaic-based image sensor might contain" *ince mosaic-based image sensors capture only one-third of the color, comple processing is re2uired to interpolate the color they miss" Interpolation leads to color artifacts and a loss of image detail" &lur filters are used to reduce color artifacts, but at the e pense of sharpness and resolution" -ith its revolutionary process for capturing light, .oveon C9 technology never needs to compromise on 2uality, so you get sharper pictures, truer colors, and fewer artifacts" $nd cameras e2uipped with .oveon C9 technology do not have to rely on processing power to fill in missing colors, reducing hardware re2uirements, simplifying designs and minimi<ing lag time between one shot and the ne t" )ollar for dollar, pi el for pi el, nothing compares to .oveon C9 technology"

"ariable #i$el in X !ehnology

.oveon C9F direct image sensors not only lead to better pictures, but better cameras too, as a result of their powerful full-color variable pi el si<e (G=*! capability" G=* opens the door to an entirely new breed of camera, one that can switch seamlessly between still photography and digital video, without sacrificing the 2uality of either" 'he G=* capability allows signals from ad#acent pi els to be combined into groups and read as one larger pi el" .or e ample, a 0933 1533 image sensor contains more than 9"7 million pi el locations" &ut if the G=* capability were used to group those pi el locations into 7 7 blocks, the image sensor would appear to have 5:5 9:5 pi el locations, each of them 16 times larger than the originals" 'he si<e and configuration of a pi el group are variableE0 0, 7 7, 1 0, etc"Eand are controlled through sophisticated circuitry integrated into .oveon C9 direct image sensors" &ecause .oveon C9 image sensors capture full color at every pi el location, pi els that are grouped together form full-color 4super pi els"4 Ho other image sensor can do this"

'he grouping of pi el locations increases the signal-to-noise ratio, allowing the camera to take full-color pictures in low-light conditions with reduced noise" Asing the G=* capability to increase pi el si<e and reduce the resolution also allows the image sensor to run at higher frame rates, accelerating the speed at which images can be captured" 'his makes it possible to shoot high-2uality digital video, enabling the development of the first cameras with true dual-mode functionality" -ithout .oveon C9 technology, cameras attempting to accommodate both still and video functions must sacrifice performance in one mode to do the other well" $nd since the si<ing of pi els can be done in an instant, a .oveon C9 direct image sensor can capture a highEresolution still photo in the midst of recording videoEyet another first in digital photography"

Better %uality
'he uni2ue ability of .oveon C9 direct image sensors to capture all the light at every pi el location results in more than truer colorEit also translates into images of unprecedented sharpness and clarity" $ll colors, especially green, carry luminance information that the human visual system uses to discern and define image detail" >ecogni<ing the importance of green light, manufacturers of mosaic image sensors dedicate 53I of pi el locations to capturing green light, with the remaining 53I evenly divided between red and blue" Yet they still capture only half as much green as .oveon C9 direct image sensors, which capture 133I of every color for sharper, clearer images" In many cases, the difference in sharpness and detail is compounded by the use of blur filters in mosaicbased digital cameras" 'he blur filters are intended to minimi<e luminance and color artifacts" 'he artifacts are

unpredictable byproducts of the comple processing re2uired to interpolate the information mosaic image sensors miss" /owever, blur filters reduce artifacts at the e pense of resolution and sharpness" 'hese trade-offs are unnecessary with .oveon C9 direct image sensors" 'here's no need to rely on interpolation to reconstruct missing information, because all the information is captured by the revolutionary stacked pi el design of .oveon C9 technology"

!he &''ects o' Filters

(ameras using mosaic image sensors are forced to compromise between image 2uality and sharpness" Images directly sampled with mosaic sensors have better resolution than those taken using blur filters, but suffer from interpolation artifacts" &lur filters will alleviate the artifacts, but cause a reduction in overall resolution and image detail" +osaic +osaic .oveon C9 -ithout &lur .ilter -ith &lur .ilter

Gisible artifacts without blur filter"

,verall image softening with blur filter"

.oveon C9 direct image sensor, no blur filter re2uired"

(ew technology automatically corrects lighting problems in digital photographs) C9 .ill Light, a new software feature, dramatically improves the image 2uality of digital images affected by challenging lighting conditions" C9 .ill Light simulates the photographic method of adding e tra light to shadow regions, while preserving highlight detail" It is a powerful yet automatic method for 4dodging and burning4 an image, where each pi el is optimally ad#usted in relation to surrounding pi els" 'he C9 .ill Light feature is included in software designed to process the C9. files generated by cameras which use .oveon direct image sensors for capture" 'he C9 .ill Light feature is simple to apply: moving the slider in the positive direction from the default setting of 3"3 increases the affect, as illustrated in the e ample"

$s the C9 .ill Light slider is increased, the relationship between the regions of an image that contain shadows, midtones, and highlights are altered in relation to each other" &y increasing the amount of C9 .ill Light, the brightness and contrast of the shadow regions are increased to add visibility into areas that have been undere posed" *imultaneously, the contrast in highlight regions is increased and the brightness is ad#usted to avoid over saturation" ? amples of images where the use of C9 .ill Light is desirable are those taken in mi ed lighting conditions including shadow and direct sunlight, indoor-outdoor scenes (such as through a doorway or window!, back-lit sub#ects, or dramatic sky scenes" 'he end results are natural looking images that map from a wide-dynamic-range scene into a narrower dynamic range that can be properly reproduced on a print"

*mage Comparison
.oveon C9F technology visibly improves image 2uality, as these comparisons demonstrate" In this case, an image taken with a mosaic sensor is compared to an image taken with .oveon C9 technology" +osaic capture .oveon C9

(larity +osaic .oveon C9

$s you can see, the camera e2uipped with .oveon C9 technology takes sharper pictures" 'hat's because it captures twice as much green as mosaic image sensors, and the green wavelengths of light are critical in defining image detail" (olor )etail +osaic .oveon C9

'hese pictures demonstrate how .oveon C9 technology improves color detail" 'he difference is that .oveon C9 direct image sensors measure full color at each and every pi el location, while mosaic sensors capture 53I of the green and #ust 05I of the red and blue" $rtifacts +osaic .oveon C9

$s shown here, .oveon C9 technology offers resistance to unpredictable artifacts" $ mosaic image sensor is more vulnerable to artifacts, largely because it must rely on comple processing to interpolate the colors it missed" Ho amount of processing power can completely take the guesswork out of color interpolation"

+igiti,ing *n'ormation
'he light is converted to electrical chargeB but the electrical charges that build up in the (() are not digital signals that are ready to be used by your computer. #n order to digitize the information, the signal must be passed through an analog-to-digital converter %!&'(. #nterpolation is handled by a microprocessor after the data has been digitized. 'hink of each photosite as a bucket or a well, and think of the photons of light as raindrops" $s the raindrops fall into the bucket, water accumulates (in reality, electrical charge accumulates!" *ome buckets have more water and some buckets have less water, representing brighter and darker sections of the image" *ticking to the analogy, the $)( measures the depth of the water, which is considered analog information" 'hen it converts that information to binary form"

*s the number o' photosites the same as the number o' pi$elsJ
If you read digital camera claims carefully, you'll notice that the number of pi els and the ma imum resolution numbers don't 2uite compute" .or e ample, a camera claims to be a 0"1-megapi el camera and it is capable of producing images with a resolution of 1633 1033" Let's do the math: a 1633 1033 image contains 1,;03,333 pi els" &ut 40"1 megapi el4 means there ought to be at least 0,133,333 pi els" 'his isn't an error from rounding off, and it isn't binary mathematical trickery" 'here is a real discrepancy between these two numbers" If a camera says it has 0"1 megapi els, then there really are appro imately 0,133,333 photosites on the (()" -hat happens is that some of the photosites are not being used for imaging" >emember that the (() is an analog device" It's necessary to provide some circuitry to the photosites so that the $)( can measure the amount of charge" 'his circuitry is dyed black so that it doesn't absorb any light and distort the image"

-ow big are the sensors. ;

'he current generation of digital sensors are smaller than film" 'ypical film emulsions that are e posed in a film-based camera measure 07mm 96mm" If you've look at the specifications of a typical 1"9-megapi el camera, you'll find that it has a (() sensor that measures 7"7mm 6"6mm" $s you'll see in a later section, a smaller sensor means smaller lenses"

/utput0 1torage and Compression

+ost digital cameras on the market today have an L() screen, "hich means that you can vie" your picture right a"ay. This is one of the great advantages of a digital camera) *ou get immediate feedbac on "hat you capture. $nce the image leaves the ''& sensor %by "ay of the !&' and a microprocessor(, it is ready to be vie"ed on the +'&. ,f course, that's not the end of the story" Giewing the image on your camera would lose its charm if that's all you could do" You want to be able to load the picture into your computer or send it directly to a printer" 'here are several ways to store images in a camera and then transfer them to a computer"

1torage
?arly generations of digital cameras had fi ed storage inside the camera" You needed to connect the camera directly to a computer by cables to transfer the images" $lthough most of today's cameras are capable of connecting to a serial, parallel, *(*I, andDor A*& port, they usually provide you with some sort of removable storage device"

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'here are a number of storage systems currently used in digital cameras:

Creating Fun #hotos -ith the image-editing software that often comes with your camera you can do lots of neat things" You can: crop the picture to capture #ust the part you want add te t to the picture make the picture brighter or darker change the contrast and sharpness apply filters to the picture to make it look blurry, painted, embossed, etc" resi<e pictures rotate pictures cut stuff out of one picture and put it into another 4stitch4 together many pictures to create one large panoramicD963degree picture create a 9-) picture that you can rotate and <oom in on and out of

Built2in memory - *ome e tremely ine pensive cameras have built-in .lash memory" 1mart3edia cards - *mart+edia cards are CompactFlash - (ompact.lash cards are similar to but slightly larger than *mart+edia 3emory 1tick - +emory *tick is a proprietary *ony" Floppy disk - *ome cameras store images directly -ard disk - *ome higher-end cameras use =(+(I$ hard-disk cards, for image storage" Writeable C+ and +"+ - *ome of the writeable () and )G) drives to store images" small .lash memory modules" another form of .lash memory, cards" form of .lash memory used by onto floppy disks" small built-in hard disks, or newest cameras are using

In order to transfer the files from a .lash memory device to your computer without using cables, you will need to have a drive or reader for your computer" 'hese devices behave much like floppy drives and are ine pensive to buy"

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'hink of all these storage devices as reusable digital film" -hen you fill one up, either transfer the data or put another one into the camera" 'he different types of .lash memory devices are not interchangeable" ?ach camera manufacturer has decided on one device or another" ?ach of the .lash memory devices also needs some sort of caddy or card reader in order to transfer the data"

What is the image capacity o' each type o' storage.

>ight now, there are two main types of storage media in use today" *ome cameras use 1"77-+& floppy disks, and some use various forms of .lash memory that have capacities ranging from several megabytes to 1 gigabyte" 'here are several other formats, but for now we'll discuss these two" 'he main difference between storage media is their capacity: 'he capacity of a floppy disk is fi ed, and the capacity of .lash memory devices is increasing all the time" 'his is fortunate because picture si<e is also increasing constantly, as higher resolution cameras become available" 'he two main file formats used by digital cameras are 'I.. and %=?K" 'I.. is an uncompressed format and %=?K is a compressed format" +ost cameras use the %=?K file format for storing pictures, and they sometimes offer 2uality settings (such as medium or high!" 'he following chart will give you an idea of the file si<es you might e pect with different picture si<es" Image *i<e 673 783 833 633 1307 :68 1633 1033 'I.. (uncompressed! 1"3 +& 1"5 +& 0"5 +& 6"3 +& %=?K (high 2uality! 933 @& 533 @& 833 @& 1": +& %=?K (medium 2uality! ;3 @& 193 @& 033 @& 703 @&

,ne thing that becomes apparent is that a 1"77-+& disk cannot hold very many pictures" In fact, at some image si<es you can't even fit one picture on the disk" &ut the floppy disk does have its uses" .or Internet publishing and e-mailing pictures to friends, you almost never need a picture bigger than 673 783, and you will almost always save it in %=?K form" In this case, you might be able to fit 16 or so pictures on each disk" If you are trying to store the biggest, highest 2uality images you can, then you will want the highest capacity medium" $ 108-+& .lash memory card, for instance, could store more than 1,733 small compressed images or 01 of the uncompressed 1633 1033 images" You would probably never use the whole 108 +& if you were #ust taking small pictures, but if you were taking the big pictures this would be the only way to go" 'he large capacity might also come in handy if you were going on a long trip and wanted to be able to take lots of pictures"

Compression
It takes a lot of memory to store a picture with over 1"0 million pi els" $lmost all digital cameras use some sort of data compression to make the files smaller" 'here are two features of digital images that make compression possible" ,ne is repetition" 'he other is irrelevancy" You can imagine that throughout a given photo, certain patterns develop in the colors" .or e ample, if a blue sky takes up 93 percent of the photograph, you can be certain that some shades of blue are going to be repeated over and over again" -hen compression routines take advantage of patterns that repeat, there is no loss of information and the image can be reconstructed e actly as it was recorded" Anfortunately, this doesn't reduce files any more than 53 percent, and sometimes it doesn't even come close to that level" Irrelevancy is a trickier issue" $ digital camera records more information than is easily detected by the human eye" *ome compression routines take advantage of this fact to throw away some of the more meaningless data" If you need smaller files, you need to be willing to throw away more data" +ost cameras offer several

10

different levels of compression, although they may not call it that" +ore likely they will offer you different levels of resolution" 'his is the same thing" Lower resolution means more compression" Batteries )igital cameras, especially those that use a (() sensor and an L() display, tend to use lots of power -which means they eat batteries" >echargeable batteries help to lower the cost of using the digital camera, but rechargeable batteries are sometimes e pensive" /ere are some things to consider: )oes the camera use standard-si<e rechargeable batteries (e"g", $$!, or does it use special rechargeable batteries made by the manufacturerJ If it uses the special ones, check to see what the price of another battery pack is" If the camera takes $$ batteries, can you use normal alkaline batteries in a pinchJ $re the rechargeable batteries removable, or are they permanently mounted in the cameraJ If they are not removable, it means that once the batteries go dead you can't use the camera again until you can get to a recharger and power supply" 'his can be a ma#or pain in the neck if you want to take a lot of pictures at once"

Aperture and Shutter Speed

It is important to control the amount of light that reaches the sensor" 'hinking back to the water bucket analogy, if too much light hits the sensor, the bucket will fill up and won't be able to hold any more" If this happens, information about the intensity of the light is being lost" ?ven though one photosite may be e posed to a higher intensity light than another, if both buckets are full, the camera will not register a difference between them" 'he word camera comes from the term camera obscura" (amera means room (or chamber! and obscura means dark" In other words, a camera is a dark room" 'his dark room keeps out all unwanted light" $t the click of a button, it allows a controlled amount of light to enter through an opening and focuses the light onto a sensor (either film or digital!" In this section, you will learn how the aperture and shutter work together to control the amount of light that enters the camera"

4perture
'he aperture is the si<e of the opening in the camera" It's located behind the lens" ,n a bright sunny day, the light reflected off your image may be very intense, and it doesn't take very much of it to create a good picture" In this situation, you want a small aperture" &ut on a cloudy day, or in twilight, the light is not so intense and the camera will need more light to create an image" In order to allow more light, the aperture must be enlarged" Your eye works the same way" -hen you are in the dark, the iris of your eye dilates your pupil (that is, it makes it very large!" -hen you go out into bright sunlight, your iris contracts and it makes your pupil very small" If you can find a willing partner and a small flashlight, this is easy to demonstrate (if you do this, please

19

use a small flashlight, like the ones they use in a doctor's office!" Look at your partner's eyes, then shine the flashlight in and watch the pupils contract" +ove the flashlight away, and the pupils will dilate"

1hutter 1peed
'raditionally, the shutter speed is the amount of time that light is allowed to pass through the aperture" 'hink of a mechanical shutter as a window shade" It is placed across the back of the aperture to block out the light" 'hen, for a fi ed amount of time, it opens and closes" 'he amount of time it is open is the shutter speed" ,ne way of getting more light into the camera is to decrease the shutter speed -- in other words, leave the shutter open for a longer period of time" .ilm-based cameras must have a mechanical shutter" ,nce you e pose film to light, it can't be wiped clean to start again" 'herefore, it must be protected from unwanted light" &ut the sensor in a digital camera can be reset electronically and used over and over again" 'his is called a digital shutter" *ome digital cameras employ a combination of electrical and mechanical shutters"

&$posing the 1ensor

'hese two aspects of a camera, aperture and shutter speed, work together to capture the proper amount of light needed to make a good image" In photographic terms, they set the e posure of the sensor" +ost digital cameras automatically set aperture and shutter speed for optimal e posure, which gives them the appeal of a point-and-shoot camera" *ome digital cameras also offer the ability to ad#ust the aperture settings by using menu options on the L() panel" +ore advanced hobbyists and professionals like to have control over the aperture and shutter speed selections because it gives them more creative control over the final image" $s you climb into the upper levels of consumer cameras and the realm of professional cameras, you will be rewarded with controls that have the look, feel and functions common to film-based cameras"

5ens and Focal 5ength

! camera lens collects the available light and focuses it on the sensor. ,ost digital cameras use automatic focusing techni-ues, "hich you can learn more about in the article /ow $utofocus (ameras -ork. 'he important difference between the lens of a digital camera and the lens of a 95mm camera is the focal length" 'he focal length is the distance between the lens and the surface of the sensor" You learned in the section on technical details that the surface of a film sensor is much larger than the surface of a (() sensor" In fact, a typical 1"9-megapi el digital sensor is appro imately one-si th of the linear dimensions of film" In order to pro#ect the image onto a smaller sensor, it is necessary to shorten the focal length by the same proportion" .ocal length is also the critical information in determining how much magnification you get when you look through your camera" In 95mm cameras, a 53mm lens gives a natural view of the sub#ect" $s you increase the focal length, you get greater magnification, and ob#ects appear to get closer" $s you decrease the focal length, things appear to get farther away, but you can capture a wider field of view in the camera"

You will find four different types of lenses on digital cameras: .i ed-focus, fi ed-<oom lenses - 'hese are the kinds of lenses you find on disposable and ine pensive film cameras -- ine pensive and great for snapshots, but fairly limited"

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,ptical-<oom lenses with automatic focus - *imilar to the lens on a video camcorder, you have 4wide4 and 4telephoto4 options and automatic focus" 'he camera may or may not let you switch to manual focus" )igital-<oom lenses - -ith digital <oom, the camera takes pi els from the center of the image sensor and 4interpolates4 them to make a full-si<e image" )epending on the resolution of the image and the sensor, this approach may create a grainy or fu<<y image" It turns out that you can manually do the same thing a digital <oom is doing -- simply snap a picture and then cut out the center of the image using your image processing software" >eplaceable lens systems - If you are familiar with high-end 95mm cameras, then you are familiar with the concept of replaceable lenses" /igh-end digital cameras can use this same system, and in fact can use lenses from 95mm cameras in some cases"

*ince many photographers that use film-based cameras are familiar with the focal lengths that pro#ect an image onto 95mm film, digital cameras advertise their focal lengths with 495mm e2uivalents"4 'his is e tremely helpful information to have" In the chart below, you can compare the actual focal lengths of a typical 1"9-megapi el camera and its e2uivalent in a 95mm camera" .ocal 95mm Giew 'ypical Ases Length ?2uivalent 5"7 mm :": mm 16"0 mm 95 mm 53 mm 135 mm 'hings look smaller and farther away" -ide-angle shots, landscapes, large buildings, groups of people

'hings look about the same 4Hormal4 shots of people and as what your eye sees" ob#ects 'hings are magnified and appear closer" 'elephoto shots, close-ups

/ptical 6oom vs) +igital 6oom

In general terms, a <oom lens is any lens that has an ad#ustable focal length" Loom doesn't always mean a close-up" $s you can see in the chart above, the 4normal4 view of the world for this particular camera is :": mm" You can <oom out for a wide-angle view of the world, or you can <oom in for a closer view of the world" )igital cameras may have an optical <oom, a digital <oom, or both" $n optical <oom actually changes the focal length of your lens" $s a result, the image is magnified by the lens (sometimes called the optics, hence 4optical4 <oom!" -ith greater magnification, the light is spread across the entire (() sensor and all of the pi els can be used" You can think of an optical <oom as a true <oom that will improve the 2uality of your pictures" $ digital <oom is a computer trick that magnifies a portion of the information that hits the sensor" Let's say you are shooting a picture with a 0C digital <oom" 'he camera will use half of the pi els at the center of the (() sensor and ignore all the other pi els" 'hen it will use interpolation techni2ues to add detail to the photo" $lthough it may look like you are shooting a picture with twice the magnification, you can get the same results by shooting the photo without a <oom and blowing up the picture using your computer software"

3acro
If you plan to take close-up images, look for a camera that has a macro focusing capability" 'his feature lets you move the camera's lens very close to the sub#ect" /ere is an e ample of a macro photograph -this is a picture of part of a small electric motor, and the white disk is about the si<e of a A"*" 2uarter coin" If your camera is not e2uipped with a macro setting, there is no way for you to take an image like this"

15

Cool Facts

In the Anited *tates, there is roughly one camera for every adult" -ith a 9-megapi el camera, you can take a higher-resolution picture than most computer monitors can display" " 'he first consumer-oriented digital cameras were sold by @odak and $pple in 1;;7" In 1;;8, *ony inadvertently sold over :33,333 camcorders with a limited ability to see through clothes" You can use various software programs to 4stitch4 together a series of digital pictures to create a large panorama

*mage Formats
,n the Het, luckily, we really only have to deal with three main types of images: (ompu*erve KI., %=?K, and &itmaps" $t the moment, those are the only three that are roundly supported by the ma#or browsers" &ut what's the difference between themJ -hat does it mean if a KI. is interlaced or non-interlacedJ Is a %=?K progressive because it en#oys art decoJ )oes a &itmap actually offer directions somewhereJ $nd the most often asked 2uestion:
When do I use a specific image format?

*mage or 7raphic.
'echnically, neither" If you really want to be strict, computer pictures are files, the same way -,>) documents or solitaire games are files" 'hey're all a bunch of ones and <eros all in a row" &ut we do have to communicate with one another so let's decide" Image" -e'll use 4image4" 'hat seems to cover a wide enough topic range" 4Kraphic4 is more of an ad#ective, as in 4graphic format"4 You see, we denote images on the Internet by their graphic format" KI. is not the name of the image" KI. is the compression factors used to create the raster format set up by (ompu*erve" (+ore on that in a moment!" *o, they're all images unless you're talking about something specific

88 +i''erent 7raphic Formats.

It does seem like a big number, doesn't itJ In reality, there are not 77 different graphic format names" +any of the 77 are different versions under the same compression umbrella, interlaced and non-interlaced KI., for e ample" &efore getting into where we get all 77, and there are more than that even, let us discuss for a moment" 'here actually are only two basic methods for a computer to render, or store and display, an image" -hen you save an image in a specific format you are creating either a raster or metaDvector graphic format" Raster >aster image formats (>I.s! should be the most familiar to Internet users" $ >aster format breaks the image into a series of colored dots called pi els" 'he number of ones and <eros (bits! used to create each pi el denotes the depth of color you can put into your images" If your pi el is denoted with only one bit-per-pi el then that pi el must be black or white" -hyJ &ecause that pi el can only be a one or a <ero, on or off, black or white" &ump that up to 7 bits-per-pi el and you're able to set that colored dot to one of 16 colors" If you go even higher to 8 bits-per-pi el, you can save that colored dot at up to 056 different colors" )oes that number, 056 sound familiar to anyoneJ 'hat's the upper color level of a KI. image" *ure, you can go with less than 056 colors, but you cannot have over 056" 'hat's why a KI. image doesn't work overly well for photographs and larger images" 'here are a whole lot more than 056 colors in the world" Images can carry millions" &ut if you want smaller icon images, KI.s are the way to go"

16

>aster image formats can also save at 16, 07, and 90 bits-per-pi el" $t the two highest levels, the pi els themselves can carry up to 16,:::,016 different colors" 'he image looks greatM &itmaps saved at 07 bits-perpi el are great 2uality images, but of course they also run about a megabyte per picture" 'he three main Internet formats, KI., %=?K, and &itmap, are all >aster formats *ome other >aster formats include the following: C5# +CX +*B F#X *37 9*F 34C 31# #C! #CX ##3 #1# R4W R5& !*FF W#7 -indows (lipart L,.' =aintbrush ,*D0 -arp format @odak's .lash=ic K?+ =aint format %=?K >elated Image format +ac=aint +ac=aint Hew Gersion +acintosh =I(' format L*oft =aintbrush =ortable =i el +ap (AHIC! =aint *hop =ro format Anencoded image format >un-Length ?ncoding (Ased to lower image bit rates! $ldus (orporation format -ord=erfect image format

#i$els and the Web

*ince I brought up pi els, I thought now might be a pretty good time to talk about pi els and the -eb" /ow much is too muchJ /ow many is too fewJ 'here is a delicate balance between the crispness of a picture and the number of pi els needed to display it" Let's say you have two images, each is 5 inches across and 9 inches down" ,ne uses 933 pi els to span that five inches, the other uses 1533" ,bviously, the one with 1533 uses smaller pi els" It is also the one that offers a more crisp, detailed look" 'he more pi els, the more detailed the image will be" ,f course, the more pi els the more bytes the image will take up" *o, how much is enoughJ 'hat depends on whom you are speaking to, and right now you're speaking to me" -e recomand 133 pi els per inch" 'hat creates a ten-thousand pi el s2uare inch" 'his provides a pretty crisp image without going overboard on the bytes" It also allows some leeway to increase or decrease the si<e of the image and not mess it up too much" 'he lowest is :0 pi els per inch, the agreed upon low end of the image scale" In terms of pi els per s2uare inch, it's a whale of a drop to 5187" 'ry that" *ee if you like it, but I think you'll find that lower definition monitors really play havoc with the image"

3eta:"ector *mage Formats

You may not have heard of this type of image formatting, not that you had heard of >aster, either" 'his formatting falls into a lot of proprietary formats, formats made for specific programs" (orel)raw (()>!, /ewlett-=ackard Kraphics Language (/KL!, and -indows +etafiles (?+.! are a few e amples" -here the +etaDGector formats have it over >aster is that they are more than a simple grid of colored dots" 'hey're actual vectors of data stored in mathematical formats rather than bits of colored dots" 'his allows for a strange shaping of colors and images that can be perfectly cropped on an arc" $ s2uared-off map of dots

1:

cannot produce that arc as well" In addition, since the information is encoded in vectors, +etaDGector image formats can be blown up or down (a property known as 4scalability4! without looking #agged or crowded (a property known as 4pi elating4!" *o that I do not receive e-mail from those in the computer image know, there is a difference in +eta and Gector formats" Gector formats can contain only vector data whereas +eta files, as is implied by the name, can contain multiple formats" 'his means there can be a lovely &itmap plopped right in the middle of your -indows +eta file" You'll never know or see the difference but, there it is" I'm #ust trying to keep everybody happy"

What;s 4 Bitmap.
I get that 2uestion a lot" Asually it's followed with 4/ow come it only works on +icrosoft Internet ? plorerJ4 'he second 2uestion's the easiest" +icrosoft invented the &itmap format" It would only make sense they would include it in their browser" ?very time you boot up your =(, the ma#ority of the images used in the process and on the desktop are &itmaps" $gainst what I said above, &itmaps will display on all browsers, #ust not in the familiar NI+K *>(O4--4P format we're all used to" I see &itmaps used mostly as return images from =?>L (ommon Kateway Interfaces ((KIs!" $ counter is a perfect e ample" =age counters that have that 4odometer4 effect are &itmap images created by the server, rather than as an inline image" &itmaps are perfect for this process because they're a simple series of colored dots" 'here's nothing fancy to building them" It's actually a fairly simple process" In the script that runs the counter, you 4build4 each number for the counter to display" Hote the counter is black and white" 'hat's only a one bit-per-pi el level image" 'o create the number <ero in the counter above, you would build a grid : pi els wide by 13 pi els high" 'he pi els you < < < < < < < want to remain black, you would denote as <ero" 'hose you wanted white, you'd denote as < < 1 1 1 < < < 1 1 1 1 1 < one" < 1 1 < 1 1 < < 1 1 < 1 1 < < 1 1 < 1 1 < < 1 1 < 1 1 < < 1 1 1 1 1 < < < 1 1 1 < < < < < < < < < *ee the number <ero in the graph aboveJ I made it red so it would stand out a bit more" You create one of those patterns for the numbers 3 through ;" 'he =?>L script then returns the &itmap image representing the numbers and you get that neat little odometer effect" 'hat's the concept of a &itmap" $ grid of colored points" 'he more bits per pi el, the more fancy the &itmap can be" &itmaps are good images, but they're not great" If you've played with &itmaps versus any other image formats, you might have noticed that the &itmap format creates images that are a little heavy on the bytes" 'he reason is that the &itmap format is not very efficient at storing data" -hat you see is pretty much what you get, one series of bits stacked on top of another" Bitmap Image

Compression
I said above that a &itmap was a simple series of pi els all stacked up" &ut the same image saved in KI. or %=?K format uses less bytes to make up the file" /owJ (ompression" 4(ompression4 is a computer term that represents a variety of mathematical formats used to compress an image's byte si<e" Let's say you have an image

18

where the upper right-hand corner has four pi els all the same color" -hy not find a way to make those four pi els into oneJ 'hat would cut down the number of bytes by three-fourths, at least in the one corner" 'hat's a compression factor" &itmaps can be compressed to a point" 'he process is called 4run-length encoding"4 >uns of pi els that are all the same color are all combined into one pi el" 'he longer the run of pi els, the more compression" &itmaps with little detail or color variance will really compress" 'hose with a great deal of detail don't offer much in the way of compression" &itmaps that use the run-length encoding can carry either the common 4"bmp4 e tension or 4"rle4" $nother difference between the two files is that the common &itmap can accept 16 million different colors per pi el" *aving the same image in run-length encoding knocks the bits-per-pi el down to 8" 'hat locks the level of color in at no more than 056" 'hat's even more compression of bytes to boot"
.o, "hy not create a single pixel "hen all of the colors are close/ *ou could even lo"er the number of colors available so that you "ould have a better chance of the pixels being close in color. 0ood idea. The people at 'ompu.erve felt the same "ay.

9#&7 *mage Formats %=?K is a compression algorithm developed by the people the format is named after, the %oint =hotographic ? perts Kroup" %=?K's big selling point is that its compression factor stores the image on the hard drive in less bytes than the image is when it actually displays" 'he -eb took to the format straightaway because not only did the image store in fewer bytes, it transferred in fewer bytes" $s the Internet adage goes, the pipeline isn't getting any bigger so we need to make what is traveling through it smaller" .or a long while, KI. ruled the Internet roost but when %=?K appeared it was adopted 2uickly, even though it brought some problems with it" %=?K pictures can be saved at different compressions and there are presented a few e emples below of a picture at 733Q996, with 159 kilobiti, the si<e: (ompression 03I - 9: kb (ompression 73I - 05 @b (ompression 63I - 1; kb

(ompression 83I - 10 kb

(ompression ;3I - : kb

(ompression ;5I - 7 kb

'he difference between 1I and 63I is not great, from the 2uality point of view, but the pictureRs si<e decreased very much" $t ;5I the picture looks horrible, it is not worth it" In some cases you canRt tell what the picture wants to show, because of high compression"

!he 7*F *mage Formats 1;

KI., which stands for 4Kraphic Interchange .ormat,4 was first standardi<ed in 1;8: by (ompu*erve, although the patent for the algorithm (mathematical formula! used to create KI. compression actually belongs to Anisys" 'he first format of KI. used on the -eb was called KI.8:a, representing its year and version" It saved images at 8 pits-per-pi el, capping the color level at 056" 'hat 8-bit level allowed the image to work across multiple server styles, including (ompu*erve, '(=DI=, and $,L" It was a graphic for all seasons, so to speak" (ompu*erve updated the KI. format in 1;8; to include animation, transparency, and interlacing" 'hey called the new format, you guessed it: KI.8;a" 'here's no discernable difference between a basic (known as non-interlaced! KI. in 8: and 8; formats"

GIF87a

GIF89a

4nimation
'he concept of KI.8;a animation is much the same as a picture book with small animation cells in each corner" .lip the pages and the images appear to move" /ere, you have the ability to set the cell's (technically called an 4animation frame4! movement speed in 1D133ths of a second" $n internal clock embedded right into the KI. keeps count and flips the image when the time comes" 'he animation process has been bettered along the way by companies who have found their own method of compressing the KI.s further" $s you watch an animation you might notice that very little changes from frame to frame" *o, why put up a whole new KI. image if only a small section of the frame needs to be changedJ 'hat's the key to some of the newer compression factors in KI. animation" Less changing means fewer bytes" !ransparency 'he process is best described as similar to the weather forecaster on your local news" ?ach night they stand in front of a big green (sometimes blue! screen and deliver the weather while that blue or green behind them is 4keyed4 out and replaced by another source" In the case of the weather forecaster, it's usually a large map with lots of Ls and /s" 'he process in television is called a 4chroma key"4 $ computer is told to hone in on a specific color, let's say it's green" (hroma key screens are usually green because it's the color least likely to be found in human skin tones" You don't want to use a blue screen and then chroma out someone's pretty blue eyes" 'hat chroma (color! is then 4erased4 and replaced by another image" 'hink of that in terms of a transparent KI." 'here are only 056 colors available in the KI." 'he computer is told to hone in on one of them" It's done by choosing a particular redDgreenDblue shade already found in the image and blanking it out" 'he color is basically dropped from the palette that makes up the image" 'hus whatever is behind it shows through"

03

'he shape is still there though" 'ry this: Ket an image with a transparent background and alter its height and width in your /'+L code" You'll see what should be the transparent color seeping through" $ny color that's found in the KI. can be made transparent, not #ust the color in the background" If the background of the image is speckled then the transparency is going to be speckled" If you cut out the color blue in the background, and that color also appears in the middle of the image, it too will be made transparent"

*nterlaced vs) (on2*nterlaced 7*F

-hen you do H,' interlace an image, you fill it in from the top to the bottom, one line after another" /opefully, you're on a slower connection computer so you got the full effect of waiting for the image to come in" It can be torture sometimes" 'hat's where the brilliant Interlaced KI.8;a idea came from" Interlacing is the concept of filling in every other line of data, then going back to the top and doing it all again, filling in the lines you skipped" Your television works that way" 'he effect on a computer monitor is that the graphic appears blurry at first and then sharpens up as the other lines fill in" 'hat allows your viewer to at least get an idea of what's coming up rather than waiting for the entire image, line by line" 'he e ample image below is of a spice shop in the Krand (overed &a<aar, Istanbul" &oth interlaced and non-interlaced KI.s get you to the same destination" 'hey #ust do it differently" It's up to you which you feel is better"

#rogressive 9#&7s
You can almost guess what this is all about" $ progressive %=?K works a lot like the interlaced KI.8;a by filling in every other line, then returning to the top of the image to fill in the remainder" 'he e ample is again presented three times at 1I, 53I, and ;;I compression" ,bviously, here's where bumping up the compression does not pay off" >ule of thumb: If you're going to use progressive %=?K, keep the compression up high, :5I or better"

01