2. First Things First

Photo: Anneliese Voigt

A Few Things to Know and Do Before You Begin Taking Pictures

Now that I’ve covered the top ten tasks to get you up and shooting, it’s time to take care of some other important details. You must become familiar with certain features of your camera before you can take full advantage of it. So to get things moving, let’s start off with something that you will definitely need before you can take a single picture: a memory card.

Poring Over the Picture

Once you begin to think like a photographer, I guarantee you’ll pay much more attention to light. I’m always drawn to contrasts such as those found in this photo from Thomas Baake: bright color against dark clouds, the way a sunbreak can invigorate anything.

Choosing the Right Memory Card

Memory cards are the digital film that stores all the shots you take until you move the image files to a computer. The cards come in different shapes and sizes, and they are critical for capturing all your photos. It is important not to skimp when it comes to selecting your memory cards. The G12 uses Secure Digital (SD) memory cards (Figure 2.1).

Figure 2.1. Make sure you select an SD card that has enough capacity to handle your photography needs.

If you’ve been using a point-and-shoot camera, chances are you may already own a Secure Digital (SD) media card. Which brand of card you use is completely up to you, but here is some advice about choosing your memory card:

• Size matters, at least in memory cards. At 10 megapixels, the camera requires a lot of storage space, especially if you shoot in the RAW or RAW + JPEG mode (more on this later in the chapter) or shoot video. You should definitely consider using a card with a storage capacity of at least 4 GB.

• Consider buying high-capacity SDHC or SDXC cards. These cards are generally much faster, both when writing images to the card as well as when transferring them to your computer. If you are planning on using the Continuous shooting mode (see Chapter 5) for capturing fast action, you can gain a boost in performance just by using an SDHC card with a Class rating of at least 4 or 6. The higher the class rating, the faster the write speed. Having a fast card also benefits your video capture by keeping the flow of video frames moving quickly to your card.

• Buy more than one card. If you have already purchased a memory card, consider getting another. Nothing is worse than almost filling your card and then having to either erase shots or choose a lower-quality image format so that you can keep on shooting. With the cost of memory cards what it is, keeping a spare (or two) just makes good sense.

Formatting Your Memory Card

Now that you have your card, let’s talk about formatting. When you purchase any new SD card, you can start shooting right away—and probably everything will work as it should. However, what you should do first is format the card in the camera. This process allows the camera to initialize the card so it records images to its specifications, just as a computer hard drive must be formatted. The card may work in the camera without being formatted, but chances of failure down the road are much higher.

As a general practice, I always format new cards, or cards that have been used in different cameras. I also reformat cards after I have downloaded my images and want to start a new shooting session. Note that you should always format your card in the camera, not your computer. Using the computer could render the card useless. You should also pay attention to the manufacturer’s recommendations in respect to moisture, humidity, and proper handling procedures. It sounds cliché, but when it comes to protecting your images, every little bit helps.

Formatting the memory card is not equivalent to erasing all of its data, however. The truth is that when the camera formats the card, it’s resetting the file management information. Your camera will simply write the new image data over the previous data. Think of it as removing the table of contents from a book and replacing it with a blank page. All of the contents are still there, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at the empty table of contents. The camera will see the card as completely empty so you won’t be losing any space, even if you have previously filled the card with images. Why explain all this detail? This technique makes it possible to recover photos, using third-party software, in the event you accidentally format a card.

Formatting your memory card

1. Insert your memory card into the camera if it’s not already there.
2. Press the Menu button and navigate to the setup menu screen (the second tab from the left).
3. Press the Down button to highlight the Format option (A) and press Set.

   

4. The default selection for the Format screen is Cancel, just in case you didn’t really want to format the card. Press the Right button to highlight OK (B).

   

5. Press the Set button to format the card.

Note that when you perform the card formatting, you can select Low Level Format, which performs a more intensive formatting of the card. The camera formats all of the recordable sectors on the card, a process that takes much longer than a normal formatting and does not need to be performed every time you format. You only need to do this if you see a slowdown in card performance. To enable the Low Level Format option, follow the directions on the previous page, but highlight the Low Level Format option and press the Right button (which puts a checkmark next to the option) before starting the format process (Figure 2.2).

Figure 2.2. Choose Low Level Format to format all sectors of a memory card.

Using the Right Format: RAW vs. JPEG

When shooting with your G12, you have a choice of two image formats that your camera will use to store the pictures on the memory card. JPEG is probably the format most familiar to anyone who has been using a digital camera.

As I mentioned in Chapter 1, JPEG is not actually an image format. It is a compression standard, and compression is where things go bad. When you have your camera set to JPEG—whether it is the large, medium, or small sizes—you are telling the camera to process the image and then throw away enough image data to make it shrink into a smaller space. In doing so, you give up subtle image details that you can never get back in post-processing. That is an awfully simplified statement, but still fairly accurate.

There is nothing wrong with JPEG if you are taking casual shots. JPEG files are ready to use, right out of the camera. Why go through the process of adjusting RAW images of the kids opening presents when you’re just going to email them to Grandma? However, if you care about having complete creative control over all of your image data—as opposed to what a compression algorithm thinks is important—JPEG may entail too many compromises.

So what does RAW have to offer?

First and foremost, RAW images are not compressed. (Some cameras have a compressed RAW format, but it is lossless compression, which means there is no loss of actual image data.) Note that RAW image files require you to perform post-processing on your photographs. This is not only necessary; it’s the reason most photographers use it.

RAW images have a greater dynamic range than JPEG-processed images. You can recover image detail in the highlights and shadows that just aren’t available in JPEG-processed images.

There is also more color information in a RAW image, because it is a 14-bit image; that means it contains more color information than a JPEG, which is almost always an 8-bit image. More color information means more to work with and smoother changes between tones—kind of like the difference between performing surgery with a scalpel as opposed to a butcher’s knife. They’ll both get the job done, but one will do less damage.

Regarding sharpening, a RAW image offers more control because you are the one who is applying the sharpening according to the effect you want to achieve. Once again, JPEG processing applies a standard amount of sharpening that you cannot change after the fact. Once it is done, it’s done.

Finally, and most importantly, a RAW file is your negative. No matter what you do to it, you won’t change it unless you save your file in a different format. This means you can come back to that RAW file later and try different processing settings to achieve differing results and never harm the original image. By comparison, if you make a change to your JPEG and accidentally save the file, guess what? You have a new original file, and you will never get back to that first image. That alone should make you sit up and take notice.

Advice for new RAW shooters

Don’t give up on shooting RAW just because it means more work. Hey, if it takes up more space on your card, buy bigger cards or more smaller ones. Will it take more time to download? Yes, but good things come to those who wait. Don’t worry about needing to purchase expensive software to work with your RAW files; you already own a program that will allow you to work with your RAW files. Canon’s Digital Photo Professional software comes bundled in the box with your camera and gives you the ability to work directly on the RAW files and then output the enhanced results.

Now, after trying my best to convince you to shoot in RAW, my recommendation going forward is to shoot in JPEG mode while you are using this book. (Some shooting modes record only JPEG files, in fact; see Chapter 3.) This will allow you to quickly review your images and study the effects of future lessons. Once you’re comfortable with all of the camera features, you should switch to shooting in RAW mode so that you can start gaining more creative control over your image processing. After all, you took the photograph—shouldn’t you be the one to decide how it looks in the end?

Selecting RAW + JPEG

Your camera has the added benefit of being able to write two files for each picture you take, one in RAW and one in JPEG. This can be useful if you need a quick version to email but want a higher-quality version for more advanced processing.

Note that using both formats requires more space on the memory card. I recommend you use only one format or the other unless you have a specific need to shoot both.

Setting Raw + JPEG Shooting Mode

1. Press the Function/Set button.
2. Press the Down button or use the Control dial to highlight the Image Type menu item (which probably appears as JPEG).
3. Press the Left or Right button to select the RAW + JPEG option.

   

4. Press the Function/Set button to lock in your changes.

The Lens and Focal Lengths

The technology and engineering that goes into your camera is a marvel, but it isn’t worth a darn if it can’t get the light from outside onto the sensor. The G12 includes one built-in lens capable of a multitude of tasks, from focusing on a subject, to metering a scene, to delivering and focusing the light onto the camera sensor.

For most people, however, the first consideration of a lens is its focal length, more commonly referred to as zoom.

A wide angle lets you include a large scene in the frame (Figure 2.3). It can display a large depth of field, which allows you to keep the foreground and background in sharp focus, making it very useful for landscape photography. It also works well in tight spaces, such as indoors, where there isn’t much elbow room available (Figure 2.4).

Figure 2.3. The 6.1mm zoom setting provides a wide view of the scene but little detail of distant objects.

[Photo: Jeff Carlson]

Figure 2.4. When shooting in tight spaces, such as indoors, a nice wide-angle lens helps capture more of the scene. The photographer also used a third-party wide-angle attachment to further increase the field of view.

[Photo: Anneliese Voigt]

The lens in your camera is capable of shooting photos at 6.1mm at the wide-angle end, and up to 30.5mm when at its full telephoto (zoomed) end; Canon’s marketing materials refer to the level of zoom, which is 5x.

The middle range of the zoom (Figure 2.5) is useful for photographing people and architecture, and for most other general photographic needs (Figure 2.6).

Figure 2.5. The middle of the zoom range gets you closer to your subject. Compare this to Figure 2.3, shot from the same location.

[Photo: Jeff Carlson]

Figure 2.6. The middle range of the zoom worked well in this image.

[Photo: Lynette Coates]

The upper part of the focal length range is referred to as telephoto. You can zoom in and get more detail on distant objects, but the angle of view is greatly reduced (Figure 2.7). A tight zoom dramatically focuses your attention, however (Figure 2.8).

Figure 2.7. 30.5mm is the G12’s highest optical zoom. This shot was taken from the same vantage point as Figure 2.3.

[Photo: Jeff Carlson]

Figure 2.8. The camera’s maximum telephoto highlights the vibrant colors of the Chin Swee Temple against the dark and cloudy sky.

[Photo: Thomas Baake]

You will also find that you can achieve a much narrower depth of field. However, you may also notice something called distance compression, which means objects at different distances appear to be much closer together than they really are.

One sacrifice that is made when shooting telephoto is in aperture. When zoomed all the way in, the lens is capable of a minimum aperture of f/4.5 (compared to f/2.8 at the wide angle), which is the middle of the camera’s possible aperture range. That means it cannot work in lower light levels without the assistance of image stabilization, a tripod, or higher ISO settings. (We’ll discuss all this in more detail in later chapters.)

Using the Zoom Control

1. With the camera on in any of the shooting modes, press the Zoom lever to the right (clockwise) to zoom in (telephoto). Press the lever to the left (counterclockwise) to zoom out.
2. Use the lever to fine-tune the amount of zoom you want.

Digital Zoom

The G12 is capable of a 20x zoom, or an impressive 560mm! However, there’s a catch: any focal length above 140mm on these cameras is accomplished by using digital zoom. The camera’s processor makes a sophisticated guess about how to enlarge the scene to appear zoomed-in. To accommodate for the lack of optical information, the processor interpolates the difference by filling in pixels.

In the past, my gut reaction would have been: “Turn it off now!” After all, I presume your aim in purchasing a G12 is to create great shots, not ones that are fuzzy due to interpolation. But, at the risk of having my photographic license revoked, I have to say that the digitally zoomed images on these cameras are...not bad. I wouldn’t rely on the feature all the time, but if the choice is to get the shot with digital zoom or not get a shot at all, then the result can be acceptable (Figure 2.9).

Figure 2.9. Digital zoom lets you get even closer to the subject, but at the expense of some sharpness. The detail at right is reproduced at 100% its original size.

[Photo: Jeff Carlson]

Enabling Digital Zoom

1. Press the Menu button and make sure you’re viewing the shooting menu.
2. Press the Down button or rotate the Control dial to highlight the Digital Zoom option. (Note that the option is inaccessible if you’re shooting in RAW or at an aspect ratio other than 3:4.)
3. Press the Left or Right button to choose one of the following three options:

   • Standard: This option enables digital zoom to get telephoto shots that are closer than the optical zoom.

   • 1.4x: Instead of switching from optical to digital zoom, the camera applies a “digital tele-converter” to the entire zoom range. The image is magnified 1.4 times normal, and “1.4x” appears onscreen.

   • 2.3x: The image is magnified 2.3 times normal using the digital tele-converter and “2.3x” appears onscreen.

4. Press the Menu button to apply the change.

The camera also incorporates what Canon calls Safety Zoom: If you’re shooting at a smaller JPEG image size, the amount of image deterioration due to interpolation isn’t noticeable. For example, you can get a clean image at 11x zoom when shooting at the M2 size (1600 × 1200 pixels). The zoom indicator or digital tele-converter number changes from white to blue to indicate that you’ll see image deterioration; within the Safety Zoom range, the number becomes yellow.

Since I still prefer optical zoom over digital zoom, here are the steps to turn off the feature. In most cases, zoom with your feet instead: get physically closer to the subject.

Turning off Digital Zoom

1. Press the Menu button and make sure you’re viewing the shooting menu.
2. Press the Down button or rotate the Control dial to highlight the Digital Zoom option.
3. Press the Right or Left button until Off is visible.
4. Press the Menu button to accept the setting.

What Is Exposure?

In order for you to get the most out of this book, I need to briefly discuss the principles of exposure. Without this basic knowledge, it will be difficult for you to move forward in improving your photography. Granted, I could write an entire book on exposure and the photographic process—and many people have—but for our purposes I’ll just cover some of the basics. This will give you the essential tools to make educated decisions in determining how best to photograph a subject.

Exposure is the process whereby the light reflecting off a subject passes through an opening in the camera lens for a defined period of time onto the camera sensor. The combination of the lens opening, shutter speed, and sensor sensitivity is used to achieve a proper exposure value (EV) for the scene. The EV is the sum of these components necessary to properly expose a scene.

The relationship between these factors is sometimes referred to as the “Exposure Triangle,” the corners of which are made up of the following:

• ISO: Determines the sensitivity of the camera sensor. ISO stands for the International Organization for Standardization, but the acronym is used as a term to describe the sensitivity of the camera sensor to light. The higher the sensitivity, the less light is required for a good exposure. These values are a carryover from the days of traditional color and black and white films.

• Aperture: Also referred to as the f-stop, this determines how much light passes through the lens at once.

• Shutter Speed: Controls the length of time that light is allowed to hit the sensor.

Here’s how it works. The camera sensor has a level of sensitivity that is determined by the ISO setting. To get a proper exposure—not too much, not too little—the lens needs to adjust the aperture diaphragm (the size of the lens opening) to control the volume of light entering the camera. Then the shutter is opened for a relatively short period of time to allow the light to hit the sensor long enough for it to record on the sensor.

ISO numbers for the G12 start at 80 and then double in sensitivity as you double the number; so, 200 is twice as sensitive as 100. The camera can be set to use 1/2- or 1/3-stop increments, but for ISO just remember that the base numbers double: 100, 200, 400, 800, and so on. There is also a wide variety of shutter speeds that you can use. The speeds on the camera range from as long as 15 seconds to as short as 1/4000 of a second. Typically, you will be working with a shutter speed range from around 1/30 of a second to about 1/2000, but these numbers will change depending on your circumstances and the effect that you are trying to achieve.

When it comes to exposure, a change to any one of these factors requires changing one or more of the other two. This is referred to as a reciprocal change. If you let more light in the lens by choosing a larger aperture opening, you will need to shorten the amount of time the shutter is open. If the shutter is allowed to stay open for a longer period of time, the aperture needs to be smaller to restrict the amount of light coming in.

How is exposure calculated?

We now know about the exposure triangle—ISO, shutter speeds, and aperture—so it’s time to put all three together to see how they relate to one another and how you can change them as needed.

When you point your camera at a scene, the light reflecting off your subject enters the lens and is allowed to pass through to the sensor for a period of time as dictated by the shutter speed. The amount and duration of the light needed for a proper exposure depends on how much light is being reflected and how sensitive the sensor is. To figure this out, your camera utilizes a built-in light meter that looks through the lens and measures the amount of light. That level is then calculated against the sensitivity of the ISO setting to come up with an exposure value. Here is the tricky part: There is no single way to achieve a perfect exposure, because the f-stop and shutter speed can be combined in different ways to allow the same amount of exposure. See, I told you it was tricky.

Here is a list of reciprocal settings that would all produce the same exposure result. Let’s use a traditional “sunny 16” rule, which states that, when using f/16 on a sunny day, you can use a shutter speed that is roughly equal to the ISO setting to achieve a proper exposure. For simplification purposes, we will use an ISO of 100. (I’ve included f-stops higher than f/8 to demonstrate the point, even though the G12 is capable of only f/8.)

Reciprocal Exposures: ISO 100

If you were to use any one of these combinations, they would each have the same result in terms of the exposure (i.e., how much light hits the camera’s sensor). Also take note that every time we cut the f-stop in half, we reciprocated by doubling our shutter speed. (If you’re wondering why f/8 is half of f/5.6, it’s because those numbers are actually fractions based on the opening of the lens in relation to its focal length. That’s an evasive way of saying that a lot of math goes into figuring out just what the total area of a lens opening is, so you just have to take it on faith that f/8 is half of f/5.6.) A good way to remember which opening is larger is to think of your camera lens as a pipe that controls the flow of water. If you had one pipe that was 1/2″ in diameter (f/2) and one that was 1/8″ (f/8), which would allow more water to flow through? It would be the 1/2″ pipe. The same idea works here with the camera f-stops; f/2.8 is a larger opening than f/4 or f/8 or f/16.

Now that we know this, we can start using this information to make intelligent choices in terms of shutter speed and f-stop. Let’s bring in the third element by changing our ISO by one stop, from 100 to 200.

Reciprocal Exposures: ISO 200

Notice that, since we doubled the sensitivity of the sensor, we now require half as much exposure as before. We have also reduced our maximum aperture from f/2.8 to f/4 because the camera can’t use a shutter speed that is faster than 1/4000 of a second.

So why not just use the exposure setting of f/8 at 1/1000 of a second? Why bother with all of these reciprocal values when this one setting will give us a properly exposed image? The answer is that the f-stop and shutter speed also control two other important aspects of our image: motion and depth of field.

Motion and Depth of Field

Distinct characteristics are related to changes in aperture and shutter speed. Shutter speed controls the length of time the light strikes the sensor; consequently, it also controls the blurriness (or lack of blurriness) of the image. The less time light hits the sensor, the less time your subjects have to move around and become blurry. This can let you impose some control, like freezing the motion of a fast-moving subject (Figure 2.10) or blurring subjects to give the feel of energy and motion (Figure 2.11).

Figure 2.10. A fast shutter speed and high ISO froze the action mid-swing.

[Photo: Jeff Carlson]

Figure 2.11. The slower shutter speed, combined with the camera’s neutral density filter, shows the flow of water across the rocks.

[Photo: Jeff Lynch]

The aperture controls the amount of light that comes through the lens, but it also determines what areas of the image will be in focus. This is referred to as depth of field, and it is an extremely valuable creative tool.

The smaller the opening (the larger the number, such as f/8), the greater the sharpness of objects from near to far (Figure 2.12). A large opening (or small number, like f/2.8) means more blurring of objects at distances other than your subject (Figure 2.13).

Figure 2.12. By using a small aperture, the area of sharp focus extends from a point that is near the camera all the way out to distant objects.

[Photo: Jeff Carlson]

Figure 2.13. Isolating a subject is accomplished by using a large aperture, which produces a narrow area of sharp focus.

[Photo: Jeff Carlson]

As we further explore the features of the camera, you will learn not only how to utilize the elements of exposure to capture properly exposed photographs, but also how you can make adjustments to emphasize your subject. It is the manipulation of these elements—motion and focus—that will take your images to the next level.

Chapter 2 Assignments

Formatting your card

Even if you have already begun using your camera, make sure you are familiar with formatting the SD card. If you haven’t done so already, follow the directions given earlier in the chapter and format as described (make sure you save any images that you may have already taken). Then perform the format function every time you have downloaded or saved your images or use a new card.

Exploring your image formats

I want you to become familiar with all of the camera features before using the RAW format, but take a little time to explore the format menu so you can see what options are available.

Exploring the lens

Spend a little time shooting with all of the different focal lengths, from the widest to the longest. See just how much of an angle you can cover with the widest setting. How much magnification will you be able to get from the telephoto setting? Try shooting the same subject with a variety of focal lengths to note the differences in how the subject looks, and also the relationship between the subject and the other elements in the photo.