Orientation sensors in digital cameras

Cameras can be held in two positions: horizontal or vertical (also knows as landscape and portrait). Photos taken in the vertical position are later on rotated 90 degrees (either clockwise or counter clockwise). Rotating the photos can be automated if your camera sports an orientation sensor.

If you just take a few photos every now and then rotating them manually is not a big deal. Usually after downloading the photos to your computer you will browse through them and when viewing a photo that needs to be rotated you will fix it using your software rotate feature. However when taking hundreds or thousands of photos this process can become tedious and long. The good news is that this process can be automated if the camera you are using includes an orientation sensor.

An orientation sensor is an electronic device built into the camera that can sense if the camera is held horizontally or vertically and if the camera is flipped or not (there are two vertical positions also known as 90 degrees or 270 degrees relative to the horizontal position). We will not get into the details of how this sensor works (there are a few options utilizing some physical feature such as gravitation or magnetic fields).

When taking a photo the camera saves the orientation sensor reading as EXIT data included in the photo file. EXIF stands for Exchangeable Image File Format and it defines a set of tags and semantics that can be added to existing formats such as JPG and TIFF to provide more information about the photo. One such piece of information is the camera orientation.

Software can later on use the EXIF orientation data to automatically rotate photos as needed. There are some options for how you can utilize this orientation data for your benefits, here are a few:

Camera built-in rotation software: Some cameras include an automatic mode in which the camera rotates the photo based on the orientation reading immediately after the photo was taken using build-in rotation software. Using this mode the photos saved on the camera memory are already rotated in the right direction and no further processing is needed.

Photo download software rotation: Some software can automatically rotate photos as they are downloaded from the digital camera to the computer hard disk. Before saving a photo to the hard disk the software checks its orientation and rotates it as needed.

Batch photo processing: Software that perform batch operations on photos. Usually such software can do many common photo processing operations such as contrast enhancements, re-sampling, red eye removal and more. They can also rotate photos based on the EXIF orientation data.

Photo viewers: Some photo viewers can utilize the EXIF orientation data when displaying photos. As opposed to the other solutions in this case the photo file is never changed instead every time a photo is displayed on the computer screen the displayed image is rotated as needed based the photo EXIF orientation data. Some professionals prefer this method as it solves the need to rotate photos in order to view them while it does not change the original file. Rotating a photo can degrade its quality if not done properly and thus leaving the original file as-is and only rotating the viewed image is a good way to guarantee no quality loss.

Orientation sensors are a nice addition to the ease of digital photography. If you plan to take many photos and you want to save time by automatically fixing their orientation when downloading them to your computer check if your camera includes an orientation sensor and if it does not make sure that your next camera does include one. Today such sensors are usually included in more expensive cameras as orientation sensors have not become a standard feature in all digital cameras ? at least not yet

More information on digital photo printing and photography is available on printrates.com - a site about digital photo printing This article can be reprinted as long as the resource box including the backlink is included. Mr. Haparnas writes about technology and digital photography.

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- Where have Creative Compact Cameras Gone?
- Digital Camera Flash Units

Where have Creative Compact Cameras Gone?

While these cameras aren't much bigger than the compact digital cameras they typically offer the user a lot more control. You will find that the lenses may be bigger, heavier, and are typically of a higher optical quality. Almost all creative compact cameras offer the option of storing images in RAW format and some may offer the Adobe's standard DNG format.

You will probably find that a standard JPEG is easiest for uploading images to the Web, sharing with friends, or purchasing prints. Unfortunately you will probably find that a lot of shadow and highlight detail that was originally captured by the sensor can be lost with a standard JPEG.

With the RAW format, the photographer has the option of bringing out that shadow or highlight detail in an image editing program on a personal computer (or letting a professional lab do it and make a really great print).

Unless you are prepared to spend an evening reading
the manual and learning the settings don't buy one of these cameras. If you don't do your homework first the results will be the same as if you had used a simpler compact camera.

Panasonic LX2 (28-110mm F2.8-4.9 image-stabilized Leica lens; good for wide angle). Canon G7. 35-210mm F2.8-4.8 lens; no RAW capability; very bad noise at high ISO Ricoh GR Digital. This has a fixed focal-length 28mm equivalent lens that will be superb for wide-angle scenic photos. It is not clear if this camera is going to be sold in the United States.

Creative Compact Cameras seems to have gone out of favor and therefore there are not too much to choose from. Camera companies are concentrating their energies on the "SLR-like" category and SLR category

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- Digital Camera Flash Units
- Digital Cameras and Combined Auto Focus
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Looking into digital photography? Check out this Digital Photography Guide HERE... http://www.learndigitalphotographynow.com Get Great Tips on how to take Digital Photographs plus Digital Camera Reviews

Digital Camera Flash Units

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Flash units can come in many sizes and shapes for digital photography. Those cameras on the lower end of the scale come with low energy built in flash units. However, some gear such as the high end digital SLR cameras can accommodate external flash units advanced in their abilities to provide excellent lighting in complicated situations. Know the basic facts about the difference between built in and external flash units.

Many advances have been made with flash units since the early days of photography. In photography's infancy, flash units were using powder that was lit by electrical current and then "blown up" to generate the light energy. This method was most certainly a risk. It also proved a challenge as the flash units were not automatically in time with the camera's shutter so the photographer had to coordinate the flash to go off at the exact time the photo was shot.

The flash units of today are highly developed technology devices. The flash and camera are automatically synchronized using an electronic flash tube taking all of the pressure off of the photographer. Digital cameras today can determine themselves if a flash is necessary, can set their own intensity and other parameters and can trigger the flash at the precise tine the shutter is opened. All of this is done in the background with no manual effort. For those scenarios calling for a more hands on approach, digital cameras also include a manual mode where the user can set all of the same features to their specifications.

Flash units are separated into two categories: Internal built-in flash units or external flash units. Internal flash units are built into the camera. Most digital cameras include such a unit and let the user have some management over it through the camera's menus and buttons. External flash units are attached to the camera's body through a dedicated slide-in slot or by using an electrical cable. Not all digital cameras can support external flash units. Typically the lower end pocket cameras do not allow external flash units while all high end digital SLR cameras do allow external flash units. External flash units can differ greatly. They can have different mechanical characteristics and different light energy levels that they can emit. Some external flash units also include smart sensors to measure ambient light, distance and other optical parameters in order to get the most from the flash effect.

Digital cameras can use their flash units in automatic or in manual mode. In automatic mode the camera measures ambient light and fires the flash when not enough ambient light is available. Sometimes the camera will make the wrong decision as to using the flash and will either fire or not fire the flash when the opposite was needed. Setting the flash intensity is important too. If the flash unit fires too much light energy on objects that are too close to the camera the digital photo will be washed out. On the other hand if the flash unit fires a small amount of light energy on an object that is farther away from the digital camera the digital photo will be a too dark.

Flash units have limitations too. They can not light any scene and any object at any distance from the camera. It is important to know your flash unit limitations. For example check what the maximum light energy that it can emit is and what the farthest that an object can be effectively lit from. This is also known as the effective flash range. If the object is out of the effective flash range it is actually better to turn off the flash altogether and use a tripod with a longer exposure. Sometimes it is useful to use the flash even if there is enough ambient light. In such cases you can manually force the camera to fire the flash. This is also known as fill-in flash as it is usually used to fill-in shadowed areas on objects in the digital photo.

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- Digital Cameras and Combined Auto Focus
- How Compact Digital Camera Works
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Digital Cameras and Combined Auto Focus

High quality photograph is comprised of many elements, one of which is objects being in good focus. There are two different ways to focus on objects: automatic or manually. There are a few automatic focus methods and combining more than one of these is known as combined auto focus systems.

It takes a combination of many optical parameters being set perfectly to create a high quality sharp and crisp photograph. One of the most vital optical parameters is focus. A photograph with objects out of focus appears blurry and lacks details and clarity. When objects are in focus the result is both sharp and crisp.

The focus can always be set manually by the photographer, but in most events the digital camera's automatic focus feature will prove much faster and simpler. Digital cameras incorporate many various algorithms and methods to automatically calculate the right focus for the situation. Passive and active auto focus are two such algorithms that used together create a combined automatic focus system delivering excellent automatic focus. Passive auto focus systems use software that runs on the digital camera built-in computer.

Active auto focus systems use distance sensors measuring the distance from the camera to the objects in the scene. Typically the camera measures the distance to the object or objects at the center of the photo. Once determining that distance, the camera can then set the camera lenses to attain good focus. The ability to work in total darkness is one of the biggest advantages of active auto focus. This feature does have its challenges in unique situations. Active focus can fail to work when objects that emit certain energies (like infrared) are photographed or when surfaces in the scene absorb the energy used to measure the distance.

Passive auto focus systems use software that runs on the digital camera built-in computer. The camera performs such image processing algorithms to establish a Focus Level number. This equation is much too complex to address here. Let's just say that the camera can calculate how good the focus is and find the best focus for the scenario. In some scenes the passive auto focus is limited or not serviceable at all. It does not work well in reduced lighting conditions and does not work at all in dark scenes. It is also hard to focus on low contrast objects such as walls or solid surfaces.

Those cameras that are outfitted with combined auto focus systems have the ability to use the right system for the specific situation or cross check by using both systems at the same time. Of course, the photographer can also manually choose which option if they so desire. As an example, when shooting blue skies the camera can try to use the active system and calculate the distance. Since the distance is endless the camera can set the focus and skip the passive focus. In other cases when the distance is not endless the camera can use the active system to put the lens in about the right position and then use the passive system for fine tuning. In dark circumstances the camera can choose to use the active system given that the passive system will not work.

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- How Compact Digital Camera Works
- Studio Photography Equipment
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Looking into digital photography? Check out this Digital Photography Guide HERE... http://www.learndigitalphotographynow.com Get Great Tips on how to take Digital Photographs plus Digital Camera Reviews

How Compact Digital Camera Works

The simplified version of how the camera works is that it uses lens to focus light on photosensor. Most compact digital camera use charge-coupled device (CCD) as photosensor. When light strikes the sensor, it will record the image electronically and transfer it for organization. After that, it will convert the image into binary digital data and stored in memory.

In order to get an ideal photograph, the amount of light reaching the photosensor must be controlled carefully. To achieve that, you need to control the shutter speed and the aperture size. And to make things easier for you, the compact digital camera manufacturers have set the shutter speed electronically and set the aperture size on automation.

Megapixel plays an important role on the quality of your picture. It is related to the amount of details in your picture. So, the more megapixels you have the more detail you will have on your image.

You can see that cameras nowadays come with optical zoom and digital zoom. Optical zoom is more important because it actually zooms into your subject while digital zoom only enlarges your picture. That is why sometimes you will get fuzzy picture with digital zoom.

Cameras today also come with LCD screen for you to preview the picture you took. Don't misunderstand that the digital camera is compact and the LCD screen will be small. It depends on how the manufacturer fir the screen to the camera.

If you have a digital camera back in the early days, you should remember that the storage device was built into the camera. That gave some frustration to some photographer because you need to clear the pictures when the memory is full. Luckily, as the technology evolves, you can now enjoy portable memory storage.

You can now store your pictures into memory devices like SD cards or smart media cards. When the memory is full, you can just label the memory device and keep it as your album. Furthermore, memory device nowadays come in different sizes. The storage amount of the memory device depends on the quality of your picture and how frequent you take photograph.

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- Studio Photography Equipment
- The Canon's Camera guide about Pixels
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Author: Michael Wong

Studio Photography Equipment

Studio photography is considered to be very common these days as you get the perfect picture what you aimed for. Even though it seems to be simple, it is one of the most difficult things to be done. All the studio photography equipments lies within your control and if you are simply creative enough, it is sure obtain the desired result with the perfect finish. 

The studio photography equipments largely depend on the budget you are having as you can either rent them or buy. The equipments are also available in different ranges and new techniques. The rate will also be varying according to the latest in market. At home also you can make up your own studio so that it might sound pretty easy for you to take it out for work. While choosing such equipments, make sure that they are portable and light weight. 

The lights would probably depend on the camera you are using as bigger cameras need smaller aperture forms and thus get require more light to get the real depth. Two major lights needed for studio are the hot and cold lights and it depends largely on the amount of light needed by you. Hot lights are actually metal halide iodide or tungsten which has its own positive as well as negative effects. Due to its drawbacks most professionals do not wish to work with this. 

Cold lights are also known as the electronic flashes which have the same effect as that of the camera flash. There are two types of the same known as the moonlights and the head or power pack systems. The working of both is the same with an incandescent light but the effect proves to be a little different. The weight and the cabling are considered to be very little for the former than the latter. 

Reflectors are one of the most significant products to be used as equipments. It can also be used effectively to discard the use of strobe heads. Yet another important thing is that background which plays an important role in making the best picture. It is actually sheets of paper which falls off to the ground. These might be different plain colors, designs or sceneries. It adds to the beauty of the entire photograph which has been taken. 

These papers are available in the forms of rolls measuring 53 inches, 107 inches and 140 inches in width. The smallest of these is not recommended as it might cause some discomfort of not including inside the photo. The most preferred is the 107 inches roll which is available in almost all colors and it measures up to 9 feet in length. As the 140 inches roll does not come to use mostly, they are available in very less color varieties. These are not as costly as it should be and for the starters colors like black and white would do a great job. 

The camera used should be the best in town for the high quality photographs. Nowadays studio photography is mostly confined to digital cameras as it gives the relevant images at the best quality which could ever come out. A good research about the studio photography equipments might prove to be very useful. http://www.sharpics.com/

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- The Canon's Camera guide about Pixels
- Some Advice on Purchasing Creative Compact Cameras

The Canon's Camera guide about Pixels.

Buying a new Canon camera can be very confusing as there are so many terms that sound like a foreign language. In order to be able to make a good choice in your purchase of a Canon digital camera, you will need to know the meaning of some basic terms pixels, white balance, dpi and ppi. All these terms will in some ways affect the quality of the image that a Canon Digital camera will produce. In this guide, we will explain about what a pixel means and how it will determine the quality of the image. 

Pixel is the short for the term PIicture-Element. All Canon Digital Camera takes pictures and format them as small squares. A digital image might look seamlessly like a normal photograph but if you magnify it to a close range, it actually comprises of a mosaic of millions of small and different colored squares stitched together. Each pixel is further defined by 3 numbers from the range of 0 to 255 from the red, green and blue color channels. For example, a pixel can be defined by 35 red channel, 70 green channel and 255 blue channel. By using this coding system, there are 16 million possible combinations of color coding. In computer terminology, pixel colors are referred by an 8 bit (bytes) number. Therefore a computer will recognize the color of a pixel by 3 eight bytes numbers, a number for each of the 3 color channel. 

Beside from using pixel counts for the display of digital images, nowadays, Digital Camera manufacturers also uses pixel counts to grade the capabilities of their digital cameras. Canon has digital cameras which range from 5 to 10 million pixels. They are normally classified as megapixels cameras because one mega pixels is equivalent to one million pixels. When we say a camera can take 5 megapixels pictures, this mean the digital image which the camera takes have 5 million pixels in it. The numbers of pixel a digital camera has is not important when the image is used displayed on a monitor. However when you need to print these images, the pixels do matter as the higher the picture count, the sharper and crisper the prints will be. 

When considering pixel counts as an indicator of picture quality, you also have to see the differences between "Effective Pixels" and "Total Pixels". When we talk about "Total Pixels", every pixel in an image is counted But in the final image, not all pixels are counted. The pixels at the edge of an image are normally disregarded. The term "Effective Pixels" is used to describe the remaining pixels after all the edge pixels are discounted. 

With a 5 megapixels Canon Digital Camera, you will achieve excellent picture quality prints of 5" X 7" prints. 8" X 10" prints will be off decent quality. However, if you are going to print more of 8"X 10" size images; it is recommended that you purchase a 8 to 10 megapixels Canon Digital Camera. 

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- Some Advice on Purchasing Creative Compact Cameras
- Digital Camera : A Celebration Of Life
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Tim Harris is a canon camera enthusiast. For tips on choosing and buying cameras, do check out Canon OS Camera website. Camera 40D Digital Rebel XTI 3D Blog