Digital Camera Snags

Few Things You Should Know About Digital Camera Snags Surfing through various expert advice sites on the Internet, we often encounter queries from heartbroken first-time camera users about seemingly complicated faults, which can be eliminated by the press of a button or a change in the settings.

Here is a list of common errors that can be eliminated without taking the equipment to the service center. So next time, before you hit the panic button, try these handy solutions.

Picture this: Your little one is running around, gleefully transmitting her nascent energy and playing with an invisible friend, proudly displaying those milk teeth. The softhearted daddy in you wakes up and, without the child noticing, you reach out for your latest acquisition—a point-and-shoot camera of a reputed brand. You carefully compose the shot and click—the camera fires a pre-flash, your daughter gets alert, turns to the camera and freezes with her eyes staring at you. Then, when the expression has vanished from her face, you see the actual flash and hear the shutter release. You feel like throwing the camera out of the window and ringing up that ‘grand old man of SP with 30-plus years of experience’ who suggested this camera. You finally take the camera to a service center. The technician simply adjusts some settings, and the camera starts functioning normally. If this sounds familiar, read on to eliminate such embarrassing moments.

THE CAMERA FIRES A PRE-FLASH BEFORE THE ACTUAL FLASH

One of my friends thought this was some advanced technology in his camera. His judgment was that the camera fires one flash and if it fails to expose the scene correctly, it follows up with a second one to compensate for this. He tried various menus and settings, but nothing helped. I took the camera from him and switched off the Red-eye Reduction feature, which was causing the camera to fire the pre-flash. In most situations, if the room is well-lit, you do not need to use Red-eye Reduction. This feature fires the pre-flash to contract the iris of the subject’s eyes so that in case there is a Red-eye, it will be very small and may not be noticed. In well-lit situations, the iris is already is in a contracted state and hence there is less chances of Red-eye.

A FLARE-LIKE LIGHT PATCH AT ONE POINT OF THE FRAME

Another friend of mine once casually said he is going to dump his camera because the sensor was damaged. On a little probing, he said there is always a patch of light tone at one point of the frame. I inspected the image, turned the camera around and found some finger prints and smears of oil on the lens. Then I took out my micro fiber cloth, cleaned the lens and handed the camera back to my friend. Needless to say, the ‘sensor flaw’ was rectified in two minutes. Typically in this case, the images will look like there is a smoke screen before it.

I HEAR THE SHUTTER SOUND MUCH AFTER THE FLASH HAS FIRED

In this case, when you press the shutter release button, the flash fires. Thinking that the shot has been taken, you withdraw the camera and then you hear the shutter release. Needless to say, the image is blurry. Next time you face this, check the flash mode. Undoubtedly, you are shooting in Slow Sync mode. Switch it to normal flash setting and you are done. Slow Sync is generally used when you are photographing a person standing in front of an illuminated background at night. In this case, the flash exposes the person correctly and the following long exposure time will help to capture the background well.

SHOT-TO-SHOT TIME IS VERY LONG

There could be a few reasons for this. If you are using a compact camera, and the fl ash is ‘On’, recharging the fl ash for the next shot could take some time. This is all the more true when trying to fill-in shadows during the daytime. It is often possible not to even realize that the fl ash is firing every time you press the shutter release button. If the fl ash is not really required, switch it off. Another reason could be a buffer having a very small capacity. If you are firing a burst, the buffer could fill up and you will have to wait till at least one image is written to the card. Fortunately for us, modern cameras have comparatively larger buffers.

IN ANTI-SHAKE MODE, IMAGES COME OUT GRAINY

The anti-shake mode in your camera could be using one of those so-called anti-shake modes like Anti-Shake DSP or ISO boosting shake reduction. What these modes do is push the ISO sensitivity of the camera to a higher value. This allows the camera to shoot at a higher shutter speed so that the camera shake is not registered in the image. As you are aware, a high ISO means more noise. Hence the images turn out noisy in this type of anti-shake modes. So, if you have a camera that employs this ISO-boosting technique for shake reduction, switch off the anti-shake mode and use a tripod to eliminate blur due to camera shake.

DARK SKINNED PEOPLE APPEAR DARKER AND FAIR SKINNED ONES APPEAR BRIGHTER IN PORTRAITS

In full-length or three-quarter portraits, this could be due to the dress that the person is wearing or the background. For example, if you are shooting the portrait of a dark skinned person wearing a light-colored dress and the white area dominates the frame and/or the background is bright, then the major part of the frame is bright. In this case, the camera will underexpose the frame. Since the frame is under exposed, the dark-skinned person will appear even darker. Similar is the case with fair-skinned people. So, if you face this situation, spot meter off the subject’s face and give a negative (-) exposure compensation for dark skinned people and positive (+) exposure compensation for fair skinned people.

COLORED LIGHTS IN A ROOM APPEAR LESS COLORFUL IN PHOTOGRAPHS

This is most probably because you are shooting with Auto White Balance setting. This setting will attempt to reduce any color cast in the room. So, if you want the ambient colors in the room to appear as you see through your eyes, switch to Daylight White Balance. This will preserve the ambient colors in the room. If you need to enhance the tones in the room, try different White Balance options.

ERRORS WITH ELECTRICAL CONTACTS

If you cannot switch on your camera even with a fully-charged battery, the cause could be as simple as dirt accumulating on the battery contacts or a more complicated one like a fault in the internal circuitry. So, before you dash off to the service center, take out the battery and clean the electrical contacts with a pencil eraser. Now insert the battery and try to switch on the camera. Similarly, your D-SLR can display an error in the viewfinder and refuse to click (the error can appear differently in different cameras like F--, Error 99, etc), take out the lens and clean the contacts with an eraser. Be very careful while cleaning the contacts on the camera body. Hold the camera with the sensor facing down while cleaning so that any eraser residue will fall outside.

MY CAMERA FELL INTO WATER, WHAT TO DO?

This is a very common question on the forums. If your camera got wet, first step is to remove the batteries. Now wipe the camera clean with an absorbent cloth. Then keep the camera in a bag of rice overnight (without the batteries). Sounds like I am out of my mind? Well, in most cases, this works. Rice is a good desiccant (means it can absorb water). Take the camera out the next day, insert the (dried) batteries and switch it on. If still the camera refuses to work properly, take it to the nearest service center. These are only a few of the day-to-day questions we encounter while dealing with camera users. Use this as a general checklist if you come across any abnormality in the images you shoot. You could come across more troubles in the camera than those listed here. Please feel free to write to us with your experiences and we will be more than happy to update our database.tom@photographyforall.ie