Five Digital Camera Mistakes

 

by Vance Fry

 

Everyone who buys a digital camera starts out as a digicam newbie. Avoid these five blunders and you won’t look like a newbie for long

 

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Mistake 1: Not learning the equipment

 

Digital cameras are expensive, feature-loaded photographic tools. Yet many new owners toss the user’s manual aside and stick to the camera’s “dummy mode” — the general-purpose setting in which the camera makes the exposure decisions for you. If you can find your manual, dust it off and do some homework on your camera’s capabilities. First lesson: Study each of the scene settings on your mode dial. These settings give your camera more information about what kind of picture you want to take, allowing it to make decisions that work best for that situation. Next, experiment with the manual settings. Understanding how to properly set the aperture and shutter speed will enable you to take the best pictures possible in difficult lighting conditions.

 

Mistake 2: Using low quality settings

 

Many new users discover that the lower resolution settings allow them to fit more photographs on a memory card. However, they’ll often be disappointed at the quality of their pictures when they later decide to make prints. Always use your camera’s highest quality settings. High-resolution (high-res) photographs with minimal compression allow you to make great-looking enlargements of special memories — like that one-in-a-million shot when Uncle Ralph actually smiled.

 

Mistake 3: Using digital zoom

 

Your camera’s digital zoom feature is a gimmick that simply crops your picture to a closer view, lowering the resolution of the final image. Limit yourself to the lens — the optical zoom — to move in on the action. (Of course you can always employ the old-fashioned method of just using your feet to move closer to your subject.) If you still want to crop the picture, you can easily do so on your computer in a basic photo-editing program like Photoshop Elements or ACDSee. Note that using low-resolution settings will not allow you much freedom to crop an image. High-res files work best.

Vocabulary Focus

blunder (n) [5blQndE] a big mistake, usually caused by lack of care or thought

do one’s homework (idiom) to make careful preparations so that one knows all one needs to know about something and is able to deal with it successfully

manual (adj) [5mAnjuEl] describes operations done by a user, rather than automatically by a machine or electronic device

gimmick (n) [5^imik] something that is not serious or of real value used to attract people’s attention or interest, especially to get them to buy something

 

Specialized Terms

digicam (n) 数码相机（简称） an abbreviated name for a digital camera, one that encodes and stores an image digitally rather than on photographic film

exposure (n) 曝光度 the amount of light—measured in both brightness and duration—that is allowed to reach the film in a traditional camera or the image sensor in a digital camera

mode dial (n) 调整模式旋钮 a device on a camera that one moves in order to control or adjust the different settings

aperture (n) 光圈 a small and often narrow opening, especially one that allows light into a camera

resolution (n) 分辨率；显像度 the level of detail that can be seen in an image based on the number of pixels used to create the image

compression (n) 压缩 the reduction in size of a digital document so that it takes less time to transmit or so that it occupies less space when stored

5个使用数码相机时常犯的错误

许美鸾  译

每个数码相机买主一开始时都是数码相机菜鸟。只要避免下列5种错误，你很快就可脱离菜鸟行列

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错误一：不愿了解相机   

数码相机是昂贵、具多种功能的照相器材，但是许多新买主把使用手册丢在一边，死守相机的傻瓜模式不放，亦即由相机为你决定曝光度的通用设定模式。如果你能找到手册，就拍掉上面的灰尘，做些准备工作以了解相机的功能吧。第一课：研究相机“调整模式旋钮”的每一种画面设定。这些设定能让相机更了解你想拍摄哪种照片，以在当下决定如何达到最好的效果。其次，玩玩手动设定，了解如何适当地设定光圈与快门速度才能让你在光线不佳的情况下，拍出尽可能好的照片。

 

错误二：使用低画质设定   

许多新手玩家发现设定较低的分辨率能让记忆卡容纳较多相片，但是日后他们决定印出相片时，常会对相片质量失望。永远使用相机的最高画质设定。经最少压缩的高分辨率（高解度）相片能让特别的回忆在放大后仍栩栩如生，譬如劳夫叔叔那张难得一见的真心笑容。

 

错误三：使用数码变焦   

你的相机的数码变焦功能只是剪裁相片以拉近取景的小机关；它会降低最终影像的分辨率（译者注：数码变焦意为切下画面中的一部分直接放大，因此画质会较差）。让自己只用镜头，即光学变焦，来拉近取景（当然你总是可采用移动双脚去靠近目标的老法子）。如果你还是想要剪裁相片，可以很轻松地在电脑上用基本图片编辑软件如Photoshop Elements或 ACDSee来执行。要知道，若照相时设定低分辨率，那剪裁影像的空间将会受限。高解度档案效果最佳。