Five Digital Camera Mistakes

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Mistake 4: Misusing the flash

 

When taking indoor photos, the harsh, bright light of your camera flash can often overwhelm ambient light, giving your subjects that “deerin- the-headlights” look. Today’s digital cameras — particularly SLRs — perform remarkably well in low light. Try a few pictures without the flash to determine if the ambient light is bright enough for an acceptable photograph. Also, remember that higher ISO settings boost your camera’s sensitivity to low light. (Be sure to lower the ISO again when you return to bright light.) If the room truly is too dark, you can always turn the flash back on. Digital photography’s best feature is the ability to review photos immediately, and then make necessary changes.

 

When outdoors, the flash can minimize dark shadows cast by direct sunlight — especially if your subject is wearing a hat. Also, use the flash to minimize shadows when your subject is backlit.

 

Mistake 5: Sending gigantic photographs through e-mail

 

High-resolution photos are meant to be printed and are not easily viewed from an e-mail program. In fact, some e-mail programs automatically reject messages that have large attachments. If your photo does go through, recipients are often treated to an enlarged, unflattering view of your subject when they open the picture. (This is not exactly the best presentation of your photo if the subject’s nose or open mouth is in the center of the frame.) Additionally, high-res photos can take what seems like an eternity to download (and upload) over all but the fastest of Internet connections. Use a photo-editing program to scale your pictures down to an e-mail-friendly size— about 400 by 600 pixels. Be sure to use a different filename so you don’t save over the high-res version. Also, let your friends and family know that if they want prints, they’ll need to request the high-res files from you. Prints made from e-mail-sized images will be blurry and unclear.

Vocabulary Focus

ambient (adj) [5AmbiEnt] relating to environmental conditions existing in the surrounding area

unflattering (adj) [5Qn5flAtEriN] making someone or something look less attractive or seem worse than usual

scale down (v) to make something smaller, especially while keeping the same proportions

 

Specialized Terms

deer in the headlights (idiom) 背景太暗的一个过亮的主体；吃惊的表情 describes a subject that is lit too brightly with the background completely dark, or someone with a surprised or frightened look on his or her face

SLR (n) 单眼相机 a single-lens reflex camera; a type of camera in which the same lens is used for looking at and recording an image

ISO (n) 感光度 the rating of how sensitive film or a digital sensor is to light, with a higher number indicating more sensitivity; the system was adopted by the International Standardization Organization

5个使用数码相机时常犯的错误

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错误四：滥用闪光灯

在室内拍照时，闪光灯那种刺眼强光常会盖过周围环境的光线，使你的主角在全暗的背景下过于明亮，留下宛如“车灯前惊吓的鹿”的表情。现在的数码相机，特别是单眼相机，在低照明下拍摄效果仍非常理想。试着不用闪光灯照几张相，来决定周围的光线是否足以让你拍出满意的相片，并且记得，设定较高的感光度可提高相机对低照明的敏感度（当你回到明亮的环境时，一定要再调低感光度）。如果屋内的确太暗，你随时可以再开闪光灯。数码摄影的最大优点，就是能立即检视相片并视需要调整。

在户外时，闪光灯可以降低阳光直射带来的阴影——特别是在你的主角戴帽子的情况下。此外，当你的主角背光时，也可以用闪光灯减少阴影。

 

错误五：用电子邮件传送超大尺寸的相片

高解度相片是给人印出照片来看的，用电子邮件软件不容易欣赏。事实上，一些电子邮件软件会自动拒绝夹带庞大附件的信；即使相片传递成功，接收者打开文档时，看到的也往往是放大且不好的影像（如果主角的鼻子或张开的嘴在画面正中央，这可不是相片的最佳效果）。此外，除非是通过速度最快的网络传输方式，否则下载（和上载）高解度相片的时间实在是太久了。用图片编辑软件把相片缩小到便于电子邮件传递的尺寸吧——大约是400×600像素，记得用不同的文件名，才不会把原来的高解度版本覆盖掉。还有，让亲朋好友知道，如果他们要印出相片，必须向你索取高解度图文件。电子邮件尺寸的影像，印出的相片会模糊不清。