I have written several posts regarding digital Raw files produced by digital cameras. There is also much discussion online as to whether one should save photos in JPEG or Raw files. As with any file format, Raw files have both advantages and disadvantages.

In this post I will look at what exactly a digital Raw file is, what is needed produce a digital photo from a Raw file, and finally the advantages and disadvantages.

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I have taken thousands of pictures with the two digital cameras I have owned in the past 5 years. I purchased my first camera in 2002 and quickly began learning how best to take pictures. The camera was a Canon G2 and I learned about and began using the RAW file format when taking pictures. I then acquired the Canon S3 IS but it unfortunately didn’t have a RAW file format, so I quickly learned to make do with taking pictures in the JPEG format.

Although my file format has changed I still like to tweak my pictures. I do this because I am not the greatest of photographers so I like to make some quick edits to my pictures. In this post I will provide an overview of the workflow I use to make my pictures ready for printing.

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I have taken many pictures indoors with a flash and without the use of a flash. I find that pictures taken without a flash always turn out better than when I have used the flash. I find that when I use a flash I get harsh shadows that contribute to a black background. A flash can also wash out much of the detail if the subject is too close.

In this post I will explain how to take pictures indoors without the use of a flash. I’m not a professional photographer by any means, but I have learned a few things that I’m sure will help you.

Shutter Speed and Aperture

Before explaining how to take indoor pictures, it is important to determine what affects the camera brightness. As I explained in the post title How Digital Cameras Work I noted that a digital camera takes black and white pictures using the brightness of an image. There are two things that affect the brightness of a picture: the shutter and aperture.

The shutter within your digital camera rapidly opens and closes. When a picture is taken, the shutter opens for a specific amount of time and then closes. When it opens, light enters the camera and is registered by the sensor. The speed of the shutter determines how much light is registered. Fast shutter speeds such as 1/250th and 1/500th of a second doesn’t let in as much light as slow shutter speeds such as 1/30th and 1 second.

In order to get a bright enough picture at faster shutter speeds, the camera must have a larger opening to let light in. This opening is called the aperture. When you use a faster shutter speed, the opening is larger to let more light in, then when you use a slower shutter speed. Aperture size is measure in f-stops. You camera may show the aperture as 2.7, 4 or 8. The larger the number the smaller the aperture, so an aperture of 2.7 lets in more light than an aperture of 8.

Keep this in mind as we will be explaining how this is used in the next section.

Lights, Camera, Take Picture

As mentioned above both shutter speed and aperture determine the amount of light that enters your camera. How do we use this information when taking indoor pictures?

The first thing to keep in mind is that it can be difficult to hold a camera steady with a slower shutter speed than 1/30th of a second. If your camera shows a slower shutter speed than 1/30th of a second, try to allow more light into the room. This can be done by simply opening the curtains or turning on a light. If you still can’t get a faster shutter speed, then open up the aperture.

When you zoom in the aperture closes down, so to increase your aperture simply zoom all the way out. If you need to zoom, then move closer to your subject. This will allow you to keep a larger opening while filling your frame with your subject.

What happens if you still can’t get a faster shutter speed? There is one more thing to try.

Increasing the ISO

Film comes in various ISO numbers such as ISO 100, ISO 400 and ISO 800. The larger the ISO number the more sensitive the film is to light. Even though digital cameras don’t use film, you can still change the ISO number within your camera. This has the same effect as film.

Find out how to change the ISO number on your digital camera and increase it to the next number. Try to take the picture again and check to see if the shutter speed is fast enough for you to take the picture. If it is, then you can keep it at that number. If it isn’t, then increase the number again. Most digital cameras can allow you to go up to ISO 800, while many of the DSLR cameras allow you to go as high as ISO 3200 or even ISO 6400.

There is, however, one thing to point out when increasing the ISO number. There is a trade off between allowing you to take pictures in darker conditions and picture clarity. When you increase the ISO on your digital camera, you sill start to see noise in your pictures. The noise looks like little coloured pixels. If you only print photos at 4×6, then the noise won’t be as noticeable then if your were to print a 8×10. It’s up to you on whether the noise matters to you.

Summary

In this post I have provided a quick explanation on shutter speed and aperture settings. I have provided tips on taking indoor pictures without a flash including keeping the aperture open and increasing the ISO within your digital camera.

There are many different image file formats in use on Web pages today. Each file format has its advantages and disadvantages, and can be used for specific images. For those that use digital cameras you may be familiar with one format, while you may have heard of others.

In this post I will provide an overview of the different formats including their advantages and disadvantages.

GIF Format

I will begin with one of the oldest formats in use on the Internet today. The GIF name is a acronym for Graphics Interchange Format, and was first introduced by Compuserve in 1987. This is a popular format next to the JPEG format and is still used on Web pages today. Digital cameras, however, don’t use this format because it only supports 256 colours.

There are currently two versions of GIF in use: GIF87a (the original version) and GIF89a. The GIF89a version supports multiple images in stream which allows you to create animated GIF images.

Advantages – One advantage to a GIF is that it uses lossless compression to make an image smaller. This means that no image information is lost during compression. It also has the advantage of making one of the colours in the image transparent to allow the background to show through. As mentioned earlier, you can create simple animations by combining multiple images into a single GIF89a file.

Disadvantages – The biggest disadvantage for the GIF file format is that it only supports 256 colours, which isn’t nearly enough for a digital photo. This means that GIF files are restricted to sharp-edged line art (such as logos) that have a limited number of colours.

JPEG Format

This is perhaps the most popular file format used for digital pictures, especially now that all digital cameras store their pictures in this format. Similar to GIF, JPEG is also an acronym for Joint Photographic Experts Group. This group was first formed in 1986, issued a standard in 1992, which was approved in 1994.

Unlike the GIF file format, the JPEG format can compress images that contain up to 16.7 million colours. This is more than enough for a digital photo. Besides the number of colours, another difference between the GIF format and the JPEG format is the type of compression used. While a GIF uses a lossless compress, a JPEG file is compressed using a lossy compression algorithm. This means that each time you save a JPEG file, it loses more information.

Digital cameras may also have the ability to save a picture in the RAW format. This format, however, is a proprietary format that is different between cameras manufacturers, so it isn’t used at all on the Internet. For more information about the JPEG and RAW file formats, please read JPEG or RAW Format.

Advantages – The biggest advantage is the ability to save a digital photo in a very small size (in bytes). Another advantage is that it can save an image that includes up to 16.7 million colours, which is more than enough for a digital picture. It is a very popular format for those two reasons alone.

Disadvantages – The biggest disadvantage is that the compression used in a JPEG image is lossy. Each time you save a JPEG image, the more data you lose. Another disadvantage is that if you compress an image too much, you will get JPEG "artifacts". These look like distorted sections of the images, usually looking like squares. You should minimize the amount of compression of the image, while at the same time managing the size of the file, to reduce these artifacts.

TIFF Format

As with many names in the computer world, the TIFF name is also an acronym. TIFF is short for Tagged Image File Format. This a very popular format for archiving digital photos, mainly because it is widely supported by most image editing programs across many different operating systems.

Similar to the JPEG format, it supports 24-bit (16.7 million) colours. You can even save up to 48-bits of colour information within the file. The trade off is the file size. While JPEG files are compressed, TIFF files are generally uncompressed, which results in very large file sizes. You can, however, compress TIFF files but not to the same size of JPEGs.

Advantages – Since the TIFF file format is supported by pretty much all image editors on many different operating systems, it is the first choice for archiving digital photos. Since TIFFs don’t use compression, at least by default, you can continuously save a TIFF file and never lose any information. When editing photos, it is best to first save the file in a TIFF format during editing, and then JPEG once your are finished.

Disadvantages – The biggest disadvantage for a TIFF file is the size. Compared to JPEGs, TIFF files are enormous. Depending on the bit depth (24 or 48) you are talking 100MB+ for a single file. Although, with the size of hard drives and DVDs it will be worth it to save your photo archives in the TIFF format.

PNG Format

Rounding out the acronym file names is the PNG format, or Portable Network Graphics. This format is similar to the GIF format in that it uses a lossless compression. Years ago there was a patent issue with the compression used for the GIF format, so the PNG format was created to avoid any patent issues. This format is fairly new compared to the other formats since it was introduced in 1996.

One advantage the PNG format has over a GIF is the number of colours it supports. The PNG format supports 24-bit or 16.7 million colours. This means that it can be used as a format for your digital photos. The JPEG format, however, still compresses the file to a much smaller size, and has more support by image applications.

Advantages – One advantage that the PNG has over a GIF is the number of colours. It can support 16.7 million colours, which is the same as a JPEG file. It also uses a lossless compression, which means that you can save your image many times without losing any information.

Disadvantages – Since this format is new compared to the others discussed in this post, it doesn’t have the same amount of support. The older Web browsers will have trouble displaying a PNG image, but the newer browsers should have no problem. Although it can compress a 16.7 million colour photo-quality image, the JPEG file format can still create a smaller file size. If you do want to print your photos from a PNG format, ensure your photo lab supports the PNG format.

Summary

In this post I discussed the most popular image file formats in use today. Each format has its advantages and disadvantages and is suited for specific types of images. Some images are also suited for specific tasks, such as printing and archiving. The formats discussed here can be edited by most image editing software without any problems.