Focus 580; Photography

Good morning and welcome to focus 580 our talk show where the morning my name is David Ensor. Glad to have you with us we're also pleased to have back here on the program Brian Johnson. He's professor of journalism in the department of journalism and his thing is photography. He teaches photo journalism and before being a teacher he was a newspaper photographer and he's a guy who knows a lot about taking pictures and every once in a while he's here on the program and we talk about photography. Give people an opportunity to ask questions about cameras about film Remember film and about technique. And if you have any of those kinds of questions whether you're somebody who is very serious maybe you're a pro or a serious hobbyist or you're just going to be taking snapshots and you going to take them on family occasions and you're going to take them when you go on trips and you just want to take the best pictures that you can. We've talked about all of that sort of thing. And if you have questions you can call us and I know Brian will do his best to give an answer here in Champaign-Urbana 3 3 3 9 4 5 5. We also have a toll free line that's good anywhere that you can hear us and that is 800 to 2

2 9 4 5 5. Well thanks very much for being here. Oh yeah glad to be here trying to find a number of what I really wanted to do was find a number that said. You know in the run up to Christmas x number of new digital cameras were sold and I'm sure it's a good zillion You know I don't know. Yeah you know I'm sure that it's a lot. You know what if a lot I would have looked for that number had you you know me. Well next I'm also coming out ever. But I do know that Apple sold 700 30000 iPods in December. Well that's another that is just going to help us. It's well it's not as a number an indicator about the move to being a digital world rather than you know when yeah before. I mean the digital photography realm has just exploded I mean you know again we've been talking about this for five or six years now but really in the last couple years particularly in the last starting last year and then last year meaning like the end of 2002 and to 2003 I

guess which is technically the last year now and there's just been an explosion in digital cameras. Well here you came in and you have it in front of you on the counter we have a copy of the magazine Popular Photography and right at the top it says film why we still love it why we still love and still love it. Are there some things that you you can do an amazing amount of things with the digital image. If you have Photoshop or one of those kind of programs and you have a computer you can do all kinds of stuff with it right and then just push a button and you have a print right. But are there still some things that you can do with film that you cannot do with the didge sure why you know I think the largest strongpoint of film is that its exposure latitude meaning the tones from light to dark that it can capture like in a color negative film that's still a wider range than what you can get with a typical digital camera particularly when you're talking about the high light areas like the brightest parts

in a digital image if your highlights are blown out or they're just pure white. There is no data there. There's no way to bring out detail whereas with film those highlighters still have it. There is still detail in those highlight areas that you can recover when you're making a print. So that's the that's that's to me right now that's what I see is the greatest strength of film and probably the greatest weakness of the digital stuff is really how the cameras handle highlights and how film can retain the detail in those highlights. Photo journalists have been using digital for probably as long as there's been digital writers it gives them the advantage of they can take the image and then they can electronic tropically transmit it so if there's exact deadline they can take a picture and shoot it to where it's going to go for. For other kinds of pros that don't have that kind of deadline you expect those people arsed are going to continue to shoot film.

You know what there is even a lot of the pros are moving towards digital now because. The greatest strength of digital I think is that you can see the image immediately. So you know in particular for a commercial photographer that has a whole tabletop setup he's here she's maybe photographing jewelry where they can see right there haha to my highlights luck you know one of my shadows look out is you know how is this overall image working. And so I know a number of pros that are just within the past year have gone to digital. Part of what it was canon introduced the. Professional 35 millimeter style camera that has a full 35 millimeter size imaging sensor and it also has 11 megapixels. Yeah that's that's a lot. Kodak came out with a camera that has 14 megapixels so you know most of the canon but

also the quote I thrown in there. That's what's really driven a lot of pros over the ads are saying you know we had these you know 10000 15000 dollar image in back so we could use with our professional larger format camera so now we've got this really easy to handle 35 millimeter size that has a high megapixel camera. So what's going to stop me from doing that for people who know nothing about megapixels and I don't really. The important thing to know is the more megapixels the the bigger Israel. Right. Yeah. The more detail the Sharper Image that you're talking hopefully the sharp provided it's going to record on an 11 megapixel chip. It's going to be a cord 11 million data points or if you could. Look at that photograph and break it up into a grid. There would be 11 million little you know cells on that ground as opposed to there are some cameras now that you know maybe like

you know five right you know for you know three and four make a picture sort of your standard for point and shoot variety you know three million four million pixels that's still plenty good for most people kind of casual shooters. So you can sort of imagine what it is the difference we're talking about in terms of if you if you think about it being broken up into right heads how fine an image. The difference between you're virtually doubling the rind of Brio. Right exactly so. So it it gives you better detail and it also lets you enlarge the photo more. I guess there's another way to think about. We have a couple callers here when we go right to them and start with Chicago and line number one. Hello Yes hello. I've never recently acquired a digital camera. And I have had pretty good luck in taking pictures with them blowing them up and they had a fly on 11 of the 5 make a pet make a pet for a camera.

But what I'm wondering is I've been using a regular inkjet printer for this. What kind of equipment is there available if I want to say something like 11 by 14 or even 16 by 20 prints. Sure you know there are some of the inkjet printers that will go to those larger sizes. I know that there are that absent for instance has has one that will print 13 inches wide by and I think it'll even print like you know 44 inches long possibly even larger than that. You know there and depend upon how much further up you want to go there are also some inkjet printers that are available that in the grand scheme of things I guess aren't that expensive where they can print you know 24 inches wide 36 inches wide there are some It'll even go you know 50 inches wide you know what I'm not.

Right right. So something least 11 inches wide. Right right yeah and so there are internet printers out there that'll go to those sizes. And you know again I mean they're they're in horribly priced. Yeah. So absent is a law that manufactures something. Right now there's also an option to if you if you go to kind of well since I don't know what you know some of the discount houses house I know that a lot of the lot of the pro photo finishing places they'll have printers that can print on photographic paper from your digital file. So for instance here in Champaign we have two different photo finishers that have a device that'll print up to 30 inches wide by up to I guess 100 feet long. Oh.

So so that that might be another option too that you keep your inkjet printer that you have right now and for the things that you do want larger You could you know take your file into one of those photo finish in place yes that has the larger printer. OK well thank you. All right thank you let's go to Aurora for our next caller. This is line 4. Hello. Yes hi good morning. This is very timely for me. And I thank you for the program I wanted. We have two new members in the family. One is a 12 year old girl and one is a 15 month old girl. And I want to get pictures of the new family members. And so I gave my son in law for an assignment find a camera a moving camera that he could know how to run right and that I would in time learn how to walk run

and we could take pictures at Christmas. Opening up the gifts. Sure. And so if he worked with his son and neither of them would could come up with anything that they thought they could understand. And so we never got the camera. What is there in the camera now or am I use should I use new terminology. No I mean that's that's totally fine. You know most of the cameras will have what's called a simple shooting mode where you really you know were where the camera does everything it'll focus for you it'll set the exposure or it will decide whether or not to use the flash. And I'm talking about no moving. She's I mean you're talking about a video right. Well you know I'm talking about any. The thing that makes that catch is movement right. You know and even the video cameras like on the Canon cameras for instance they have more that. For lack of a better term I'm not sure

what their exact term is but I always call it the green rectangle mode because the symbol on the little dial is a little green rectangle you put it in that mode. All you need to do is you press a button to start the camera. And you just you know look through a little viewfinder and everything you can see is what it's going to record and then when you're done recording you press the little red button again and it stops recording. So how much does that cost. Vote Vote lowest. And one of the candidates it's the Z are 60 Minutes away G are six or sixty. I've seen it for about three hundred and sixty dollars. Well see my top was like $400. Sure. You know and and and what kind of screen do you show those on. You plug it into your TV and all of that's better yeah. You just shot right on your TV. So I wonder why they couldn't do it.

Maybe it was too close to Christmas. Right yeah. You know who knows what they're not going to see the numbers again. Sure it's a cannon and it's a z r 60. What does a Kodak do when that they are you know what Kodak really isn't in the video market. Another I know that I read and I heard that they were going to try to be in the video market. Yeah maybe. Maybe they'll go but I haven't seen anything from Kodak in the movie when I next question is canon made in America. No it's a Japanese company. Are there any cameras made. Yeah I. I honestly can't see that there are any cameras made in America I'm sure there are some specialized cameras that are definitely made here but as far as a mass market camera I don't know of one. Maybe one of our listeners out there might well Japan is better than trying there anyway. You know and actually a lot of I mean you know all this equipment now. Lots of it is being made in China too so what is that camera.

My daughter has. She tries to explain that to me something about taking very tiny pictures and then they get blown up what is that. I don't know it could be a digital camera. Could you know they're there also saw film film cameras that you get little snapshots from. I'm not sure. Oh ok thanks much. Your other questions are welcome 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 toll free 800 to 2 2 9 4 5 5. Our guest is Brian Johnson he's professor of journalism. He teaches photo journalism and is occasionally here on this program we talk about cameras and picture taking. And if you have questions whether you're still interested in film or where you're interested in getting into digital photography you can give us a call 3 3 3 9 4 5 5. And toll free 800 2 2 2 9 4 5 5. Here's a caller in Kankakee. Lie Number 1. Hello. Yes. Hello David. Another fine program on a different topic for Mr. JOHNSON. I just wonder if you

familiar at all with digits coping with basically the use of a digital camera and shooting through a birding scope to take nature shots. It's been around for about three four years now. And just looking at some of the photographs on the Internet it's pretty phenomenal what people are doing with fairly minimal investment. Sure so what tell me tell me what you end up with then. Well well both the cameras are that are being used on a Nikon Coolpix 995. Forty three hundred and then tell me about the image that you get in the end. Well the images you couldn't see on the Internet are some are pretty amazing. So some of the fellows that are using the 80 millimeter scope with these cool pic Nikon Coolpix cameras and they're attaching them into the back of their

scope. And they use a manual shutter release so as not to vibrate the equipment. Sure. Sure and a fairly sturdy tripod. So it's just I mean for the kind of money that where you're talking in maybe two three thousand dollars for all the equipment involved compared to say 10 to $20000 for you know a regular telephoto lenses and. Right. And I do some of it myself but I'm a little smaller scale I use a 60 millimeter scope. But you can still take some pretty decent shots. And most of us start out doing it just as verification on. What you see in a bird's right shir unusual birds can and nature shots of all different sorts but it's just something I thought I'd mention. Yeah a lot of folks aren't aware of it and it's coming on pretty strong and there are companies now

working on a spotting scope. Sure. Built in digital cameras right. Right and so basically what it is is it's a spot in scope and a camera that has an adapter on so you can see exactly what it is through the eyepiece. And just just so folks are aware that it's out there and it's I think probably within the next five years almost anybody's going to be able to take pretty high quality nature shots. Sure add up to 50 to 100 yards. Cool. Yeah that sounds that sounds neat you know and I think having the digital camera built into the spotting scope would be really cool vantages And I think exactly once they go to the remote shutter release right. So you don't have to touch anything. Right. An image stabilizer and lenses which canon. Uses in some of their binoculars. Right yeah they actually have some photographic lenses that have that technology but I think we're on the cusp of something pretty

significant as far as nature photography. So I'll hang up and let it go at that OK. If you have any questions. OK great now thinks. Well thanks for the code. I guess that again shows you how how the tools have advanced and have become affordable so that so that serious hobbyists and shirtless amateurs can do the kinds of service that maybe old ones only pros with very expensive equipment right. You know one thing that's happened recently too is that Canon has introduced their Digital Rebel camera and it's it's a camera that for the for the body of a camera that means the camera without the LANs sells for $900. But it's a six megapixel camera and it takes interchangeable lenses. So if you spent a thousand dollars on that and then you could get a pretty. Pretty high power telephoto lands you

know for another thousand or fifteen hundred dollars so for twenty five hundred dollars you know we're talking about you know going in having a really nice spotting scope and put in a digital camera connected to it. This would give you a six megapixel camera and a really good telephoto lens connected to it. You know for about twenty five hundred dollars. Oh OK. Yeah. Well see we have somebody on a cell phone so we'll get them on line for a pillow. Oh yes. Do you mean OK. Yes. All right great I have one question. I'm trying to help out a friend. He's getting married next month. And there's always a budget involved in trying to help her get a little project done for her wedding. What I'm looking to do is she was wanting to have some photographs displayed in sort of a slide show. Right. Is there any any kind of me. Media that you would know of. Because I'm going to try to stand them in my on my computer and burn them on a desk. Sure.

Is there a media that you can display that on that you like from a computer to like say a Mars story. Right. You know all that you need is an LCD projector. There's a variety of them out there the cheapest I've seen them is for about a thousand dollars you know. Are there places that rent such equipment. There are places that rent equipment but you will gasp. But normally they want to charge about $300 a day while to rent it. I mean $300 for a day is still cheaper than you know a thousand dollars to buy it but is there any is there anything like a slide projector for digital images. No I mean that's basically you know what this is is it is it's a projector for the digital files and that's just kind of what they that's what they're. Yeah this is kind of what they're selling for. Well that's what I was trying to find out what kind of equipment was that I'll be on the watch.

Yeah sure you know and it looks you know very very good I was this had a wedding on Saturday. A friend of mine had done a really nice slide show and also had some video an old eight millimeter movie thrown in there and it really came off nicely. Yeah I don't know whether they are. I thought immediately that I would really love to like make a little slide show like that too. I have a Mac and it's pretty easy to do the little movies on. And a really nice program on there and I've made a couple movies may turn out really well. But really I don't think I am right to take from 8 millimeter video right and I have that software Right right. You know if you're using a movie to do those slide shows in the newer They just introduce a brand new version of my movie yesterday. Oh really. Yeah and I have to go download right. I think it's not going to be available till February maybe but there's supposedly some better titles on it but there's also I know in Version 3 there's a

version for one introduced yesterday but in Version 3 there's also kind of a slide shows tab and it's to make doing the slide shows even even easier. Right. Thanks me and thanks for the call. Keep on going here we have another cell phone caller here on line one. Hello. I just don't want to mention that if you get an LCD projector you can of course use it to watch television with I don't know if you have a cable input. So yes it goes way beyond that. You really I've never understood what people look at large screen TVs like they do just to get one of these. Does this present a huge LCD projectors for a thousand or fifteen that works perfectly well you could on a plain white wall. Absolutely imagine that. Yeah yeah. Great. Yeah that's actually true when I when I built my house up in the ceiling of our room or I have a TV I have I have all the connectors so if I ever spend the money to get the projector that's exactly

right you can get one of these projectors and you have a pretty decent image at a pretty large size and a thousand dollars is cheaper than you know $3000 for a plasma TV. OK. Again to another caller here this will be line number two when the caller is in champagne. Hello hello there. My question has to do with a rich quote I don't know about it is that. If the hell of it that wanted to print large reminded me of this question right. If you take your your picture or your anything to a printer they need to have a real time if you want to print it on your own printer you have to have a ribbon. They never tell what the acronym means for giving us your name. You know everything right to reply OK I want it. Well you you really don't necessarily need a rep what a rep is it stands for raster image processor and you know most of the inkjet

printers by the time they're connected to the computer. The data that the computer sends to the data that the computer sent to the printer is already raster rise it's it's already set up so that the individual dots are where they need to be so I can print it easier. Normally where you need a rep is if you're taking like a postscript file or like a page layout. And there is some good data in there that there's a different type of formats called a vector format. Then it needs to take that vector information and transfer it into a more of a raster image so for the most part you don't really need a rep unless you're printing postscript files to the printer. Because digital picture files are already raster images that's really. Yeah. Because they said that Hewlett-Packard doesn't have one that works with Macintosh

OSX. And I was thinking about getting a good digital camera and was concerned that I wouldn't be able sure. Sure you know Hewlett-Packard printers work great with Macintoshes site. My my parents have a fairly new Hewlett Packard printer and they've got OSX and it works totally fine. Even when you know we're using the printer sharing with HP and it was perfectly fine. OK yeah so that shouldn't be a problem at all. Thank you very much. Thank you. Other questions are welcome. Again 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 toll free 800 to 2 2 9 4 5 5. So I was just looking at what I was like to bring some magazines and catalogs here just look up some of these things. Canon makes an inkjet printer that will print 13 by 19 and it's 500 bucks. The absent printer that'll go 13 by 44 that's six hundred forty nine. That's a seven

color printer. The canon was a six color printer. HP has won their advertising here that'll print twenty four inch wide sheets and it's 995. So it gives you some options there. A lot of people they're using their printers the ones that they have for their computer to print pictures and then they'll do a great job you'll get something that looks good but some people might look at the image and say that doesn't look like a photograph. Somehow we're we have the idea of what a photograph is supposed to look like. Right. Is there are there some options if. That's what you want if you're looking for something that looks more like a traditional photograph. You know what it is. Most of it comes down to the paper that the image is printed on it's not so much the image as the paper itself. In my lab I have a color laser printer and I have some really nice regular paper but it's real bright white real kind of nice finish paper. But my

students some of whom have prison home saying you know well how did so-and-so get that printed look. It was it was it was a lot more like a photograph. Well it was because the paper was thicker and heavier a little stiffer with the ink jets you can get really nice paper. So it basically is very photographic and the inkjet printers produce a phenomenal print. It's a phenomenal print in particular like you know like this abscess. And there can I mean you know when they have seven colors what they do. Though the four colors that you need to get a full full color print is the foreclosure cyan magenta yellow and black not that blacks really colored but will just throw it in there as a color. What they do with these six and seven color printers is they'll have cyan and a light cyan magenta and a light magenta yellow and black and then sometimes they'll have a light black or a

gray so that just gives you this beautiful tonal range. And those prints. They've also done a lot with light stability in the environmental stability of the inks that they using on the inchoate so that you know they're saying they can last for 50 or 100 years. Well that's better than buttered better in the photo it is better than a photograph in a in in a lot of instances. Absolutely. To see champagne I think next line number two I know the stats Bourbonnais I guess line two. Hello. Yes I don't know very much about it but it just struck me the lady was trying to fit that situation. For the wedding. Yes you did something with Powerpoint. Absolutely she can. You know PowerPoint I'll do those slide shows like that you know most of the free or inexpensive movie making programs will do a slide show like that and I think her real problem is not so much that part of it but then how does she get it from her computer to the

screen. How do you show it right. That was the yeah. And but it but I think the last caller brings up an excellent point that you don't have to have a movie you know making package programs like PowerPoint will do those kind of slide shows too. So I you know there are many programs out there that will do the same sort of thing. OK let's talk with someone in Charleston. Well I want Hello. I came back from California and they said if you have undeveloped film in your suitcase and goes through the x ray things that it would ruin it. Yeah and I have and develop film. It was in my camera case. And did you carry on your camera case. It went through the security check thing. But but did you. But did it was it in your suitcase and went through the suitcase X-ray or did you carry it on and went through the security X-ray. No it was in my suitcase and went to the UK. OK because Asuka the suitcase X-ray is the bad one.

So I think that's almost by nine again. Well it's I don't know because it depends on if it got X-rayed and if the machine was you know how it was set up. I would still have a processed if it's ruined sometimes what it does it it's sort of the whole film has sort of a kind of a pink cast to it it's sort of hazy looking OK but you still have images there. So I would I would still have a process then. You know I've seen some examples from and you still have images they're just they're just not anywhere near as nice as they might have been. What if I hadn't taken the pictures of this. That if if there's film that was in the camera that went through the suitcase X-ray I would not bother shooting that film. OK. Yeah yeah if it's if it's film that you haven't shot yet I wouldn't risk it because

you know how much is a $2 roll of film worth when compared to your memories of a birthday party or you know some other big event. OK thank you. Yeah things. So it is again here the bottom line is if you're traveling with film and camera what you want to do is carry it on and have it go through the screening right. The same thing when you put your your coat in your shoe right you're right whatever that thing that it goes to right at the at the gay rights to checking it and have it be in your suit right now. Another thing that people need to remember too is that the effect is cumulative. So if you've got the same roll of film in your camera bag and you travel a lot I would try to either shoot that film on your trip so that you can get it. Developed and be done with it or I guess rotate your film through you know don't let it go through more than you know one trips worth of security checks. But yeah but the suitcase X-ray. I know that's

not a great term for just going to coming up with that here but that it's a very high powered X-ray so they can get in through your suit cases. Yeah that's the stuff that's really bad. OK other questions welcome 3 3 3 W I L L toll free 800 1:58 WLM 1 things I was thinking about is that you know now that more and more people are interested in digital cameras and there are more of them out there right. The people who make the cameras have been clued in the fact we really should provide people with some way to print the picture. Oh yeah a lot of manufacturers are are selling kind of as a package or trying to sell us a package camera and a printer that they make right specifically to go with the camera so then you take your pictures and all you got to do is plug it into this little printer that you have right there you go you got your picture right. You know there are a couple. Just like there was an explosion in camera design philosophies when the digital cameras came out. The same thing's happening with

printers now where there are some Dokoupil cameras where you've got this little printer base and you plug your camera in it and it spits out 4 by 6 snapshot size prints. So that's one thing that's happening. There's another thing that's happening where the camera has technology built in a way that that will talk to the printer so that it will go directly to the printer and you don't have to have a computer. Then there's another technology that's coming out. Well that's not coming out yet is out now where you just take your little memory card from your camera and you plug it in your printer and a lot of these printers have a little LCD screen built into them. Little being the operative word some of it you know into digital. If they are they're pretty small. But you can see the picture. So that's one technology. Hewlett-Packard came out with this kind of cool technology where you could plug your card and it would print out

what. We photographers would call a contact right. Buncha little pictures on it. And then it would also have a little bubble underneath each picture. How large do you want this picture. Do you want to print this picture at all. And so then you would put that in that context sheet with a little bubble sheet you know markers underneath the photos and you would scan it in to the printer because it's one of the all in one units and then it would then say OK they wanted this picture this picture this picture and then it would print out those pictures in those sizes. The nice thing about these various things is that I guess if if all you want to do. Say if you just want to take snapshots and you just want snapshot size print then it's easy. Right it's no big deal I guess in my I'm thinking about. How many people might initially say hey that's cool. It's easy. We're just you know write one check here and look at the whole package and write

later think. But I wish I could do something more to manipulate the image right with this system right. That's not an option you just get it prints what you shoot and there's no there's no messing around right. Right. And something that a lot of people get. I don't know if honestly fooled or tricked or if it's just the marketing system now but inkjet printers are sold under the old safety razor marketing method where you give away the razor. No you give away the the shaver then you make them either way it's yeah that's it and that's exactly what's happened is that they're basically giving away their printers. But then your pain you know 40 50 60 dollars for a full set of inks. And if you're printing photographs it's just sucking that ink out as quickly as can be and then you have to buy the inks from the the manufacturer of the for you don't absolutely have to but you know what. I think it's advisable to do that because they've you know all of the color

calibrations of things that are built that's built in a lot of the software counts on the fact that they're using the manufacturer's sayings. So so in essence it's probably the best thing to do. So by the time you've you know put in you know 10 sets of NKS you've just spent $600 which makes some of the. Color laser printers out there that are now coming down in the you know thousand dollar you know $700 $600 price range not really looked at expensive because the price per print from a laser printer is quite a bit lower than it is from an inkjet. I don't I'm not sure that the image quality is quite as good as an inkjet. But you know again you've got to decide for yourself. Word you want to weigh in on this is an optimal print quality or my cost per print. All right. Another color here someone on a cell phone line one hello.

Good morning. Yes I have a question for you. The I have a Hewlett-Packard 73 50 picture printer and also a my camera is an Olympus four megapixel camera. Right. And why take the smart card out of the Olympus and put it into the into the printer. It will give me a dad that's a little cheap that you're talking about and I can see in my computer but when I take the smart card out of the reader on the printer and put it back in my camera the camera doesn't recognize or any pictures on it. And is there something that goes on inside. I had a printer that would change that part. I am I'm not going to give you an exact answer on this but I do know that different devices will. I don't want to say format the car because that's now not what's happening but. But the car gets identified as being from that device. So

so so for instance one of my students who has a Nikon digital camera borrowed a Compact Flash card from me because he had to run out and shoot of protests on campus and you know it filled up his flash card. Well other cameras that I have for my students are Canon cameras. So he you know put the flash card in his Nikon you know use that. And then he gave the flash card back to me put it in the into the into the card reader and the Canon software that's on the computer saying you know I don't recognize this card at all. And it's because for that brief moment he had used that in his Nikon camera. I see. So maybe I don't know the specifics of that printer because I don't have one but I would think it be plausible any way that that that the printer is indicating that flash card for that time anyway as being a Hewlett-Packard flash

card. Some how it might apply to yeah. Now no that doesn't mean that those photographs are gone from the car. No I couldn't. I could still don't know what I'm on my computer right. Right. So so I would believe it be totally plausible that the printer is doing something to indicate that you know that this flash card is being used by Hewlett-Packard device. OK thank you very much. Thanks very much for the go. We have about 15 minutes left maybe a little bit less. Our guest is Brian Johnson he teaches photo journalism at the U of I in the journalism department and every once in a while is here we talk about cameras and taking pictures and there was a day when we talked about film. But it seems that over the years we have talked more and more about digital photography because that's kind of the way things are going out and more people are but we can still talk about film but we can sort of talk about film. I don't want to talk about lenses and camera bodies and filmed in the theater with them shouldn't you know any of that kind of thing and anything that has to do with either hardware or technique. That's certainly great 3 3 3

9 4 5 5 toll free 800 to 2 2 9 4 5 5. We have someone else here in Chicago line for a long time to sign up. Home. My question isn't appropriate. The old chemical phone film cameras used to advertise. That sort of thing you use to talk about the speed of the lens of a thousandth of a second and that sort of thing. Right. I see nowhere in many advertising for anything here. No discussions about the speed of the little cameras how fast or how do you know how fast they are. Sure most of them most of the lenses that are on like a point and shoot variety of digital cameras. Actually can have a fairly large maximum aperture

because the lens itself is so small because the imaging sensor is so small that they can have a fairly fast Lans. And as far as the maximum shutter speeds go you know most of the digital cameras point you Friday have a kind of fairly normal range of shutter speeds like you would find on your. On your 35 millimeter film cameras so you know a lot of them will go up to you know 500 for the lower end ones on up to you know thousand two thousand for a top shutter speed for the once in a little bit more expensive. So it actually gives you you know the same kind of range and I think the reason that they don't really have that as part of the advertising is that sense most people use these cameras in the automatic mode. Most people don't even know what exposure is let alone

what the cameras citing or even why they should care. And I think I think that's why they're really trying to sell the cameras more on the number of megapixels. You know that image in chip pads and also how large of a zoom comes with the camera that's that seems to be how they've shifted their marketing for these cameras. Thank you. All right thanks. Well that's one of the things about the people might be surprised about or sort of puzzled about when it comes to the digital cameras is that they don't seem to do anything. You know the old film cameras if it's got an automatic film advance or if it's a single lens reflex camera it makes some very distinctive noises when it winds the film right does that thing when it. Oh yeah. Here's absolute you know it goes could chunk and you know write it it's take and picture digital cameras they don't unless you put something in there to make it do that it's not going to do anything. Well yeah I mean definitely Canon cameras I think

just about all of them really. They actually have a digitized shutter sound so that you know when you're taking a picture I was taking some pictures in church the other day my my wife was doing a little drama and I thought oh you know the shutter sounds live a lot I'm going to turn it down so I turn the shutter sound because it doesn't make a shutter sound really. I mean there there is a little bit of a sound but I turn the shutter sound down and I press a button Mike. I don't think the camera is working now but sure enough the little image showed up on the back so. It's interesting how at least for us present day folk who knows what will be in 20 years but we're really connected to the mechanical aspects of a camera to give us that feedback. Oh I've just taken a picture. Well that's this is one of these things that I wonder if people have most of their experience taking pictures has been with cameras that were mechanical and it had film.

They get their first digital camera. That's that's going to be one of the things that's going to ride that's going to cause them some. The first thing that the first thing that's going to cause them confusion and meet them and make them want to go back to film is of the delay between pressing the shutter and taking the x ray or wind if you're going to be asking yourself OK now when I'm pushing the button when does it take the picture you want to smash it to the floor. I just missed the picture because you were thinking How dare you think camera you know. It's like because it's trying to set the white balance it's taking an exposure reading it's taken the distance and sometimes it can be a phenomenally long time and it's maddening. So that's just something that you have to get used to. Well yes he used to in there also some settings you can set so that the camera doesn't have to think so much. You can set the white balance manually you can also. Just lost it was going to say about that. I know that

it also will do Auto III so setting auto film speed setting. So there are some things like that you can OK I'm just there and that's one of the things I know we've talked about before when you pick out a camera you say will go down to the place where the cell yammers and pick them up and feel them and hold them and see how they feel in your hand there's no one things that can you actually try to get a feel for that before you buy the camera. You know I would be sure that you go to a place where they can actually give you a working model of a camera turn it on so you can see how what kind of delay it has with the new cameras you need to also look to see how the menu commands are structured so that you know you have this great camera will do all these great things but do you understand it you know do you know how to get to that function. And that's important too. We have some other people here we'll go next to Urbana one number two below. Tony a Sonos of a camera and I use a Macintosh titanium power book and I've got a Canon 9000

printer. One issue that I find even if I'm using the can and paper is that the pinks and reds tend to print out near fluorescent right. One thing that you can do is and I've had to do this with some of the pictures my students have worked on depend upon what you using to adjust the image sometimes like Photoshop for instance you can go into the image menu and go to hue and saturation and you can drop the saturation lower film and image and that'll make it look a little bit more lifelike again and it's so much like you know 900 70s artwork you know on screen the pictures look look great right. But once they're printed out. The pictures seem a lot a lot darker right.

And then the Reds and just sort of coral color. Sure. My daughter it's practically glowing Right right exactly. You know if you if you can adjust the saturation of the image if you take the saturation down just a little bit that can really improve it and make it look more lifelike. OK. Yeah right. Oh I think you know let's go to Melvin Illinois for our next caller line 3. Hello. Oh thank you for taking my call today. My question is about an older camera. It's a digital That's about two and a half years old. It's an HP 318. The trouble. Have when I take pictures when the lighting is questionable or not as good a quality I like to take a lot of outdoor pictures. Like in the evening. Right and it doesn't handle that very well right. And even my flash sometimes it won't handle the lighting very well right even to what I think are fairly

identical pictures will be kind of dark and the other one will be ok right. And the question I have is if I want to a newer camera with more mega-pixels or what features would I look for to kind of overcome some of these problems. Right you know I think that the more modern digital cameras have done a lot in the area of the lower light level photography so that they're going to give you a better image. A lot of digital images can be kind of noisy. Kind of grainy or kind of sparkled when the light levels low. So the kinds of things you could do if you want to see what the present cameras maybe get a tripod. I don't know how adjustable your cameras but maybe that would you know if you could set it in a mode where it will use a longer exposure. That might help but a lot of the newer digital cameras have come

further along and give you no better image when the lights when the light level is low. And then do you have the ability to make adjustments. Mine is pretty passive I can't just write it or anything to kind of work. Right. You know you can still get it. It just is going to depend on the camera some of them have a high degree of adjustability and some of them are just going to be like the camera you have where it's pretty much you know it's a passive experience you know the camera's going to see all the settings for you. OK. Would there be anything that you would suggest or brand or model. You know all of the camera manufacturers you know Olympus Canon Nikon Kodak they all have their advantages and disadvantages and that's why I like to people as David said before go to a camera shop and you know give kind of a low dollar but then you can also do some investigating on the on the web or through magazines and read you know what

reviewers have to say about the cameras I think. Well thank you so much for your help. Daryn thank you. Well we are going to have to stop there because we've used up our time I'm sure another day but I'm come back. Oh yeah. Thanks very much. Yeah it's really great to be here. Brian Johnson teaches photo journalism in the journalism department at the UVA here in Havana champagne every once in a while he's here on the program. We talk about photography.