Harwich & Dovercourt Camera Club
  • HOME
  • Our Location
  • Data Protection
  • Club Rules & Dues
  • Members Gallery
    • Anne Franks
    • Madeleine Southgate
    • Paul Andrews
    • Sue Holmes
    • Val Green
  • NEWS
  • PROGRAMME and COMMITTEE
    • Committes >
      • Committee 24/25
      • committee 23/24
      • committee 2022/23
      • Committee 2021
      • Committee 2020
      • Committee 2019
      • 2018 Committee
    • Programme >
      • Programme 24/25
      • Programme 23/24
      • Programme 22/23 >
        • 2020 Programme
        • Programme 2019
        • Programme 2021/22
        • 2018 Programme
        • Summer Programme 2023
        • Summer Programme
  • Summer Programme 24
  • Competition Results Etc.
    • Print Comp Guide
    • Preparing an image for projection
    • Battles 24/25
    • Competitions 24/25 >
      • scores 24/24
      • October 24 >
        • Oct 24 open
        • October 24 Theme
      • November 24/25 >
        • Open
        • Theme Song/Film Title
      • November 24 -2nd >
        • opem
        • theme
      • Jan 25 >
        • Open
        • Theme
      • Feb 2025 >
        • Theme landscape
        • Open feb
      • Feb 10th 25 >
        • Open
        • Theme
      • Feb 24th >
        • feb 24th Open mono
        • Theme Mono Street/Arch
    • Competitions 2023/24 >
      • scores 23/24
      • Sept. 23 >
        • Sept 23 open
        • Sept 23 Themed
      • October 23 >
        • Oct 23 open print
        • Oct 23 themed print
      • November >
        • Nov. open DPI
        • Nov. Theme DPI
      • December23 >
        • Dec open
        • Dec 23 theme
      • Jan 24 >
        • Theme print jan 24
        • Open print 24
      • Feb 24 >
        • Feb open
        • Feb Theme
        • March 24 >
          • Open
          • Themed
      • April 24 >
        • Open
        • Theme 24
      • Best in Year 23/24
    • Competitions 2022/23 >
      • End of Year 22/23
      • Sept 22 Open DPi
      • Oct, open print
      • November 22 open Dpi
      • Jamuary 23 open print
      • Feb. 23 open Dpi
      • Preparing an image for projection
      • March 23 print All creatures
      • April 23 Portrait dpi
      • Open Print May 23
    • Competitions 2021/22 >
      • End of Year 2021/22
      • September open dpi
      • October open print
      • November Triptych
      • Nov 29th Portrait
      • Photo Assignment
      • February 7th New Life
      • March open Print
      • April 2022 print Flora and Fauna
      • May open dpi
      • Best in Year 2021/22
    • 2020 Competition results >
      • January Open Print
      • Feb. Still Life Dpi
    • 2019 Competition Results >
      • Running Scores 2019
      • January 21st Open Digital
      • February 18th Open Print
      • March 2019 Urban Landcape
      • April 2019 Print Open
      • May 2019 Portrait
      • 2019 June Nature
      • July 2019 dpi open
      • August 2019 sea/landscape
      • September Open Dpi
      • October Open Print
      • Best In Yaer 2019
    • 2018 Competition results >
      • Trophy Winners 2018
      • 22nd January Open Competition
      • 19th February - All Creatures Great and Small
      • 26th March - Still Life
      • 23rd April - Black & White
      • May 22nd Print competiton - Movement
      • June 2018 Open Dpi
      • 16th July Macro
      • 13th August - Portrait
      • 17th September Open Print
      • 14th October Landscape Digital
      • Best in Year 2018
    • 2017 Competition Results
    • 2016 Competition Results
    • 2015 Competition Results >
      • Trophy Winners 2015 - Present
    • INTER CLUB BATTLES >
      • 2019 INTER CLUB BATTLES >
        • Colbourne Cup Challenge
        • 2019 Clacton vs Harwich
        • 3 Way Challenge
        • The Mathews Shield Challenge
      • Inter Club Battles 2018 >
        • Harwich vs Manningtree
        • Clacton s Harwich
        • Harwich vs East Ipswich
        • Harwich vs Alresford 1st October
      • Inter Club Battles - 2017
  • Contact Us
  • Links
  • Untitled
  • Untitled
Picture

photography tips to help others


creating a digital workflow when post processing images
how to sell your images
Useful i-phone apps
landscape photography - 10 essential tips
how to use neutral density filters
camera controls - command dial
camera controls - shutter speeds
     apertures / f stops    
     understanding exposure     
how to make a manual exposure
photographing interiors - part 1
photographing interiors - part 2

Media Cards & Backing Up
" Now that SD media cards are so cheap, I have switched from using 16GB or larger media cards, time and time again, after transfering the images to my PC and deleting them on the card. My new system is to use a new 4GB card for each trip. A 4GB card will still allow me to capture hundreds of images - then I transfer the images to my PC as before, but now I label the SD plastic box and store it in a box for possible recall of the original image. At £3.60 each now for a class 10 superfast card, it's a small price to pay for all the added benefits a brand new card gives me. If you have never seen inside an SD card (look at the image below) it's like looking in a mini computer, so just like your PC, it can have a "spazz-out" and you lose a lot of data - for £3.60 is it worth taking that risk?
Picture
My D-SLR is a Nikon D7100, which has two SD slots (the D7000 also has that too) - I put a 4GB card in slot 1 and a 64GB card in slot 2. In the menu system of the camera there are options how you wish the slots to be used - I chose to always capture the images to slot 1 and backup at the same time to slot 2. Therefore, as not every trip will I fill the 4GB card, the 64GB card is capable of backing up a complete years-worth of original images. The price now for a decent class 10 64GB on Amazon is currently just over £24, so I will purchase new 64GB cards every year and then store the previous years images. Thus I will be storing all the "original" images x2 - overkill? perhaps, but for me it works and I can sleep at night.

After losing thousands of images on a computer crash a few years ago and also experiencing an SD card failure (yes they do happen sometimes) when visiting an aquaintance who by chance was the WWII scientist responsible for degaussing submarines and Alied ships (his whole house apparently has a powerful magnetic force field around it, for whatever reason??) , I am now over careful to backup data. So after transfering my images to my special photography laptop and editing them on Lightroom (superb in many ways) and Photoshop Elements (we have excellent YouTube Tutorials on this website for both of those software packages), I backup the edited images to a Toshiba 1 Terabyte portable hard drive
"
Camera Settings

"Unless you intend to shoot all of your images in RAW, which enables the photographer to manipulate via software every element, one needs to change some of the default settings to get the best from your camera.

Digital cameras, whether they be D-SLR's, Bridge or Compacts use an in-camera processor to enhance the taken image before saving it to the media card. Manufacturers estimate what image would best please the photographer in various situations and they construct the "Default" settings for each camera.

All the cameras that club members use, have an in-depth menu system, whereby the photographer can change the default settings to personalise his or her tastes. Most cameras come with "on-camera", rather than "in-camera", ability to vary settings that are deemed likely to be changed from one shot to another and your user manual will explain what each "on-camera" facility does.

"In-Camera" settings changes, reached via a series of menu options, can be very hard to remember where they were that you found them. Some popular setting changes, which should improve the "out-of-the-box" results are:-

Image Quality
Image Size
ISO Sensitivity
Sharpen Image
Saturate

For all Nikon D-SLR users, these can be changed via the "Shooting Menu"


Image Quality
Shooting Menu - Image Quality
Note: Basically, the higher the image quality, the best image you will take - however, the better the quality, the more storage size per image.

Image Size
Shooting Menu - Image Size
Note: The bigger the image size the better - However, as with Image Quality, there is a storage size issue.

ISO Sensitivity
There could be another "on-camera" way to change the ISO settings for shot to shot changing, however the internal method sometimes allows for an auto minimum/maximum setting to be selected.
Note: Just like in old 35mm film days, the lower the ISO number, the better the definition/saturation etc. However the following should be noted...a low ISO setting changes the metering to give a low f number (aperture) and low shutter speed so as to give the best exposure combination. Also, raising the ISO setting, although allowing for a better exposure combination, may produce "noise" on the final image.

Sharpen & Saturate Image
Changing the cameras sharpening ability whilst it processes the image, is one of those options that are easily forgotten where it is you found it.
For Nikon users, the facility is via the "Set Picture Control" in the Shooting Menu.
Select - Shooting Menu - Set Picture Control and you will be presented with the ability to choose one of the following.....Standard - Neutral - Vivid - Monochrome - Portrait - Landscape (on high-end Nikons there could be more options)
Selecting one of those options will allow you to "tweak" for .....
Quick Adjust - Sharpening - Contrast - Brightness - Saturation - Hue
by clicking the right > triangle on the selection wheel and then saving by pressing "OK" in the centre of the wheel.
Your user manual (some available on this website) will explain in more detail what each setting does.

In general, certainly for Jpeg images, setting the sharpness to 8 improves the sharpness a lot without the need to sharpen the image post production on a computer. The downside to "in-camera" menu changes is that it can, especially if you change some of the Noise Reduction, HDR etc settings, slow down the saving speed. This is not a significant factor for most photographers unless they want to take hundreds of "Burst" action shots. Shooting in RAW, which takes a greater storage space per image, also takes longer to save - shooting in jpeg and RAW together will for instance alter the "Burst" rate by 50% or more."
(c) Copyright Paul H. Simmons 2015
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.