You don't need to know a lot about photography to make a beautiful Photobook but a little bit of knowledge can help make sense of why some photos have greater clarity than others.
This article explain some of the concepts that affect clarity and provides tips to make sure that your Photobook appears as you intended it.
We see three main issues that may lead to disappointment with a Photobook:
1) Poorly focussed photos
2) Poorly exposed or grainy photos
3) Incorrect photo sizing on the page
Let's step through each of these items in turn.
Focus
Focus is the process of converging light on a single point. Your camera has a lens system which enables the distance of the lens from the sensor in your camera to be varied. This is called the focal length. By adjusting this distance the point at which the light coming through the lens of the camera is varied and when the light is converged on a single point, focus is achieved.It is important to understand the functionality of your camera. Even relatively inexpensive digital cameras today have moved beyond simple spot focus. Depending on what settings you have selected, your camera may be selecting spot, centre weighted or multi-zone focus. With cheaper cameras in particular the quality of the viewfinders or the LCD previews means that you are often guessing as to whether your shot is correctly focussed. You may think that you have focussed on a subject when in fact your camera has auto-focussed on another object altogether.
As a result you may think that you have captured a great shot when in fact another object has intervened.
Although it is easy to identify when an object is not correctly focussed (of course the photo appears blurry and edges of objects ill-defined) our experience is that many people don't preview their photos before inserting them into a photo book. This is particularly the case when photos are inserted into small frames. The small size that the photos are viewed at on the computer monitor means that you may not be aware that a poorly focussed photo has been inserted.
Tip: Double click and preview small sized photos in your photo book to ensure they are well focussed.
Light and exposure
Light and the management of light is a little more complicated as cameras on different auto and semi-auto modes make many decisions for you on how they deal with different light conditions.Most of the issues with photos come from low light conditions. The most common issue we see is people having issues with grainy shots or with 'little coloured speckles' in them. This effect is caused by your camera using what is called a high ISO setting.
Your camera when in a low light situation will increase its sensitivity to light, reduce its shutter speed and increase the lens aperture (the equivalent to the iris in your eye). All are adjustments made to allow as much light as possible into the camera and interpret as much of the light information as possible that is falling on the sensor of the camera.
With each additional level of sensitivity - defined by the ISO level, there is some reduction in sharpness of your photos. By the time your camera has adjusted to ISO800 or above, 'grain' has become visible in your shots in low light conditions. The reason for this grain is that as the available light that comes into the camera decreases the camera does an increasing amount of guessing as to what wavelength is the light and sometimes it gets it wrong. This creates the grain in the shot.
You can check for grain by previewing any shots you are concerned about and zooming in on them. You can check the ISO level of your shots in Windows Explorer (i.e. in your normal Windows folder by checking the 'properties' of the shot. The higher the ISO level (i.e. the bigger the number) the more you need to be watchful for grain in your photos.
Tip: If a shot is an important one to you but it has significant grain - reduce the size of the frame on the page to reduce its impact on the page.
Assuming that you have a well exposed and focussed shot the next issue is around photo size and how your photo composition influences sizing decision.
Photo composition and sizing
Perhaps its a little obvious but the type, subject and level of detail in the photo should all influence the decision as to what size to use a photo on your page.One of the great aspects of a photobook is how cost effectively you can create pages of large expansive shots where creating this in full A4 or 30cm x 30cm shots using traditional development would be very expensive.
For shots with a lot of detail or drama experiment with shots as a full page or even double page spread (note: you will need a high megapixel camera for a 30cm x 30cm album double page spread – 12 MP or greater). Don't feel the need to cram every element of each page with photos, a more spare approach to design and laying out your photos can significantly heighten the drama of the story that you are telling in your photobook.
If you are going to increase your photos to large size – be critical of the shots as any flaws or imperfection will be enhanced when produced in your photobook. The reason for this is that we print your photobook at triple the resolution that your computer monitor is capable of displaying. So if you are unsure about a shot either don't use it or use it but in a smaller size to minimise the impact of the flaw.
Tip: Sometimes a bright red exclamation mark will appear in the upper right corner of your photo in the Editor. This means that the photo is less than 125dpi (we will explain dpi in another article) and we recommend that you do not use the photo at this size. Either reduce the size of the frame or delete the photo and swap it for another one.
In terms of getting the most out of your photobook taking some time and care in shot selection and evaluating your photos will deliver the best outcome and a photobook that you are delighted to share with your family and friends.
(Copyright: albumworks 2009, this article is not for reproduction or mirroring, you may link to this page at the URL xxxx.xxxxxx.xxxxx)
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