RAW FILE FORMAT

The RAW file format is digital photography's equivalent of a negative in film photography: it contains untouched, "raw" pixel information straight from the digital camera's sensor. The RAW file format has yet to undergo demosaicing, and so it contains just one red, green, or blue value at each pixel location. Digital cameras normally "develop" this RAW file by converting it into a full color JPEG or TIFF image file, and then store the converted file in your memory card. Digital cameras have to make several interpretive decisions when they develop a RAW file, and so the RAW file format offers you more control over how the final JPEG or TIFF image is generated. This section aims to illustrate the technical advantages of RAW files, and makes suggestions about when to use the RAW file format.

OVERVIEW
A RAW file is developed into a final JPEG or TIFF image in several steps, each of which may contain several irreversible image adjustments. One key advantage of RAW is that it allows the photographer to postpone applying these adjustments giving more flexibility to the photographer to later apply these themselves, in a way which best suits each image. The following diagram illustrates the sequence of adjustments:

Demosaicing White Balance

Tone Curves Contrast Color Saturation Sharpening

Conversion to 8-bit JPEG Compression

Demosaicing and white balance involve interpreting and converting the bayer array into an image with all three colors at each pixel, and occur in the same step. The bayer array is what makes the first image appear more pixelated than the other two, and gives the image a greenish tint. Our eyes perceive differences in lightness logarithmically, and so when light intensity quadruples we only perceive this as roughly a doubling in the amount of light. A digital camera, on the other hand, records differences in lightness linearly twice the light intensity produces twice the response in the camera sensor. This is why the first and second images above look so much darker than the third. In order for the numbers recorded within a digital camera to be shown as we perceive them, tone curves need to be applied (see the tutorial on gamma correction for more on this topic). Color saturation and contrast may also be adjusted, depending on the setting within your camera. The image is then sharpened to offset the softening caused by demosaicing, which is visible in the second image. The high bit depth RAW image is then converted into 8-bits per channel, and compressed into a JPEG based on the compression setting within your camera. Up until this step, RAW image information most likely resided within the digital camera's memory buffer.

There are several advantages to performing any of the above RAW conversion steps afterwards on a personal computer, as opposed to within a digital camera. The next sections describe how using RAW files can enhance these RAW conversion steps.

DEMOSAICING
Demosaicing is a very processor-intensive step, and so the best demosaicing algorithms require more processing power than is practical within today's digital cameras. Most digital cameras therefore take quality-compromising shortcuts to convert a RAW file into a TIFF or JPEG in a reasonable amount of time. Performing the demosaicing step on a personal computer allows for the best algorithms since a PC has many times more processing power than a typical digital camera. Better algorithms can squeeze a little more out of your camera sensor by producing more resolution, less noise, better small-scale color accuracy and reduced moir. Note the resolution advantage shown below:

JPEG (in-camera)

RAW

Ideal

Images from actual camera tests with a Canon EOS 20D using an ISO 12233 resolution test chart. Differential between RAW and JPEG resolution may vary with camera model and conversion software.

The in-camera JPEG image is not able to resolve lines as closely spaced as those in the RAW image. Even so, a RAW file cannot achieve the ideal lines shown, because the process of demosaicing always introduces some softening to the image. Only sensors which capture all three colors at each pixel location could achieve the ideal image shown at the bottom (such as Foveon-type sensors).

FLEXIBLE WHITE BALANCE

White balance is the process of removing unrealistic color casts, so that objects which appear white in person are rendered white in your photo.Color casts within JPEG images can often be removed in post-processing, but at the cost of bit depth and color gamut. This is because the white balance has effectively been set twice: once in RAW conversion and then again in post-processing. RAW files give you the ability to set the white balance of a photo *after* the picture has been taken without unnecessarily destroying bits.

HIGH BIT DEPTH

Digital cameras actually record each color channel with more precision than the 8-bits (256 levels) per channel used for JPEG images (see "Understanding Bit Depth"). Most current cameras capture each color with 12-bits of precision (212 = 4096 levels) per color channel, providing several times more levels than could be achieved by using an in-camera JPEG. Higher bit depth decreases the susceptibility to posterization, and increases your flexibility when choosing a color space and in post-processing.

DYNAMIC RANGE & EXPOSURE COMPENSATION

The RAW file format usually provides considerably more "dynamic range" than a JPEG file, depending on how the camera creates its JPEG. Dynamic range refers to the range of light to dark which can be captured by a camera before becoming completely white or black, respectively. Since the raw color data has not been converted into logarithmic values using curves (see overview section above), the exposure of a RAW file can be adjusted slightly after the photo has been taken. Exposure compensation can correct for metering errors, or can help bring out lost shadow or highlight detail. The following example was taken directly into the setting sun, and shows the same RAW file with -1 stop, 0 (no change), and +1 stop exposure compensation. Move your mouse over each to see how exposure compensation affects the image:

Apply Exposure Compensation:

-1.0

none

+1.0

Note: +1 or -1 stop refers to a doubling or halving of the light used for an exposure, respectively. A stop can also be listed in terms of eV, and so +1 stop is equivalent to +1 eV.

Note the broad range of shadow and highlight detail across the three images. Similar results could not be achieved by merely brightening or darkening a JPEG file both in dynamic range and in the smoothness of tones. A graduated neutral density filter could then be used to better utilize this broad dynamic range.

ENHANCED SHARPENING
Since a RAW file is untouched, sharpening has not been applied within the camera. Much like demosaicing, better sharpening algorithms are often far more processor intensive. Sharpening performed on a personal computer can thus create fewer halo artifacts for an equivalent amount of sharpening (see "Sharpening Using an Unsharp Mask" for examples of sharpening artifacts). Since sharpness depends on the intended viewing distance of your image, the RAW file format also provides more control over what type and how much sharpening is applied (given your purpose). Sharpening is usually the last post-processing step since it cannot be undone, so having a presharpened JPEG is not optimal.

LOSSLESS COMPRESSION

Compression:

Lossless

Lossy

The RAW file format uses a lossless compression, and so it does not suffer from the compression artifactsvisible with "lossy" JPEG compression. RAW files contain more information and achieve better compression than TIFF, but without the compression artifacts of JPEG.

Note: Kodak and Nikon employ a slightly lossy RAW compression algorithm, although any artifacts are much lower than would be perceived with a similar JPEG image. The efficiency of RAW compression also varies with digital camera manufacturer. Right image shown at 200%; lossy JPEG compression at 60% in Adobe Photoshop "Save for Web" mode.

DISADVANTAGES

RAW files are much larger than similar JPEG files, and so fewer photos can fit within the same memory card. RAW files are more time consuming since they may require manually applying each conversion step. RAW files often take longer to be written to a memory card since they are larger, therefore most digital cameras may not achieve the same frame rate as with JPEG. RAW files cannot be given to others immediately since they require specific software to load them, therefore it may be necessary to first convert them into JPEG. RAW files require a more powerful computer with more temporary memory (RAM).

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
One problem with the RAW file format is that it is not very standardized. Each camera has their own proprietary RAW file format, and so one program may not be able to read all formats. Fortunately, Adobe has announced a digital negative (DNG) specification which aims to standardize the RAW file format. In addition, any camera which has the ability to save RAW files should come with its own software to read them.

Good RAW conversion software can perform batch processes and often automates all conversion steps except those which you choose to modify. This can mitigate or even eliminate the ease of use advantage of JPEG files.

Many newer cameras can save both RAW and JPEG images simultaneously. This provides you with an immediate final image, but retains the RAW "negative" just in case more flexibility is desired later.

SUMMARY
So which is better: RAW or JPEG? There is no single answer, as this depends on the type of photography you are doing. In most cases, RAW files will provide the best solution due to their technical advantages and the decreasing cost of large memory cards. RAW files give the photographer far more control, but with this comes the trade-off of speed, storage space and ease of use. The RAW trade-off is sometimes not worth it for sports and press photographers, although landscape and most fine art photographers often choose RAW in order to maximize the image quality potential of their digital camera. Want to learn more? Discuss this and other articles in our digital photography forums.

Raw Image Format: Pros and Cons

What does it bring, and is it worth the trouble?

The first decision you'll have to make before using your camera is what format do you want to save your image files in. There are two choices here: raw (proprietary for every camera maker) and RGB (JPEG or TIFF standards). Raw image files Raw image files are often referred to as RAW, capitalized, which is an obvious misunderstanding (this is not an acronym but a common word, and that's what some people should have learned at SCHOOL if they were paying ATTention). Raw files contain the recording of the signal as picked off individual red-, green-, and blue-filtered photosites of the sensor, usually without any incamera processing. Consider them a digital version of an undeveloped film: the final image will depend on how you develop it and how you make the prints. Every manufacturer uses a different raw image format, which may also vary from one camera to another, therefore usually you need a specialized raw converter application (or plugin) to translate the photosite information into RGB pixels. This translation, also known as raw development, involves two main steps:

Conversion proper (or demosaicing), which translates signal values from individual R, G, and B photosites into combined RGB values of image pixels. Obviously, two out of three components of every pixel have to be obtained by interpolation from its neighbors; this is how, say, four megapixels worth of information becomes a twelve-megapixel image see another article on that subject. Image adjustment: sharpening, white balance, tonal curve. In most of raw development programs (embedded in firmware, or stand-alone) this is done while the image still has 16 bits per color (even if the original signal had less, like 12 or 14 bits per photosite), before conversion to the eight-bit RGB. Depending on the camera model, the raw data may be compressed or not, with the compression always being lossless. It can be also packed (with individual photosite information not aligned with byte boundaries). Both these factors (often confused) will affect the raw image file size. On average, expect a raw image to require from one to two megabytes of storage per megapixel. For example, the uncompressed (older) Olympus Raw Format (ORF) stores information from two 12-bit photosites packed in three bytes; an 8 MP image will be written as a 13.6 MB file (obviously, an extra 1.6 MB of

overhead is used to store additional information). Newer Olympus cameras (and many others, including all Canon SLRs) use raw compression; an 8 MP image file from the Canon 350D (Digital Rebel XT) takes just 8 MB, a 40% savings, while a compressed 12 MP ORF file from the Olympus E-30 fits, on average, below 14 MB. (The analog-to-digital conversion uses 12 bits per photosite in all these cases.) Other common image formats Before we go deeper into our discussion, let us ga=have a quick look at tow most popular image formats. Both are RGB (this means they do have pixels with colors assigned), with the main practical difference being compression. TIFF (Tagged Image Format) In its simplest version, this format contains uncompressed RGB information on all image pixels, with eight bits per color image depth (the format allows for 16 bits/color, but most manufacturers do not use that option). Obviously, the sensor signal is translated into RGB before the file is written, therefore one might compare TIFF files to a developed negative. This is because some corrections (like, for example, color balance) have been already applied to the image, and while new ones can be applied on top of them, this is not the same as working with the original information. (Think of that as color-correcting of a not-so-well developed negative at the printing stage.) Being uncompressed, TIFF files do not suffer from compression artifacts (or any other forms of data loss), but they are fairly large (3 megabytes per megapixel, plus overhead). For the Olympus E-500, a full-size TIFF file is about 24.6 MB (the 350D does not support this format). The TIFF format is rarely, if ever, used in recent cameras; usually only a choice between raw and JPEG is provided. JPEG (Joint Photographic Expert Group) Like in TIFF, in this format the image is already translated into RGB, but the data is also compressed. This is a "lossy" compression, i.e., some information is lost in the process (or some artifacts introduced), but at lower compression ratios (say, 1:4 or below) these effects are negligible, really not worth worrying about, and even at 1:8 they are still quite small. In our film metaphor, we could compare JPEG files to developed negatives (maybe from a minilab, not a custom shop), good enough for a great majority of applications. (COmparisons to a Polaroid print are not really good, as JPEG images submit themselves to adjustment much better than a

copy of a print would.) Thanks to the compression, JPEG files are much smaller than TIFF or ORF ones: an 8 MP JPEG image will use about 6 MB of storage at 1:4, or 3 MB at 1:8. In our further discussion we will be approaching TIFF and JPEG file format as two forms of RGB, with the differences due to compression of rather secondary importance, Raw or RGB? Why not to use the raw format all the time if it contains the full, unaltered information of the captured image? Well, nothing comes quite free; here are the pros and cons: 1. [PRO] Raw files contain the full, unaltered information as taken off the sensor, while in RGB (TIFF or JPEG) ones this information is already converted, for better or worse, using the current camera settings. Performing that conversion on a PC, you can use more powerful and/or most up-to-date software, possibly better than the camera firmware. 2. [CON] With raw files you need to do the conversion before you can edit, print, or even view your images; an extra step. 3. [PRO] If and when a better version of the conversion software becomes available, you may "develop" your raw files, at least those which you want, again. 4. [CON] If, a few years down the road, your camera manufacturer (or a third party) no longer offers a raw converter working with your current operating system, you may kiss your (undeveloped) digital negatives goodbye. 5. [PRO] Some of the camera settings are applied only to the raw image development process, not to the picture-taking itself. These are: color balance, sharpening, contrast, gradation. Therefore you may adjust these parameters as needed during the raw development, and tweak them to your liking. True, most of these corrections can be applied also to RGB images, but usually within a smaller range and/or with not as good results. 6. [CON] This extra tweaking is not always necessary; many people who use the raw format "just in case", limit themselves during the offcamera development to using just the parameters as set during the shooting (as these settings are remembered, if not applied, in the raw

files). 7. [CON] Raw images take much more storage space than JPEG ones; even at the conservative 1:4 compression the difference is by a factor of two. It is easier to run out of storage using the raw format. 8. [CON] A related issue: the internal memory buffer in your camera (in most models at least) stores RGB images after conversion from raw. This means that in sequential shooting you will get longer sequences using JPEGs. 9. [PRO] Starting from the raw file involves one fewer (lossy) compression process: less image degradation. (This can be alleviated by using a low in-camera JPEG compression.) Contrary to what many believe, using the raw format usually does not offer better protection from over- or under-exposure. The RGB conversion process uses the whole tonal range recorded in the raw image, and if your highlights are blown out, the corresponding photosites are oversaturated regardless on how you save your images: before or after the RGB conversion. You may see some improvement only if the in-camera conversion is deficient, losing some of the range. On the other hand, the extra bits in the raw information may allow you to make a slightly better use in extracting the available detail from shadows or highlights by adjusting the brightness translation curves: with more bits there is less error accumulation in multiple processing stages. Still, the detail has to be there to start with, and the photographer has to understand how the tonal curves are used. An example of a picture with blown highlights not helped by "exposure compensation" in raw development can be found here. An educated choice Using the raw format without understanding why, and without taking an advantage of it during postprocessing misses the point. Watching some discussion forums I've seen many photographers who do it just because they've heard it is better; then they spend their time converting the images to RGB with use of the settings as dialed when the picture was shot. The bottom line in this approach is that you are getting the same RGB images as those converted in-camera; hardly worth the hassle. On the plus side, if you are unhappy with the default conversion, you may change the parameters and get things done your way, which may (but does not have to) bring better results than adjusting images already converted into RGB.

So, what is my advice? Sorry to disappoint you, I do not have one; you will have to make your own decision, carefully considering the pros and cons listed above, also taking into account your image postprocessing skills. While I believe that 95% of photographers will be perfectly happy storing their images as low-compression (1:4 or better) JPEGs, you may belong to the remaining 5%. As for myself, most of the time I convert my pictures to RGB in-camera, saving them as 1:2.7 or 1:4 JPEGs. While I do postprocess all my images, I find that even when starting from RGB I still have enough room left for the adjustments I need. Most importantly, I keep the in-camera sharpening below the default level: once your converted image is oversharpened, there is no way back, and the effects can be quite ugly. Only in rare cases I do switch to the raw format; this usually happens in trickier WB situations. Actually, an experienced photographer will usually have the exposure, white balance, and contrast set so that an out-of-camera JPEG will be just fine; in such cases going through the raw stage means extra hassle, time, and storage space. It is the less fluent photographers who may profit from the extra postprocessing flexibility offered by the raw format, but they are also least likely to get that step right. Ironically, the raw format offers most of its advantages to those who need them least. Some cameras offer an option to write both raw and JPEG versions of the same image. While I rarely resort to that, I know people who do. Now the only thing you have to do is to make your mind. Web references This article was intended to be just a quick introduction to the subject. You may want to dig a bit deeper, and here are my recommendations.

My Highlight Recovery from Raw Files: a case study, with examples of how much you can actually fix overexposed pictures in raw format Raw file pros and cons are discussed by Ken Rockwell in his usual, nononsense way from a photographer's (as opposed to pixel-peeper's) viewpoint, and his conclusions, as it turns out, are very similar to mine. See also another (2009) article by Ken: Film: The Real Raw, quite entertaining; let me just offer you one quote: "I'm consistently amused by innocent hobbyists who go through the aggravation of shooting raw files just to get what they think is marginally better technical quality [...]"

Bob Atkins published an informative article on this subject at photo.net; the page also contains a discussion thread offering more insight into the matter. A tutorial on raw files can be found at Sean McHugh's Cambridge in Colour photography site.

DIGITAL CAMERA SENSORS

A digital camera uses a sensor array of millions of tiny pixels to produce the final image. When you press your camera's shutter button and the exposure begins, each of these pixels has a "photosite" which is uncovered to collect and store photons in a cavity. Once the exposure finishes, the camera closes each of these photosites, and then tries to assess how many photons fell into each. The relative quantity of photons in each cavity are then sorted into various intensity levels, whose precision is determined by bit depth (0 - 255 for an 8-bit image).

Each cavity is unable to distinguish how much of each color has fallen in, so the above illustration would only be able to create grayscale images. To capture color images, each cavity has to have a filter placed over it which only allows penetration of a particular color of light. Virtually all current digital cameras can only capture one of the three primary colors in each cavity, and so they discard roughly 2/3 of the incoming light. As a result, the camera has to approximate the other two primary colors in order to have information about all three colors at every pixel. The most common type of color filter array is called a "Bayer array," shown below.

Color Filter Array

A Bayer array consists of alternating rows of red-green and green-blue filters. Notice how the Bayer array contains twice as many green as red or blue sensors. Each primary color does not receive an equal fraction of the total area because the human eye is more sensitive to green light than both red and blue light. Redundancy with green pixels produces an image which appears less noisy and has finer detail than could be accomplished if each color were treated equally. This also explains why noise in the green channel is much less than for the other two primary colors (see "Understanding Image Noise" for an example).

Original Scene (shown at 200%)

What Your Camera Sees (through a Bayer array)

Note: Not all digital cameras use a Bayer array, however this is by far the most common setup. The Foveon sensor used in Sigma's SD9 and SD10 captures all three colors at each pixel location. Sony cameras capture four colors in a similar array: red, green, blue and emerald green.

BAYER DEMOSAICING
Bayer "demosaicing" is the process of translating this Bayer array of primary colors into a final image which contains full color information at each pixel. How is this possible if the camera is unable to directly measure full color? One way of understanding this is to instead think of each 2x2 array of red, green and blue as a single full color cavity.


This would work fine, however most cameras take additional steps to extract even more image information from this color array. If the camera treated all of the colors in each 2x2 array as having landed in the same place, then it would only be able achieve half the resolution in both the horizontal and vertical directions. On the other hand, if a camera computed the color using several overlapping 2x2 arrays, then it could achieve a higher resolution than would be possible with a single set of 2x2 arrays. The following combination of overlapping 2x2 arrays could be used to extract more image information.

Note how we did not calculate image information at the very edges of the array, since we assumed the image continued on in each direction. If these were actually the edges of the cavity array, then calculations here would be less accurate, since there are no longer pixels on all sides. This is no problem, since information at the very edges of an image can easily be cropped out for cameras with millions of pixels. Other demosaicing algorithms exist which can extract slightly more resolution, produce images which are less noisy, or adapt to best approximate the image at each location.

DEMOSAICING ARTIFACTS
Images with small-scale detail near the resolution limit of the digital sensor can sometimes trick the demosaicing algorithmproducing an unrealistic looking result. The most common artifact is moir (pronounced "more-ay"), which may appear as repeating patterns, color artifacts or pixels arranges in an unrealistic maze-like pattern:

Second Photo at

65% of Above Size

Two separate photos are shown aboveeach at a different magnification. Note the appearance of moir in all four bottom squares, in addition to the third square of the first photo (subtle). Both maze-like and color artifacts can be seen in the third square of the downsized version. These artifacts depend on both the type of texture and software used to develop the digital camera's RAW file.

MICROLENS ARRAYS
You might wonder why the first diagram in this tutorial did not place each cavity directly next to each other. Realworld camera sensors do not actually have photosites which cover the entire surface of the sensor. In fact, they often cover just half the total area in order to accommodate other electronics. Each cavity is shown with little peaks between them to direct the photons to one cavity or the other. Digital cameras contain "microlenses" above each photosite to enhance their light-gathering ability. These lenses are analogous to funnels which direct photons into the photosite where the photons would have otherwise been unused.

Well-designed microlenses can improve the photon signal at each photosite, and subsequently create images which have less noise for the same exposure time. Camera manufacturers have been able to use improvements in microlens design to reduce or maintain noise in the latest high-resolution cameras, despite having smaller photosites due to squeezing more megapixels into the same sensor area. For further reading on digital camera sensors, please visit: Digital Camera Sensor Sizes: How Do These Influence Photography?

Raw Basics

Raw files are just the raw sensor data. It isn't a picture until it is processed further. Most fancy digital cameras allow you to save the raw data instead of the actual JPG picture. If you do, you still have to do the processing in your computer to make an image (JPG or otherwise) that you actually can see. Cameras do this processing in hardware much faster than your computer can do it in software. Some cameras have a handy raw + JPG mode which saves both the raw data and the JPG picture. Raw files are just like raw olives: you need to cook or otherwise process them before you can use them. They also go bad fast if left in the raw state and can keep forever once processed to something like olive oil or JPGs. Horror of horrors, I've heard that the latest Nikon software can't even read the NEFs from older cameras and that you need to load older software to read them. Just like raw eggs, unless you process it into something like an eggalbumen print or a JPG, the raw files may go bad if left unprocessed. It's not the file that goes bad, silly, it's the potential ability of future software to read it. Since raw data is entirely unique to each camera, and different even for different firmware revisions for the same camera, raw isn't even a format, even though the different files have the same suffix like .CRW or .NEF. Raw files themselves don't go bad. What goes bad is that in 10 or 20 years, whatever software we're running on whatever sort of computer we'll be using may not be able to open a long-forgotten 20-year old proprietary file. JPGs are universal. Raw is proprietary to camera make and model and even camera firmware version. Without solid manufacturer support you won't be able to use your raw files again. Can you find a computer to open word processing files from 10 or 20 years ago today in Lotus Notes or PFS Write or Brother Style Writer? I can't; that's why I converted my files from these programs to the universal .TXT format back when I could. Do you trust Canon, Nikon and Adobe to support 10 or 20 year old cameras? How about 30 or 40 year old cameras? If you do, go ahead and leave your raw files as raw. I convert all my raw files to JPGs or TIFFs for archiving. The JPG processing in the camera can be better than what you may be able to do later in software from raw. In the September 2004 issue of "Outdoor Photographer" magazine, page 25, Rob Shepard says "...the high quality JPEG images looked far superior to the raw files when both were opened directly."

Cameras create their JPGs from the 12 bit or more raw data as it comes off the sensor. Your contrast, white balance, sharpening and everything are applied to the raw data in-camera, and only afterwards is the file compressed and stored as a JPG. You'll see no additional artifacts since that's all done before the JPG conversion. Using raw files obviously takes a lot more time and patience, like refrying beans, since you could have had all that processing done right in the camera for free. You only want to go through this trouble if for some reason you're unsure of what settings to use. The raw data, since it includes everything, also takes up a whole lot more space and takes more time to move around. It's sort of like either having a complete car that runs (JPG), or a science project in a million pieces that still needs assembly before you can drive it (raw). You can't really change exposure after a raw file is shot, although the software that opens this data gives one the option to rescale the data and give the impression of changing exposure. You can get this same synthetic lightening from JPGs, too, although only raw allows some ability to correct overexposure. I take a lot of heat from tweakers because I, like other photographers, prefer to make my adjustments in-camera and use the JPGs directly. Others prefer to spend even more time later twiddling in raw, but that's not for me. I get the look I need with JPGs and prefer to spend my time making more photos. If you're the sort of person who likes to twiddle and redo than by all means raw is for you. Everyone's needs vary. For many hobbyists tweaking is part of the fun and I don't want to spoil that. Please just don't take it personally that I prefer to get my shots right the first time instead of having to tweak them later. If I need to correct a goof I just do it from the JPGs. Q: What is a RAW image file? A: All RAW file consist of two things... Meta Data: Which is a record of the state of the camera or recording device at the moment the image was taken. This include items such as Date, Time, ISO, Shutter Speed, and a host of other items. Image Data: which, in most cases, is a the unmodified data exactly as it is output from the A to D convertors (nomaly 12 bit linear). Each 12 bit piece of data is a record for either a Red, Green, or Blue site of the Bayer pattern, Thus the 6MP camera records 1.5M Red, 3M Green, and 1.5M Blue pixels. Q: What does a RAW converter do?

A: Basically a raw converter (including the generation of an in-camera jpeg) does the following...

Read Bayer Pattern Data (or raw file) Scale Brightness values of each photo site/color based on White Balance values. Demosiac (convert) the Bayer pattern into RGB data. Load a device (camera) color profile and an output color profile and create a conversion matrix. When each RGB pixel is put through the matrix the RGB values are adjusted for more accurate color. (see more below) Post process the data (deal with highlights, sharpness, saturation, noise reduction, etc) Save an output file (tiff, jpeg, or dump to a program such as PS).

Q: What sets RAW converter apart? A: Three things set RAW converters apart when it comes to the actual conversion of the RAW data.

The ability to extract an RGB image from Bayer Pattern. How the converter deals with (clips or reconstructs) "blown highlights". How (really "which") color profiles are used for output.

Q: What is the big deal about Bayer Pattern conversion? What makes it so tough? A: Full color images usually consist of a picture element (pixel) that contains at least three components Most typically Red, Green and Blue components. Raw images based on Bayer Patterns have only one of the three color components at each pixel location . The challenge has to do with reconstructing the missing two components at each location. Developers face an uphill battle and many tradeoffs in the quest to create the best results. Put simply, when your input starts out with only 33% of the data of your output, there are going to be inaccuracies. The trick is to select the tradeoffs that result in the fewest inaccuracies. The other trick is to do so in a way that has a low computational cost. Q: What is the best Bayer Pattern conversion algorithm? A: Simply - There isn't one! Currently the industry favorite is the AHD routine and its derivatives. However the author's ACC* routine does a better job in many cases. Of course, every image has qualities that one routine does better then another. ACC may be better in many, AHD better in others, VNG in yet others, ECW in still others. Noise, amounts of detail and/or saturated color all can have a bearing on which routine is best for a given image. There is NO perfect

solution, but, it seems that every month, a new version of an older routine is tweaked to get better results. (See: "What makes it so tough?" above.) Q: Why are Camera Manufactures so reluctant to publish specifications for their raw file formats? A: The short answer is I dont know. The long answer is fairly easy to guess at. First, Control! Camera manufactures are often praised for the unique image qualities of their cameras. For example, in the past, Konica-Minolta was often praised for their dSLRs color rendition and skin tones. The fact is that when it comes to getting these things out of a MRW file (the KM raw file format) there is little the actual camera has to do with it. The truth is the same raw file processed through two different converters will give two very different image and tonal qualities. So lets say you convert a raw file using the XYZ raw converter and the colors look horrible and the skin tones make everyone look like dead people and you post the images on the internet anyway. Who gets the bad wrap??? The camera manufacturer! Second, Money! The camera manufactures would much rather have you buy their raw conversion software Fortunately, many people actually enjoy decoding the various raw data formats and publishing the results. Q: When I look very closely at some of my photos, there are red and blue fringes in areas of high contrast. Why? A: This can be caused by two things. The first is from a kind of lens distortion called Chromatic Aberration. This is when the Red, Green and Blue components of light do not come together in exactly in the same place. It is usually more prominent in the corners of photographs and usually is the result of the design of the camera lens. APO and more expensive lenses with special lens elements (such as SD and ED elements) are far less prone to this kind of problem. The second cause is the result of the Bayer Pattern routines used to create the output image either in the camera (in the case of in camera jpeg files) or in the raw file image conversion program. Most Bayer Pattern demosiacing routines do not correctly render high contrast areas to deal with this kind of color fringing. It is possible but most developers have not yet discovered the secret. Q: In some of my photos I see this really wild looking color pattern "effect". What is it? A: Probably you are seeing something known as Moir. Theoretically this is caused most often when the subject has more detail than the resolution of the

camera (or image), this results in lower frequency harmonics that appear as waves in your image . However, this is often also artificially made worse by many Bayer Pattern demosiacing routines. In this case the cause is often related to the same thing that causes color fringing. Q: I have noticed some artifacts that look like mazes or some crazy Greek wall trim. Why are these in my image? A: This is a result of Bayer Pattern demosiacing routines trying to make sense of high frequency information. Many, if not most, routines have some kind of edge/detail direction sensing, when these routines hit a section of an image that trick them into thinking the direction of some detail is other then the real direction, these maze artifacts can result. Sometimes, due to the nature of Bayer Patterns, the data have more then one mathematically valid solution for edge direction and therefore chooses the "wrong" solution. Q: Why do some edge details in my images have what almost looks like a zipper pattern? A: This is the result of incorrectly interpreting the color changes that result from alternating Red Green or Blue Green pixels of a Bayer Pattern. One common way of dealing with this is the use of strong edge detection routines. Many routines simply do not deal with this image area's correctly. Q: Why dont camera manufactures improve the Auto White Balance routines in their cameras so pictures taken in tungsten light look as good as those taken in daylight? A: They could, but then the Auto White Balance routines would then run amuck and make candlelight and flames look white as well. Basically there would far more complaints caused by this then there are now for less then perfect whites in tungsten light. Bad things would also happen to pictures with a lot of red or blue as well (such as a golden sunset or a macro shot of a pink rose). Really we should be happy Auto White Balance is somewhat limited. Q: I have heard that very often there are 1 to 3 extra photographic stops of highlight detail present in RAW files compared to the jpeg image produced by the camera. Why is this extra detail thrown away or not used in the jpeg output? A: One reason for throwing away or clipping this data is because our cameras can capture more levels of brightness then our computer displays and or output devices can reproduce. In order to display all of the brightness/highlight detail available the image must be reduced in contrast. This reduction is often great enough that the resulting images look dim, dull, and lifeless. Some raw

conversion programs allow you to recover and use some or all of this data, but the highlights must be compressed in brightness in order for the overall image to look good. If done well, the results can be as natural looking as highlight areas in comparable film images. Another reason has to due with White Balance scaling. This scaling causes the clipping of highlight data to happen at different levels for each color. Many programs that try to recover this data either only recover up to the lowest value clipped or just leave the values clipped resulting in blue or pink overtones in the clipped areas. A few programs actually reconstruct the clipped data using reasonable assumptions and data from the unclipped channels. These programs tend to have the most natural looking results. Still, this extra recovered data must be compressed in brightness in order to be displayed on a monitor so it doesnt look flat, dim, or washed out. Q: Why is the RAW converter I use so slow? A: A good raw converter must make many calculations to produce the best full resolution results. Usually the best results require the converter to look at a pixel and its surrounding data many many times and this is computationally expensive. However, if a reduced output size (1/2 the size dimension or the megapixels) is all that is required, as in the case of most images required for websites or emails, then very simple routines which do not require much computing overhead may (should) be used. Q: What is all the fuss over Color Profiles and Color Management? A: TWO things are needed to get accurate color images from a raw data set. One is correct white balance data (stored in the Meta Data or determined manually), the other is TWO color profiles, the camera (device) profile, and an output profile. Most all of the nice comments about how well a camera reproduces colors and skin tones can be attributed to the device color profile NOT the camera. Note the following images (100% crops), esp the skin tones and the yellows. Note the following images (50% crops) esp. the skin tones and the yellows. The top image used a proper color profile conversion/correction while the second image is "straight" from the camera with no color profile correction. Some may like the lower image, but the top image is more accurate.

CAMERA EXPOSURE
A photograph's exposure determines how light or dark an image will appear when it's been captured by your camera. Believe it or not, this is determined by just three camera settings: aperture, ISO and shutter speed (the "exposure triangle"). Mastering their use is an essential part of developing an intuition for photography.

UNDERSTANDING EXPOSURE

Achieving the correct exposure is a lot like collecting rain in a bucket. While the rate of rainfall is uncontrollable, three factors remain under your control: the bucket's width, the duration you leave it in the rain, and the quantity of rain you want to collect. You just need to ensure you don't collect too little ("underexposed"), but that you also don't collect too much ("overexposed"). The key is that there are many different combinations of width, time and quantity that will achieve this. For example, for the same quantity of water, you can get away with less time in the rain if you pick a bucket that's really wide. Alternatively, for the same duration left in the rain, a really narrow bucket can be used as long as you plan on getting by with less water. In photography, the exposure settings of aperture, shutter speed and ISO speed are analogous to the width, time and quantity discussed above. Furthermore, just as the rate of rainfall was beyond your control above, so too is natural light for a photographer.

EXPOSURE TRIANGLE: APERTURE, ISO & SHUTTER SPEED

Each setting controls exposure differently: Aperture: controls the area over which light can enter your camera Shutter speed: controls the duration of the exposure ISO speed: controls the sensitivity of your camera's sensor to a given amount of light One can therefore use many combinations of the above three settings to achieve the same exposure. The key, however, is knowing which trade-offs to make, since each setting also influences other image properties. For example, aperture affects depth of field, shutter speed affects motion blur and ISO speed affects image noise. The next few sections will describe how each setting is specified, what it looks like, and how a given camera exposure mode affects their combination.

SHUTTER SPEED
A camera's shutter determines when the camera sensor will be open or closed to incoming light from the camera lens. The shutter speed specifically refers to how long this light is permitted to enter the camera. "Shutter speed" and "exposure time" refer to the same concept, where a faster shutter speed means a shorter exposure time. By the Numbers. Shutter speed's influence on exposure is perhaps the simplest of the three camera settings: it correlates exactly 1:1 with the amount of light entering the camera. For example, when the exposure time doubles the amount of light entering the camera doubles. It's also the setting that has the widest range of possibilities:

Typical Examples Specialty night and low-light photos on a tripod To add a silky look to flowing water 2 - 1/2 second Landscape photos on a tripod for enhanced depth of field To add motion blur to the background of a moving subject 1/2 to 1/30 second Carefully taken hand-held photos with stabilization 1/50 - 1/100 second Typical hand-held photos without substantial zoom To freeze everyday sports/action subject movement 1/250 - 1/500 second Hand-held photos with substantial zoom (telephoto lens) 1/1000 - 1/4000 second To freeze extremely fast, up-close subject motion
How it Appears. Shutter speed is a powerful tool for freezing or exaggerating the appearance of motion:

Shutter Speed 1 - 30+ seconds

Slow Shutter Speed

Fast Shutter Speed With waterfalls and other creative shots, motion blur is sometimes desirable, but for most other shots this is avoided. Therefore all one usually cares about with shutter speed is whether it results in a sharp photo either by freezing movement or because the shot can be taken hand-held without camera shake. How do you know which shutter speed will provide a sharp hand-held shot? With digital cameras, the best way to find out is to just experiment and look at the results on your camera's rear LCD screen (at full zoom). If a properly focused

photo comes out blurred, then you'll usually need to either increase the shutter speed, keep your hands steadier or use acamera tripod. For more on this topic, see the tutorial on Using Camera Shutter Speed Creatively.

APERTURE SETTING
A camera's aperture setting controls the area over which light can pass through your camera lens. It is specified in terms an f-stop value, which can at times be counterintuitive, because the area of the opening increases as the f-stop decreases. In photographer slang, the when someone says they are "stopping down" or "opening up" their lens, they are referring to increasing and decreasing the f-stop value, respectively.

By the Numbers. Every time the f-stop value halves, the light-collecting area quadruples. There's a formula for this, but most photographers just memorize the f-stop numbers that correspond to each doubling/halving of light:

Aperture Setting f/22 f/16 f/11 f/8.0 f/5.6 f/4.0 f/2.8 f/2.0 f/1.4

Relative Light 1X 2X 4X 8X 16X 32X 64X 128X 256X

Example Shutter Speed 16 seconds 8 seconds 4 seconds 2 seconds 1 second 1/2 second 1/4 second 1/8 second 1/15 second

The above aperture and shutter speed combinations all result in the same exposure. Note: Shutter speed values are not always possible in increments of exactly double or half another shutter speed, but they're always close enough that the difference is negligible. The above f-stop numbers are all standard options in any camera, although most also allow finer adjustments, such as f/3.2 and f/6.3. The range of values may also vary from camera to camera (or lens to lens). For example, a compact camera might have an available range of f/2.8 to f/8.0, whereas a digital SLR camera might have a range of f/1.4 to f/32 with a portrait lens. A narrow aperture range usually isn't a big problem, but a greater range does provide for more creative flexibility.

Technical Note: With many lenses, their light-gathering ability is also affected by their transmission efficiency, although this is almost always much less of a factor than aperture. It's also beyond the photographer's control. Differences in transmision efficiency are typically more pronounced with extreme zoom ranges. For example, Canon's 24-105 mm f/4L IS lens gathers perhaps ~10-40% less light at f/4 than Canon's similar 24-70 mm f/2.8L lens at f/4 (depending on the focal length).

How it Appears. A camera's aperture setting is what determines a photo's depth of field (the range of distance over which objects appear in sharp focus). Lower f-stop values correlate with a shallower depth of field:

Wide Aperture f/2.0 - low f-stop number shallow depth of field

Narrow Aperture f/16 - high f-stop number large depth of field

ISO SPEED
The ISO speed determines how sensitive the camera is to incoming light. Similar to shutter speed, it also correlates 1:1 with how much the exposure increases or decreases. However, unlike aperture and shutter speed, a lower ISO speed is almost always desirable, since higher ISO speeds dramatically increase image noise. As a result, ISO speed is usually only increased from its minimum value if the desired aperture and shutter speed aren't otherwise obtainable.

Low ISO Speed (low image noise)

High ISO Speed (high image noise)

note: image noise is also known as "film grain" in traditional film photography

Common ISO speeds include 100, 200, 400 and 800, although many cameras also permit lower or higher values. With compact cameras, an ISO speed in the range of 50-200 generally produces acceptably low image noise, whereas with digital SLR cameras, a range of 50-800 (or higher) is often acceptable.

CAMERA EXPOSURE MODES

Most digital cameras have one of the following standardized exposure modes: Auto ( "auto exposure (AE) modes."

), Program (P), Aperture

Priority (Av), Shutter Priority (Tv), Manual (M) and Bulb (B) mode. Av, Tv, and M are often called "creative modes" or

Each of these modes influences how aperture, ISO and shutter speed are chosen for a given exposure. Some modes attempt to pick all three values for you, whereas others let you specify one setting and the camera picks the other two (if possible). The following charts describe how each mode pertains to exposure:

How It Works Camera automatically selects all exposure settings. Camera automatically selects aperture & shutter speed; you can choose a corresponding ISO speed & exposure compensation. With some cameras, P can also act as a hybrid of the Av & Tv modes. Program (P) You specify the aperture & ISO; the camera's metering determines the corresponding shutter speed. Aperture Priority (Av or A) You specify the shutter speed & ISO; the camera's metering determines the corresponding aperture. Shutter Priority (Tv or S) You specify the aperture, ISO and shutter speed regardless of whether these values lead to a correct exposure. Manual (M) Useful for exposures longer than 30 seconds. You specify the aperture and ISO; the shutter speed is determined by a remote release switch, or by the duration until you press the shutter button a second time. Bulb (B)
In addition, the camera may also have several pre-set modes; the most common include landscape, portrait, sports and night mode. The symbols used for each mode vary slightly from camera to camera, but will likely appear similar to those below:

Exposure Mode Auto ( )

Exposure Mode How It Works Camera tries to pick the lowest f-stop value possible for a given exposure. This Portrait ensures the shallowest possible depth of field. Camera tries to pick a high f-stop to ensure a large depth of field. Compact Landscape cameras also often set their focus distance to distant objects or infinity.

Camera tries to achieve as fast a shutter speed as possible for a given exposure ideally 1/250 seconds or faster. In addition to using a low f-stop, the fast shutter Sports/Action speed is usually achieved by increasing the ISO speed more than would otherwise be acceptable in portrait mode. Camera permits shutter speeds which are longer than ordinarily allowed for handheld shots, and increases the ISO speed to near its maximum available value. However, for some cameras this setting means that a flash is used for the foreground, and a long shutter speed and high ISO are used expose the background. Check your camera's instruction manual for any unique characteristics. Night/Low-light
However, keep in mind that most of the above settings rely on the camera's metering system in order to know what's a proper exposure. For tricky subject matter, metering can often be fooled, so it's a good idea to also be aware of when it might go awry, and what you can do to compensate for such exposure errors (see section on exposure compensation within the camera metering tutorial). Finally, some of the above modes may also control camera settings which are unrelated to exposure, although this varies from camera to camera. Such additional settings might include the autofocus points, metering mode and autofocus modes, amongst others.

CAMERA METERING & EXPOSURE

Knowing how your digital camera meters light is critical for achieving consistent and accurate exposures. Metering is the brains behind how your camera determines the shutter speed and aperture, based on lighting conditions and ISO speed. Metering options often include partial, evaluative zone or matrix, center-weighted and spot metering. Each of these have subject lighting conditions for which they excel and for which they fail. Understanding these can improve one's photographic intuition for how a camera measures light. Recommended background reading: camera exposure: aperture, ISO & shutter speed

BACKGROUND: INCIDENT vs. REFLECTED LIGHT

All in-camera light meters have a fundamental flaw: they can only measure reflected light. This means the best they can do is guess how much light is actually hitting the subject.

If all objects reflected the same percentage of incident light, this would work just fine, however real-world subjects vary greatly in their reflectance. For this reason, in-camera metering is standardized based on the luminance of light which would be reflected from an object appearing as middle gray. If the camera is aimed directly at any object lighter

or darker than middle gray, the camera's light meter will incorrectly calculate under or over-exposure, respectively. A hand-held light meter would calculate the same exposure for any object under the same incident lighting.

18% Gray Tone

18% Red Tone

18% Green Tone

18% Blue Tone

Above patches depict approximations of 18% luminance. This will appear most accurate when using a PC display which closely mimics the sRGB color space, and have calibrated your monitor accordingly. Monitors emit as opposed to reflect light, so this is also a fundamental limitation.
What constitutes middle gray? In the printing industry it is standardized as the ink density which reflects 18% of incident light, however cameras seldom adhere to this. This topic deserves a discussion of its own, but for the purposes of this tutorial simply know that each camera has a default somewhere in the middle gray tones (~10-18% reflectance). Metering off of a subject which reflects more or less light than this may cause your camera's metering algorithm to go awry either through under or over-exposure, respectively.

An in-camera light meter can work surprisingly well if object reflectance is sufficiently diverse throughout the photo. In other words, if there is an even spread varying from dark to light objects, then the average reflectance will remain roughly middle gray. Unfortunately, some scenes may have a significant imbalance in subject reflectivity, such as a photo of a white dove in the snow, or of a black dog sitting on a pile of charcoal. For such cases the camera may try to create an image with a histogram whose primary peak is in the midtones, even though it should have instead produced this peak in the highlights or shadows (see high and low-key histograms).

METERING OPTIONS
In order to accurately expose a greater range of subject lighting and reflectance combinations, most cameras feature several metering options. Each option works by assigning a weighting to different light regions; those with a higher weighting are considered more reliable, and thus contribute more to the final exposure calculation.

Center-Weighted

Partial Metering

Spot Metering

Partial and spot areas are roughly 13.5% and 3.8% of the picture area, respectively, which correspond to settings on the Canon EOS 1D Mark II.
The whitest regions are those which contribute most towards the exposure calculation, whereas black areas are ignored. Each of the above metering diagrams may also be located off-center, depending on the metering options and autofocus point used.

More sophisticated algorithms may go beyond just a regional map and include: evaluative, zone and matrix metering. These are usually the default when your camera is set to auto exposure. Each generally works by dividing the image up into numerous sub-sections, where each section is then considered in terms of its relative location, light intensity or color. The location of the autofocus point and orientation of the camera (portrait vs. landscape) may also contribute to the calculation.

WHEN TO USE PARTIAL & SPOT METERING

Partial and spot metering give the photographer far more control over the exposure than any of the other settings, but this also means that these is more difficult to use at least initially. They are useful when there is a relatively small object within your scene which you either need to be perfectly exposed, or know that it will provide the closest match to middle gray. One of the most common applications of partial metering is a portrait of someone who is backlit. Metering off of their face can help avoid making the subject look like an under-exposed silhouette against the bright background. On the other hand, care should be taken as the shade of a person's skin may lead to inaccurate exposure if it is far from neutral gray reflectance but probably not as inaccurate as what would have been caused by the backlighting. Spot metering is used less often because its metering area is very small and thus quite specific. This can be an advantage when you are unsure of your subject's reflectance and have a specially designed gray card (or other small object) to meter off of.

Spot and partial metering are also quite useful for performing creative exposures, and when the ambient lighting is unusual. In the examples to the left and right below, one could meter off of the diffusely lit foreground tiles, or off of the directly lit stone below the sky opening:

NOTES ON CENTER-WEIGHTED METERING

At one time center-weighted metering was a very common default setting in cameras because it coped well with a bright sky above a darker landscape. Nowadays, it has more or less been surpassed in flexibility by evaluative and matrix, and in specificity by partial and spot metering. On the other hand, the results produced by center-weighted metering are very predictable, whereas matrix and evaluative metering modes have complicated algorithms which are harder to predict. For this reason some prefer to use it as the default metering mode.

EXPOSURE COMPENSATION

Any of the above metering modes can use a feature called exposure compensation (EC). The metering calculation still works as normal, except the final settings are then compensated by the EC value. This allows for manual corrections if you observe a metering mode to be consistently under or over-exposing. Most cameras allow up to 2 stops of exposure compensation; each stop of exposure compensation provides either a doubling or halving of light compared to what the metering mode would have done otherwise. A setting of zero means no compensation will be applied (default). Exposure compensation is ideal for correcting in-camera metering errors caused by the subject's reflectivity. No matter what metering mode is used, an in-camera light meter will always mistakenly under-expose a subject such as a white dove in a snowstorm (see incident vs. reflected light). Photographs in the snow will always require around +1 exposure compensation, whereas a low-key image may require negative compensation. When shooting in RAW mode under tricky lighting, sometimes it is useful to set a slight negative exposure compensation (0.3-0.5). This decreases the chance of clipped highlights, yet still allows one to increase the exposure afterwards. Alternatively, a positive exposure compensation can be used to improve the signal to noise ratio in situations where the highlights are far from clipping.

TUTORIALS: DEPTH OF FIELD

Depth of field refers to the range of distance that appears acceptably sharp. It varies depending on camera type, aperture and focusing distance, although print size and viewing distance can also influence our perception of depth of field. This tutorial is designed to give a better intuitive and technical understanding for photography, and provides a depth of field calculator to show how it varies with your camera settings.

The depth of field does not abruptly change from sharp to unsharp, but instead occurs as a gradual transition. In fact, everything immediately in front of or in back of the focusing distance begins to lose sharpness even if this is not perceived by our eyes or by the resolution of the camera.

CIRCLE OF CONFUSION

Since there is no critical point of transition, a more rigorous term called the "circle of confusion" is used to define how much a point needs to be blurred in order to be perceived as unsharp. When the circle of confusion becomes perceptible to our eyes, this region is said to be outside the depth of field and thus no longer "acceptably sharp." The circle of confusion above has been exaggerated for clarity; in reality this would be only a tiny fraction of the camera sensor's area.

When does the circle of confusion become perceptible to our eyes? An acceptably sharp circle of confusion is loosely defined as one which would go unnoticed when enlarged to a standard 8x10 inch print, and observed from a standard viewing distance of about 1 foot.

At this viewing distance and print size, camera manufactures assume a circle of confusion is negligible if no larger than 0.01 inches (when enlarged). As a result, camera manufacturers use the 0.01 inch standard when providing lens depth of field markers (shown below for f/22 on a 50mm lens). In reality, a person with 20-20 vision or better can distinguish features 1/3 this size or smaller, and so the circle of confusion has to be even smaller than this to achieve acceptable sharpness throughout. A different maximum circle of confusion also applies for each print size and viewing distance combination. In the earlier example of blurred dots, the circle of confusion is actually smaller than the resolution of your screen for the two dots on either side of the focal point, and so these are considered within the depth of field. Alternatively, the depth of field can be based on when the circle of confusion becomes larger than the size of your digital camera's pixels. Note that depth of field only sets a maximum value for the circle of confusion, and does not describe what happens to regions once they become out of focus. These regions also called "bokeh," from Japanese (pronounced bo-k). Two images with identical depth of field may have significantly different bokeh, as this depends on the shape of the lens diaphragm. In reality, the circle of confusion is usually not actually a circle, but is only approximated as such when it is very small. When it becomes large, most lenses will render it as a polygonal shape with 5-8 sides.

CONTROLLING DEPTH OF FIELD

Although print size and viewing distance influence how large the circle of confusion appears to our eyes, aperture and focal distance are the two main factors that determine how big the circle of confusion will be on your camera's sensor. Larger apertures (smaller F-stop number) and closer focusing distances produce a shallower depth of field. The following test maintains the same focus distance, but changes the aperture setting:

f/8.0

f/5.6

f/2.8

note: images taken with a 200 mm lens (320 mm field of view on a 35 mm camera)

CLARIFICATION: FOCAL LENGTH AND DEPTH OF FIELD

Note that I did not mention focal length as influencing depth of field. Even though telephoto lenses appear to create a much shallower depth of field, this is mainly because they are often used to magnify the subject when one is unable to get closer. If the subject occupies the same fraction of the image (constant magnification) for both a telephoto and a wide angle lens, thetotal depth of field is virtually* constant with focal length! This would of course require you to either get much closer with a wide angle lens or much further with a telephoto lens, as demonstrated in the following chart:

Focal Length (mm) 10 20 50 100 200 400

Focus Distance (m) 0.5 1.0 2.5 5.0 10 20

Depth of Field (m) 0.482 0.421 0.406 0.404 0.404 0.404

Note: Depth of field calculations are at f/4.0 on a Canon EOS 30D (1.6X crop factor), using a circle of confusion of 0.0206 mm. Note how there is indeed a subtle change for the smallest focal lengths. This is a real effect, but is negligible compared to both aperture and focus distance. Even though the total depth of field is virtually constant, the fraction of the depth of field which is in front of and behind the focus distance does change with focal length, as demonstrated below:

Focal Length (mm) 10 20 50 100 200 400

Distribution of the Depth of Field Rear Front 70.2 % 29.8 % 60.1 % 39.9 % 54.0 % 46.0 % 52.0 % 48.0 % 51.0 % 49.0 % 50.5 % 49.5 %

This exposes a limitation of the traditional DoF concept: it only accounts for the total DoF and not its distribution around the focal plane, even though both may contribute to the perception of sharpness. A wide angle lens provides a more gradually fading DoF behind the focal plane than in front, which is important for traditional landscape photographs. Longer focal lengths may also appear to have a shallower depth of field because they enlarge the background relative to the foreground (due to their narrower angle of view). This can make an out of focus background look even more out of focus because its blur has become enlarged. However, this is another concept entirely, since depth of field only describes the sharp region of a photo not the blurred regions. On the other hand, when standing in the same place and focusing on a subject at the same distance, a longer focal length lens will have a shallower depth of field (even though the pictures will show something entirely different). This is more representative of everyday use, but is an effect due to higher magnification, not focal length. Depth of field also appears shallower for SLR cameras than for compact digital cameras, because SLR cameras require a longer focal length to achieve the same field of view (see thetutorial on digital camera sensor sizes for more on this topic).
*Technical Note: We describe depth of field as being virtually constant because there are limiting cases where this does not hold true. For focal distances resulting in high magnification, or very near the hyperfocal distance, wide angle lenses may provide a greater DoF than telephoto lenses. On the other hand, at high magnification the traditional DoF calculation becomes inaccurate due to another factor: pupil magnification. This reduces the DoF advantage for most wide angle lenses, and increases it for telephoto and macro lenses. At the other limiting case, near the hyperfocal distance, the increase in DoF arises because the wide angle lens has a greater rear DoF, and can thus more easily attain critical sharpness at infinity.

CALCULATING DEPTH OF FIELD

In order to calculate the depth of field, one needs to first decide on an appropriate value for the maximum allowable circle of confusion. This is based on both the camera type (sensor or film size), and on the viewing distance / print size combination. Needless to say, knowing what this will be ahead of time often isn't straightforward. Try out the depth of field calculator tool to help you find this for your specific situation.

DEPTH OF FOCUS & APERTURE VISUALIZATION

Another implication of the circle of confusion is the concept of depth of focus (also called the "focus spread"). It differs from depth of field in that it describes the distance over which light is focused at the camera's sensor, as opposed to the subject:

Diagram depicting depth of focus versus camera aperture. The purple lines represent the extreme angles at which light could potentially enter the aperture. The purple shaded in portion represents all other possible angles. Diagram can also be used to illustrate depth of field, but in that case it's the lens elements that move instead of the sensor.
The key concept is this: when an object is in focus, light rays originating from that point converge at a point on the camera's sensor. If the light rays hit the sensor at slightly different locations (arriving at a disc instead of a point), then this object will be rendered as out of focus and increasingly so depending on how far apart the light rays are.

OTHER NOTES
Why not just use the smallest aperture (largest number) to achieve the best possible depth of field? Other than the fact that this may require prohibitively long shutter speeds without acamera tripod, too small of an aperture softens the image by creating a larger circle of confusion (or "Airy disk") due to an effect called diffraction even within the plane of focus. Diffraction quickly becomes more of a limiting factor than depth of field as the aperture gets smaller. Despite their extreme depth of field, this is also why "pinhole cameras" have limited resolution. For macro photography (high magnification), the depth of field is actually influenced by another factor: pupil magnification. This is equal to one for lenses which are internally symmetric, although for wide angle and telephoto lenses this is greater or less than one, respectively. A greater depth of field is achieved (than would be ordinarily calculated) for a pupil magnification less than one, whereas the pupil magnification does not change the calculation when it is equal to one. The problem is that the pupil magnification is usually not provided by lens manufacturers, and one can only roughly estimate it visually.

OTHER WEBSITES & FURTHER READING

Norman Koren provides another perspective on depth of field, including many equations for calculating depth of field and the circle of confusion The Luminous Landscape compares the depth of field for several focal lengths providing visual proof that depth of field does not change much with the focal length.

UNDERSTANDING CAMERA LENSES

Understanding camera lenses can help add more creative control to digital photography. Choosing the right lens for the task can become a complex trade-off between cost, size, weight, lens speed and image quality. This tutorial aims

to improve understanding by providing an introductory overview of concepts relating to image quality, focal length, perspective, prime vs. zoom lenses and aperture or f-number.

LENS ELEMENTS & IMAGE QUALITY

All but the simplest cameras contain lenses which are actually comprised of several "lens elements." Each of these elements directs the path of light rays to recreate the image as accurately as possible on the digital sensor. The goal is to minimize aberrations, while still utilizing the fewest and least expensive elements.

Optical aberrations occur when points in the image do not translate back onto single points after passing through the lens causing image blurring, reduced contrast or misalignment of colors (chromatic aberration). Lenses may also suffer from uneven, radially decreasing image brightness (vignetting) or distortion. Move your mouse over each of the options below to see how these can impact image quality in extreme cases:

Original Image

Loss of Contrast

Blurring

Chromatic Aberration Vignetting

Distortion Original

Any of the above problems is present to some degree with any lens. In the rest of this tutorial,when a lens is referred to as having lower optical quality than another lens, this is manifested as some combination of the above artifacts. Some of these lens artifacts may not be as objectionable as others, depending on the subject matter.

Note: For a more quantitative and technical discussion of the above topic, please see the tutorial on camera lens quality: MTF, resolution & contrast.

INFLUENCE OF LENS FOCAL LENGTH

The focal length of a lens determines its angle of view, and thus also how much the subject will be magnified for a given photographic position. Wide angle lenses have short focal lengths, while telephoto lenses have longer corresponding focal lengths.

Note: The location where light rays cross is not necessarily equal to the focal length, as shown above, but is instead roughly proportional to this distance.

Required Focal Length Calculator

Subject Distance

meters

Subject Size

meters
Camera Type

Digital SLR with CF of 1.6X

Required Focal Length:

Note: Calculator assumes that camera is oriented such that the maximum subject dimension given by "subject size" is in the camera's longest dimension. Calculator not intended for use in extreme macro photography.
Many will say that focal length also determines the perspective of an image, but strictly speaking, perspective only changes with one's location relative to their subject. If one tries to fill the frame with the same subjects using both a wide angle and telephoto lens, then perspective does indeed change, because one is forced to move closer or further from their subject. For these scenarios only, the wide angle lens exaggerates or stretches perspective, whereas the telephoto lens compresses or flattens perspective.

Perspective control can be a powerful compositional tool in photography, and often determines one's choice in focal length (when one can photograph from any position). Move your mouse over the above image to view an exaggerated perspective due to a

wider angle lens. Note how the subjects within the frame remain nearly identical therefore requiring a closer position for the wider angle lens. The relative sizes of objects change such that the distant doorway becomes smaller relative to the nearby lamps. The following table provides an overview of what focal lengths are required to be considered a wide angle or telephoto lens, in addition to their typical uses. Please note that focal lengths listed are just rough ranges, and actual uses may vary considerably; many use telephoto lenses in distant landscapes to compress perspective, for example.

Lens Focal Length*

Terminology

Typical Photography Architecture Landscape Street & Documentary Portraiture Sports, Bird & Wildlife

Less than 21 mm Extreme Wide Angle 21-35 mm 35-70 mm 70-135 mm 135-300+ mm Wide Angle Normal Medium Telephoto Telephoto

*Note: Lens focal lengths are for 35 mm equivalent cameras. If you have a compact or digital SLR camera, then you likely have a different sensor size. To adjust the above numbers for your camera, please use the focal length converter in the tutorial on digital camera sensor sizes.
Other factors may also be influenced by lens focal length. Telephoto lenses are more susceptible to camera shake since small hand movements become magnified, similar to the shakiness experience while trying to look through binoculars. Wide angle lenses are generally more resistant to flare, in part because the designers assume that the sun is more likely to be within the frame. A final consideration is that medium and telephoto lenses generally yield better optical quality for similar price ranges.

FOCAL LENGTH & HANDHELD PHOTOS

The focal length of a lens may also have a significant impact on how easy it is to achieve a sharp handheld photograph. Longer focal lengths require shorter exposure times to minimize blurring caused by shaky hands. Think of this as if one were trying to hold a laser pointer steady; when shining this pointer at a nearby object its bright spot ordinarily jumps around less than for objects further away.

This is primarily because slight rotational vibrations are magnified greatly with distance, whereas if only up and down or side to side vibrations were present, the laser's bright spot would not change with distance.

A common rule of thumb for estimating how fast the exposure needs to be for a given focal length is the one over focal length rule. This states that for a 35 mm camera, the exposure time needs to be at least as fast as one over the focal length in seconds. In other words, when using a 200 mm focal length on a 35 mm camera, the exposure time needs to be at least 1/200 seconds otherwise blurring may be hard to avoid. See the tutorial on reducing camera shake with handheld photos for more on this topic. Keep in mind that this rule is just for rough guidance; some may be able to hand hold a shot for much longer or shorter times. For users of digital cameras with cropped sensors, one needs to convert into a 35 mm equivalent focal length.

ZOOM LENSES vs. PRIME LENSES

A zoom lens is one where the photographer can vary the focal length within a pre-defined range, whereas this cannot be changed with a "prime" or fixed focal length lens. The primary advantage of a zoom lens is that it is easier to achieve a variety of compositions or perspectives (since lens changes are not necessary). This advantage is often critical for dynamic subject matter, such as in photojournalism and children's photography. Keep in mind that using a zoom lens does not necessarily mean that one no longer has to change their position; zooms just increase flexibility. In the example below, the original position is shown along with two alternatives using a zoom lens. If a prime lens were used, then a change of composition would not have been possible without cropping the image (if a tighter composition were desirable). Similar to the example in the previous section, the change of perspective was achieved by zooming out and getting closer to the subject. Alternatively, to achieve the opposite perspective effect, one could have zoomed in and moved further from the subject.

Two Options Available with a Zoom Lens: Change of Composition Change of Perspective

Why would one intentionally restrict their options by using a prime lens?Prime lenses existed long before zoom lenses were available, and still offer many advantages over their more modern counterparts. When zoom lenses first arrived on the market, one often had to be willing to sacrifice a significant amount of optical quality. However, more recent high-end zoom lenses generally do not produce noticeably lower image quality, unless scrutinized by the trained eye (or in a very large print). The primary advantages of prime lenses are in cost, weight and speed. An inexpensive prime lens can generally provide as good (or better) image quality as a high-end zoom lens. Additionally, if only a small fraction of the focal length range is necessary for a zoom lens, then a prime lens with a similar focal length will be significantly smaller and lighter. Finally,

the best prime lenses almost always offer better light-gathering ability (larger maximum aperture) than the fastest zoom lenses often critical for low-light sports/theater photography, and when ashallow depth of field is necessary. For compact digital cameras, lenses listed with a 3X, 4X, etc. zoom designation refer to the ratio between the longest and shortest focal lengths. Therefore, a larger zoom designation does not necessarily mean that the image can be magnified any more (since that zoom may just have a wider angle of view when fully zoomed out). Additionally, digital zoom is not the same as optical zoom, as the former only enlarges the image through interpolation. Read the fine-print to ensure you are not misled.

INFLUENCE OF LENS APERTURE OR F-NUMBER

The aperture range of a lens refers to the amount that the lens can open up or close down to let in more or less light, respectively. Apertures are listed in terms of f-numbers, which quantitatively describe relative light-gathering area (depicted below).

Note: Aperture opening (iris) is rarely a perfect circle, due to the presence of 5-8 blade-like lens diaphragms.
Note that larger aperture openings are defined to have lower f-numbers (often very confusing). These two terms are often mistakenly interchanged; the rest of this tutorial refers to lenses in terms of their aperture size. Lenses with larger apertures are also described as being "faster," because for a given ISO speed, the shutter speed can be made faster for the same exposure. Additionally, a smaller aperture means that objects can be in focus over a wider range of distance, a concept also termed the depth of field.

Corresponding Impact on Other Properties: Light-Gathering Area (Aperture Size) Required Shutter Speed Depth of Field Smaller Larger Slower Faster Wider Narrower

f-# Higher Lower

When one is considering purchasing a lens, specifications ordinarily list the maximum (and maybe minimum) available apertures. Lenses with a greater range of aperture settings provide greater artistic flexibility, in terms of both exposure options and depth of field. The maximum aperture is perhaps the most important lens aperture specification, which is often listed on the box along with focal length(s).

An f-number of X may also be displayed as 1:X (instead of f/X), as shown below for the Canon 70-200 f/2.8 lens (whose box is also shown above and lists f/2.8).

Portrait and indoor sports/theater photography often requires lenses with very large maximum apertures, in order to be capable of a narrower depth of field or a faster shutter speed, respectively. The narrow depth of field in a portrait helps isolate the subject from their background. For digital SLR cameras, lenses with larger maximum apertures provide significantly brighter viewfinder images possibly critical for night and low-light photography. These also often give faster and more accurate auto-focusing in low-light.Manual focusing is also easier because the image in the viewfinder has a narrower depth of field (thus making it more visible when objects come into or out of focus).

Typical Maximum Apertures f/1.0 f/1.4 f/2.0 f/2.8 f/4.0 f/5.6

Relative Light-Gathering Ability 32X 16X

Typical Lens Types Fastest Available Prime Lenses (for Consumer Use) Fast Prime Lenses

8X 4X 2X 1X Fastest Zoom Lenses (for Constant Aperture) Light Weight Zoom Lenses or Extreme Telephoto Primes

Minimum apertures for lenses are generally nowhere near as important as maximum apertures. This is primarily because the minimum apertures are rarely used due to photo blurring from lens diffraction, and because these may require prohibitively long exposure times. For cases where extreme depth of field is desired, then smaller minimum aperture (larger maximum f-number) lenses allow for a wider depth of field.

Finally, some zoom lenses on digital SLR and compact digital cameras often list a range of maximum aperture, because this may depend on how far one has zoomed in or out. These aperture ranges therefore refer only to the range of maximum aperture, not overall range. A range of f/2.0-3.0 would mean that the maximum available aperture gradually changes from f/2.0 (fully zoomed out) to f/3.0 (at full zoom). The primary benefit of having a zoom lens with a constant maximum aperture is that exposure settings are more predictable, regardless of focal length. Also note that just because the maximum aperture of a lens may not be used, this does not necessarily mean that this lens is not necessary. Lenses typically have fewer aberrations when they perform the exposure stopped down one or two f-stops from their maximum aperture (such as using a setting of f/4.0 on a lens with a maximum aperture of f/2.0). This *may* therefore mean that if one wanted the best quality f/2.8 photograph, a f/2.0 or f/1.4 lens may yield higher quality than a lens with a maximum aperture of f/2.8. Other considerations include cost, size and weight. Lenses with larger maximum apertures are typically much heavier, larger and more expensive. Size/weight may be critical for wildlife, hiking and travel photography because all of these often utilize heavier lenses, or require carrying equipment for extended periods of time.

FURTHER READING
For more on camera lenses, also visit the following tutorials:

Using Wide Angle Lenses Using Telephoto Lenses Macro Lenses: Magnification, Depth of Field & Effective F-Stop

TUTORIALS: WHITE BALANCE

White balance (WB) is the process of removing unrealistic color casts, so that objects which appear white in person are rendered white in your photo. Proper camera white balance has to take into account the "color temperature" of a light source, which refers to the relative warmth or coolness of white light. Our eyes are very good at judging what is white under different light sources, but digital cameras often have great difficulty with auto white balance (AWB) and can create unsightly blue, orange, or even green color casts. Understanding digital white balance can help you avoid these color casts, thereby improving your photos under a wider range of lighting conditions.

Color Cast

Daylight White Balance

BACKGROUND: COLOR TEMPERATURE

Color temperature describes the spectrum of light which is radiated from a "blackbody" with that surface temperature. A blackbody is an object which absorbs all incident light neither reflecting it nor allowing it to pass through. A rough analogue of blackbody radiation in our day to day experience might be in heating a metal or stone: these are said to become "red hot" when they attain one temperature, and then "white hot" for even higher temperatures. Similarly, blackbodies at different temperatures also have varying color temperatures of "white light." Despite its name, light which may appear white does not necessarily contain an even distribution of colors across the visible spectrum:

Relative intensity has been normalized for each temperature (in Kelvins). Note how 5000 K produces roughly neutral light, whereas 3000 K and 9000 K produce light spectrums which shift to contain more orange and blue wavelengths, respectively. As the color temperature rises, the color distribution becomes cooler. This may not seem intuitive, but results from the fact that shorter wavelengths contain light of higher energy. Why is color temperature a useful description of light for photographers, if they never deal with true blackbodies? Fortunately, light sources such as daylight and tungsten bulbs closely mimic the distribution of light created by blackbodies, although others such as fluorescent and most commercial lighting depart from blackbodies significantly. Since photographers never use the term color temperature to refer to a true blackbody light source, the term is implied to be a "correlated color temperature" with a similarly colored blackbody. The following table is a rule-ofthumb guide to the correlated color temperature of some common light sources:

Color Temperature 1000-2000 K 2500-3500 K 3000-4000 K 4000-5000 K 5000-5500 K 5000-6500 K 6500-8000 K 9000-10000 K

Light Source Candlelight Tungsten Bulb (household variety) Sunrise/Sunset (clear sky) Fluorescent Lamps Electronic Flash Daylight with Clear Sky (sun overhead) Moderately Overcast Sky Shade or Heavily Overcast Sky

IN PRACTICE: JPEG & TIFF FILES

Since some light sources do not resemble blackbody radiators, white balance uses a second variable in addition to color temperature: the green-magenta shift. Adjusting the green-magenta shift is often unnecessary under ordinary daylight, however fluorescent and other artificial lighting may require significant green-magenta adjustments to the WB.

Auto White Balance Custom

Kelvin Tungsten Fluorescent Daylight Flash Cloudy Shade

Fortunately,most digital cameras contain a variety of preset white balances, so you do not have to deal with color temperature and green-magenta shift during the critical shot. Commonly used symbols for each of these are listed to the left. The first three white balances allow for a range of color temperatures. Auto white balance is available in all digital cameras and uses a best guess algorithm within a limited range usually between 3000/4000 K and 7000 K. Custom white balance allows you to take a picture of a known gray reference under the same lighting, and then set that as the white balance for future photos. With "Kelvin" you can set the color temperature over a broad range. The remaining six white balances are listed in order of increasing color temperature, however many compact cameras do not include a shade white balance. Some cameras also include a "Fluorescent H" setting, which is designed to work in newer daylight-calibrated fluorescents. The description and symbol for the above white balances are just rough estimates for the actual lighting they work best under. In fact, cloudy could be used in place of daylight depending on the time of day, elevation, or degree of haziness. In general, if your image appears too cool on your LCD screen preview (regardless of the setting), you can quickly increase the color temperature by selecting a symbol further down on the list above. If the image is still too cool (or warm if going the other direction), you can resort to manually entering a temperature in the Kelvin setting. If all else fails and the image still does not have the correct WB after inspecting it on a computer afterwards, you can adjust the color balance to remove additional color casts. Alternatively, one could click on a colorless reference (see section on neutral references) with the "set gray point" dropper while using the "levels" tool in Photoshop. Either of these methods should be avoided since they can severely reduce the bit depth of your image.

IN PRACTICE: THE RAW FILE FORMAT

By far the best white balance solution is to photograph using the RAW file format (if your camera supports them), as these allow you to set the WB *after* the photo has been taken. RAW files also allow one to set the WB based on a broader range of color temperature and green-magenta shifts. Performing a white balance with a raw file is quick and easy. You can either adjust the temperature and greenmagenta sliders until color casts are removed, or you can simply click on a neutral reference within the image (see next section). Even if only one of your photos contains a neutral reference, you can click on it and then use the resulting WB settings for the remainder of your photos (assuming the same lighting).

CUSTOM WHITE BALANCE: CHOOSING A NEUTRAL REFERENCE

A neutral reference is often used for color-critical projects, or for situations where one anticipates auto white balance will encounter problems. Neutral references can either be parts of your scene (if you're lucky), or can be a portable item which you carry with you. Below is an example of a fortunate reference in an otherwise bluish twilight scene.

On the other hand, pre-made portable references are almost always more accurate since one can easily be tricked into thinking an object is neutral when it is not. Portable references can be expensive and specifically designed for photography, or may include less expensive household items. An ideal gray reference is one which reflects all colors in the spectrum equally, and can consistently do so under a broad range of color temperatures. An example of a premade gray reference is shown below:

Common household neutral references are the underside of a lid to a coffee or pringles container. These are both inexpensive and reasonably accurate, although custom-made photographic references are the best (such as the cards shown above). Custom-made devices can be used to measure either the incident or reflected color temperature of the illuminant. Most neutral references measure reflected light, whereas a device such as a white balance meter or an "ExpoDisc" can measure incident light (and can theoretically be more accurate). Care should be taken when using a neutral reference with high image noise, since clicking on a seemingly gray region may actually select a colorful pixel caused by color noise:

Low Noise (Smooth Colorless Gray)

High Noise (Patches of Color) If your software supports it, the best solution for white balancing with noisy images is to use the average of pixels with a noisy gray region as your reference. This can be either a 3x3 or 5x5 pixel average if using Adobe Photoshop.

NOTES ON AUTO WHITE BALANCE

Certain subjects create problems for a digital camera's auto white balance even under normal daylight conditions. One example is if the image already has an overabundance of warmth or coolness due to unique subject matter. The image below illustrates a situation where the subject is predominantly red, and so the camera mistakes this for a color cast induced by a warm light source. The camera then tries to compensate for this so that the average color of the image is closer to neutral, but in doing so it unknowingly creates a bluish color cast on the stones. Some digital cameras are more susceptible to this than others.

Automatic White Balance

Custom White Balance

(Custom white balance uses an 18% gray card as a neutral reference.)

A digital camera's auto white balance is often more effective when the photo contains at least one white or bright colorless element. Of course, do not try to change your composition to include a colorless object, but just be aware

that its absence may cause problems with the auto white balance. Without the white boat in the image below, the camera's auto white balance mistakenly created an image with a slightly warmer color temperature.

IN MIXED LIGHTING
Multiple illuminants with different color temperatures can further complicate performing a white balance. Some lighting situations may not even have a truly "correct" white balance, and will depend upon where color accuracy is most important.

Reference: Moon Stone

Under mixed lighting, auto white balance usually calculates an average color temperature for the entire scene, and then uses this as the white balance. This approach is usually acceptable, however auto white balance tends to exaggerate the difference in color temperature for each light source, as compared with what we perceive with our eyes.

Exaggerated differences in color temperature are often most apparent with mixed indoor and natural lighting. Critical images may even require a different white balance for each lighting region. On the other hand, some may prefer to leave the color temperatures as is. Note how the building to the left is quite warm, whereas the sky is somewhat cool. This is because the white balance was set based on the moonlight bringing out the warm color temperature of the artificial lighting below. White balancing based on the natural light often yields a more realistic photograph. Choose "stone" as the white balance reference and see how the sky becomes unrealistically blue

UNDERSTANDING CAMERA AUTOFOCUS

A camera's autofocus system intelligently adjusts the camera lens to obtain focus on the subject, and can mean the difference between a sharp photo and a missed opportunity. Despite a seemingly simple goalsharpness at the focus pointthe inner workings of how a camera focuses are unfortunately not as straightforward. This tutorial aims to improve your photos by introducing how autofocus worksthereby enabling you to both make the most of its assets and avoid its shortcomings. Note: Autofocus (AF) works either by using contrast sensors within the camera (passive AF) or by emitting a signal to illuminate or estimate distance to the subject (active AF). Passive AF can be performed using either the contrast detection or phase detection methods, but both rely on contrast for achieving accurate autofocus; they will therefore be treated as being qualitatively similar for the purposes of this AF tutorial. Unless otherwise stated, this tutorial will assume passive autofocus. We will also discuss the AF assist beam method of active autofocus towards the end.

CONCEPT: AUTOFOCUS SENSORS

A camera's autofocus sensor(s) are the real engine behind achieving accurate focus, and are laid out in various arrays across your image's field of view. Each sensor measures relative focus by assessing changes in contrast at its respective point in the image where maximal contrast is assumed to correspond to maximal sharpness.

Change Focus Amount: Blurred Partial Sharp

Sensor Histogram 400%

Please visit the tutorial on image histograms for a background on image contrast. Note: many compact digital cameras use the image sensor itself as a contrast sensor (using a method called contrast detection AF), and do not necessarily have multiple discrete autofocus sensors (which are more common using the phase detection method of AF). Further, the above diagram illustrates the contrast detection method of AF; phase detection is another method, but this still relies on contrast for accurate autofocus. The process of autofocusing generally works as follows: (1) An autofocus processor (AFP) makes a small change in the focusing distance. (2) AFP reads the AF sensor to assess whether and by how much focus has improved. (3) Using the information from (2), the AFP sets the lens to a new focusing distance. (4) The AFP may iteratively repeat steps 2-3 until satisfactory focus has been achieved. This entire process is usually completed within a fraction of a second. For difficult subjects, the camera may fail to achieve satisfactory focus and will give up on repeating the above sequence, resulting in failed autofocus. This is the dreaded "focus hunting" scenario where the camera focuses back and forth repeatedly without achieving focus lock. This does not, however, mean that focus is not possible for the chosen subject. Whether and why autofocus may fail is primarily determined by factors in the next section.

FACTORS AFFECTING AUTOFOCUS PERFORMANCE

The photographic subject can have an enormous impact on how well your camera autofocusesand often even more so than any variation between camera models, lenses or focus settings. The three most important factors influencing autofocus are the light level, subject contrast and camera or subject motion.

An example illustrating the quality of different focus points has been shown to the left; move your mouse over this image to see the advantages and disadvantages of each focus location. Note that each of these factors are not independent; in other words, one may be able to achieve autofocus even for a dimly lit subject if that same subject also has extreme contrast, or vice versa. This has an important implication for your choice of autofocus point: selecting a focus point which corresponds to a sharp edge or pronounced texture can achieve better autofocus, assuming all other factors remain equal. In the example to the left we were fortunate that the location where autofocus performs best also corresponds to the subject location. The next example is more problematic because autofocus performs best on the background, not the subject. Move your mouse over the image below to highlight areas of good and poor performance.

In the photo to the right, if one focused on the fast-moving light sources behind the subject, one would risk an out-offocus subject when the depth of field is shallow (as would be the case for a low-light action shot like this one). Alternatively, focusing on the subject's exterior highlight would perhaps be the best approach, with the caveat that this highlight would change sides and intensity rapidly depending on the location of the moving light sources. If one's camera had difficulty focusing on the exterior highlight, a lower contrast (but stationary and reasonably well lit) focus point would be the subject's foot, or leaves on the ground at the same distance as the subject. What makes the above choices difficult, however, is that these decisions often have to be either anticipated or made within a fraction of a second. Additional specific techniques for autofocusing on still and moving subjects will be discussed in their respective sections towards the end of this tutorial.

NUMBER & TYPE OF AUTOFOCUS POINTS

The robustness and flexibility of autofocus is primarily a result of the number, position and type of autofocus points made available by a given camera model. High-end SLR cameras can have 45 or more autofocus points, whereas other cameras can have as few as one central AF point. Two example layouts of autofocus sensors are shown below: Max f/#: f/2.8 f/4.0 f/5.6 f/8.0 f/2.8 f/4.0 f/5.6

High-End SLR

Entry to Midrange SLR

Cameras used for left and right examples are the Canon 1D MkII and Canon 20D, respectively. For these cameras autofocus is not possible for apertures smaller than f/8.0 and f/5.6.

Two types of autofocus sensors are shown: + cross-type sensors (two-dimensional contrast detection, higher accuracy) l vertical line sensors (one-dimensional contrast detection, lower accuracy)
Note: The "vertical line sensor" is only called this because it detects contrast along a vertical line. Ironically, this type of sensor is therefore best at detecting horizontal lines. For SLR cameras, the number and accuracy of autofocus points can also change depending on the maximum aperture of the lens being used, as illustrated above. This is an important consideration when choosing a camera lens: even if you do not plan on using a lens at its maximum aperture, this aperture may still help the camera achieve better focus accuracy. Further, since the central AF sensor is almost always the most accurate, for off-center subjects it is often best to first use this sensor to achieve a focus lock (before recomposing the frame). Multiple AF points can work together for improved reliability, or can work in isolation for improved specificity, depending on your chosen camera setting. Some cameras also have an "auto depth of field" feature for group photos which ensures that a cluster of focus points are all within an acceptable level of focus.

AF MODE: CONTINUOUS & AI SERVO vs. ONE SHOT

The most widely supported camera focus mode is one-shot focusing, which is best for still subjects. The one shot mode is susceptible to focus errors for fast moving subjects since it cannot anticipate subject motion, in addition to potentially also making it difficult to visualize these moving subjects in the viewfinder. One shot focusing requires a focus lock before the photograph can be taken. Many cameras also support an autofocus mode which continually adjust the focus distance for moving subjects. Canon cameras refer to this as "AI Servo" focusing, whereas Nikon cameras refer to his as "continuous" focusing. It works by predicting where the subject will be slightly in the future, based on estimates of the subject velocity from previous focus distances. The camera then focuses at this predicted distance in advance to account for the shutter lag (the delay between pressing the shutter button and the start of the exposure). This greatly increases the probability of correct focus for moving subjects. Example maximum tracking speeds are shown for various Canon cameras below:

Values are for ideal contrast and lighting, and use the Canon 300mm f/2.8 IS L lens.
The above plot should also provide a rule of thumb estimate for other cameras as well. Actual maximum tracking speeds also depend on how erratic the subject is moving, the subject contrast and lighting, the type of lens and the number of autofocus sensors being used to track the subject. Also be warned that using focus tracking can dramatically reduce the battery life of your camera, so use only when necessary.

AUTOFOCUS ASSIST BEAM

Many cameras come equipped with an AF assist beam, which is a method of active autofocus that uses a visible or infrared beam to help the autofocus sensors detect the subject. This can be very helpful in situations where your subject is not adequately lit or has insufficient contrast for autofocus, although the AF assist beam also comes with the disadvantage of much slower autofocus. Most compact cameras use a built-in infrared light source for the AF assist, whereas digital SLR cameras often use either a built-in or external camera flash to illuminate the subject. When using a flash for the AF assist, the AF assist beam may have trouble achieving focus lock if the subject moves appreciably between flash firings. Use of the AF assist beam is therefore only recommended for still subjects.

IN PRACTICE: ACTION PHOTOS

Autofocus will almost always perform best with action photos when using the AI servo or continuous modes. Focusing performance can be improved dramatically by ensuring that the lens does not have to search over a large range of focus distances.

Perhaps the most universally supported way of achieving this is to pre-focus your camera at a distance near where you anticipate the moving subject to pass through. In the biker example to the right, one could pre-focus near the side of the road since one would expect the biker to pass by at near that distance. Some SLR lenses also have a minimum focus distance switch; setting this to the greatest distance possible (assuming the subject will never be closer) can also improve performance. Be warned, however, that in continuous autofocus mode shots can still be taken even if the focus lock has not yet been achieved.

IN PRACTICE: PORTRAITS & OTHER STILL PHOTOS

Still photos are best taken using the one-shot autofocus mode, which ensures that a focus lock has been achieved before the exposure begins. The usual focus point requirements of contrast and strong lighting still apply, although one needs to ensure there is very little subject motion. For portraits, the eye is the best focus pointboth because this is a standard and because it has good contrast. Although the central autofocus sensor is usually most sensitive, the most accurate focusing is achieved using the offcenter focus points for off-center subjects. If one were to instead use the central AF point to achieve a focus lock (prior to recomposing for an off-center subject), the focus distance will always be behind the actual subject distance and this error increases for closer subjects. Accurate focus is especially important for portraits because these typically have a shallow depth of field.

Since the most common type of AF sensor is the vertical line sensor, it may also be worth considering whether your focus point contains primarily vertical or horizontal contrast. In low-light conditions, one may be able to achieve a focus lock not otherwise possible by rotating the camera 90 during autofocus. In the example to the left, the stairs are comprised primarily of horizontal lines. If one were to focus near the back of the foreground stairs (to maximize apparent depth of field using the hyperfocal distance), one could avoid a failed autofocus by first orienting their camera in landscape mode during autofocus. Afterwards one could rotate the camera back to portrait orientation during the exposure, if so desired. Note that the emphasis in this tutorial has been on *how* to focus not necessarily *where* to focus. For further reading on this topic please visit the tutorials on depth of field and the hyperfocal distance.

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