Getting the Most from the Sensor You Have
It is all well and good to debate the merits of camera brands, sensor sizes and types and so on. That is fun for a camera club meeting. But ultimately, everyone of us has to deal with a reality — we have a camera with one sensor and we must get the most out of it. I have no interest in being sad that I don’t own the latest hot camera because that does me no good in taking pictures. I can’t afford to buy every new camera that comes out, nor can I afford having a camera system from every major brand.
My challenge is always to get the most out of the cameras I have. When I was editor of Outdoor Photographer and PCPhoto, I used to try out all the latest cameras. I don’t have that sort of time any more, plus there is a problem in doing that — you can never be as familiar with your camera as you should be because it is constantly changing. But I can say that truly all cameras out on the market today do an amazing job of capturing digital images.
So how do you get the most out of your camera and its sensor? I think one key is to become intimately familiar with the camera. This comes from shooting a lot of pictures, even if in your backyard. There is no cost to doing this, but big benefits. It helps to understand what you camera can and cannot do. I know, for example, that my Olympus E-3 does a fantastic job at ISO settings of 400 and less, but starts to show its small sensor size at high ISO settings (noise increases). I know my Canon 40D does a much better job at higher ISO settings, so if I need the speed, that is the camera to use.
It also helps to intimately know how to quickly change settings. I go from manual to autofocus a lot with close-up work, so I know exactly which buttons and dials to use. This sort of knowledge means you can concentrate on the photograph and not the camera, which helps you stay focused on getting optimum quality from the shot.
A big deal for me is getting the most sharpness possible from a lens. This does not mean buying a new camera. One of the worst causes of unsharpness and low image quality is camera movement during exposure, even for me. I don’t care how many megapixels you have or what the tech websites say about your sensor, an image is useless and cannot be used large with even a slight bit of camera movement. I use a sturdy tripod (and, yes, Gitzo is expensive, but I find their carbon fiber tripods are an outstanding investment — one quality Gitzo will do more for image quality than any new sensor). I also really like image stabilization (in camera for the E-3 and in lenses for the 40D) when I am not using a tripod — it can make a huge difference. I also use it when traveling light with a lighter tripod.
Another issue is exposure. Even the latest and greatest sensors will give you problems with noise if you underexpose your shot. You cannot use your LCD for judging exposure unless you have done some tests. You must check your histogram and also see what images look like downloaded to your computer. When you know they are correct, see what those images look like on the LCD — that will give you an idea of correct exposure. Unfortunately, manufacturers tend to make their LCD’s display dark images brighter than they really are because they think that makes photographers happy — it also causes underexposure.
Underexposure causes noise to be a problem when you brighten that photo, but it also causes problems with light and color. You can lose the richness of dark tones if they are exposed too dark, plus you will lose nuances of light and color will be compromised. The best color and light is exposed in the middle range of a sensor. If you have a big gap to the right side of your histogram, you are underexposing an image and getting less than you paid for from your camera because you are not using the sensor optimally.
You sometimes hear the idea of exposing to the right, meaning to expose so your histogram is weighted to the right. This can be helpful as it ensures you will have the least amount of noise problems. However, I have heard this taken too far, that you should actually slightly overexpose an image because that data can be recovered in Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom. That sort of statement comes from a computer person, not a longtime photographer. Such an exposure moves your key tones and colors out of the best sensitivity of your sensor, meaning you are getting less than the best from that sensor.
Exposure needs to be enough that important dark tones are not underexposed, yet important light tones are not too bright. If an image largely has middle tones, then the exposure should reflect that, neither giving too much nor too little exposure, if you want to get the most from your sensor.
Good exposure and proper sharpness mean you can easily get the most from a sensor. This is especially important if you want to enlarge your image file for big prints.
