Transcript
Page 1: David Busch's Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Guide to Digital Photography
Page 2: David Busch's Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Guide to Digital Photography

DAVID BUSCH’SSONY α DSLR-A850

GUIDE TO DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY

David D. Busch | Alexander S. White

Course Technology PTR

A part of Cengage Learning

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Page 3: David Busch's Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Guide to Digital Photography

© 2011 David D. Busch

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyrightherein may be reproduced, transmitted, stored, or used in any form or byany means graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including but not limited tophotocopying, recording, scanning, digitizing, taping, Web distribution,information networks, or information storage and retrieval systems,except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United StatesCopyright Act, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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All images © David D. Busch unless otherwise noted.

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ISBN-13: 978-1-4354-5755-3

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David Busch’s Sony® α DSLR-A850

Guide to Digital Photography

David D. Busch | Alexander S. White

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For Cathy and Clenise

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AcknowledgmentsOnce again, thanks to the folks at Course Technology PTR, who have pioneered pub-lishing digital imaging books in full color at a price anyone can afford. Special thanksto executive editor Kevin Harreld, who always gives me the freedom to let my imagi-nation run free with a topic, as well as my veteran production team, including projecteditor, Jenny Davidson and technical editor, Mike Sullivan. Also thanks to BillHartman, layout; Katherine Stimson, indexing; Sara Gullion, proofreading; MikeTanamachi, cover design; and my agent, Carole Jelen, who has the amazing ability tokeep both publishers and authors happy.

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About the AuthorsWith more than a million books in print, David D. Busch is one of the best-sellingauthors of books on digital photography and imaging technology, and the originator ofpopular series like David Busch’s Pro Secrets and David Busch’s Quick Snap Guides. Hehas written 13 hugely successful guidebooks for Sony and other digital SLR models,including the all-time #1 best-sellers for several different cameras, additional user guidesfor other camera models, as well as many popular books devoted to dSLRs, includingMastering Digital SLR Photography, Second Edition and Digital SLR Pro Secrets. As a rov-ing photojournalist for more than 20 years, he illustrated his books, magazine articles,and newspaper reports with award-winning images. He’s operated his own commercialstudio, suffocated in formal dress while shooting weddings-for-hire, and shot sports fora daily newspaper and upstate New York college. His photos have been published inPopular Photography & Imaging, The Rangefinder, The Professional Photographer, and hun-dreds of other publications. He’s also reviewed dozens of digital cameras for CNet andComputer Shopper.

When About.com named its top five books on Beginning Digital Photography, debut-ing at the #1 and #2 slots were Busch’s Digital Photography All-In-One Desk Referencefor Dummies and Mastering Digital Photography. During the past year, he’s had as manyas five of his books listed in the Top 20 of Amazon.com’s Digital Photography Best-seller list—simultaneously! Busch’s 100-plus other books published since 1983 includebest-sellers like David Busch’s Quick Snap Guide to Using Digital SLR Lenses.

Busch is a member of the Cleveland Photographic Society (www.clevelandphoto.org),which has operated continuously since 1887.

Visit his website at http://www.dslrguides.com/blog.

Alexander S. White is an attorney, writer, and amateur photographer. He is the co-author of David Busch’s Canon PowerShot G10/G11 Guide to Digital Photography, andauthor of Photographer’s Guide to the Leica D-Lux 4: Getting the Most from Leica’sCompact Digital Camera and Dauntless Marine: Joseph Sailer Jr., Dive-Bombing Ace ofGuadalcanal. He began his life-long interest in photography as a teenager, when he wasfortunate enough to have his own darkroom in his parents’ house in Philadelphia. Healso discovered the magic of Super-8 cinematography, and coerced his friends into mak-ing numerous amateur productions. He later ventured into the production of soundfilms and went on to major in Communication at Stanford University, concentratingin Broadcasting and Film, before serving in the U.S. Army and later attending theUniversity of Pennsylvania Law School. His other interests include genealogy; he main-tains a family history website and continues to do research into his family’s ancestry. Helives near Richmond, Virginia, with his wife, Clenise.

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Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xivIntroduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv

Chapter 1Getting Started with Your Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 1Your Out-of-Box Experience. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Initial Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Battery Included . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Final Steps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Formatting a Memory Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Selecting a Shooting Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15Choosing a Metering Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17Choosing a Focus Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18Selecting a Focus Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Turning on SteadyShot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21Other Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Adjusting White Balance and ISO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21Using Exposure Compensation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22Using the Self-Timer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Reviewing the Images You’ve Taken . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24Transferring Photos to Your Computer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Chapter 2Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Roadmap 29Front View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31The Sony Alpha’s Business End . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36Going Topside. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45Underneath Your Sony Alpha . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Contents

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Lens Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49LCD Panel Readouts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50Looking Inside the Viewfinder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Chapter 3Setting Up Your Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 57Anatomy of the Sony Alpha’s Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58Recording Menu 1/2/3/4 Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Image Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60Aspect Ratio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62D-Range Optimizer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65Custom Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66Creative Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66Color Space. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67Flash Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69Flash Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69Flash Compensation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70Exposure Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71ISO Auto Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71AF-A Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71AF Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72Priority Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73AF Illuminator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73AF w/ Shutter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73Long Exp. NR/High ISO NR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75Rec Mode Reset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Custom Menu 1/2/3 Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78AF/MF Button. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78AF/MF Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79AF Drive Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80AF Area Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80Focus Hold Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80Auto Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80Preview Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81AEL Button. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82Ctrl Dial Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

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Dial Exp. Comp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83Ctrl Dial Lock. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83Button Ops. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84Release w/o Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84Rec. Info. Disp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85Exp. Comp. Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85Bracket Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86Custom Reset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Playback Menu 1/2 Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86Delete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88Protect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88DPOF Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89Playback Display. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90Slide Show . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Setup Menu 1/2/3/4 Options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91LCD Brightness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92Info. Disp. Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92Power Save . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93Video Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93HDMI Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95Date/Time Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95Memory Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95File Number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96Folder Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97Select Folder/New Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97USB Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98Mass Strg. Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98Menu Start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99Delete Confirm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100Audio Signals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100Cleaning Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100AF Micro Adj.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101Focusing Screen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101APS-C Size Capture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102Reset Default . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Quick Navi Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103Settings on the Quick Navi Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Contents ix

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Chapter 4Getting the Right Exposure 107Getting a Handle on Exposure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108How the Sony Alpha Calculates Exposure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114Choosing a Metering Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116Choosing an Exposure Method. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Auto Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119Program Auto Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120Aperture Priority. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120Shutter Priority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122Making Exposure Value Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123Manual Exposure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Adjusting Exposure with ISO Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127Bracketing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128Dealing with Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132Fixing Exposures with Histograms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134Adjusting Exposures with Intelligent Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Chapter 5Advanced Techniques for Your Sony Alpha DSLR 141Exploring Ultra-Fast Exposures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142Long Exposures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Three Ways to Take Long Exposures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146Working with Long Exposures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Delayed Exposures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152Self-Timer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Remote Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152Time-Lapse/Interval Photography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153Getting into Focus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Phase Detection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155Contrast Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160Focus Modes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

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Focus Pocus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162Adding Circles of Confusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162Making Sense of Focus Sensors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164Your Autofocus Mode Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166Setting the AF Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Fine-Tuning the Focus of Your Lenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169Lens Tune-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171Continuous Shooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174Setting Image Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

Customizing White Balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176Setting White Balance by Color Temperature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180Setting a Custom White Balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Image Processing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181D-Range Optimizer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181Using Creative Styles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Chapter 6Working with Lenses 187Don’t Forget the Crop Factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Do You Need a “Cropped” Camera, Too? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191Your First Lenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Buy Now, Expand Later . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193Your Second (and Third…) Lens. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Sony’s Alpha-bet Soup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195What Lenses Can Do for You . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195Zoom or Prime? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Categories of Lenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200Using Wide-Angle and Wide-Zoom Lenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

Avoiding Potential Wide-Angle Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202Using Telephoto and Tele-Zoom Lenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Avoiding Telephoto Lens Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206Telephotos and Bokeh. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Add-ons and Special Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208Lens Hoods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208Telephoto Extenders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209Macro Focusing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209SteadyShot and Your Lenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

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Chapter 7Making Light Work for You 213The Elements of Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214Continuous Lighting—or Electronic Flash?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215Continuous Lighting Basics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

Daylight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222Incandescent/Tungsten Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222Fluorescent Light/Other Light Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224Adjusting White Balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Electronic Flash Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225How Electronic Flash Works. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

Using the External Electronic Flash. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232HVL-F58AM Flash Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232HVL-F42AM Flash Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235HVL-F36AM Flash Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235HVL-F20AM Flash Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235Setting Flash Exposure Compensation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236Setting Flash Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

More Advanced Lighting Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237Diffusing and Softening the Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239Using Multiple Light Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241Other Lighting Accessories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

Chapter 8Downloading and Editing Your Images 245What’s in the Box? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

Picture Motion Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246Image Data Lightbox SR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248Remote Camera Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249Image Data Converter SR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250

Transferring Your Photos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252Using a Card Reader and Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252Dragging and Dropping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254

Editing Your Photos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255Image Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255RAW Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256

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Chapter 9Sony Alpha DSLR-A850: Troubleshooting and Prevention 261Update Your Firmware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262Protect Your LCD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264Troubleshooting Memory Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265

All Your Eggs in One Basket? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266Preventive Measures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267What Can Go Wrong? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268What Can You Do?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

Clean Your Sensor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271Dust the FAQs, Ma’am. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272Identifying and Dealing with Stubborn Dust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273Avoiding Dust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275Sensor Cleaning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

Glossary 285

Index 297

Contents xiii

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You don’t want good pictures from your new Sony Alpha DSLR-A850—you demandoutstanding photos. After all, this Alpha model is one of the most advanced semi-professional cameras that Sony has ever introduced. It’s a full-frame camera that boastsan amazing 24 megapixels of resolution, blazing fast automatic focus, powerful anti-shake features to provide sharp images, and dozens of advanced customization options.But your gateway to pixel proficiency is dragged down by the slim little book includedin the box as a manual. You know everything you need to know is in there, somewhere,but you don’t know where to start. In addition, the camera manual doesn’t offer muchinformation on photography or digital photography. Nor are you interested in spend-ing hours or days studying a comprehensive book on digital SLR photography thatdoesn’t necessarily apply directly to your Alpha.

What you need is a guide that explains the purpose and function of the Alpha A850’sbasic controls, how you should use them, and why. Ideally, there should be informationabout file formats, resolution, aperture/priority exposure, and special autofocus modesavailable, but you’d prefer to read about those topics only after you’ve had the chanceto go out and take a few hundred great pictures with your new camera. Why isn’t therea book that summarizes the most important information in its first two or three chap-ters, with lots of full-color illustrations showing what your results will look like whenyou use this setting or that?

Now there is such a book. If you want a quick introduction to the Alpha’s focus con-trols, flash synchronization options, how to choose lenses, or which exposure modes arebest, this book is for you. If you can’t decide on what basic settings to use with yourcamera because you can’t figure out how changing ISO or white balance or focus defaultswill affect your pictures, you need this guide.

Preface

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Sony has done it again! The most demanding photographers have been asking for anaffordable, extra-high-resolution full-frame camera, and Sony has delivered it. At thetime I write this, Sony’s nearest full-frame competitor with similar resolution is pricedat nearly $8,000 (without a lens!)—yet this camera can be purchased (body only) forless than one-quarter that amount.

In the Alpha A850, Sony has packaged up the most alluring features of advanced digi-tal SLRs and stuffed them into a rugged, yet still compact, body that retains the ease ofuse that Alpha cameras are known for. It smoothes the transition for those new to dig-ital photography. For those just dipping their toes into the digital pond, the experienceis warm and inviting, even though the camera is one of the most sophisticated digitalSLRs on the market. This is a dSLR for the thinking photographer.

But once you’ve confirmed that you made a wise purchase decision, the question comesup, how do I use this thing? All those cool features can be mind numbing to learn, if allyou have as a guide is the manual furnished with the camera. Help is on the way. I sin-cerely believe that this book is your best bet for learning how to use your new camera,and for learning how to use it well.

If you’re a Sony Alpha dSLR owner who’s looking to learn more about how to use thisgreat camera, you’ve probably already explored your options. There are DVDs andonline tutorials—but who can learn how to use a camera by sitting in front of a televi-sion or computer screen? Do you want to watch a movie or click on HTML links, ordo you want to go out and take photos with your camera? Videos are fun, but not thebest answer.

There’s always the manual furnished with the Alpha. It’s compact and filled with infor-mation, but there’s really very little about why you should use particular settings or fea-tures, and its organization may make it difficult to find what you need. Multiplecross-references may send you flipping back and forth between two or three sections ofthe book to find what you want to know. The basic manual is also hobbled by black-and-white line drawings and tiny monochrome pictures that aren’t very good examplesof what you can do.

Introduction

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Also available are third-party guides to the Alpha, like this one. I haven’t been happywith some of these guidebooks, which is why I wrote this one. The existing books rangefrom skimpy and illustrated with black-and-white photos to lushly illustrated in fullcolor but too generic to do much good. Photography instruction is useful, but it needsto be related directly to the Sony Alpha dSLR as much as possible.

I’ve tried to make David Busch’s Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Guide to Digital Photographydifferent from your other Alpha learn-up options. The roadmap sections use larger, colorpictures to show you where all the buttons and dials are, and the explanations of whatthey do are longer and more comprehensive. I’ve tried to avoid overly general advice,including the two-page checklists on how to take a “sports picture” or a “portrait pic-ture” or a “travel picture.” Instead, you’ll find tips and techniques for using all the fea-tures of your Sony Alpha dSLR to take any kind of picture you want. If you want toknow where you should stand to take a picture of a quarterback dropping back tounleash a pass, there are plenty of books that will tell you that. This one concentrateson teaching you how to select the best autofocus mode, shutter speed, f/stop, or flashcapability to take, say, a great sports picture under any conditions.

This book is not a lame rewriting of the manual that came with the camera. Some folksspend five minutes with a book like this one, spot some information that also appearsin the original manual, and decide “Rehash!” without really understanding the differ-ences. Yes, you’ll find information here that is also in the owner’s manual, such as theparameters you can enter when changing your Alpha’s operation in the various menus.Basic descriptions—before I dig in and start providing in-depth tips and information—may also be vaguely similar. There are only so many ways you can say, for example,“Hold the shutter release down halfway to lock in exposure.” But not everything in themanual is included in this book. If you need advice on when and how to use the mostimportant functions, you’ll find the information here.

David Busch’s Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Guide to Digital Photography is aimed at bothSony dSLR veterans as well as newcomers to digital photography and digital SLRs. Bothgroups can be overwhelmed by the options the Alpha offers, while underwhelmed bythe explanations they receive in their user’s manual. The manuals are great if you alreadyknow what you don’t know, and you can find an answer somewhere in a bookletarranged by menu listings and written by a camera vendor employee who last threwtogether instructions on how to operate a camcorder.

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Once you’ve read this book and are ready to learn more, I hope you pick up one of myother guides to digital SLR photography. Four of them are offered by CourseTechnology PTR, each approaching the topic from a different perspective. They includethe following:

Quick Snap Guide to Digital SLR PhotographyConsider this a prequel to the book you’re holding in your hands. It might make a goodgift for a spouse or friend who may be using your Alpha, but who lacks even basicknowledge about digital photography, digital SLR photography, and Sony Alpha pho-tography. It serves as an introduction that summarizes the basic features of digital SLRcameras in general (not just the Alpha), and what settings to use and when, such as con-tinuous autofocus/single autofocus, aperture/shutter priority, EV settings, and so forth.The guide also includes recipes for shooting the most common kinds of pictures, withstep-by-step instructions for capturing effective sports photos, portraits, landscapes, andother types of images.

David Busch’s Quick Snap Guide to Using Digital SLR LensesA bit overwhelmed by the features and controls of digital SLR lenses, and not quite surewhen to use each type? This book explains lenses, their use, and lens technology in easy-to-access two- and four-page spreads, each devoted to a different topic, such as depth-of-field, lens aberrations, or using zoom lenses. If you have a friend or significant otherwho is less versed in photography, but who wants to borrow and use your Sony AlphadSLR from time to time, this book can save you a ton of explanation.

Mastering Digital SLR Photography, Second EditionThis book is an introduction to digital SLR photography, with nuts-and-bolts expla-nations of the technology, more in-depth coverage of settings, and whole chapters onthe most common types of photography. While not specific to the Alpha, this book canshow you how to get more from its capabilities.

Digital SLR Pro SecretsThis is my more advanced guide to dSLR photography with greater depth and detailabout the topics you’re most interested in. If you’ve already mastered the basics inMastering Digital SLR Photography, this book will take you to the next level.

Introduction xvii

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Why the Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Needs Special CoverageThere are many general digital photography books on the market. Why do I concen-trate on books about specific digital SLRs like the Alpha? When I started writing digi-tal photography books in 1995, digital SLRs cost $30,000 and few people other thancertain professionals could justify them. Most of my readers a dozen years ago were stuckusing the point-and-shoot, low-resolution digital cameras of the time—even if they wereadvanced photographers. I took tons of digital pictures with an Epson digital camerawith 1024 × 768 (less than 1 megapixel!) resolution, and which cost $500.

As recently as 2003 (years before the original Alpha or its Minolta predecessors wereintroduced), the lowest-cost dSLRs were priced at $3,000 or more. Today, anyone witha little less than $2,000 can buy one of the most advanced digital SLR cameras on themarket, a full-frame model with 24 megapixels of resolution. The professional-qualitydigital SLR is no longer the exclusive bailiwick of the professional photographer, thewealthy, or the serious photography addict willing to scrimp and save to acquire a dreamcamera. Digital SLRs have become the favored camera for anyone who wants to gobeyond point-and-shoot capabilities. And Sony cameras (and the Minolta models thatpreceded them) have enjoyed a favored position among digital SLRs because of Sony’sinnovation in introducing affordable cameras with interesting features, such asSteadyShot image stabilization, and outstanding performance. It doesn’t hurt that Sonyalso provides both full-frame cameras and smaller format digital cameras and a clearmigration path between them (if you stick to the Sony lenses that are compatible withboth).

Who Are You?When preparing a guidebook for a specific camera, it’s always wise to consider exactlywho will be reading the book. Indeed, thinking about the potential audience for DavidBusch’s Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Guide to Digital Photography is what led me to takingthe approach and format I use for this book. I realized that the needs of readers like youhad to be addressed both from a functional level (what you will use the Sony AlphaDSLR-A850 for) as well as from a skill level (how much experience you may have withdigital photography, dSLRs, or Sony cameras specifically).

From a functional level, you probably fall into one of these categories:

■ Professional photographers who understand photography and digital SLRs, and sim-ply want to learn how to use the Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 as their main camera.

■ Individuals who want to get better pictures, or perhaps transform their growinginterest in photography into a full-fledged hobby or artistic outlet with a Sony Alphaand advanced techniques.

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■ Those who want to produce more professional-looking images for their personal orbusiness website, and feel that the Sony Alpha will give them more control andcapabilities.

■ Small business owners with more advanced graphics capabilities who want to usethe Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 to document or promote their business.

■ Corporate workers who may or may not have photographic skills in their job descrip-tions, but who work regularly with graphics and need to learn how to use digitalimages taken with a Sony Alpha for reports, presentations, or other applications.

■ Professional webmasters with strong skills in programming (including Java,JavaScript, HTML, Perl, etc.) but little background in photography, but who real-ize that the Sony Alpha can be used for sophisticated photography.

■ Graphic artists and others who already may be adept in image editing withPhotoshop or another program, and who may already be using a film SLR, but whoneed to learn more about digital photography and the special capabilities of theSony dSLR.

Addressing your needs from a skills level can be a little trickier, because the Sony Alphais such a great camera that a full spectrum of photographers will be buying it, from afew brave absolute beginners who have never owned a digital camera before up to theprofessional with years of shooting experience who will be using the Sony Alpha as day-to-day working tool.

Before tackling this book, it would be helpful for you to understand the following:

■ What a digital SLR is: It’s a camera that generally shows an optical (not LCD)view of the picture that’s being taken through the (interchangeable) lens that actu-ally takes the photo, thanks to a mirror that reflects an image to a viewfinder, butflips up out of the way to allow the sensor to be exposed.

■ How digital photography differs from film: The image is stored not on film(which I call the first write-once optical media), but on a memory card as pixels thatcan be transferred to your computer, and then edited, corrected, and printed with-out the need for chemical processing.

■ What the basic tools of correct exposure are: Don’t worry if you don’t understandthese; I’ll explain them later in this book. But if you already know something aboutshutter speed, aperture, and ISO sensitivity, you’ll be ahead of the game. If not,you’ll soon learn that shutter speed determines the amount of time the sensor isexposed to incoming light; the f/stop or aperture is like a valve that governs thequantity of light that can flow through the lens; the sensor’s sensitivity (ISO set-ting) controls how easily the sensor responds to light. All three factors can be var-ied individually and proportionately to produce a picture that is properly exposed(neither too light nor too dark).

Introduction xix

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It’s tough to provide something for everybody, but I am going to try to address the needsof each of the following groups and skill levels:

■ Digital photography newbies: If you’ve used only point-and-shoot digital cam-eras, or have worked only with non-SLR film cameras, you’re to be congratulatedfor selecting one of the very best digital SLRs available as your first dSLR camera.This book can help you understand the controls and features of your Sony Alpha,and lead you down the path to better photography with your camera. I’ll provideall the information you need, but if you want to do some additional reading forextra credit, you can also try one of the other books I mentioned earlier. They com-plement this book well.

■ Advanced point-and-shooters moving on up: There are some quite sophisticatedpocket-sized digital cameras available, including those with many user-definableoptions and settings, so it’s possible you are already a knowledgeable photographer,even though you’re new to the world of the digital SLR. You’ve recognized the lim-itations of the point-and-shoot camera: even the best of them have more noise athigher sensitivity (ISO) settings than a camera like the Sony Alpha; the speedieststill have an unacceptable delay between the time you press the shutter and whenthe photo is actually taken; even a non-interchangeable super-zoom camera with12X to 20X magnification often won’t focus close enough, include an aperture suit-able for low-light photography, or take in the really wide view you must have.Interchangeable lenses and other accessories available for the Sony Alpha are anotherone of the reasons you moved up. Because you’re an avid photographer already, youshould pick up the finer points of using the Sony Alpha from this book with notrouble.

■ Film SLR veterans new to the digital world: You understand photography, youknow about f/stops and shutter speeds, and thrive on interchangeable lenses. If youhave used a newer film SLR, it probably has lots of electronic features already,including autofocus and sophisticated exposure metering. Perhaps you’ve even beenusing a Minolta film SLR (a distant predecessor of the current Alphas, which usedthe same lens system) and understand many of the available accessories that workwith both film and digital cameras. All you need is information on using digital-specific features, working with the Sony Alpha itself, and how to match—andexceed—the capabilities of your film camera with your new Sony Alpha DSLR-A850.

■ Experienced dSLR users broadening their experience to include the Sony AlphaDSLR-A850: Perhaps you started out with another Sony or Konica Minolta digi-tal SLR. You may have used a digital SLR from another vendor and are making theswitch. You understand basic photography, and want to learn more. And, most ofall, you want to transfer the skills you already have to the Sony Alpha, as quicklyand seamlessly as possible.

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■ Pro photographers and other advanced shooters: I expect my most discerningreaders will be those who already have extensive experience with other advanceddSLR cameras. I may not be able to teach you folks much about photography. But,even so, an amazing number of Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 cameras have been pur-chased by those who feel it is a good complement to their working toolkit.

Who Am I?After spending years as the world’s most successful unknown author, I’ve become slightlyless obscure in the past few years, thanks to a horde of camera guidebooks and otherphotographically oriented tomes. You may have seen my photography articles in PopularPhotography & Imaging magazine. I’ve also written about 2,000 articles for magazineslike Petersen’s PhotoGraphic (which is now defunct through no fault of my own), plusThe Rangefinder, Professional Photographer, and dozens of other photographic publica-tions. But, first, and foremost, I’m a photojournalist and made my living in the fielduntil I began devoting most of my time to writing books. Although I love writing, I’mhappiest when I’m out taking pictures, which is why during the past 12 months I’vetaken off chunks of time to travel to Zion National Park in Utah, the Sedona “red rocks”area and Grand Canyon in Arizona, Major League Baseball Spring training, and, for afew days, Las Vegas (although I did a lot more shooting than gambling in Sin City).The past year also saw me visiting Prague in the Czech Republic, and taking a week toshoot in Valencia, Spain. You’ll find photos of many of these visual treats within thepages of this book.

Like all my digital photography books, this one was written by someone with an incur-able photography bug. One of my first SLRs was a Minolta SRT-101, from the com-pany whose technology was eventually absorbed by Sony in 2006. I’ve used a variety ofnewer models since then. I’ve worked as a sports photographer for an Ohio newspaperand for an upstate New York college. I’ve operated my own commercial studio andphoto lab, cranking out product shots on demand and then printing a few hundredglossy 8 × 10s on a tight deadline for a press kit. I’ve served as a photo-posing instruc-tor for a modeling agency. People have actually paid me to shoot their weddings andimmortalize them with portraits. I even prepared press kits and articles on photographyas a PR consultant for a large Rochester, N.Y., company, which shall remain nameless.My trials and travails with imaging and computer technology have made their way intoprint in book form an alarming number of times, including a few dozen on scannersand photography.

Like you, I love photography for its own merits, and I view technology as just anothertool to help me get the images I see in my mind’s eye. But, also like you, I had to mas-ter this technology before I could apply it to my work. This book is the result of whatI’ve learned, and I hope it will help you master your Alpha digital SLR, too.

Introduction xxi

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As I write this, I’m currently in the throes of upgrading my website, which you can findat www.dslrguides.com/blog. I hope you’ll stop by for a visit.

Meet My Co-Author, AlexI am very happy and grateful to have, with this book, the opportunity to make my sec-ond foray into the “big leagues” of digital photography guidebooks. Like David, I havehad a love affair with photography since the 1960s, when, as a teenager, my tolerantparents allowed me to set up a very smelly darkroom in the basement of theirPhiladelphia home. I was entranced by the process of rolling the exposed film onto aplastic spool, sealing it in a tank, and later placing the developed negatives into anenlarger to produce what to me seemed like great works of photographic art. For thosewho have long memories or a love of older movies, I must say that one strong influencethat sparked my love of the darkroom was the terrific film Blow-up by Antonioni, whichdeepened the mystique of enlarging at leisure an image that was captured by the lensand film in an instant, and that may hold the key to an intriguing and disturbing mys-tery. I ventured into amateur cinematography and tried my best to emulate the greatdirector, but I’m afraid my Super-8 productions fell a few lightyears short.

Later, after studying broadcasting and film at Stanford, I got sidetracked by militaryservice for a few years, and I guess it was my more practical side that guided me to lawschool, like several family members before me. But I have kept up with photographyand filmmaking through the transitions to digital photography and video. I have useda wide array of equipment, and have been continually amazed at the increasing sophis-tication of the cameras that have become available in recent years. Finally, when I got aLeica D-Lux 4 in 2009, I was so impressed by the camera that I felt compelled to writea book about its use. No one asked me to write that book; I just wanted to do it. Becauseof that book, though, I was asked to help David write his previous book on the CanonPowerShot G10/G11 cameras. We both enjoyed working together so much that wedecided to collaborate on this Sony book as well. I am immensely pleased to haveanother opportunity to share some of my love of photography and of modern digitalcameras with a wider audience.

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I once read a camera guide that began with the author advising the Gentle Reader toresist the temptation to go out and take pictures until the proper amount of time hadbeen spent Setting Up The Camera, apparently to avoid wasting electrons on shots thatwere doomed to failure if the arcane operational knowledge that was forthcoming was-n’t first absorbed. What universe was he from?

Relax! I fully expect that you took several hundred or a thousand (or two) photos beforeyou ever cracked the cover of this book—for several reasons. First, and foremost, theSony Alpha DSLR-A850 happens to be remarkably easy to use for such a sophisticatedcamera, even for a newcomer to digital photography. Anyone, including the newest cam-era owner, can rotate the mode dial to the aqua Auto position and go out and begin tak-ing great pictures. Getting to that point by charging the battery, mounting a lens, andinserting a Compact Flash or Memory Stick PRO Duo memory card isn’t exactly rocketscience, either. Sony has cleverly marked the power switch (located just to the left of theviewfinder window) with large On and Off labels, and the shutter button lies in a spotthat is carefully calculated to encounter the right index finger of the camera’s new owneras he or she lifts this nicely balanced apparatus to eye-level for some experimental shots.

So, budding photographers are likely to muddle their way through getting the camerarevved up and working well enough to take a bunch of pictures without the universecollapsing. Eventually, though, many may turn to this book when they realize that theycan do an even better job with a little guidance.

Second, I know that many of you will be previous owners of the predecessors of thiscamera, such as the Alpha DSLR-A700, or one of the earlier Minolta models, such as

1Getting Started with Your

Sony Alpha DSLR-A850

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the Maxxum 7D. Many of the basic operations of this new camera are quite similar tothose of the older models. So, veteran Sony/Konica-Minolta dSLR owners can ventureout, shoot first, and ask questions later.

Finally, I realize that most of you didn’t buy this book at the same time you purchasedyour Sony Alpha. As much as I’d like to picture thousands of avid photographers march-ing out of their camera stores with an Alpha box under one arm, and my book in hand,I know that’s not going to happen all the time. A large number of you had your camerafor a week, or two, or a month, became comfortable with it, and sought out this bookin order to learn more. So, a chapter on “setup” seems like too little, too late, doesn’t it?

In practice, though, it’s not a bad idea, once you’ve taken a few orientation pictures withyour camera, to go back and review the basic operations of the camera from the begin-ning, if only to see if you’ve missed something. This chapter is my opportunity to reviewthe setup procedures for the camera for those among you who are already veteran users,and to help ease the more timid (and those who have never worked with a digital SLRbefore) into the basic preflight checklist that needs to be completed before you reallyspread your wings and take off. For the uninitiated, as easy as it is to use initially, theSony Alpha DSLR-A850 does have lots of dials, buttons, and settings that might notmake sense at first, but will surely become second nature after you’ve had a chance toreview the instructions in this chapter.

But don’t fret about wading through a manual to find out what you must know to takethose first few tentative snaps. I’m going to help you hit the ground running with thischapter (or keep on running if you’ve already jumped right in). If you haven’t had theopportunity to use your Alpha yet, I’ll help you set up your camera and begin shootingin minutes. You won’t find a lot of detail in this chapter. Indeed, I’m going to tell youjust what you absolutely must understand, accompanied by some interesting tidbits thatwill help you become acclimated. I’ll go into more depth and even repeat some of whatI explain here in later chapters, so you don’t have to memorize everything you see. Justrelax, follow a few easy steps, and then go out and begin taking your best shots—ever.

Your Out-of-Box ExperienceYour Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 comes in an impressive box filled with stuff, includingconnecting cords, booklets, a CD, and miscellaneous information about registration andsuch matters. The most important components are the camera, battery, battery charger,and, if you’re the nervous type, the neck strap. You’ll also need a Compact Flash orMemory Stick PRO Duo card, as one is not included. If you purchased your Alpha froma camera shop, as I did, the store personnel probably attached the neck strap for you,ran through some basic operational advice that you’ve already forgotten, tried to sell youa Compact Flash card, and then, after they’d given you all the help you could absorb,sent you on your way with a handshake. The lens is a pretty important component also,

David Busch’s Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Guide to Digital Photography2

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but, with a camera like this, the lens is a separate purchase and gets its own box with itsown assortment of pamphlets and accessories.

Perhaps you purchased your Sony Alpha from one of those mass merchandisers that alsosell washing machines and vacuum cleaners. In that case, you might have been sent onyour way with only the handshake, or, maybe, not even that if you resisted the high-pressure efforts to sell you an extended warranty. You save a few bucks at the big-boxstores, but you don’t get the personal service a professional photo retailer provides. It’syour choice. There’s a third alternative, of course. You might have purchased your cam-era from a mail order or Internet source, and your camera arrived in a big brown (orpurple/red) truck. Your only interaction when you took possession of your camera wasto scrawl your signature on an electronic clipboard.

In all three cases, the first thing to do is carefully unpack the camera and double-checkthe contents with the checklist that appears on one side of the box and (in more com-plete form) on page 13 of the user’s manual. While this level of setup detail may seemas superfluous as the instructions on a bottle of shampoo, checking the contents first isalways a good idea. No matter who sells a camera, it’s common to open boxes, use a par-ticular camera for a demonstration, and then repack the box without replacing all thepieces and parts afterwards. Someone might actually have helpfully checked out yourcamera on your behalf—and then mispacked the box. It’s better to know now that some-thing is missing so you can seek redress immediately, rather than discover two monthsfrom now that the video cable you thought you’d never use (but now must have) wasnever in the box.

So, check the box at your earliest convenience, and make sure you have (at least) thefollowing:

■ Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 camera. This is hard to miss. The camera is the main rea-son you laid out the big bucks, and it is tucked away inside a nifty protective enve-lope you should save in case the Alpha needs to be sent in for repair. It almost goeswithout saying that you should check out the camera immediately, making sure thecolor LCD on the back isn’t scratched or cracked, the little doors for the memorycard, battery, video cable, and other input and output compartments open prop-erly, and, when a charged battery is inserted and lens mounted, the camera powersup and reports for duty. Out-of-the-box defects in these areas are rare, but they canhappen. A more likely issue would be that your dealer played with the camera or,perhaps, it was a customer return. That’s why it’s best to buy your Alpha from aretailer you trust to supply a factory-fresh camera.

■ Rubber eyecup. This slide-on soft-rubber eyecup should be attached to theviewfinder when you receive the camera. It helps you squeeze your eye tightlyagainst the window, excluding extraneous light, and also protects your eyeglasses (ifyou wear them) from scratching.

Chapter 1 ■ Getting Started with Your Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 3

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■ Accessory shoe cover. This small cap fits snugly on the accessory shoe at the top-most part of the camera, to protect it until you install a flash unit or other item inthe shoe. You should leave this cover in place whenever no attachment is installedin the shoe, to protect the shoe’s electrical connections from damage or corrosion.

■ Body cap. The twist-off body cap keeps dust from entering the camera when nolens is mounted. Even though you can use the Alpha’s sensor cleaning procedurewhen you need to, you’ll still want to keep the amount of dust to a minimum. Thebody cap belongs in your camera bag if you contemplate the need to travel with thelens removed.

■ Lens (if purchased). The Sony Alpha may be bundled with a compatible lens, suchas the Sony SAL-2875 28-75mm f/2.8 SAM Constant Aperture Zoom lens. Thelens will come with a lens cap on the front, and a rear lens cap aft, along with a briefinstruction pamphlet or sheet.

■ Battery pack NP-FM500H. The power source for your Sony Alpha is packagedseparately. It should be charged as soon as possible (as described next) and insertedin the camera. It’s smart to have more than one battery pack (they usually cost lessthan $50, although the Sony list price is $69), so you can continue shooting whenyour battery is discharged or, after many uses, peters out entirely. Make sure youget this model number correct if you order a spare battery; there are several batter-ies with similar model numbers, but this is the only model that will work in yourSony Alpha DSLR-A850.

■ Battery charger BC-VM10. This battery charger and its accompanying power cordwill be included. The charger functions strictly as a charger for a battery insertedinto it; it does not act as an AC adapter, and it cannot charge a battery while thebattery is installed in the camera.

■ Shoulder strap. Sony provides you with a suitable neck or shoulder strap, emblazoned with Sony advertising. While I am justifiably proud of owning a fineSony camera, I never attach the factory strap to my cameras, and instead opt fora more serviceable strap from UPstrap (www.upstrap-pro.com) or Op-Tech(www.optechusa.com). If you carry your camera over one shoulder, as many do, Iparticularly recommend UPstrap (shown in Figure 1.1). It has a patented non-slippad that offers reassuring traction and eliminates the contortions we sometimesgo through to keep the camera from slipping off. I know several photographerswho refuse to use anything else. If you do purchase an UPstrap, be sure to tell pho-tographer-inventor Al Stegmeyer that I sent you hence.

■ USB cable. This is a USB cable that can be used to link your Sony Alpha to a com-puter, and it is especially useful when you need to transfer pictures but don’t havea card reader handy.

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Chapter 1 ■ Getting Started with Your Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 5

Figure 1.1 Third-party neck straps, like this UPstrap model, are often preferable to the Sony-supplied strap.

■ Video cable. This cable allows you to connect the camera to a standard definitiontelevision, and view the video output of the camera on the screen of a TV or mon-itor with a composite video input connector.

■ Application software CD. The disk contains useful software that will be discussedin more detail in Chapter 8.

■ Printed instruction manual and related materials. These include the instructionmanual, the lens brochure, and the accessories brochure.

■ Remote Commander clip. Sony doesn’t pack an RM-S1AM Remote Commanderwith the camera, but it does include a clip you can use to attach the optional remotecontrol to your neck strap.

Initial SetupThe initial setup of your Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 is fast and easy. Basically, you justneed to charge the battery, attach a lens, and insert a memory card. I’ll address eachof these steps separately, but if you already feel you can manage these setup tasks with-out further instructions, feel free to skip this section entirely. You should at least skimits contents, however, because I’m going to list a few options that you might not beaware of.

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Battery IncludedYour Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 is a sophisticated hunk of machinery and electronics,but it needs a charged battery to function, so rejuvenating the NP-FM500H lithium-ion battery pack furnished with the camera should be your first step. A fully chargedpower source should be good for approximately 880 shots under normal temperatureconditions, based on standard tests defined by the Camera & Imaging ProductsAssociation (CIPA) document DC-002. If you use continuous autofocus or spend along time focusing before each shot, you can expect to take considerably fewer picturesbefore it’s time for a recharge. In addition, functions like picture review can use upmore power than you might expect. So, even though 880 images sounds like a largenumber, if your pictures are important to you, always take along one spare, fullycharged battery.

And remember that all rechargeable batteries undergo some degree of self-discharge justsitting idle in the camera or in the original packaging. Lithium-ion power packs of thistype typically lose a small amount of their charge every day, even when the camera isn’tturned on. Li-ion cells lose their power through a chemical reaction that continues whenthe camera is switched off. So, it’s very likely that the battery purchased with your cam-era, even if charged at the factory, has begun to poop out after the long sea voyage on abanana boat (or, more likely, a trip by jet plane followed by a sojourn in a warehouse),so you’ll want to revive it before going out for some serious shooting.

Charging the BatteryWhen the battery is inserted into the charger properly (it’s impossible to insert it incor-rectly), a Charge light begins glowing, without flashing (see Figure 1.2). It continues toglow until the battery completes the charge and the lamp turns off. Charging times varyfrom about 175 minutes for a normal charge, to 235 minutes to completely restore afully discharged battery. The full charge is complete about one hour after the charginglamp turns off, so if your battery was really dead, don’t remove it from the charger untilthe additional time has elapsed.

If the charging lamp flashes when you insert the battery, that indicates an error condi-tion. Make sure you have the correct model number battery and that the charger’s con-tacts (the shiny metal prongs that connect to the battery) are clean.

When the battery is charged, slide the latch on the bottom of the camera, open thebattery door, and ease the battery in with the three contact openings facing down intothe compartment (see Figure 1.3). To remove the battery, you must press a blue leverin the battery compartment that prevents the pack from slipping out when the dooris opened.

David Busch’s Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Guide to Digital Photography6

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Final StepsYour Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 is almost ready to fire up and shoot. You’ll need to selectand mount a lens, adjust the viewfinder for your vision, and insert a memory card. Eachof these steps is easy, and if you’ve used a similar Sony camera in the past, you alreadyknow exactly what to do. I’m going to provide a little extra detail for those of you whoare new to the Sony or digital SLR worlds.

Mounting the LensAs you’ll see, my recommended lens mounting procedure emphasizes protecting yourequipment from accidental damage, and minimizing the intrusion of dust. If your AlphaDSLR-A850 has no lens attached, select the lens you want to use and loosen (but donot remove) the rear lens cap. I generally place the lens I am planning to mount verti-cally in a slot in my camera bag, where it’s protected from mishaps but ready to pick upquickly. By loosening the rear lens cap, you’ll be able to lift it off the back of the lens atthe last instant, so the rear element of the lens is covered until then.

After that, remove the body cap from the camera by rotating the cap towards the shut-ter release button. You should always mount the body cap when there is no lens on thecamera, because it helps keep dust out of the interior of the camera, where it can settleon the mirror, focusing screen, the interior mirror box, and potentially find its way pastthe shutter onto the sensor. (While the Alpha’s sensor cleaning procedure works fine,the less dust it has to contend with, the better.) The body cap also protects the vulner-able mirror from damage caused by intruding objects (including your fingers, if you’renot cautious).

Once the body cap has been removed, remove the rear lens cap from the lens, set it aside, and then mount the lens on the camera by matching the red-orange alignment

Chapter 1 ■ Getting Started with Your Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 7

Figure 1.2 The charger (shown here without thepower cord attached) will rejuvenate a battery in aboutthree to four hours.

Figure 1.3 Insert the battery in the camera; it only fitsone way.

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indicator on the lens barrel with the red-orange dot on the camera’s lens mount (seeFigure 1.4). Rotate the lens toward the shooting mode dial until it seats securely. (Don’tpress the lens release button during mounting.) If the lens hood is bayoneted on the lensin the reversed position (which makes the lens/hood combination more compact fortransport), twist it off and remount with the rim facing outward (see Figure 1.5). A lenshood protects the front of the lens from accidental bumps, and reduces flare caused byextraneous light arriving at the front element of the lens from outside the picture area.

Adjusting Diopter CorrectionThose of us with less than perfect eyesight can often benefit from a little optical cor-rection in the viewfinder. Your contact lenses or glasses may provide all the correctionyou need, but if you are a glasses wearer and want to use the Sony Alpha DSLR-A850without your glasses, you can take advantage of the camera’s built-in diopter adjustmentcorrection to match that of your glasses or your eyesight with your glasses on. Press theshutter release halfway to illuminate the indicators in the viewfinder, then rotate thediopter adjustment wheel on the right side of the viewfinder eyepiece (see Figure 1.6)while looking through the viewfinder until the indicators appear sharp.

If the available correction is insufficient, Sony offers nine different Eyepiece Correctorsfor the viewfinder window, from +3 to –4 diopters. If more than one person uses yourAlpha DSLR-A850, and each requires a different diopter setting, you can save a littletime by noting the number of clicks and direction (clockwise to increase the diopterpower; counterclockwise to decrease the diopter value) required to change from one userto the other.

David Busch’s Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Guide to Digital Photography8

Figure 1.4Match the red-orange dot onthe lens withthe red-orangedot on thecamera mountto properlyalign the lenswith the bayo-net mount.

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Chapter 1 ■ Getting Started with Your Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 9

Figure 1.5A lens hoodprotects the

lens from extra-neous light and

accidentalbumps.

Figure 1.6Viewfinder

diopter correc-tion can be

dialed in.

Diopter-adjustment dial

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Inserting a Memory CardYou can’t take actual photos without a memory card inserted in your Sony Alpha, butthe camera will snap off “pictures” that are all dressed up, with no place to go. They canbe displayed on the LCD, with a No Card warning shown at bottom right (see Figure1.7), and a flashing 0 indicator appearing in the viewfinder. (The ability to activate theshutter with no card installed can be disabled by turning off the Release w/o Card func-tion in the Custom menu, as discussed in Chapter 3.) So, your final step will be to inserta memory card.

The Alpha DSLR-A850 accepts both Compact Flash and Sony Memory Stick PRO Duo(or Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo) cards. (It doesn’t matter which type you use, and thecamera will accept both cards at once, although it will only use one or the other at anygiven time.) The cards fit in slots underneath a door on the right side of the camera(when viewed as you hold it). You should only remove the memory card when the cam-era is switched off; the Alpha will alert you with a Cover Open notice on the LCD screenif the memory card door is opened while the camera is still writing photos to the card.

Insert the memory card with the label facing the back of the camera (as shown in Figure1.8). Whether you use Compact Flash or Memory Stick PRO Duo, the card should beoriented so the edge with the metal contacts goes into the slot first. If you decide to usea Memory Stick PRO Duo, you have to use the Setup menu or the Quick Navi screen

David Busch’s Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Guide to Digital Photography10

Figure 1.7If you take apicture with nomemory cardinserted, thecamera will dis-play the image,but with a “NoCard” warningin the lower-right corner;the image willnot be saved.

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(discussed in Chapter 3) to set the camera to use the correct type of card. (Press the Fnbutton on the lower-right side of the camera back, select the memory card item by mov-ing the multi-selector [the joystick-like controller on the back of the camera], and rotatethe front or rear control dial until the MS icon appears.) If you turn on the Alpha DSLR-A850 and see a set of blinking dashes next to the MS (Memory Stick) or CF (CompactFlash) indicator on the LCD screen’s information display even though you have, in fact,inserted a card, you’ve probably failed to set this menu item to the correct option.

Close the memory card door, and your preflight checklist is done! (I’m going to assumeyou remember to remove the lens cap when you’re ready to take a picture!) When youwant to remove the memory card later, just press down on the little latch next to thecard (for CF cards) or press down on the card edge that protrudes from the slot (for MScards), and the card will pop right out.

Turn on the PowerSlide the On/Off switch that sits to the left of the viewfinder eyepiece to the right, tothe On position. The camera will remain on or in a standby mode until you manuallyturn it off. After three minutes of idling, the Alpha goes into the standby mode to savebattery power. (The time interval before the camera enters standby mode can be con-trolled through a Setup menu option, as discussed in Chapter 3.) Just tap the shutterrelease button or another control, such as the center button of the multi-selector, tobring it back to life.

Chapter 1 ■ Getting Started with Your Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 11

Figure 1.8The memory

card is insertedin the slot on

the side of thecamera.

Compact Flash

Memory Stick PRO Duo

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When the camera first powers up, you may be asked to set the date and time. The pro-cedure is fairly self-explanatory (although I’ll explain it in detail in Chapter 3). Accessthe Date/Time setup option in Setup menu 1, and use the multi-selector to navigatefrom left to right among the date, year, time, and date format and use the controller’sup and down motion to select the correct settings. When finished, press the multi-selec-tor firmly in, choose OK on the screen that pops up, and press the controller in oncemore to confirm the date and time settings.

Once the Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 is satisfied that it knows what time it is, the record-ing information display should appear on the LCD. Press the DISP button (to the leftof the LCD screen) to produce it if you want to activate this display when it is not active.Press the DISP button again to select the other version of this screen. The two versionsare a Detailed display (see Figure 1.9), and an Enlarged display with slightly less infor-mation (Figure 1.10). Press the DISP button a third time to turn the recording infor-mation display completely off. When you rotate the camera to shoot vertical pictures,the text and icons on the recording information display reorient themselves, too, foreasy viewing. (This function can be disabled with the Rec info disp. option on theCustom menu 2; see discussion in Chapter 3.)

The recording information display shows the basic settings of the camera, includingcurrent shutter speed and lens opening, shooting mode, ISO sensitivity, and otherparameters. I’ll explain these features in later chapters of this book, too (especially inChapter 4, which deals with exposure).

David Busch’s Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Guide to Digital Photography12

Figure 1.9The detailedrecordinginformationdisplay pro-vides the maximuminformationabout yourshootingsettings.

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Formatting a Memory CardThere are three ways to create a blank Compact Flash or Memory Stick PRO Duo cardfor your Sony Alpha DSLR-A850, and two of them are at least partially wrong. Hereare your options, both correct and incorrect.

■ Transfer (move) files to your computer. When you transfer (rather than copy) allthe image files to your computer from the memory card (either using a direct cabletransfer or with a card reader and appropriate software, as described later in thischapter), the old image files can, at your option, be erased from the card, leaving

Chapter 1 ■ Getting Started with Your Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 13

Figure 1.10The enlarged

recordinginformationdisplay pro-

vides slightlyless informa-

tion about yourshooting set-tings, but in

larger type thatis easier to read

in a hurry.

Tip

The Alpha DSLR-A850 does not have the “live view” feature, which, in some other cam-eras, displays what the lens sees on the LCD screen in recording mode. Instead, the cam-era has a feature called Intelligent preview, which gives you a depth-of-field preview andlets you display a test image along with considerable technical information on the LCDscreen, including a histogram, so you can tweak your settings before taking the final pic-ture. In Chapter 4, you can read about Intelligent preview, as well as related topics suchas histograms, and Chapter 5 covers Dynamic Range Optimizing (D-Range Optimizer).

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the card blank. Theoretically. Unfortunately, this method does not remove files thatyou’ve labeled as Protected (by choosing Protect from the Playback menu 1 duringplayback), nor does it identify and lock out parts of your card that have becomecorrupted or unusable since the last time you formatted the card. Therefore, I rec-ommend always formatting the card, rather than simply moving the image files,each time you want to make a blank card. The only exception is when you want toleave the protected/unerased images on the card for a while longer, say, to share withfriends, family, and colleagues.

■ (Don’t) Format in your computer. With the memory card inserted in a card readeror card slot in your computer, you can use Windows or Mac OS to reformat thememory card. Don’t! The operating system won’t necessarily arrange the structureof the card the way the Alpha DSLR-A850 likes to see it (in computer terms, anincorrect file system may be installed). The only way to ensure that the card has beenproperly formatted for your camera is to perform the format in the camera itself.The only exception to this rule is when you have a seriously corrupted memory cardthat your camera refuses to format. Sometimes it is possible to revive such a cor-rupted card by allowing the computer’s operating system to reformat it first, thentrying again in the camera.

■ Playback menu format. To use the recommended method to format a memorycard, press the Menu button (the top button to the left of the LCD screen), thenuse the left/right motion of the multi-controller to choose the Playback menu 1(which is represented by the number 1 beside the right-pointing triangle). In thealternative, you may find it faster to use the rear control dial to scroll over to thismenu. Then use the downward motion of the multi-selector, or turn the front con-trol dial, to navigate to the Format entry. Press in on the multi-selector’s center but-ton, and select OK from the screen that appears, navigating to the OK option withthe front or rear control dial or the multi-selector. Press the multi-selector’s centerbutton once more to begin the format process.

David Busch’s Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Guide to Digital Photography14

HOW MANY SHOTS?

The Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 provides a fairly accurate estimate of the number of shotsremaining on the LCD. It is only an estimate, because the actual number will vary,depending on the capacity of your memory card, the file format(s) you’ve selected (moreon those later), the aspect ratio (proportions) of the image (the Alpha can use both tradi-tional 3:2 proportions and 16:9—HDTV—aspect ratios), and the content of the imageitself. (Some photos may contain large areas that can be more efficiently squeezed downto a smaller size.)

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Table 1.1 shows the typical number of shots you can expect using a good-sized 16GBCompact Flash memory card (which I expect will be a popular size card among AlphaDSLR-A850 users as prices continue to plummet during the life of this book). All fig-ures are by actual count with my own 16GB CF card. Take those numbers and cut themin half if you’re using an 8GB CF card; multiply by 25 percent if you’re using a 4GBcard, or by 12.5 percent if you’re working with a 2GB CF card. You can expect to getsimilar numbers of shots on a Memory Stick PRO Duo card of the same capacity.

Chapter 1 ■ Getting Started with Your Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 15

Table 1.1 Typical Shots with an 8GB Memory Card (DSLR-A850)

Large Medium Small

3:2 Aspect RatioJPEG X-Fine 688 1230 2220JPEG Fine 1581 2699 4697JPEG Standard 2371 3846 6184RAW 423 N/A N/ARAW+JPEG (Fine) 333 365 388cRAW 627 N/A N/AcRAW+JPEG (Fine) 449 509 553

16:9 Aspect RatioJPEG X-Fine 808 1441 2571JPEG Fine 1843 3111 5310JPEG Standard 2744 4401 6881RAW 423 N/A N/ARAW+JPEG (Fine) 344 372 392cRAW 627 N/A N/AcRAW+JPEG (Fine) 468 522 561

Selecting a Shooting ModeYou can choose a shooting method from the mode dial located on the top left of theSony Alpha DSLR-A850 (see Figure 1.11). Unlike some earlier models, the A850 doesnot coddle you with numerous scene shooting modes that are designed for subjects likeportraits, sports, night snapshots, fireworks, and the like. The camera has just one no-frills automatic mode, designated as Auto, in which the camera makes virtually all the

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decisions for you (except when to press the shutter). The camera also, as you wouldexpect, has the four standard semi-automatic and manual modes—P, A, S, and M, whichallow you to provide more input over the exposure and settings the camera uses. You’llfind a complete description of all of these shooting modes in Chapter 4.

Turn your camera on by flipping the power switch to On. Next, you need to select whichshooting mode to use. If you’re new to digital photography, you might want to set thecamera to Auto (the aqua Auto setting on the mode dial) or P (Program mode) and startsnapping away. Either mode will make all the appropriate settings for you for manyshooting situations. When you switch to a shooting mode, an indicator appears in theupper left of the recording information display to remind you which mode you’re using,as shown in Figures 1.9 and 1.10.

If you have more photographic experience, you might want to opt for one of the semi-automatic or manual modes, also shown in Figure 1.11. These, too, are described inmore detail in Chapter 4. These modes let you apply a little more creativity to your cam-era’s settings. These modes are indicated on the mode dial by the letters P, A, S, and M.

■ P (Program auto). This mode allows the Alpha DSLR-A850 to select the basic expo-sure settings, but you can still override the camera’s choices to fine-tune your image.

■ A (Aperture priority). Choose when you want to use a particular lens opening, espe-cially to control sharpness or how much of your image is in focus. The Alpha willselect the appropriate shutter speed for you.

David Busch’s Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Guide to Digital Photography16

Figure 1.11The mode dialincludes auto-matic, semi-automatic, andmanual expo-sure settings.

User’s saved settings

AutomaticProgram Auto

Aperture priority

Shutter priority

Manual

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■ S (Shutter priority). This mode is useful when you want to use a particular shut-ter speed to stop action or produce creative blur effects. The Alpha will select theappropriate f/stop for you.

■ M (Manual). Select when you want full control over the shutter speed and lensopening, either for creative effects or because you are using a studio flash or otherflash unit not compatible with the Alpha’s automatic flash metering.

Choosing a Metering ModeYou might want to select a particular metering mode for your first shots, although thedefault Multi segment metering is probably the best choice as you get to know yourcamera. Changing metering modes is easy with the Sony Alpha DSLR-A850, becausethis is one of several options that Sony has wisely provided with its own dedicated con-troller. Locate the AEL button at the upper-right corner of the LCD screen, and you’llsee a ring that surrounds it, with a small ridge that you can use to turn the ring. Thisring and its three options are shown in Figure 1.12.

Chapter 1 ■ Getting Started with Your Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 17

Figure 1.12Metering modes(top to bottom)Multi segment,

Center weighted,and Spot.

Metering mode selection dial

Spot

Center weighted

Multi segment

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There are three positions for this ring, each marked by an icon for one of the threemetering modes. Just grasp the ring and its ridge and turn the white indicator line tothe setting you want.

■ Multi segment metering. The standard metering mode; the Alpha attempts to intel-ligently classify your image and choose the best exposure based on readings from40 different zones in the frame. You can read about these zones in Chapter 4.

■ Center weighted averaging metering. The Alpha meters the entire scene, but givesthe most emphasis to the central area of the frame.

■ Spot metering. Exposure is calculated from a smaller central spot.

You’ll find a detailed description of each of these modes in Chapter 4.

Choosing a Focus ModeIf you’re using one of the newer autofocus lenses made specifically for the Sony Alphacameras, such as the Sony 28-75mm SAM Zoom lens, you can easily switch from auto-matic to Manual focus by moving the AF/MF switch on the lens mounted on your camera. If you set that switch to MF, you’ll be using manual focus no matter what otherfocus settings you make on the camera; the MF switch on the lens overrides all otherfocus settings. (Of course, if you’re using an older lens that is made for manual focusonly, such as some Minoltas from the pre-Sony days, autofocus controls on the camerahave no effect in that case either.)

If you’re using a Sony Alpha-compatible autofocus lens and you leave the switch on thelens set to AF, you’ll need to choose an appropriate focus mode on the camera. (You canread more on selecting focus parameters in Chapter 5.) If you’re using the Auto shootingmode, the focus method is set for you automatically, to AF-A, but you can then changeit if you want. Be aware, though, that if you afterwards turn the camera off and back on,or switch away to another shooting mode and then back to Auto, the camera will againset the focus mode to AF-A. Therefore, you can easily end up with the camera being setto a different AF mode than the one that is set with the AF mode dial, discussed next.

The focus mode, like many other functions on the Alpha DSLR-A850, has its own con-troller. This one is a little dial at the bottom of the camera, just below the lens, on the leftas you hold the camera in shooting position (see Figure 1.13). To set the focus mode, turnthis dial to one of its four positions: S, A, C, or MF. Here is what those settings mean.

■ Single-shot (S). This mode, sometimes called single autofocus, locks in a focus pointwhen the shutter button is pressed down halfway, and the focus confirmation discglows green at the far left of the line of shooting information in the viewfinder. Thefocus will remain locked until you release the button or take the picture. If the cam-era is unable to achieve sharp focus, the green focus confirmation light will blink.This mode is best used when your subject is relatively motionless.

David Busch’s Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Guide to Digital Photography18

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■ Automatic AF (A). In this mode, the default used by the camera in Auto shootingmode, the Alpha DSLR-A850 switches between Single-shot AF and ContinuousAF as appropriate. That is, it locks in a focus point when you partially depress theshutter button (Single-shot mode), but switches automatically to Continuous AFif the subject begins to move. This mode is handy when photographing a subject,such as a child at quiet play, who might move unexpectedly.

■ Continuous AF (C). This mode, sometimes called continuous servo, sets focus whenyou partially depress the shutter button, but then continues to monitor the frameand refocuses if the camera or subject is moved. This is a useful mode for photo-graphing sports and moving subjects. In this mode, the camera does not beep andthe green focus confirmation disc does not light up, because the focus is not setuntil you press the shutter fully to take the picture.

■ Manual focus (MF). If you are using a newer-model lens that is equipped with theAF-MF switch, and you have set that switch to AF, you still have the option of set-ting the camera’s focus mode dial to the MF position, which puts the camera intoManual focus mode. In that mode, it’s up to you to achieve sharp focus by turningthe focusing ring on the lens until the image in the viewfinder is sharp. You can getsome assistance from the camera, though, even in MF mode, by pressing theAF/MF button, located just to the left of the rear control dial. When you press inon that control, the autofocus mechanism kicks in temporarily and locks the focusfor you. Manual focus is a good option to have in situations where focus is criticaland difficult for the autofocus mechanism to deal with, such as subjects with highlyreflective surfaces or in deep shadows.

Chapter 1 ■ Getting Started with Your Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 19

Figure 1.13Set autofocus

mode using thedial on the

camera.

Single-shot AF

Automatic AF

Continuous AF

Manual focus

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Selecting a Focus PointDepending on the focus mode selected, the Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 uses up to ninefocus points to calculate correct focus, along with ten supplementary focus points spreadamong that array of nine. In Auto shooting mode, the camera initially sets the focusmode to Wide, in which it uses all 19 points. However, in Auto mode as well as theother shooting modes (P, A, S, and M), you still have the option to override that choiceand set the focus mode to any of the three available options.

Depending on which focus mode you select, you can specify which of the nine focuspoints the Sony dSLR uses to calculate correct focus, or you can allow the camera toselect the point for you. There are three AF area options, shown in Figure 1.14, and alsodescribed in Chapter 5. Press the Fn button to call up the Quick Navi menu screen,navigate to the AF area selection, press in on the multi-selector’s center button, andselect one of these three choices. Press in again to confirm.

■ Wide. The Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 chooses the appropriate focus zone or zonesfrom the nine AF areas that are shown on the screen, as well as from ten supple-mental areas that are not visible. However, you can switch to the center (Spot) focuszone while shooting by pressing in on the multi-selector’s center button. (In effect,

David Busch’s Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Guide to Digital Photography20

Figure 1.14Select fromWide (theAlpha selectsone of the nineAF areas), Spot(only the centerfocus spot isused), or Local(you canchoose whicharea to use).

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Chapter 1 ■ Getting Started with Your Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 21

pressing in on the multi-selector switches the focus mode temporarily to Spot. Onceyou release the multi-selector, the focus mode reverts to the mode you originallyselected.)

■ Spot. The Alpha always uses the small focus zone in the center of the viewfinder tocalculate correct focus.

■ Local. Move the multi-selector to move the focus zone among the nine availablezones. You can also press in on the multi-selector’s center button to switch to thecenter focus sensor. Also, as with the Wide mode, you can press and hold the multi-selector’s center button to change to Spot focusing using the center focus sensor, aslong as you keep the button pressed.

Turning on SteadyShotUnless you’re going to be using your Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 on a tripod or are goingto be shooting in bright light with fast shutter speeds (say, 1/125th second or faster),you should activate the camera’s built-in image stabilization system, called SteadyShot.This camera is unusual for a digital SLR in having such a system built into the camerabody, rather than leaving that function to be built into individual lenses. It’s a very goodfeature, and you should take advantage of it, because it can mean the difference betweencrisp, clear images, and photos that are blurred because you were not able to hold thissubstantial piece of equipment perfectly steady while the shutter did its thing for a quar-ter of a second. Here, again, there is no need to plumb the depths of an arcane menusystem. Just look for the little image of a hand on the back of the camera, and makesure the On/Off switch below it is in the On position. Then, when you’re lookingthrough the viewfinder, watch for the scale of rising bars at the far right of the greeninformation display (see Figure 1.15). The more bars you see, the shakier the camera is.Try to hold it steady enough to keep the bars down to one or two, and then press theshutter button to take your picture.

Other SettingsThere are a few other settings you can make if you’re feeling ambitious, but don’t feelbad if you postpone using these features until you’ve racked up a little more experiencewith your Sony Alpha.

Adjusting White Balance and ISOIf you like, you can custom-tailor your white balance (color balance) and ISO sensitiv-ity settings. To start out, it’s best to set white balance (WB) to Auto, and ISO to ISO200 for daylight photos, or ISO 400 for pictures in dimmer light. You’ll find complete

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recommendations for both settings in Chapter 4. You can adjust white balance by press-ing the WB button on the top right of the camera and then navigating to the variouschoices of settings with the multi-selector or the front control dial. Confirm by press-ing the multi-selector’s center button. The ISO setting menu can be invoked by press-ing the ISO button, right next to the WB button, and navigating through the choicesin similar fashion. (With ISO, though, you can use either the front or the rear controldial to scroll through the selections; with WB, the rear dial is reserved for use in tweak-ing the WB settings. I’ll talk more about that procedure in Chapter 5.)

Using Exposure CompensationIf you want to exercise even more control over your images, you can dial in a bit of expo-sure compensation to correct for a situation in which the camera’s automatic light meter-ing may call for a bit too much or too little exposure. This type of scenario, which I’lldiscuss further in Chapter 4, might come up when your subject is lit from behind, forexample. To activate this feature, just press the exposure compensation button, whichis marked by a set of plus and minus signs and is located just behind and to the left ofthe shutter button. Then use the multi-controller, the front control dial, or the rear con-trol dial to move the pointer left or right along the scale that pops up on the LCD. Youcan dial in up to +3 steps of compensation to make the image brighter, or up to –3 steps

David Busch’s Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Guide to Digital Photography22

Figure 1.15The AlphaDSLR-A850’sSteadyShot sys-tem indicatesthe degree ofcamera shakethrough anarray of risinggreen bars atthe far right ofthe informa-tion display inthe viewfinder.Try to steadythe camera soas to reduce thebars to one ortwo beforepressing theshutter button.

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to make it darker. Press in on the multi-selector’s center button to confirm your choice.Exposure compensation is a “sticky” setting that continues even if you’ve switched toanother exposure mode or turned the camera off, so you must remember to cancel theexposure compensation when you no longer need it.

Using the Self-TimerIf you want to set a short delay before your picture is taken, you can use the self-timer.Press the DRIVE button (on top of the camera, just behind and to the right of the shut-ter button), use the multi-selector or the front control dial to highlight the self-timericon, and then use the multi-selector or the rear control dial to move to the right or leftto select either the 10-second self-timer or the 2-second self-timer (see Figure 1.16).Press in on the center of the multi-selector to confirm your choice and a self-timer iconwill appear on the recording information display on the back of the Sony Alpha DSLR-A850. Press the shutter release to lock focus and start the timer. The self-timer lampwill blink and the beeper will sound (unless you’ve silenced it in the menus) until thefinal two seconds (in 10-second mode), when the lamp remains on and the beeper beepsmore rapidly. If you select the 2-second timer, there are no blinks or beeps to countdown the time—just a 2-second delay before the shutter activates to take the picture.The self-timer setting is cancelled automatically when the camera is switched off.

Chapter 1 ■ Getting Started with Your Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 23

Figure 1.16Drive modes.

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Figure 1.16 shows the drive modes which include (top to bottom) Single-shot adv.,Continuous adv., Self-timer (10-second delay/2-second delay), and Bracket: Cont.Several other modes are available but are not shown on this screen, as indicated by thedownward triangle at the bottom of the screen: Bracket: Single; WB bracket; DRO(Dynamic Range Optimization) adv. bracket; Mirror lockup; and Remote Commander.These are all discussed in Chapter 4.

Sony recommends closing the eyepiece shutter with the eyepiece shutter lever whenusing the self-timer, in order to keep extraneous light from reaching the exposure meterthrough the viewfinder “back door.” This is a good idea, especially since this handy leveris so easy to slide down; with many other cameras, you have to use a separate viewfindercover for this function, but the lever makes this process a no-brainer.

Reviewing the Images You’ve TakenThe Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 has a broad range of playback and image review options.I’ll cover them in more detail in Chapters 2 and 3. For now, you’ll want to learn justthe basics. Here is all you really need to know at this time, as shown in Figure 1.17.There are other playback options that I’ll cover in Chapter 2.

■ Press the Playback button (the bottom button to the lower left of the LCD, markedwith a hard-to-see dark-blue right-pointing triangle) to display the most recentimage on the LCD.

■ Press the multi-selector to the left or rotate the front or rear control dial to the leftto view a previous image.

■ Press the multi-selector to the right or rotate the front or rear control dial to theright to view a later image.

■ Press the Trash button to delete the currently displayed image.

■ Press the Fn button and then press the multi-selector’s center button to rotate theimage 90 degrees. (I’ll explain how to activate/deactivate automatic rotation inChapter 3.)

■ Press the Zoom/AF/MF button at the top right of the back of the camera (just tothe left of the rear control dial) to display the current image in a magnified viewand to alternate between zoomed and full-screen views.

David Busch’s Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Guide to Digital Photography24

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■ After pressing the Zoom button, rotate the rear control dial to change the magni-fication level to various stages between 1.2 and 19 times normal size for RAW orLarge JPEG images. (The maximum magnification level is less than 19 times forMedium or Small images.)

■ Rotate the front control dial to move to other images at the same magnificationlevel.

■ Use the multi-selector to scroll around within a magnified image. An inset boxshows the relationship of the magnified image to the entire frame. If you don't seethe inset box, press the DISP. button to show the more detailed display with theinset box.

Chapter 1 ■ Getting Started with Your Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 25

Figure 1.17Review your

images.

Erasecurrentimage

Play backmost recent

image

Changeinformation

display

Access QuickNavi menu torotate images

Displayhistogram

Navigatethroughimages

Access indexmode to viewthumbnails

Zoomin/out

Magnifyimage

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■ Press the DISP button repeatedly to cycle among views that have no recording data,full recording data (f/stop, shutter speed, image quality/size, etc.), or partial record-ing data with five thumbnails at the top showing the current image and the fourimages preceding or following it. (I’ll explain all these options in Chapter 2.)

■ Press the Index/AEL button (to the top right of the LCD) to enter index mode.Then press the DISP button to set the display to 4, 9, or 25 thumbnail images thatcan be scrolled among using the multi-selector.

■ Press the Histogram/C button, beneath the multi-selector, to display the histogram,which provides a graphic representation of the brightness values in the image, alongwith more detailed recording information. I’ll discuss the histogram in detail inChapter 4.

You’ll find more information on viewing thumbnail indexes of images and other imagereview functions in Chapter 2.

Transferring Photos to Your ComputerThe final step in your picture-taking session will be to transfer the photos you’ve takento your computer for printing, further review, or image editing. (You can also take yourmemory card to a retailer for printing if you don’t want to go the do-it-yourself route.)Your Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 allows you to print directly to PictBridge-compatibleprinters and to create print orders right in the camera, plus you can select which imagesto transfer to your computer. I’ll outline those options in Chapter 3.

For now, you’ll probably want to transfer your images by either using a cable transferfrom the camera to the computer or removing the memory card from the Alpha andtransferring the images with a card reader (shown in Figure 1.18). The latter option is

David Busch’s Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Guide to Digital Photography26

Figure 1.18A card readeris the fastestway to trans-fer photos.

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Figure 1.19Images can betransferred to

your computerusing a USB

cable pluggedinto the

USB/Videoport.

usually the best, because it’s usually much faster and doesn’t deplete the battery of yourcamera. However, you can use a cable transfer when you have the cable and a computerbut no card reader (perhaps you’re using the computer of a friend or colleague, or at anInternet café).

To transfer images from a memory card to the computer using a card reader

1. Turn off the camera.

2. Slide open the memory card door, and press on the card eject lever (CF card) or onthe card itself (MS PRO Duo), which causes the card to pop up so it can be removedfrom the slot. (You can see a memory card being removed in Figure 1.8.)

3. Insert the memory card into your memory card reader. Your installed softwaredetects the files on the card and offers to transfer them. (You’ll find descriptions ofyour transfer software options in Chapter 8.) The card can also appear as a massstorage device on your desktop, which you can open and then drag and drop thefiles to your computer.

To transfer images from the camera to a Mac or PC computer using the USB cable

1. Turn off the camera.

2. Open the door on the left side of the camera marked AV-Out and with the USBsymbol, and plug the USB cable furnished with the camera into the USB/Videoport, which is the smaller of the two ports inside this door. Make sure the cable ispushed all the way into the slot. (See Figure 1.19.)

Chapter 1 ■ Getting Started with Your Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 27

USB port

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3. Connect the other end of the USB cable to a USB port on your computer.

4. Turn on the camera. Your installed software usually detects the camera and offersto transfer the pictures, or the camera appears on your desktop as a mass storagedevice, enabling you to drag and drop the files to your computer. I’ll cover usingthe Sony Alpha DSLR-A850’s bundled software to transfer images in Chapter 8.

David Busch’s Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Guide to Digital Photography28

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One thing that always surprises new owners of the Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 is that thecamera has a total of 397 buttons, dials, switches, levers, latches, and knobs bristlingfrom its surface. Okay, I lied. Actually, the real number is closer to two dozen controlsand adjustments, but that’s still a lot of components to master, especially when youconsider that many of these controls serve double-duty to give you access to multiplefunctions.

Traditionally, there have been two ways of providing a roadmap to guide you throughthis maze of features. One approach uses two or three tiny black-and-white line draw-ings or photos impaled with dozens of callouts labeled with cross-references to the actualpages in the book that tell you what these components do. You’ll find this tactic usedin the pocket-sized manual Sony provides with the Sony Alpha DSLR-A850, and mostof the other third-party guidebooks as well. Deciphering one of these miniature cam-era layouts is a lot like being presented with a world globe when what you really wantto know is how to find the capital of Belgium.

I originated a more useful approach in my field guides, providing you, instead of a satel-lite view, a street-level map that includes close-up full-color photos of the camera fromseveral angles (see Figure 2.1), with a smaller number of labels clearly pointing to eachindividual feature. And, I don’t force you to flip back and forth among dozens of pagesto find out what a particular component does. Each photo is accompanied by a briefdescription that summarizes the control, so you can begin using it right away. Onlywhen a particular feature deserves a lengthy explanation do I direct you to a moredetailed write-up later in the book.

2Sony Alpha DSLR-A850

Roadmap

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So, if you’re wondering what the Fn button does, I’ll tell you up front, rather than haveyou flip to pages 37, 46, and 92 of the Sony manual so you can piece together the scat-tered bits of information found there. This book is not a scavenger hunt. But after Iexplain how to use the ISO button to change the sensitivity of the Alpha, I will providea cross-reference to a longer explanation later in the book that clarifies noise reduction,ISO, and its effects on exposure. I’ve had some readers write me and complain abouteven my minimized cross-reference approach; they’d like to open the book to one pageand read everything there is to know about bracketing, for example. Unfortunately, it’simpossible to understand some features without having a background in what relatedfeatures do. So, I’ll provide you with summaries in the introductory chapters, coveringsimple features completely, and relegating some of the really in-depth explanations tolater chapters. I think this kind of organization works best for a camera as sophisticatedas the Sony Alpha.

By the time you finish this chapter, you’ll have a basic understanding of every controland what it does. I’m not going to delve into menu functions here—you’ll find a dis-cussion of your Recording, Setup, Playback, and Custom menu options in Chapter 3.Everything here is devoted to the button pusher and dial twirler in you.

David Busch’s Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Guide to Digital Photography30

Figure 2.1

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Front ViewWhen we picture a given camera, we always imagine the front view. That’s the view thatyour subjects see as you snap away, and the aspect that’s shown in product publicity andon the box. The frontal angle is, essentially, the “face” of a camera like the Sony AlphaDSLR-A850. But, not surprisingly, most of the “business” of operating the camera hap-pens behind it, where the photographer resides. The front of the Alpha actually does nothave many controls and features to worry about. Several of them are most obvious inFigure 2.2:

■ Shutter release button. Angled on top of the handgrip is the shutter release but-ton. Press this button down halfway to lock exposure and focus (in Single-shot AFmode and Automatic AF mode with non-moving subjects). The Alpha assumes thatwhen you tap or depress the shutter release, you are ready to take a picture, so therelease can be tapped to activate the exposure meter or to exit from most menus.

Chapter 2 ■ Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Roadmap 31

Figure 2.2

RemoteinfraredsensorHandgrip

Previewbutton

AF illuminator/self-timer lamp

Memorycard access

door

Frontcontrol

dial

Shutterreleasebutton

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■ Front control dial. When you are using manual exposure, this dial is used to setshutter speed, while the rear control dial is used to set aperture. (Those settings canbe reversed through Custom menu 2, as described in Chapter 3.) This dial is alsoused to change various other shooting settings and for other actions, such as advanc-ing through your images in playback mode and scrolling through menus. We’ll dis-cuss all of those functions as we come to them in later chapters. In some cases, eitherthe front or the rear control dial can be used to carry out the same function.

■ AF illuminator/Self-timer lamp. This LED sends out a beam of red light to illu-minate dark areas as an aid to the autofocus system, by giving the system additionalcontrast to lock onto to achieve sharp focus. You can turn this function off throughRecording menu 3 in case you’re shooting in a location where you don’t want tocall attention to your camera. The same light also flashes while your camera countsdown the 10-second self-timer, flashing slowly at first, then switching to rapid blink-ing followed by a constant glow in the final moments of the countdown.

■ Hand grip. This provides a comfortable handhold, and also contains the Alpha’sbattery.

■ Remote infrared sensor. This little window senses signals from the RemoteCommander, an optional wireless remote control that is available for use with theA850. I’ll discuss the use of this remote control, as well as others, in Chapter 5.

■ Preview button. This button provides a function that is sometimes known as“depth-of-field preview,” and which Sony calls “Intelligent preview.” Essentially, thecamera gives you a glance at how the exposure will look at the current settings andgives you an opportunity to tweak those settings before taking the picture. I’ll dis-cuss this function in more detail in Chapter 4.

Slide open the memory card access door shown in Figure 2.2, and you’ll find a pair ofslots, which accept two different types of memory cards. (See Figure 2.3.)

■ Memory Stick PRO Duo slot. You might own some of the less common MemoryStick PRO Duo cards (because you own other Sony products that use them). Youcan put them to work in your Sony Alpha, too. Insert with the metal contacts fac-ing inwards and towards the front of the camera; the label will face the back of thecamera. Press the edge of the card and release to pop out your memory card.

■ CF card slot. Slide a Compact Flash card into this slot, with the label facing thefront of the camera. To remove the card, press down on the little plastic tab thatsticks up beneath the card’s slot, and the card will pop up so you can pull it out.

David Busch’s Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Guide to Digital Photography32

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You’ll find more controls on the other side of the Alpha, shown in Figure 2.4.

■ Lens release button. Press and hold this button to unlock the lens so you can rotatethe lens to remove it from the camera.

■ Lens mounting index. Match this red-orange index button with a red-orange indi-cator on the camera’s lens mount to line up the two for attaching the lens to theAlpha. (Actually, the index mark visible in Figure 2.4 is the one on the lens; the oneon the camera, which looks similar, is on the lens mount, and hidden by the lensin this view.)

■ Focus mode lever. Turn this switch to the appropriate letter to set the focus modefor the camera: S for Single-shot AF, A for Automatic AF, C for Continuous AF, orMF for Manual focus. I’ll discuss your focus options in detail in Chapter 5.

■ Neck strap mounting ring. Attach the strap that comes with your Alpha to thisring and its counterpart on the other side of the camera, or use a third-party strapof your choice.

■ Flash sync terminal. This is a terminal, protected by the small round cover shown,that lets you connect an external flash unit using a standard flash sync cord with aPC connector. I’ll discuss the use of this terminal in Chapter 7. (See Figure 2.5.)

Chapter 2 ■ Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Roadmap 33

Figure 2.3

Compact Flash card

Memory Stick PRO Duo

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David Busch’s Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Guide to Digital Photography34

Figure 2.4

Figure 2.5

Neck strapmounting ring

Flash sync terminal cover

Lens releasebutton

Lens mountingindex

Focus modelever

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On the left side of the camera (as seen when you’re holding it to take a photo), thereare three small doors. The two farthest forward cover the remote control port (top, inFigure 2.6) and the DC power port (bottom, in Figure 2.6). Open the aft cover to revealthe HDMI port and USB/AV-Out ports. The functions of these four connectors are asfollows:

■ Remote control port. This port is where you connect a wired remote control suchas Sony’s RM-S1AM, which lets you actuate the camera’s shutter without causingthe camera shake that can result from pressing the shutter button. I’ll discuss remotecontrol options in more detail in Chapter 5.

■ DC-In port. This port lets you connect an optional AC adapter such as the AC-PW10AM or the AC-VQ900AM, which also can charge batteries.

■ USB and Audio/Video-Out port. This little port is where you connect either ofthe cables that come as standard accessories with the Sony DSLR-A850—the USBcable for connecting to your computer, or the AV-out cable for connecting to a stan-dard TV set’s video and audio inputs.

■ HDMI port. If you want to link the camera to a high-definition set, you can pur-chase an optional cable that connects a mini-HDMI connector to this port on thecamera (Figure 2.7), and connects a standard HDMI connector to an HDMI porton the TV set. Of course, the Sony DSLR-A850 does not have any video (motionpicture) capability, but you can still view your images at high resolution by usingthis port.

Chapter 2 ■ Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Roadmap 35

Figure 2.6 Figure 2.7

Remotecontrol port

DC-In port

HDMI port

USB/AV-Out port

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The Sony Alpha’s Business EndThe back panel of the Sony Alpha bristles with more than a dozen different controls,buttons, and knobs. That might seem like a lot of controls to learn, but you’ll find, asI noted earlier, that it’s a lot easier to press a dedicated button and spin a dial than tojump to a menu every time you want to change a setting.

The controls on the back panel of the Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 are divided fairly evenlybetween the left and right sides of the body. I’ll discuss most of the controls in separategroupings according to which side of the body they are located on. There are some majorfeatures of the camera that don’t fall readily into either of those groups. Those key com-ponents, which are labeled in Figure 2.8, include the following:

■ Memory card access lamp. When lit or blinking, this lamp indicates that the mem-ory card is being read from or written to. Be careful not to open the memory carddoor or attempt to remove a memory card while this lamp is lit.

David Busch’s Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Guide to Digital Photography36

Figure 2.8

Powerswitch

Eyepieceshutterlever

Viewfinder eyepiece

Diopter-adjustment dial

Eye-Start sensors

Memorycard access

lampLCD

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■ Viewfinder eyepiece. You can frame your composition by peering into theviewfinder. It’s surrounded by a removable soft rubber frame that seals out extra-neous light when pressing your eye tightly up to the viewfinder, and it also protectsyour eyeglass lenses (if worn) from scratching.

■ Eyepiece shutter lever. This little handle, sticking out slightly from the left side ofthe viewfinder eyepiece, is a nice refinement provided by Sony. When you have thecamera on a tripod and your eye is not blocking the light to the viewfinder, justflick this lever down to black out the eyepiece with the built-in shutter to keep extra-neous light from reaching the sensor. With other cameras, you have to attach a sep-arate cover to accomplish this result, or use your hand to block the light; the use ofthe shutter with its lever makes this operation a real snap.

■ Eyepiece sensors. These sensors detect when your face or some other objectapproaches the viewfinder, and turn off the LCD display on the camera’s back. Thisis strictly a power-saving feature; unlike some other cameras, the Sony DSLR-A850does not provide any other functions, such as starting autofocus, through activa-tion of these sensors. There is no way to disable this function.

■ Diopter-adjustment dial. Rotate this to adjust eyesight correction applied whenlooking through the Alpha’s viewfinder, as discussed in Chapter 1.

■ LCD. This is the 3-inch panel that displays the images you have taken as well asinformation about them; the recording information display before a photo issnapped; and all the menus used by the Sony Alpha. In addition, it displays a screenwith detailed shooting information if you use the Preview button to activate thePreview function.

■ Power switch. Push this switch to the right to power the camera on and back to theleft to turn it off. In Chapter 3, I’ll discuss power-saving options, so you won’t haveto worry too much if you forget to turn this switch to the Off position.

The control cluster on the right side of the back of the camera includes these buttons,shown in Figure 2.9:

■ AF/MF/Zoom in. This button has several functions, which differ depending onthe camera’s active mode.

In shooting mode, press this button to switch temporarily between autofocus andmanual focus. You can set this switch to be either a momentary switch that youhave to hold in, or a toggle switch that can be pressed and released, with the AF/MFcontrol option on the Custom menu 1. I’ll discuss your focus options in more detailin Chapter 5.

Chapter 2 ■ Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Roadmap 37

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In playback mode, press this button to zoom in on the image that’s displayed onthe LCD screen, and press again to return to full screen view. When zoomed in,rotate the rear control dial to change from 1.2X to 19X magnification, with 14intermediate steps. (The 19X magnification is available only for RAW and Largeimages; for smaller images, less magnification is available.)

■ Fn (Function) button. In shooting mode, pressing this button pops up the QuickNavi screen, which presents you with options for selecting several shooting settings,depending on whether you have selected the Detailed information display (seeFigure 2.10) or the somewhat abbreviated Enlarged information display. If theDetailed display is active, you can make the following settings: flash mode; expo-sure compensation; flash exposure compensation; ISO; drive mode; AF area; DRO(Dynamic Range Optimization); Creative Style; white balance; image quality andsize; and which type of memory card is installed (Compact Flash or Memory StickPRO Duo). If the Enlarged display is active, you can make all of those settings withthe exception of flash mode, Creative Style, and type of memory card.

David Busch’s Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Guide to Digital Photography38

Figure 2.9

Rear controldial

Multi-selector

SteadyShotswitch

Autoexposure lock/Slow sync

Metering mode lever

AF/MF/Zoom

Custom button/Histogram

Function/Rotate

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In playback mode, press this button to pop up a screen that allows you to rotate theimage 90 degrees with successive presses of the center of the multi-selector (see Figure2.11). All these options will be explained in Chapter 3.

■ Multi-selector/Enter/Spot button. The multi-selector acts as a joystick that lets youmove up, down, left, and right to navigate through various menu options and tomove through your images in playback mode as well as to scroll around in a mag-nified image. In addition, its center button can be used as an Enter key to confirmmenu choices when a menu is shown on the screen. In shooting mode, the multi-selector stick is used to select a focusing point when the AF area is set to Local, andpressing the center button returns the focus point to the center or switches to Spotautofocus. (I’ll discuss autofocus options in Chapters 3 and 5.)

■ AEL/Slow Sync/Index button/In recording mode, press this button to lock theautomatic exposure setting at its current value. Using Custom menu 2, you canchange the behavior of this button in two ways. First, you can choose to have itfunction as a button you have to hold in to keep its setting, or you can set it to havea toggle function, so the exposure will be locked until you press the button again.Second, you can set the button to be either a hold or a toggle button, but with theadditional feature of switching the metering mode to Spot temporarily. I’ll discussexposure options in more detail in Chapter 4. Also, if you have a flash unit attachedto the camera, pressing this button activates Slow Sync shooting, in which the flash

Chapter 2 ■ Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Roadmap 39

Figure 2.10Detailed infor-mation display.

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synchronizes at a slower shutter speed than it would otherwise, so that your expo-sure can be long enough to record the background using ambient light. I’ll discussthis topic in Chapter 7.

In playback mode, this button acts as the Index button. Press it to call up a screenthat shows thumbnails of your images in groups of 4, 9, or 25. Select the numberof thumbnails per index screen with the DISP button. Pressing the Index buttonagain returns you to the single-image screen.

■ Metering mode dial. Turn this dial, which surrounds the AEL button, to selectamong the three available exposure metering modes: Multi segmented, Centerweighted, and Spot. Those modes are discussed in detail in Chapter 4.

■ Rear control dial. This dial, which is very convenient to your right thumb, has avariety of uses, depending on the context. In shooting mode, by default, this dialsets the aperture in manual exposure mode and some other modes, whereas thefront control dial ordinarily adjusts shutter speed; you can reverse those functionsusing Custom menu 2. This dial also is used to scroll through the various screensand values among the menus as well as on the Quick Navi menu screens. In play-back mode, this dial lets you navigate through your images, and it changes the mag-nification level of an image that has been enlarged with the Zoom button.

David Busch’s Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Guide to Digital Photography40

Figure 2.11You can rotatethe image in90-degreeincrementsduring play-back.

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■ Custom/Histogram. In shooting mode, this control functions as the Custom but-ton, letting you call up one option of your choice with a single press. By default, itis set to invoke the Creative Style option, letting you set your style to any of thenumerous options, including Vivid, Deep, Portrait, and the others, a total of 13different choices that can be interchanged among the six styles listed, using themulti-selector (as discussed in Chapter 3). However, using Recording menu 1, youcan change this button’s function to have it call up any of the following items: AFlock, AF/MF control, Optical preview/Intelligent preview, ISO, white balance,exposure compensation, flash exposure compensation, drive mode, AF area, imagesize, image quality, D-Range Optimizer, flash mode, or memory. Several of theseoptions already have their own dedicated buttons: ISO, white balance, exposurecompensation, and drive mode. So, you’re likely to want to select one of the otheroptions to be available instantly through pressing the C button.

In playback mode, this button calls up the histogram, a graphic representation ofthe brightness and color values in your image, along with other detailed informa-tion about the image being displayed, as shown in Figure 2.12. I’ll discuss the histogram in detail in Chapter 4.

Chapter 2 ■ Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Roadmap 41

Figure 2.12The histogram,which provides

informationabout the cur-rent image in

graphic form, iscalled up by

pressing the Cbutton on the

back of thecamera while inplayback mode.

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■ SteadyShot switch. Set this switch to the On position to activate the camera’sSteadyShot image-stabilization feature. As I mentioned earlier, the Sony DSLR-A850 stands out from many other cameras in its class by incorporating stabiliza-tion into the camera body rather than into the individual lenses. When theSteadyShot function is turned on, it senses movement of the camera and shifts thesensor slightly to compensate for the motion. Although no such system can coun-teract very strong movements, Sony says that using this system can gain you between2.5 and 4 EV steps by letting you use a slower shutter speed than you could with-out SteadyShot. When this system is activated, watch the group of one to five greenbars at the far right of the viewfinder and try to hold the camera steady enough tokeep that display down to one or two bars before pressing the shutter button.

The left side of the camera’s back holds a group of four other buttons, which are shownin Figure 2.13.

■ Menu button. Summons/exits the menu system displayed on the rear LCD of theAlpha. When you’re working with submenus, this button also serves to exit a sub-menu and return to the main menu.

David Busch’s Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Guide to Digital Photography42

Figure 2.13

Menu button

DISP

Delete

Playback

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■ DISP button. When in shooting mode, press the DISP button repeatedly to cyclebetween the two recording information displays available while you are taking pho-tos. They are the Detailed display (Figure 2.14) and the Enlarged display (Figure2.15). I’ll describe the data shown in the displays later in this chapter. In playbackmode, press the DISP button to cycle among the three available playback screens:with recording information; with recording information as well as thumbnails ofthe current image and four others; and without recording information. Also, ineither recording or playback mode, if you press and hold the DISP button for alonger time, a scale will pop up for adjusting the screen’s brightness. Move the indi-cator left or right along this scale to dim or brighten the display, using either themulti-selector or the front or rear control dial. Finally, when you are using the cam-era’s menu system, press the DISP button when any line of a menu is displayed,and the camera will display the current version number of its firmware (its built-inoperating software).

Chapter 2 ■ Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Roadmap 43

Figure 2.14

Imagequality

Indicator ofcurrent function

of Fn button

Image size/aspect ratio

Meteringmode

Memorycard

Indicator of current function

of C button

Whitebalance

Remainingexposures

Exposuremode

Shutterspeed

Currentvalues

Exposurevalue scale Aperture

D-RangeOptimizer

ISOsetting

Flash mode

Exposure com-pensation

Flash exposurecompensation

Drive mode

Autofocus mode

Autofocus area

Creative Style

Battery status

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■ Delete button. Press once if you want to delete the image displayed on the LCD.Then use the multi-selector or the front or rear control dial to highlight Delete.Press in on the multi-selector’s center button to confirm your action, or highlightand select Cancel if you change your mind. This button is also used in conjunctionwith the AEL/Index button to confirm the deletion of an entire folder of images.That procedure is described in Chapter 3.

■ Playback button. Displays the last picture taken. Thereafter, you can move backand forth among the available images by pressing the multi-selector to the left orright or by spinning either the front or rear control dial to advance or reverse oneimage at a time. To quit playback, press this button again. The Alpha DSLR-A850also exits playback mode automatically when you press the shutter button (so you’llnever be prevented from taking a picture on the spur of the moment because youhappened to be viewing an image).

David Busch’s Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Guide to Digital Photography44

Figure 2.15Exposure

compensationExposure

modeShutterspeed

Flash exposure

compensation Aperture

Batterystatus

Indicator ofcurrent function

of Fn button

Imagequality

Drivemode

Autofocusarea

Indicator ofcurrent function

of C button

ISO setting

White balance

Remainingexposures

D-RangeOptimizer

Image size/aspect ratio

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Going TopsideThe top surface of the Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 has several frequently accessed controlsof its own. I’ll divide them into two groups for this discussion. The first group is shownin Figure 2.16:

■ Mode dial. Rotate this dial to switch among the automatic, semi-automatic, andmanual exposure modes (Auto, Program, Aperture priority, Shutter priority, andManual), as well as the three numbered user-defined settings. You’ll find these expo-sure modes and options described in more detail in Chapter 4.

■ Accessory/Flash hot shoe. Slide an electronic flash unit into this mount when youneed to use an on-camera flash. A dedicated flash unit, like the HVL-F58AM andothers from Sony, can use the multiple contact points shown to communicate expo-sure, zoom setting, white balance information, and other data between the flashand the camera. There’s more on using electronic flash in Chapter 7. Unfortunately,Sony, like its Minolta predecessors (since 1988), uses a non-standard accessory/flashshoe mount. This keeps you from attaching electronic flash units, radio triggers,and other accessories built for the standard shoe, unless you use one of the adaptersthat are available.

Chapter 2 ■ Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Roadmap 45

Figure 2.16

Neckstrap ring

Modedial

Neckstrap ring

Sensorfocal planeAccessory/

Flash hot shoe

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■ Neck strap rings. Attach your strap to these two anchor points.

■ Sensor focal plane. Precision macro or scientific photography sometimes requiresknowing exactly where the focal plane of the sensor is. The symbol etched on theside of the pentaprism marks that plane.

The second group, which includes more of the operational controls, is shown in Figure2.17.

■ Front control dial. As I mentioned earlier, this versatile dial can control shutterspeed, aperture, and numerous other settings, depending on the context.

■ Shutter release button. Partially depress this button to lock in exposure and focus.Press all the way to take the picture. Tapping the shutter release when the camerahas turned off the autoexposure and autofocus mechanisms reactivates both. Whena review image is displayed on the back-panel color LCD, tapping this buttonremoves the image from the display and reactivates the autoexposure and autofo-cus mechanisms.

David Busch’s Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Guide to Digital Photography46

Figure 2.17

Front controldial

Shutter releasebutton

Drive modebutton

ISO button

Exposurecompensation

button

Display panel

Display panelillumination

button

White balancebutton

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■ Exposure compensation button. Press this button to go directly to a scale for set-ting exposure compensation. With this scale on the LCD display, use the multi-controller or the front or rear control dial to move the indicator left or right to thedegree of negative (darker) or positive (brighter) exposure compensation you want,up to three full steps in either direction. By default, the increments are 0.3 EV,though you can change that setting to 0.5 EV through Recording menu 2. Theexposure compensation button provides a very handy alternative to using the QuickNavi screen to set exposure compensation, which achieves the same result througha few additional button presses.

■ Drive mode button. Press this button to produce a screen that lets you choose adrive mode. Then use the up and down motion of the multi-selector, or use thefront control dial to select from Single-shot adv.; Continuous adv.; Self-timer (with10- and 2-second options available by moving the multi-selector left and right orusing the rear control dial); Bracket: Cont. (three or five shots taken with one shut-ter press, with several options for EV increments); Bracket: Single (similar, exceptthat you press the shutter button for each shot); WB bracket (a series of three shotswith a specified variation in white balance); DRO adv. bracket (similar, but vary-ing the amount of Dynamic Range Optimization); Mirror lockup (which lets youlock the mirror in place before taking the picture, to avoid camera shake); andRemote Commander shooting (either immediately or after a two-second delay)when using the optional RMT-DSLR1 Wireless Remote Commander. You’ll findmore about these drive modes in Chapter 4. Here again, the Drive mode button isa convenient shortcut; you can get to the same options by pressing the Fn buttonand navigating through the Quick Navi screen with the multi-controller.

■ White balance button. This is another of the buttons that gives you immediateaccess to an important function that otherwise would require a trip to the QuickNavi screen using the Fn button. With this button, one push takes you straight tothe screen for selecting among the various white balance options: Auto, Daylight,Shade, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Flash, Color Temperature, Color Filter, andCustom. You navigate through these choices with the vertical motion of the multi-controller or with the front control dial. Use the rear control dial to make furtheradjustments to any of the individual settings. I’ll discuss white balance in moredetail in Chapter 5.

■ ISO button. This button gives you access to a menu for specifying ISO sensor sen-sitivity settings, from ISO 100 to ISO 6400, plus Auto. Scroll down through the listof these choices one line at a time using the multi-selector or the rear control dial.If you prefer to speed through the list, use the front control dial, which moves fromAuto to 100, then jumps in increments of one full EV step, as opposed to the 1/3EV step increments for the other method. If you prefer not to use this button, youcan get to the same selection screen by using the Fn button and navigating throughthe Quick Navi screen. I’ll provide more details about ISO settings in Chapter 4.

Chapter 2 ■ Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Roadmap 47

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■ Display panel. This small LCD panel on top of the camera does not provide a greatdeal of information, but it can serve as a useful way to monitor some aspects of thecamera’s operation. In shooting mode, the display varies according to the context.When you are preparing to take a picture, the display will show the battery status,aperture, shutter speed, and number of shots remaining. When you are adjustingan item such as drive mode, white balance, ISO, or exposure compensation, thepanel will show the settings as you make them, along with battery status. Becauseyou are likely to be using the dedicated buttons on top of the camera along withthe front control dial to make these settings, it is convenient to have a display ontop of the camera, next to those buttons, to show what settings are being made. Inplayback mode, the display shows only battery status.

■ Display panel illumination button. Press this button to turn on the backlight inthe LCD display panel on top of the camera. Press it again to turn off the backlight.

Underneath Your Sony AlphaThe bottom panel of your Sony Alpha is pretty bare. You’ll find a tripod socket, whichsecures the camera to a tripod, and the battery compartment cover. Figure 2.18 showsthe underside view of the camera.

David Busch’s Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Guide to Digital Photography48

Figure 2.18

Tripodsocket

Battery compartment

door

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Lens ComponentsThere’s not a lot going on with most Sony lenses in terms of controls because, in themodern electronic age, most of the functions previously found in lenses in the ancientfilm era, such as autofocus options, are taken care of by the camera itself. Nor do Sonylenses require an on/off switch for image stabilization, because SteadyShot is built intothe camera’s sensor components. Figure 2.19 shows a Sony 50mm f/1.4 lens and itscomponents. In the following list, I’m also going to mention some other features notfound on this particular lens.

■ Lens hood bayonet (not shown). This is used to mount the lens hood for lensesthat don’t use screw-mount hoods (the majority).

■ Zoom ring (not shown). The lens shown here is a prime lens, which provides onlya single focal length. On a zoom lens, which provides a range of focal lengths, youturn this ring to change the zoom setting.

■ Zoom scale (not shown). On a zoom lens, these markings on the lens show the cur-rent focal length selected.

■ Focus ring. This is the ring you turn when you manually focus the lens.

■ Electrical contacts. On the back of the lens (see Figure 2.19) are electrical contactsthat the camera uses to communicate focus, aperture setting, and other information.

Chapter 2 ■ Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Roadmap 49

Figure 2.19

Lens bayonet

Electrical contacts

Focus ring

Distance scale

Aperture scale

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■ Lens bayonet. This mount is used to attach the lens to a matching bayonet on thecamera body.

■ Filter thread (not shown). Lenses (including those with a bayonet lens hoodmount) have a thread on the front for attaching filters and other add-ons. Somealso use this thread for attaching a lens hood (you screw on the filter first, and thenattach the hood to the screw thread on the front of the filter). The lens shown heretakes filters with a 55mm diameter.

■ Distance scale (partially shown). Some upscale lenses, including the Zeiss opticsand the lens shown here, have this readout that rotates in unison with the lens’sfocus mechanism to show the distance at which the lens has been focused. It’s a use-ful indicator for double-checking autofocus, roughly evaluating depth-of-field, andfor setting manual focus guesstimates.

LCD Panel ReadoutsThe Sony Alpha DSLR-A850’s generously expansive 3-inch color LCD shows you justabout everything you need to see, from your own images to a collection of informa-tional data displays. Here’s an overview of these displays. The recording informationdisplays, shown earlier in Figures 2.14 and 2.15, normally appear on the LCD whenyou’re shooting photos. Because the camera is equipped with an always-on eyepiece sen-sor feature, the recording information display will vanish when you bring the Alpha upto your face, or when the viewfinder is near any other object. (Press the DISP buttonto produce it if you want to activate this display when it is not active.) When you rotatethe camera to shoot vertical pictures, the text and icons on the recording informationdisplays automatically re-orient themselves, too, for easy viewing. If for some reason youdon’t want any display to appear on the screen while you’re shooting, you can turn itoff by pressing the DISP button while the Enlarged display is on the screen.

The information shown in the Detailed and Enlarged recording information displaysincludes the following information, with not all of the data available all the time, andthe two types of screens showing slightly different types of data. I’ve indicated belowwhich information is available in only the Detailed display mode.

■ Exposure mode. Shows whether you’re using Auto, Program, Aperture priority,Shutter priority, or Manual mode. (If you have set the mode dial to one of the threeavailable custom settings, the screen switches to a memory recall screen that showsthe shooting settings that are in effect. I’ll discuss the use of these custom settingsin Chapter 3.)

■ Shutter speed. Shows the current shutter speed.

■ Aperture. Displays the current f/stop.

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■ Flash mode. Provides flash mode information when you have attached a flash thatcommunicates with the camera through the hot shoe.

■ Drive mode. Shows the current setting for drive mode, which includes Single-shotadv.; Continuous adv.; Self-timer (10- and 2-second options); Bracket: Cont.;Bracket: Single; WB bracket; DRO adv. bracket; Mirror lockup; and RemoteCommander shooting (either immediately or after a two-second delay) when usingthe optional RMT-DSLR1 Wireless Remote Commander.

■ Exposure compensation. Displays whether exposure compensation is in effect. InDetailed display mode, the amount of EV correction is shown by an indicator andscale; in Enlarged mode, it’s shown by a numerical value. If you’re shooting inManual exposure mode, this item is labeled M.M. for Metered Manual, and theindicator on the EV scale of the Detailed display, or the numerical value on theEnlarged display, indicates whether your manual shutter speed and exposure set-tings are in agreement with the camera’s metering.

■ Battery status. Remaining battery life is indicated by this icon.

■ Image quality. Your image quality setting (JPEG X.Fine, JPEG Fine, JPEGStandard, RAW, RAW+JPEG, cRAW, or cRAW+JPEG).

■ Image size/Aspect ratio. Shows whether you are shooting Large, Medium, or Smallresolution JPEG images, and whether the Alpha DSLR-A850 is set for the 3:2aspect ratio or wide-screen 16:9 aspect ratio (the icon changes to a “stretched” ver-sion to indicate 16:9).

■ Memory card (Detailed display mode only). Indicates whether a Compact Flashor Memory Stick PRO Duo card is being used.

■ Remaining exposures. Shows the approximate number of shots remaining on thememory card, given the current shooting settings.

■ ISO settings. Indicates the sensor ISO sensitivity setting.

■ Flash exposure compensation. This item shows the amount of flash exposure com-pensation in effect, if any. It is shown by the position of an indicator on a scale inthe Detailed display and by a numerical value in the Enlarged display.

■ Focus mode (Detailed only). Tells whether AF-S, AF-C, or AF-A autofocus mode,or Manual focus mode, is active, as described in Chapters 1 and 5.

■ Autofocus area. Shows the autofocus area mode in use: Wide (the camera choosesone of the nine AF areas to use, or the center area when the multi-selector’s centerbutton is pressed); Spot (the camera uses the center AF area exclusively); or Local(you choose which of the nine areas to use). I’ll explain autofocus options in moredetail in Chapter 5.

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■ Metering mode (Detailed only). The icons represent Multi segment, Centerweighted, or Spot exposure metering. (See Chapter 4 for more detail.)

■ Creative Style (Detailed only). Indicates which of the Creative Style settings is beingapplied.

■ White balance. Shows current white balance setting.

■ D-Range Optimizer. Indicates the degree of Dynamic Range Optimization (high-light/shadow enhancement) in use. The options are Standard, Advanced, Levels 1-5, or Off, as described in Chapter 5.

When reviewing images you’ve taken (press the Playback button to summon the lastshot exposed to the LCD), the Alpha DSLR-A850 shows you a picture for review; youcan select from among three different information overlays. To switch among them,press the DISP button while the image is on the screen. The LCD will cycle among thesingle image display with no data shown at all (Figure 2.20); single image display withfull recording data (Figure 2.21); and single image display with limited recording dataand thumbnails of five images at the top of the screen, including the current one andfour preceding or succeeding images (Figure 2.22). As noted earlier, if you want to seethe histogram, you can summon it, along with detailed recording information, with apress of the C button on the back of the camera.

David Busch’s Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Guide to Digital Photography52

Figures 2.20, 2.21, 2.22 Image playback displays include single image, single image with full recordinginformation, and single image with limited recording information with five thumbnail images.

Looking Inside the ViewfinderMuch of the important shooting status information is shown inside the viewfinder ofthe Sony Alpha DSLR-A850. As with the displays shown on the color LCD, not all ofthis information will be shown at any one time. Figure 2.23 shows what you can expectto see when you’re preparing to take a picture with your current settings. I’ll explain allof these readouts later in this book, with those pertaining to exposure in Chapter 4, andthose relating to flash in Chapter 7.

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These readouts include the following:

■ Image area for 16:9 aspect ratio. These four lines, arranged in pairs at the topand bottom of the viewfinder, can be used as your guideline for framing imageswhen the Alpha is set to shoot using a 16:9 (HDTV) aspect ratio, as described inChapter 3.

■ AF area. The four brackets show the area in which the Alpha’s nine autofocus sen-sors operate.

■ Autofocus sensors. The nine small lines in the center of the viewfinder area showthe positions of the main sensors used by the Alpha to focus. (There also are tenother sensors in this same general area that are not visible to the user.) The cameracan select the appropriate focus zone for you, or you can manually select the zone,as described in Chapters 1 and 5.

Chapter 2 ■ Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Roadmap 53

Figure 2.23 Spotmetering

area

Centerautofocus

spot

Image areafor 16:9

aspect ratio

FocusHigh-speedsync

Flash compensation

Shutterspeed

Aperture EVscale

AElock

Shotsremaining

Camerashake

warning

SteadyShotscale

16:9aspectratio

Manual focus

Wireless flash

Flash charging

Autofocus area

Autofocus sensors

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■ Autofocus center spot. This marks the ninth autofocus sensor, which is a cross-typesensor that operates in both horizontal and vertical directions.

■ Flash charging indicator. This icon flashes when a flash unit attached to the hotshoe is charging, and it is solidly lit when the flash is fully charged.

■ Flash exposure compensation. This symbol appears when flash EV changes havebeen made, if a compatible flash unit is attached via the camera’s hot shoe.

■ Wireless flash. This icon appears when you are using an external flash that is notattached to the camera but linked through wireless mode. You can read about thiscapability in Chapter 7.

■ High-speed sync. You can synchronize Sony’s external flash units with any shutterspeed using high-speed sync mode. This icon appears when you are using thatmode. Read about it in Chapter 7.

■ Manual focus. The MF indicator appears when you have set the camera for man-ual focus, using the switch on the side of the camera, or when you are using a man-ual focus lens.

■ Focus status. Shows current focus status: an illuminated circle when focus is locked;a circle flanked by round brackets when focus is confirmed, but the Alpha is stillfollowing the movement of a non-stationary object; a set of circular brackets whenthe camera is still focusing; or a flashing circle when the Alpha is unable to focusand has locked the shutter release.

■ Shutter speed/aperture readouts. These readouts show the current shutter speedand aperture.

■ EV scale. This scale shows the current exposure level, with the indicator centeredwhen the exposure is correct as metered. The indicator will also move to the left orright to indicate negative or positive exposure compensation, or under- or overex-posure when you are shooting in Manual exposure mode. When you are using expo-sure bracketing, three or five indicators appear on the scale, showing the relativeexposure of each bracketed image.

■ Camera shake warning. If the Alpha DSLR-A850 is selecting the shutter speed (inAUTO, Program, or Aperture priority mode), this alert appears when the shutterspeed is so slow that camera shake is likely to cause blurring. That’s your signal touse SteadyShot or to mount your camera on a tripod. Or, you can find a way to usea faster shutter speed.

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Here’s one point to watch out for: In Manual or Shutter priority mode, the camera willnot give you the shake warning, even if you have chosen a shutter speed that is too slowto avoid blurring. The camera’s thought process here is, “Okay, you picked this shutterspeed; I hope you know what you’re doing; I’m not going to say anything.” You will stillsee the bars indicating the degree to which SteadyShot is correcting for camera shake,though, if SteadyShot is turned on.

■ SteadyShot scale. When SteadyShot is active, this scale shows the relative amountof camera shake that SteadyShot is dealing with. High levels of shake show more“bars” on the scale. You should wait until the number of bars decreases before shoot-ing, as that indicates that camera shake is under control.

■ 16:9 aspect ratio. This indicator shows that you have set the Alpha to captureimages using the cropped 16:9 (HDTV) aspect ratio, rather than the normal 3:2ratio.

■ Shots remaining. Displays a number that indicates the number of frames that canbe taken continuously (that is, with drive mode set to Continuous adv.) using thecurrent settings. If that number is greater than 9, the display shows 9; it has only asingle digit available and cannot go higher than that. The number of shots avail-able varies with the Quality setting of your images. For example, when shootingRAW, you can expect to shoot about 16 images at full speed; after that, the camerawill keep shooting, but at a slower rate.

One particularly helpful feature of the viewfinder of the Sony DSLR-A850 is that it alsoprovides information when you are changing settings. For example, if you use the fourbuttons on the top right of the camera to adjust their respective settings (exposure com-pensation, drive mode, white balance, and ISO), those settings appear in the display asyou adjust them, without a need to remove your eye from the viewfinder.

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The Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 has a remarkable number of options and settings you canuse to customize the way your camera operates. Not only can you change shooting set-tings used at the time the picture is taken, but you can adjust the way your camerabehaves. This chapter will help you sort out the settings for all the Alpha’s menus. Theseinclude the Recording and Playback menus, which determine how the Alpha uses manyof its shooting features to take a photo and how it displays images on review. I’ll alsoshow you how to use the Custom menu to fine-tune the use of various controls. Finally,we’ll explore the use of the Setup menu to adjust power-saving timers, control thebrightness of the LCD display, manage file-numbering, and several other options.

This book isn’t intended to replace the manual you received with your Alpha, nor haveI any interest in rehashing its contents. You’ll still find the original manual useful as astandby reference that lists every possible option in exhaustive (if mind-numbing)detail—without really telling you how to use those options to take better pictures. Thereis, however, some unavoidable duplication between the Sony manual and this chapter,because I’m going to explain all the key menu choices and the options you may have inusing them. You should find, though, that I will give you the information you need ina much more helpful format, with plenty of detail on why you should make some set-tings that are particularly difficult to understand.

I’m not going to waste a lot of space on some of the more obvious menu choices in thesechapters. For example, you can probably figure out, even without my help, that theAudio signals option deals with the solid-state beeper in your camera that sounds offduring various activities (such as confirmation of focus and the self-timer countdown).

3Setting Up Your Sony

Alpha DSLR-A850

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You can certainly decipher the import of the two options available for the Audio signalssetting (On and Off ). In this chapter, I’ll devote no more than a sentence or two to theblatantly obvious settings and concentrate on the more confusing aspects of Alpha setup,such as Autofocus. I’ll start with an overview of using the Alpha’s menus themselves.

Anatomy of the Sony Alpha’s MenusThe Alpha DSLR-A850 has one of the best-designed menu systems of any digital SLRin its price class, with a remarkable amount of consistency with other cameras in theSony product line. The menu system will be quite familiar in its structure and opera-tion to anyone who has used the Alpha DSLR-A700, for example, though, of course,several of the menu options are different, as would be expected with a camera like theA850, which, as a professional-level camera, does not include some features of the A700,such as scene modes or a built-in flash unit.

The Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 has a series of four separate tabbed menus, each withmultiple numbered screens of entries: Recording 1-4, Custom 1-3, Playback 1-2, andSetup 1-4, for a total of 13 menu screens. You’ll never need to scroll down within amenu screen to see all the entries, because you can scroll horizontally across the top lineof the menu system and navigate easily from one numbered menu screen to the next,each of which is fully contained within the space of the LCD display. If you scroll downto the bottom of any given menu, and then past the last entry, you’ll be taken auto-matically to the first entry at the top of the next screen. If the camera goes to “sleep”while you’re reviewing a menu, you may need to wake it up again by tapping the shut-ter release button.

The menus are very easy to access. Just press the Menu button, located in the upper-left corner of the back of the camera, and use the left/right motion of the multi-selec-tor to highlight the menu tab you want to access, and then use the up/down motion ofthe multi-selector to highlight the menu entry you want. Alternatively, you may find itquicker to scroll horizontally through the various menu tabs and screens with the rearcontrol dial, and to navigate up and down through the individual screens with the frontcontrol dial. What could be easier?

Of course, not everything is set using these menus. The Alpha DSLR-A850 also hasdirect setting controls, such as buttons that bypass the multilayered menu system to pro-vide quick access to some features. For example, the drive, white balance, exposure com-pensation, and ISO settings can be accessed by pressing the dedicated buttons assignedto those functions on the top right of the camera. And even more direct-access adjust-ments are available when you press the Fn (Function) button, which produces the QuickNavi screen, introduced in Chapters 1 and 2 and discussed in more detail later in thischapter.

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When working with any of these different menus, after you’ve moved the orange high-lighting bar with the up/down motion of the multi-selector (or the front control dial)to the menu item you want to work with, press in on the multi-selector’s center buttonto select the item. A submenu with a list of options for the selected menu item willappear. Within the submenu options, you can scroll with the multi-selector (or withthe front control dial, and sometimes also with the rear control dial) to choose a set-ting, and then press the multi-selector’s center button to confirm the choice you’vemade. Press the Menu button again to exit the menu system.

Recording Menu 1/2/3/4 OptionsThe various direct setting buttons and switches on the Alpha DSLR-A850 control itemssuch as autofocus mode, metering mode, drive mode, ISO, white balance, and expo-sure compensation. These are likely to be the most common settings you make, withchanges during a particular shooting session fairly common. You also may make fre-quent use of the camera’s Quick Navi screen to change those items and others, includ-ing Dynamic Range Optimization, image quality and size, and Creative Styles. (I’ll bediscussing the Quick Navi screen later in this chapter.)

After the direct settings with buttons and switches and the use of the Quick Navi screen,it’s likely that the Recording menu options are those that you access next most frequentlywhen you’re using your Sony Alpha. You might make such adjustments as you begin ashooting session, or when you move from one type of subject to another. Sony makesaccessing these changes very easy.

Figure 3.1 shows the Recording menu 1.

The next section explains the options of the four Recording menu screens and how touse them.

■ Image size ■ ISO Auto Range

■ Aspect ratio ■ AF-A setup

■ Quality ■ AF area

■ D-Range Optimizer ■ Priority setup

■ Custom button ■ AF illuminator

■ Creative Style ■ AF w/ shutter

■ Color Space ■ Long exposure NR

■ Flash mode ■ High ISO NR

■ Flash control ■ Memory

■ Flash compensation ■ Rec mode reset

■ Exposure step

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Image SizeOptions: Large, Medium, and Small

Default: L:24M (Large)

Here you can choose between the A850’s Large, Medium, and Small image settings foryour JPEG images. (For RAW or cRAW images, there is no Image size setting, becausethose images are always at maximum resolution.) Select this menu option, and use theup/down multi-controller or the front or rear control dial to choose L, M, or S. Thenpress the multi-selector’s center button to confirm your choice. The resolution of eachof these options depends on whether you’re using the standard 3:2 aspect ratio or theoptional 16:9 HDTV aspect ratio (described next). Table 3.1 provides a comparison.The top half of the table shows the image sizes when you are using the full extent of thecamera’s full-frame sensor; the bottom half of the table shows the image sizes when youare using only the APS-C area on the sensor, which is the case when you are using a lensdesigned for cameras with the smaller sensor.

There are few reasons to use anything other than the Large setting when shooting withthe DSLR-A850, even if reduced resolution is sufficient for your application, such asphoto ID cards or web display. Starting with a full-size image gives you greater freedomfor cropping and fixing problems with your image editor. An 800 × 600-pixel web image

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Figure 3.1The SonyAlpha DSLR-A850’sRecordingmenu 1.

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created from a full-resolution original often ends up better than one that started out ata reduced resolution of, say, 1984 × 1320 pixels.

Of course, the Medium and Small full-frame settings make it possible to squeeze morepictures onto your memory card, and when you’re working with an A850, even theSmall image size is 6.1 MP, a size that is nothing to sneeze at—it’s a resolution thatapproaches the maximum of some very fine cameras of the last few years. Smaller imagesizes might come in handy in situations where your storage is limited and/or you don’thave the opportunity to offload the pictures you’ve taken to your computer. For exam-ple, if you’re on vacation and plan to make only 4 × 6-inch snapshot prints, a lower res-olution can let you stretch your memory card’s capacity. The A850 can fit 1,174 of those6.1 MP Small shots in JPEG Fine quality mode onto a 4GB memory card. Most of thetime, however, it makes more sense to simply buy more memory cards and use yourcamera at its maximum full-frame resolution.

Aspect RatioOptions: 3:2, 16:9 aspect ratios

Default: 3:2

The aspect ratio is simply the proportions of your image as stored in your image file.The standard aspect ratio for digital photography is approximately 3:2; the image istwo-thirds as tall as it is wide. These proportions conform to those of the most com-mon snapshot size in the USA, 4 × 6 inches. Of course, if you want to make a standard8 × 10-inch enlargement, you’ll need to trim some image area from either end, or uselarger paper and end up with an 8 × 12-inch print. However, chances are you will be

Chapter 3 ■ Setting Up Your Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 61

Table 3.1 Image Sizes Available on the DSLR-A850

Full Frame Megapixels 3:2 Resolution 3:2 Megapixels 16:9 Resolution 16:9 Format Aspect Ratio Aspect Ratio Aspect Ratio Aspect Ratio

Large (L) 24 MP 6048 × 4032 21 MP 6048 × 3408

Medium (M) 13 MP 4400 × 2936 11 MP 4400 × 2472

Small (S) 6.1 MP 3024 × 2016 5.2 MP 3024 × 1704

APS-C Format

Large (L) 11 MP 3984 × 2656

Medium (M) 5.6 MP 2896 × 1928

Small (S) 2.6 MP 1984 × 1320

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quite happy with the 3:2 aspect ratio, because you are lucky enough to own a full-framedigital SLR that has a native 3:2 aspect ratio. The full-frame sensor of the A850 isapproximately 36mm × 24mm, the same as a frame of 35mm film.

If you’re looking for images that will “fit” a wide-screen computer display, or a high def-inition television, the DSLR-A850 can be switched to produce images with a 16:9 aspectratio that is much wider than it is tall. The camera performs this feat by cutting off thetop and bottom of the frame, and storing a reduced resolution image (as shown in Table3.1). Your 24 MP image becomes a 21 MP shot in 16:9 mode, and a 13 MP photo-graph is trimmed to 11 MP. If you need the wide-screen look, the 16:9 aspect ratio willsave you some time in image editing, but you can also achieve the same proportions (or any other aspect ratio) by trimming a full-resolution image in your editor. As withthe other basic menu choices in this chapter, just navigate to the entry, press the multi-selector’s center button, choose the option you want, and press the multi-selector’s cen-ter button again to confirm your choice.

QualityOptions: RAW, cRAW, RAW & JPEG, cRAW & JPEG, Extra Fine, Fine, Standard

Default: Fine

You can choose the image quality settings used by the Alpha DSLR-A850 to store itsfiles. You have seven options to choose from within this menu entry: RAW, cRAW, RAW& JPEG, cRAW & JPEG, Extra Fine, Fine, and Standard. (The three latter options areJPEG formats.) Here’s what you need to know to choose intelligently:

■ JPEG compression. To reduce the size of your image files and allow more photosto be stored on a given memory card, the Alpha DSLR-A850 uses JPEG compres-sion to squeeze the images down to a smaller size. This compacting reduces theimage quality a little, so you’re offered your choice of Extra Fine, Fine, and Standardcompression. Extra Fine should really be your standard, because it offers the bestimage quality of the three JPEG options.

■ JPEG, RAW (or cRAW), or both. You can elect to store only JPEG versions of theimages you shoot (Fine and Standard), or you can save your photos as “unprocessed”RAW files, which consume considerably more space on your memory card. Or, youcan store both formats at once as you shoot. (I’ll talk about cRAW, your otheroption, a bit later. For these purposes, consider it the same as RAW.) Many pho-tographers elect to save both JPEG and a RAW file (RAW & JPEG), so they’ll havea JPEG version that might be usable as-is, as well as the original “digital negative”RAW file in case they want to do some processing of the image later. You’ll end upwith two different versions of the same file: one with a JPG extension, and one withthe ARW extension that signifies a Sony RAW.

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As I noted under Image size, there are some limited advantages to using the Mediumand Small resolution settings, and similar space-saving benefits accrue to the StandardJPEG compression setting. They all allow stretching the capacity of your memory cardso you can shoehorn quite a few more pictures onto a single memory card. That cancome in useful when on vacation and you’re running out of storage, or when you’reshooting non-critical work that doesn’t require full resolution (such as photos taken forreal estate listings, web page display, photo ID cards, or similar applications). Some pho-tographers like to record RAW+JPEG Extra Fine so they’ll have a JPEG file for review,while retaining access to the original RAW file for serious editing.

But for most work, using lower resolution and extra compression is false economy. Younever know when you might actually need that extra bit of picture detail. Your best betis to have enough memory cards to handle all the shooting you want to do until youhave the chance to transfer your photos to your computer or a personal storage device.

JPEG vs. RAWYou’ll sometimes be told that RAW files are the “unprocessed” image information yourcamera produces, before it’s been modified. That’s nonsense. RAW files are no moreunprocessed than your camera film is after it’s been through the chemicals to producea negative or transparency. A lot can happen in the developer that can affect the qual-ity of a film image—positively and negatively—and, similarly, your digital image under-goes a significant amount of processing before it is saved as a RAW file. Sony even appliesa name (BIONZ) to the dual digital image processing (DIP) chips used to perform thismagic in the Sony Alpha DSLR-A850.

A RAW file is more similar to a film camera’s processed negative. It contains all the infor-mation, with no compression, no sharpening, no application of any special filters orother settings you might have specified when you took the picture. Those settings arestored with the RAW file so they can be applied when the image is converted to a formcompatible with your favorite image editor. However, using RAW conversion softwaresuch as Adobe Camera Raw or Sony’s Image Data Converter SR, you can override thosesettings and apply settings of your own. You can select essentially the same changes therethat you might have specified in your camera’s picture-taking options.

RAW exists because sometimes we want to have access to all the information capturedby the camera, before the camera’s internal logic has processed it and converted theimage to a standard file format. RAW doesn’t save as much space as JPEG. What it doesdo is preserve all the information captured by your camera after it’s been converted fromanalog to digital form.

So, why don’t we always use RAW? Although some photographers do save only in RAWformat, it’s more common to use either RAW plus the JPEG option, or just shoot JPEGand eschew RAW altogether. While RAW is overwhelmingly helpful when an imageneeds to be fine-tuned, in other situations working with a RAW file can slow you down

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significantly. RAW images take longer to store on the memory card, and require morepost-processing effort, whether you elect to go with the default settings in force whenthe picture was taken, or make minor adjustments.

As a result, those who depend on speedy access to images or who shoot large numbersof photos at once may prefer JPEG over RAW. Wedding photographers, for example,might expose several thousand photos during a bridal affair and offer hundreds to clientsas electronic proofs for inclusion in an album. Wedding shooters take the time to makesure that their in-camera settings are correct, minimizing the need to post-process pho-tos after the event. Given that their JPEGs are so good, there is little need to get boggeddown shooting RAW. Sports photographers also avoid RAW files for similar reasons.

JPEG was invented as a more compact file format that can store most of the informa-tion in a digital image, but in a much smaller size. JPEG predates most digital SLRs,and was initially used to squeeze down files for transmission over slow dialup connec-tions. Even if you were using an early dSLR with 1.3 megapixel files for news photog-raphy, you didn’t want to send them back to the office over a modem at 1,200 bps.

But, as I noted, JPEG provides smaller files by compressing the information in a waythat loses some image data. JPEG remains a viable alternative because it offers severaldifferent quality levels. At the highest quality Extra Fine level, you might not be able totell the difference between the original RAW file and the JPEG version. With Standardcompression, you’ll usually notice a quality loss when making big enlargements or crop-ping your image tightly.

In my case, I shoot virtually everything at RAW & JPEG. Most of the time, I’m notconcerned about filling up my memory cards, as I usually have a minimum of threememory cards with me. If I know I may fill up all those cards, I have a tiny battery-operated personal storage device that can copy a typical card in about 15 minutes. As Imentioned earlier, when shooting sports I’ll shift to JPEG Extra Fine (with no RAWfile) to squeeze a little extra speed out of my Alpha’s continuous shooting mode, and toreduce the need to wade through long series of photos taken in RAW format. On theother hand, on my last trip to Europe, I took only RAW photos and transferred moreimages onto my netbook, as I planned on doing at least some post processing on manyof the images for a travel book I was working on.

RAW vs. cRAWWith the Sony Alpha DSLR-A850, you have one more quality option to consider: thecRAW format, in which the “c” stands” for “compressed.” This is a bit confusing. Wejust got finished discussing how RAW files are uncompressed, whereas JPEG files havevarying degrees of compression, which lowers their quality somewhat compared to RAWfiles. Now along comes cRAW. How can a RAW file be compressed, yet not be a JPEG?Well, chalk one up to the expertise of computer scientists, who indeed figured out a wayto preserve the benefits of the RAW format but squeeze significantly more files into the

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same amount of digital storage capacity. For example, on my A850, with a 16GBCompact Flash card, I can store about 423 RAW files on the card, but I can storeapproximately 627 cRAW files on the same card, only 60 fewer than the 687 that canbe stored in JPEG Extra Fine quality.

In working with RAW and cRAW files, I have found no noticeable difference in qual-ity. The one possible caveat to bear in mind when using cRAW is that you should checka few cRAW shots with your preferred photo-editing software to make sure the programcan process this format before you take hundreds of important shots. I have had noproblems using cRAW with Adobe Photoshop CS4, though, and it seems to be a verysolid format. If your software recognizes it, there’s no reason not to take advantage ofthe added number of shots that can be stored on your Compact Flash or Memory StickPRO Duo cards.

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MANAGING LOTS OF FILES

The only long-term drawback to shooting everything in RAW (or cRAW) & JPEG is thatit’s easy to fill up your computer’s hard drive if you are a prolific photographer. Here’swhat I do. My most recent photos are stored on my working hard drive in a numberedfolder, say Alpha-01, with subfolders named after the shooting session, such as100202Groundhog, for pictures of groundhogs taken on February 2, 2010. An automaticutility called Allway Sync copies new and modified photos to a different hard drive forbackup as soon as they appear.

When the top-level folder accumulates about 30GB of images, I back it up to multipleDVDs and then move the folder to a drive dedicated solely for storage of folders thathave already been backed up onto DVD. Then I start a new folder, such as Alpha-02, onthe working hard drive and repeat the process. I always have at least one backup of everyimage taken, either on another hard drive or on a DVD.

D-Range OptimizerOptions: Off, Standard, Advanced Auto, Advanced Levels 1-5

The brightness/darkness range of many images is so broad that the sensor has difficultycapturing both the brightest highlight areas and the darkest shadow areas. The AlphaDSLR-A850 is able to expand its dynamic range using the D-Range Optimizer feature,which is available in Standard and Advanced options from this menu entry. From themenu, select Standard to achieve a general reduction in contrast so as to lighten theshadows and correct for a highly contrasty scene. Select Advanced Auto for a more“intelligent” setting, in which the camera’s circuitry will analyze the image and alter thecontrast in those areas where lightening of the shadows appears to be beneficial. Youalso can select Advanced at levels 1 through 5, which will apply corrections at the level

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you choose, regardless of whether the camera believes any correction is necessary. Notethat the use of Advanced Auto may slow down continuous shooting. Also, D-RangeOptimization does not affect RAW files except when set to Standard. I’ll provide tipsand examples to explain this feature further in Chapter 5.

Custom ButtonOptions: AF lock, AF/MF control, Optical preview/Intelligent preview, ISO, whitebalance, exposure compensation, flash compensation, Drive mode, AF area, imagesize, Quality, Creative Style, D-Range Optimizer, flash mode, memory

Default: Creative Style

This menu option lets you reassign the function of the C button, which is located onthe back of the camera, just below the multi-selector. This is a prime location, quiteconvenient to your right thumb, so it’s a good idea to select a function for it that suitsyour shooting preferences. Of course, you may wish to stick with the default assignmentof Creative Style, which has the advantage of letting the “C” stand for the function youget from pressing the button, but give this some thought. I would suggest you don’twant to set the button to call up ISO, white balance, exposure compensation, or drivemode, all of which have their own dedicated buttons on top of the camera. So, the deci-sion really boils down to what type of shooting you do, and what settings you changemost often.

Creative StyleOptions: Standard, Vivid, Neutral, Clear, Deep, Light, Portrait, Landscape, Sunset,Night view, Autumn leaves, B/W, Sepia

Parameters: Contrast, Saturation, Sharpness, Brightness, Zone

Default: Standard

The Creative Style option lets you choose from the above 13 different preset combina-tions of contrast, saturation, sharpness, brightness, and Zone matching (a function thatadjusts the image to avoid under- or overexposure). This option also lets you furthertweak those five parameters to your own taste. Then you can take your six favorite set-tings from among the 13 and assign those to semi-permanent slots in the menu system.

From the Creative Style menu option, use the up/down multi-selector or the front con-trol dial to scroll to the preset style you want. If you want to shoot using that style withno further adjustments, press the center button of the multi-selector to confirm yourchoice, then start shooting. If you want to tweak any or all of the five parameters, moveto the right portion of the menu screen with the multi-selector or the rear control dial,then move to the parameter(s) you want to change, and move their values up and downas you wish.

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As I noted, you can assign any one of the 13 styles to any one of the six numbered slotsthat are available on the menu. For example, let’s suppose you want to change the thirdnumbered style, Neutral, to Deep. Here are the steps to follow:

■ From the Recording menu 1 (or from the Quick Navi screen or from pressing theC button), highlight Creative Style, then press the center button of the multi-selec-tor to select it.

■ Using either the multi-selector’s stick or the front control dial, move the highlightblock down to the third numbered entry, Neutral.

■ With the Neutral style highlighted, use either the multi-selector’s stick or the rearcontrol dial to move the highlight block into the right side of the menu screen, onthe list of styles. The Neutral style will be highlighted, because that is the currentassignment of the third numbered slot.

■ Use the multi-selector’s stick or the front control dial to scroll to the style that youwant as the new assignment for this numbered slot. In this case, scroll down twosteps until the Deep style is highlighted.

■ If you look over at the left side of the menu screen, you will see that Deep is nowlisted as style number 3. Now you can go ahead and tweak that style with the param-eters on the right side of the screen, or change the assignments to other slots.

■ When you’re done making changes, press the Menu button to exit the menu sys-tem. Now you have the Deep style added to your list of six styles that are readilyaccessible, and Neutral has been temporarily sent to the sidelines.

I explain the “looks” of each of the Creative Style options in Chapter 5.

Color SpaceOptions: sRGB/Adobe RGB

Default: sRGB

The Alpha DSLR-A850’s Color Space option, the last entry on the first page of theRecording menu, gives you the choice of two different color spaces (also called colorgamuts), one named Adobe RGB (because it was developed by Adobe Systems in 1998),and the other named sRGB (supposedly because it is the standard RGB color space).These two color gamuts define a specific set of colors that can be applied to the imagesyour Alpha captures.

You’re probably surprised that the Alpha doesn’t automatically capture all the colors wesee. Unfortunately, that’s impossible because of the limitations of the sensor and the fil-ters used to capture the fundamental red, green, and blue colors, as well as that of thephosphors used to display those colors on your camera and computer monitors. Nor is

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it possible to print every color our eyes detect, because the inks or pigments used don’tabsorb and reflect colors perfectly.

Instead, the colors that can be reproduced by a given device are represented as a colorspace that exists within the full range of colors we can see. That full range is representedby the odd-shaped splotch of color shown in Figure 3.2, as defined by scientists at aninternational organization back in 1931. The colors possible with Adobe RGB are rep-resented by the larger, black triangle in the figure, while the sRGB gamut is representedby the smaller white triangle.

Regardless of which triangle—or color space—is used by the Alpha, you end up with16.8 million different colors that can be used in your photograph. (No one image willcontain all 16.8 million!) But, as you can see from the figure, the colors available willbe different.

Adobe RGB is what is often called an expanded color space, because it can reproduce arange of colors that is spread over a wider range of the visual spectrum. Adobe RGB isuseful for commercial and professional printing.

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ADOBE RGB vs. sRGB

You might prefer sRGB, which is the default for the Sony Alpha cameras, as it is wellsuited for the colors displayed on a computer screen and viewed over the Internet. ThesRGB setting is recommended for images that will be output locally on the user’s ownprinter, or at a retailer’s automated kiosk.

Adobe RGB is an expanded color space useful for commercial and professional printing,and it can reproduce a wider range of colors. It can also be beneficial if an image is goingto be extensively retouched within an image editor. You don’t need to automatically“upgrade” your camera to Adobe RGB, because images tend to look less saturated onyour monitor and, it is likely, significantly different from what you will get if you outputthe photo to your personal inkjet.

Strictly speaking, both sRGB and Adobe RGB can reproduce the exact same absolutenumber of colors (16.8 million when reduced to 8 bits per channel from the original cap-ture). Adobe RGB spreads those colors over a larger space, much like a giant box ofcrayons in which some of the basic colors have been removed and replaced with new huesnot in the original box. The “new” gamut contains a larger proportion of “crayons” in thecyan-green portion of the box, a better choice for reproduction with cyan, magenta, andyellow inks at commercial printers, rather than the red, green, and blue picture elementsof your computer display.

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Flash ModeOptions: Autoflash, Fill-flash, Rear sync., Wireless

Default: Fill-flash

The Flash mode option, the first entry on the second page of the Recording menu (seeFigure 3.3), is, of course, of use only when you have a flash unit connected to the cam-era, although you can set some of the options regardless of whether a flash is attached.However, you can only set the autoflash option when the shooting mode is set to Auto.You can set the Fill-flash option if you want the flash to fire no matter what the expo-sure reading is. Rear sync. is a specialized setting that I will discuss in Chapter 7 alongwith other flash topics. Wireless is a setting to be used when you are controlling an off-camera flash with a unit that is inserted into the camera’s hot shoe and that has wirelesscapability. I will discuss this topic in Chapter 7 also.

Flash ControlOptions: ADI flash, Pre-flash TTL

Default: ADI flash

This is a technical setting that can be left untouched unless you happen to know youhave a need to change it. ADI stands for Advanced Distance Integration. When you areusing a lens that includes a distance encoder, this function may result in more accuratecomputation of the flash output. I discuss this option in Chapter 7.

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Figure 3.2The outer fig-ure shows allthe colors we

can see; thetwo inner out-lines show theboundaries of

Adobe RGB(black triangle)

and sRGB(white

triangle).

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Flash CompensationOptions: Flash compensation from –3 to +3 f/stops

Default: 0

This feature works like exposure compensation (discussed in Chapter 4), and allows youto dial in more or less exposure when using the flash. If your photo (such as a test shot)is too dark or too light, access this menu entry. Press the multi-selector to the left orright, or use the front or rear control dial, to reduce or increase flash exposure; thenpress the multi-selector’s center button to confirm your choice. If you’ve made a flashcompensation adjustment, the amount of your compensation will be indicated by apointer in the lower half of the exposure scale in the Detailed recording informationdisplay, and the Flash Compensation icon will be illuminated in the viewfinder, when-ever a compatible flash unit is attached to the camera’s hot shoe and turned on. (If noflash is attached, the setting will not show up on the display, even if you dialed in a pos-itive or negative amount of flash compensation.)

To nullify your flash compensation, return to this menu entry and return the pointerto the center of the scale.

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Figure 3.3The SonyAlpha’sRecordingmenu 2.

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Exposure StepOptions: 0.3 EV, 0.5 EV

Default: 0.3 EV

This option lets you set the size of the gap between settings of exposure compensation,flash exposure compensation, shutter speed, and aperture, with a default setting of 0.3EV, and the alternative possibility of 0.5 EV. Change this setting to 0.5 EV if you wouldprefer to have larger jumps in your exposure settings, rather than the finer incrementsof 0.3 EV with the default setting. Note that you will not see any change in the EV scalethat appears on the Quick Navi screen, which always includes two intermediate tickmarks between numerical settings. Therefore, the EV scale always looks as if the settingis for 0.3 EV because the tick marks are spaced in thirds. If you set the exposure step to0.5 EV, though, the indicator will move to a spot between the two tick marks, for, say,a value of EV 2.5.

ISO Auto RangeOptions: 400-1600, 400-800, 200-1600, 200-800, 200-400

Default: 200-800

You can set the ISO sensitivity of the Alpha DSLR-A850 to any value between 100 and6400, or to Auto, in which case the camera chooses an appropriate ISO setting basedon the existing shooting conditions. With the ISO Auto Range setting, you can set lim-its on both the highest and lowest ISO settings that the camera can choose from.Because image noise tends to increase with ISOs above 800, if image quality is crucialyou may want to set the ISO Auto Range to a level that ends at 800, or even 400 if youreally want to maximize quality and minimize noise. I’ll discuss ISO in more detail inChapter 4.

AF-A SetupOptions: AF-A, DMF

Default: AF-A

The first option on the third page of the Recording menu (see Figure 3.4) is AF-A setup.This option has one very specific purpose—to allow you to set the camera’s focusingmode to Direct Manual Focus (DMF). With DMF, the camera will autofocus, but thenwill disengage the autofocusing mechanism to let you make fine adjustments to thefocus, as you might want to do when working with a very narrow depth-of-field, inmacro shooting, or similar situations. There is no particular advantage to DMF overnormal manual focusing, and my own suggestion is just to use Manual focus if you

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believe you’re going to end up making the final adjustments manually anyway. Onething to note: if you’re using a Sony SSM (Super Sonic wave motor) lens, such as theSAL 70-200mm f/2.8 Telephoto Zoom lens, you can use DMF even without settingthis menu option, because the lens has its own DMF mode that will let you adjust thefocus manually.

AF AreaOptions: Wide, Spot, Local

Default: Wide

The Alpha DSLR-A850 includes nine autofocus sensors positioned about the centralportion of the viewfinder. You can elect to have the Alpha always choose which of thesensors to use, you can select the sensor yourself, or you can use the center autofocuspoint (either always or only when you press the controller’s center button). You’ll findtips for choosing the best AF area mode from among Wide, Spot, and Local inChapter 5.

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Figure 3.4The SonyAlpha’sRecordingmenu 3.

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Priority SetupOptions: AF, Release

Default: AF

This setting gives you the option of letting either you or the camera decide when youcan release the shutter. For example, when using continuous autofocus, the camera isunable to confirm that the subject is in focus, possibly because the subject is movingrapidly. With priority set to its default of AF, the camera uses autofocus priority. Thismeans that, until the camera has determined that your subject is in focus, it will not letyou take the picture. You can press the shutter button all you want, but the camera willbe saying (or thinking), “I’m sorry, pal, but you told me not to let you press the shut-ter until the picture is in focus. I’m just doing what you asked me to do.” If you don’twant to give the camera that much control over your life, set priority to Release. In thatcase, the camera will take the picture whenever you press the shutter button all the waydown, with the attitude of, “Well, I’m not sure this picture is in focus, but, hey, if youlike fuzzy pictures, that’s up to you.”

AF IlluminatorOptions: Auto, Off

Default: Auto

The AF illuminator is a red light that fires from the LED near the hand grip when thereis insufficient light for the Alpha’s autofocus mechanism to zero in. (If an external flashunit is attached to the hot shoe, the camera uses the flash’s illuminator instead.) Theextra light from the AF illuminator helps the camera focus sharply. The default setting,Auto, allows the AF illuminator to work any time the camera judges that it is necessary.Change this setting to Off when you would prefer not to use this feature, such as in alocation where you don’t want to call attention to the camera (or to yourself ). Also notethat the AF illuminator doesn’t work when using AF-C focus mode, or when AF-A aut-ofocus is used with a moving subject (which means it has shifted into AF-C mode). Norwill it work with lenses with focal lengths and zoom settings of 300mm or longer.Finally, it does not function when you have set the AF area to Local, and have chosena focus spot other than the center one.

AF w/ ShutterOptions: On/Off

Default: On

Normally, as you know, when you press the shutter button down halfway when usingan autofocus mode, the camera focuses. There may be some situations in which youprefer not to have the camera re-focus every time you press the shutter button halfway;

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for example, if you are taking multiple pictures in a laboratory or studio at exactly thesame distance, there is no need to put an extra burden on the autofocus mechanism andon the battery. So, you can set AF w/shutter to Off, and then, when you press the shut-ter button halfway, the camera will adjust the exposure if appropriate, but will not movethe focus at all. If for some reason you need to re-check the focus while this option isactivated, you can press in on the center button of the multi-selector, and the camerawill autofocus again.

Long Exp. NR/High ISO NROptions: On/Off

Default: On

I’ve grouped these two menu options together, because they work together, each underslightly different circumstances. Moreover, the causes and cures for noise involve someoverlapping processes.

Your Alpha DSLR-A850 can reduce the amount of grainy visual noise in your photo,but, at the same time eliminate some of the detail along with the noise. These two menuchoices let you choose whether to apply noise reduction to exposures of longer than onesecond and/or to apply noise reduction to exposures made at high ISO settings (ISO1600 and above), or to turn it off when you want to preserve detail even if it means alittle extra noise.

Visual noise is that awful graininess that shows up as multicolored specks in images, andthis setting helps you manage it. In some ways, noise is like the excessive grain foundin some high-speed photographic films. However, while photographic grain is some-times used as a special effect, it’s rarely desirable in a digital photograph.

The visual noise-producing process is something like listening to a CD in your car, andthen rolling down all the windows. You’re adding sonic noise to the audio signal, andwhile increasing the CD player’s volume may help a bit, you’re still contending with anunfavorable signal to noise ratio that probably mutes tones (especially higher treblenotes) that you really want to hear.

The same thing happens when the analog signal is amplified: You’re increasing the imageinformation in the signal, but boosting the background fuzziness at the same time. Tunein a very faint or distant AM radio station on your car stereo. Then turn up the volume.After a certain point, turning up the volume further no longer helps you hear better.There’s a similar point of diminishing returns for digital sensor ISO increases and sig-nal amplification as well.

These processes create several different kinds of noise. As I noted, noise can be producedfrom high ISO settings. As the captured information is amplified to produce higher ISOsensitivities, some random noise in the signal is amplified along with the photon infor-mation. Increasing the ISO setting of your camera raises the threshold of sensitivity so

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that fewer and fewer photons are needed to register as an exposed pixel. Yet, that alsoincreases the chances of one of those phantom photons being counted among the real-life light particles, too.

A second way noise is created is through longer exposures. Extended exposure timesallow more photons to reach the sensor, but increase the likelihood that some photo-sites will react randomly even though not struck by a particle of light. Moreover, as thesensor remains switched on for the longer exposure, it heats, and this heat can be mis-takenly recorded as if it were a barrage of photons.

While noise reduction is often a good thing, you might want to turn it off for both longexposures (one second or more) and high ISOs to preserve image detail, and when thedelay caused by the noise reduction process (it can take roughly the same amount oftime as the exposure itself ) interferes with your shooting. Or, you simply may not needNR. For example, you might be shooting waves crashing into the shore at ISO 200 withthe camera mounted on a tripod, using a neutral density filter and long exposure tocause the pounding water to blur slightly. To maximize detail in the non-moving por-tions of your photos, you can switch off long exposure noise reduction.

MemoryThis selection, the first in the Recording menu 4 (see Figure 3.5), is a very powerful anduseful tool. With the Memory option, you can save almost all of the settings that youuse for a particular shooting situation, and then recall them with one twirl of the modedial. In effect, with this function you are given three custom-crafted shooting modesthat you create by yourself, and then can use whenever one of them fits your currentneeds. The power of this option stems from the fact that so many shooting settings canbe saved for instant recall. Here is the list of items that can be stored: exposure mode,drive mode, ISO, white balance, exposure compensation, metering mode, focus mode,the position of the Local AF area, and all items on the four Recording menus. These arethe steps to follow to create a custom shooting setup:

■ Set up your shooting options. The first order of business is to set up the DSLR-A850 with all of its shooting options, listed above, exactly the way you want themto be when you call up this group of custom settings. For example, suppose you arephotographing tabletop models in your workshop, and you always use the same set-tings, say, Manual exposure at 1/125 second at f/5.6, Single-shot AF, Tungsten whitebalance, D-Range Optimizer set to standard, and Creative Style set to Vivid.

■ Register these options. Leaving the camera set up just as you have it, press theMenu button to enter the menu system, then navigate with the multi-selector orthe rear control dial to Recording menu 4. With the top item, Memory, highlighted,press the multi-selector’s center button. You will see the screen shown in Figure 3.6.That screen will be displaying the settings currently registered to the highlighted

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David Busch’s Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Guide to Digital Photography76

Figure 3.5The SonyAlpha’sRecordingmenu 4.

Figure 3.6Use theMemoryoption onRecordingmenu 4 to storethree completesets of shootingsettings thatcan be recalledinstantly byturning themode dial tonumber 1, 2,or 3.

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number at the top left, which will be 1 at this point. You can use the multi-selec-tor to scroll down through two more screens that display the other settings that arecurrently in effect for items such as aspect ratio, autofocus setup, flash control, andothers. When you’re satisfied that you have the settings you want, choose whichnumbered slot you wish to register your current settings to, and use the multi-selec-tor or either control dial to highlight number 1, 2, or 3 at the top left of the screen.Press in on the center button of the multi-selector to confirm your choice. Your set-tings are now registered to that numbered slot on the mode dial.

■ Recall your settings whenever you want to. Let’s say you chose slot number 2 toregister your settings for shooting the tabletop models, and we’ll say you have justbeen out taking action photos of your children for posterity, using Daylight whitebalance, Continuous autofocus, D-Range Optimizer set to Advanced Auto, andProgram exposure mode. Rather than having to go through changing each of thosesettings for your indoor shooting session, just twist the mode dial to number 2, andyou’re done. The camera is set up with all of the parameters you selected for thistype of shooting session.

You’ll probably find several great uses for this feature, but it may take a bit of experi-menting before you find three sets of shooting options that you want to store in thethree available slots on the mode dial. That’s no problem; anytime you want to make achange to any of the settings, just turn the mode dial to the number and make thedesired changes. Then go to the Memory option on Recording menu 4 and register yournew settings to that slot on the dial.

There is one side effect of using this feature that might cause you some worry if you for-get what steps you’ve taken for a particular shooting session. What can happen is that,when you call up a set of shooting settings using the Memory feature, the camera canbe set up in a way that conflicts with the settings of the physical dials. In particular, theswitches for metering mode and focus mode may be set differently from the settingsthat are called up from the camera’s memory. Once you turn the mode dial back toanother setting, such as P, A, S, or M, the camera will revert to the settings on the phys-ical switches. (You don’t have this issue with SteadyShot; that setting is not saved by theMemory feature.)

Rec Mode ResetOptions: Reset, Cancel Reset

Default: None

If you’ve made a lot of changes to your Alpha’s shooting settings, you may want to returnto the factory settings so you can start over without manually going back through themenus and restoring everything. This menu selection lets you restore all of the default

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settings for your main (and some not-so-main) shooting settings, including exposurecompensation, white balance (Auto), drive mode, ISO (Auto), Image size (L), aspectratio (3:2), quality (Fine), and many others. Note that this option will only work whenyou have the mode dial set to P, A, S, or M.

Custom Menu 1/2/3 OptionsThe three screens of the Custom menu allow you to specify how your Alpha DSLR-A850 operates. If you’d like the front control dial to adjust the aperture rather than shut-ter speed by default in Manual mode, you can choose that behavior. Or, if you’d like tochange the order of your bracketed exposures, that choice is available here. There are17 menu entries overall in the Custom menu’s screens, giving you a wide variety ofoptions for setting things up just the way you prefer.

■ AF/MF button ■ Dial exposure compensation

■ AF/MF control ■ Control dial lock

■ AF drive speed ■ Button operations

■ AF area display ■ Release w/o Card

■ Focus Hold Button ■ Recording information display

■ Auto review ■ Exposure compensation set

■ Preview Function ■ Bracket order

■ AEL button ■ Custom reset

■ Control dial setup

AF/MF ButtonOptions: AF/MF control, AF lock

Default: AF/MF control

This first option on Custom menu 1 (see Figure 3.7) gives you the ability to change thefunction of the AF/MF button, which is located just to the left of the rear control dial.By default, the function is set to AF/MF control, which means that when you press thebutton, the camera switches from Autofocus to Manual focus or vice-versa, dependingon which of these settings is currently active. In other words, if you have used the cam-era’s focus mode switch to select Manual focus, but now would like to use the Autofocusmechanism just once to lock focus for a particular shot, you can just press this conve-niently located button, and the camera will lock focus for you, if possible. Conversely,if you have set the camera to Autofocus but need to focus manually for one shot, pressthis button and turn the focusing ring on the lens.

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If you set the function of the AF/MF button to AF lock, then it has a different role. Inthat case, pressing the button will lock focus, no matter what focus mode is set. Thissetting can be useful if you have used the Recording menu 3 to turn off the AF w/ shut-ter setting, so the camera does not autofocus when you press the shutter button halfway.You can use the AF/MF button to carry out autofocus lock in that case.

AF/MF ControlOptions: Hold, Toggle

Default: Hold

This option works in conjunction with the AF/MF button function, discussed above,when that button is set to AF/MF control. If you set this option to Hold, then you haveto hold down the AF/MF button to change from Autofocus to Manual focus, or vice-versa. If you switch the setting to Toggle, then you just press and release the button tochange the focus mode, and press and release again to change back. (Note: This optionis still available on the menu if you have set the AF/MF button to AF lock, but it hasno practical effect in that case.)

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Figure 3.7The Sony

Alpha’s Custommenu 1.

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AF Drive SpeedOptions: Fast, Slow

Default: Fast

This setting supposedly controls whether your autofocusing is fast or slow. Accordingto the Sony instruction manual, the Slow setting is preferable when shooting closeups,because it gives the system a better chance to confirm sharp focus. In practice, it’s notclear that there’s any real difference between these two settings. So, unless you believeyou’re having difficulty in focusing when shooting closeups with a macro lens, you’rebetter off just leaving this option set to Fast.

AF Area DisplayOptions: 0.6 sec, 0.3 sec, Off

Default: 0.3 sec

You have to hand it to Sony for letting you really fine-tune your picture taking experi-ence. The only purpose of this option is to let you specify how long the focus zone indi-cator in the viewfinder stays illuminated in red when the camera is autofocusing usingthe Local setting. The default is a very brief 0.3 second, but you can change this to 0.6second if you want to have a more definite indication of which location the camera usedfor autofocusing. You can turn the illumination off altogether if you want.

Focus Hold ButtonOptions: Focus hold, Optical preview, Intelligent preview

Default: Focus hold

This function is of use only when you are using a lens equipped with a focus hold but-ton. This setting specifies the effect of pressing that button. With the default, Focushold, pressing the button on the lens holds the focus at its current setting. The othertwo settings select either Optical preview or Intelligent preview, which also can be con-trolled by the camera’s Preview button. The Preview functions are discussed below.

Auto ReviewOptions: Off, 2 seconds, 5 seconds, 10 seconds

Default: 2 seconds

The Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 can display an image on the LCD for your review afterthe photo is taken. (When you shoot a continuous or bracketed series of images, onlythe last picture exposed is shown.) While this image is displayed, you can delete a

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disappointing shot by pressing the Delete key, or cancel picture review by tapping theshutter release or by performing another function. (You’ll never be prevented from tak-ing another picture because you were reviewing images on your LCD.) This option canbe used to specify whether the review image appears on the LCD for 2, 5, or 10 sec-onds, or not at all.

Depending on how you’re working, you might want a quick display (especially if youdon’t plan to glance at each picture as it’s taken), or you might prefer a more leisurelyexamination (when you’re carefully checking compositions). Other times, you mightnot want to have the review image displayed at all, such as when you’re taking photosin a darkened theater or concert venue, and the constant flashing of images might bedistracting to others. Turning off picture review or keeping the duration short also savespower. You can always review the last picture you took at any time by pressing thePlayback button.

Preview FunctionOptions: Intelligent (preview), Optical preview

Default: Intelligent preview

This function controls what happens when you press the Preview button, which islocated on the right side of the front of the camera, below the lens, but which is intendedto be pressed by a finger of your left hand, snaking around underneath the lens to reachthe button. The two choices are Intelligent preview (the word “preview” doesn’t fit onthe menu, so the choice presented to you is just the word “Intelligent”) and Optical pre-view. With Optical preview, the Preview button acts essentially as the depth-of-field pre-view button of traditional film SLRs. In other words, when you press the button, thecamera stops the aperture down to the actual metered (or manually selected) aperture,so you can see in the viewfinder what depth-of-field will be achieved at the actual shoot-ing aperture. If you didn’t have that button available, you would be looking through theviewfinder with the widest open aperture of your lens, and you would not be able totell what the actual depth-of-field would be. So, if you want the Alpha DSLR-A850 toact like a traditional SLR, set this menu option to Optical preview and re-live the daysof film cameras and depth-of-field preview.

If you select the Intelligent preview setting, you still get the benefits of Optical preview,but, in addition, you have a powerful feature available that lets you tweak your settingsbefore you take a picture. I discuss its use in Chapter 4.

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AEL ButtonOptions: AEL hold, AEL toggle, Spot AEL hold, Spot AEL toggle

Default: AEL hold

This option, the first one on the Custom menu 2 (see Figure 3.8), affects the operationof the AEL (auto exposure lock) button, located at the top of the camera’s back, just tothe right of the viewfinder. With the default setting, AEL hold, when you press the AELbutton your exposure is locked only as long as you hold down the button. If you set thisoption to AEL toggle, then you can just press the button and release it, and the expo-sure will stay locked until you press and release it again. The other two options are thesame as the first two, except that the camera is switched into Spot metering mode whilethe AEL button is active (either held or toggled, depending on your choice).

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Figure 3.8The SonyAlpha’s Custommenu 2.

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Ctrl Dial SetupOptions: Front dial shutter speed/Rear dial aperture, Rear dial shutter speed/Frontdial aperture

Default: Front dial shutter speed/Rear dial aperture

The purpose of this menu item is to set which control dial controls shutter speed andwhich controls aperture when you are shooting in M (Manual exposure) or P (Program)mode, using the Program Shift function. By default, you set the shutter speed with thefront dial and aperture with the rear dial; the other setting reverses those functions. Thissetting has no effect when you are shooting with Shutter priority or Aperture prioritymode, because you have only one setting to make in each of those cases (either shutterspeed or aperture), and that setting can be made using either dial. In Auto shootingmode, you can’t change either shutter speed or aperture with the front or rear dials, sothis setting has no effect in that case, either.

Dial Exp. CompOptions: Off, Front dial, Rear dial

Default: Off

With this option, you can use the front or rear control dial to control exposure com-pensation, as an alternative to using the exposure compensation button on top of thecamera or the Quick Navi menu, which requires that you push the Fn button on theback of the camera. If you set either of the control dials using this option, you can thendial in your desired amount of exposure compensation by just turning the dial, with-out having to press any button first. This can be a desirable option if you expect to beusing exposure compensation often during a particular shooting session; you can cutdown on button presses. This option does not work when you are shooting in Manualmode, because you need both dials to adjust shutter speed and aperture. You can useexposure compensation in Manual mode, as is discussed in Chapter 4, but you have tomake that setting using the exposure compensation button or the Quick Navi screen.

Ctrl Dial LockOptions: On, Off

Default: On

When this feature is turned on, it deactivates the front and rear control dials so turn-ing them has no effect on your settings unless the exposure values are displayed in theviewfinder. The idea is to avoid having a setting changed accidentally by bumping or

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turning a dial. It’s hard to think of a situation in which this feature would be particu-larly useful, especially since other buttons and switches are not deactivated, only thecontrol dials, which have limited functions anyway. I recommend leaving this featureturned off.

Button Ops.Options: Exclusive disp, Quick Navi

Default: Exclusive disp

With the default setting of Exclusive display, pressing the camera’s direct setting but-tons (exposure compensation, drive, white balance, ISO, or C) produces a screen thatis exclusive to that setting. For example, pressing the ISO button brings up a screen foradjusting white balance, with no other options available on that screen. The other set-ting for this menu option, Quick Navi, changes this behavior so that, when you press,say, the ISO button, the screen that pops up is the Quick Navi screen, with the ISOoption highlighted and ready to set by pressing in on the multi-selector’s center buttonand then making your setting. The advantage with the Quick Navi option is that afteryou make the setting for the button you pressed (say, ISO), you are already on the QuickNavi screen, and can go on to make settings of other shooting parameters. You maywant to try this feature both ways, and see which one feels more comfortable and makesyou more efficient in changing your settings.

Release w/o CardOptions: Enable, Disable

Default: Enable

By default, this feature is enabled, allowing you to press and release the shutter eventhough no memory card is installed in the camera. If you disable it and then try to pressthe shutter with no card installed, you will get an error message on the LCD displaysaying the shutter is locked. I can’t think of too many situations in which you wouldwant or need to release the shutter with no card installed, so you’re better off disablingthis feature as a general practice. If it’s enabled, you’ll notice that no card is installed ifyou pay attention to the messages on the recording info display and the image display,but there’s a chance you’ll miss the messages and keep clicking happily away, thinkingyour images are being stored. If there’s no card in the camera, you’ll be out of luck, sodon’t leave this option enabled unless you have a good reason to do so.

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Rec. Info. Disp.Options: Auto rotate, Horizontal

Default: Auto rotate

When you hold the camera vertically so the handgrip is pointed straight up (or straightdown), by default the recording information display on the LCD automatically rotatesto a vertical configuration so that you can still read the information right-side-up onthe rotated screen. If you change this setting to Horizontal, the display does not rotate.This, of course, is strictly a matter of personal preference. Some photographers don’tlike to have to look for information in a somewhat unfamiliar configuration; person-ally, I prefer to be able to read the display without tilting my head sideways, so I leavethis setting on Auto rotate.

Exp. Comp. SetOptions: Ambient & flash, Ambient only

Default: Ambient & flash

This first setting on the Custom menu 3 (see Figure 3.9) is useful only when you are usinga flash unit that is attached to the camera and communicates with it electronically. With

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Figure 3.9The Sony

Alpha’s Custommenu 3.

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the default setting of Ambient & flash, the camera will adjust, as it sees fit, not only yourexposure settings—shutter speed, aperture, and ISO (ISO only when shooting in Automode), but also the amount of flash. With the setting of Ambient only, the camera willadjust only your exposure settings, and will leave the intensity of the flash unchanged.Unless you have a particular reason to use the Ambient & flash setting, it is ordinarily bet-ter to leave this setting on Ambient only, so you can exert more control over the settingsthrough your own judgment, rather than leaving both of these settings to the camera.

Bracket OrderOptions: 0 → – → +, – → 0 → +

Default: 0 → – → +

This option sets the order of your shots when using exposure bracketing. With thedefault setting, the first shot is at the metered setting, the second is with negative expo-sure compensation (darker), and the third is with positive exposure compensation(lighter). With the other setting, the first exposure is darker, the second is metered, andthe third lighter. If you have selected five exposures, with the first option the order isneutral—negative—positive—more negative—more positive; with the second option,the order is negative to positive, with each exposure increasing over the previous one.This menu option does not apply to D-Range Optimizer bracketing.

Custom ResetOptions: Reset, Cancel

Default: Cancel

This menu option gives you an easy way to reset all of the items on the Custom menuto their default settings.

Playback Menu 1/2 OptionsThe Playback menu controls functions for deleting, protecting, displaying, and printingimages. The Playback menu has two screens; Playback menu 1 is shown in Figure 3.10.

■ Delete ■ Index print

■ Format ■ Playback Display

■ Protect ■ Slide show

■ DPOF setup ■ Interval

■ Date imprint

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DeleteOptions: Marked images, All images

Default: None

All of us sometimes take pictures that we know should never see the light of day. Maybeyou were looking into the lens and accidentally tripped the shutter. Perhaps you reallygoofed up your settings. You want to erase that photo now, before it does permanentdamage. While you can delete a photo immediately after you take it by pressing theDelete button, sometimes you need to wait for an idle moment to erase pictures. Thismenu choice makes it easy to remove selected photos (Marked images), or to erase allthe photos on a memory card (All images). Note that neither function removes imagesmarked Protected (described below in the section “Protect”).

To remove selected images, select the Delete menu item, select Marked images from thesubmenu and use the left/right motion of the multi-selector, or turn the front controldial, to scroll through your images. When you find an image you want to delete, pressthe multi-selector’s center button. A green trashcan icon is superimposed over yourimage, and the number of images marked for deletion is incremented in the indicatorat lower left. Continue navigating forward and backward among the images to mark or

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Figure 3.10The Sony

Alpha’sPlaybackmenu 1.

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unmark additional shots. When you’re satisfied (or have expressed your dissatisfactionwith the really bad ones), press the Menu button to go back, where you can chooseDelete on the confirmation screen to erase the ones you’ve selected. You can exit fromthis process at any time by pressing the Playback button.

While you can use this menu choice to delete All images, the process can take sometime. You’re better off using the Format command, described next.

FormatOptions: Format, Cancel format

Default: Cancel format

To reformat your memory card, choose the Format menu entry, select OK on the con-firmation screen, and press the multi-selector’s center button to confirm the operation.

Use this command to erase everything on your memory card and set up a fresh file sys-tem ready for use. It removes all the images on the memory card, and reinitializes thecard’s file system by defining anew the areas of the card available for image storage, lock-ing out defective areas, and creating a new folder in which to deposit your images. It’susually a good idea to reformat your memory card in the camera (not in your camera’scard reader using your computer’s operating system) before each use. Formatting is gen-erally much quicker than deleting images one by one.

ProtectOptions: Marked images, All images, Cancel all (unmark all images)

Default: None

You might want to protect images on your memory card from accidental erasure, eitherby you or by others who may use your camera from time to time. This menu choiceenables you to protect only Marked images (using a procedure similar to the DeleteMarked images process described earlier), protect All images on the memory card, orCancel all, which unmarks and unprotects any photos you have previously marked forprotection.

To protect only selected images, select the Protect menu item, and choose Markedimages. As with the Delete command, discussed above, scroll through your images usingthe multi-selector or the front control dial. When an image you want to protect is onthe screen, press the multi-selector’s center button to mark it for protection (or tounmark an image that has already been marked). A key icon appears over each markedimage. When you’ve marked all the images you want to protect, press the Menu buttonto return to the menu screen, then select OK from the confirmation screen and pressthe multi-selector’s center button to confirm the operation.

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You can also use the Protect function to unprotect selected images, or all images, usingthe same procedure as for protecting images; just mark the images to be unprotected,which causes the key icon on each image to fade to gray, or select All images, and thenconfirm the operation as with the procedure for protecting images.

DPOF SetupOptions: Marked images, All images, Cancel all (unmark all images)

Options (Number of copies): 1-9

Options (Date imprint): On, Off

Options (Index print): Create index, Delete index

Most digital cameras are compatible with the DPOF (Digital Print Order Format) pro-tocol, which enables you to mark in your camera which of the JPEG images on thememory card (but not RAW files) that you’d like to print, and specify the number ofcopies of each. You can then transport your memory card to your retailer’s digital photolab or do-it-yourself kiosk or use your own compatible printer to print out the markedimages and quantities you’ve specified.

There are actually three related items on the Playback menu 1 screen: DPOF setup,Date imprint, and Index print. The last two are really submenu items of the first, asindicated by the lines on the menu screen that show that these items spring from DPOFsetup. Here are the steps to take to use these options.

■ DPOF setup. You can choose to print All images, Marked images, or Cancel all.Selecting images is similar to the method you use to mark images for deletion orprotection. To print selected images, select the DPOF setup menu item, and pressthe multi-selector’s center button to choose Marked images. Then, using the multi-selector or the front control dial, browse through the images you want to print. Foreach such image, press the multi-selector’s center button or turn the rear controldial to the right to increment the number of prints to be made of that image, from1 to 9. If you continue pressing the controller button past 9 copies, the count wrapsaround to 0 copies again. You can also reduce the count as far as zero (unselected)by turning the rear control dial to the left. A printer icon in the lower-left cornershows the total number of images selected to print—that is, the cumulative totalof copies for the full group of marked images.

When you have finished selecting images and the numbers of copies, press theMenu button to exit picture selection. On the screen that appears, Cancel removesall DPOF print selection and quantity marks. The Cancel option can be useful afterprinting, if you print photos from a memory card but then leave the images on thecard while you shoot additional pictures. Removing the DPOF markings clears thecard of print requests so you can later select additional or different images for print-ing from the same collection.

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■ Date imprint. Choose this menu item to superimpose the current date onto imageswhen they are printed. Select On to add the date; Off (the default value) skips dateimprinting. The date is added during printing by the output device, which controlsits location on the final print.

■ Index print. Choose this menu item to print your images in thumbnail size on oneor more sheets of paper. The number of images per sheet and the format are con-trolled by your printer. Once you have set this option, any images you shoot after-wards will not be included in the index, so you should select this menu item andthen print the index immediately afterwards to avoid missing any images.

Playback DisplayOptions: Auto rotate, Manual rotate

Default: Auto rotate

By default, on playback the Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 automatically rotates pictures takenin vertical orientation on the LCD screen so you don’t have to turn the camera to viewthem comfortably. However, this orientation also means that the longest dimension ofthe image is shown using the shortest dimension of the LCD, so the picture is reducedin size. Choose Manual rotate instead, and you can rotate only those photos you wantto re-orient by pressing the Fn button from the Playback screen and choosing Rotate.

Slide ShowOptions: Activate show

Options (Interval): 1 second, 3 seconds, 5 seconds, 10 seconds, 30 seconds

Default: 3 seconds

This option, the first and only one on Playback menu 2 (see Figure 3.11), allows youto display all the images on your memory card using a three-second delay betweenimages, or another delay period you select by choosing the Interval suboption. Choose1, 3, 5, 10, or 30 seconds for your interval. During the show you can do the following:

■ Press the multi-selector’s center button to pause the show. Press again to resume theshow.

■ Move forward or in reverse through the images by pressing the multi-selector to theright or left.

■ Stop the show at any time by pressing the Menu button, which takes you back tothe Slide show menu item. To stop the show and exit from the menu completely,press the Playback button.

■ Press the DISP button to toggle between full screen images and the same imageswith date, time, and image number of the exposure overlaid.

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Setup Menu 1/2/3/4 OptionsUse the four Setup menu screens to adjust infrequently changed settings, such as lan-guage, date/time, and power saving settings. The Setup menu 1 is shown in Figure 3.12.When you want to navigate to the Setup menu, after pressing the Menu button pushthe multi-selector’s stick to the left rather than the right, and you will arrive at the Setupmenus faster than if you start out to the right and plow your way through all of theShooting, Custom, and Playback menus first.

■ LCD brightness ■ File number ■ Audio signals

■ Info. disp. time ■ Folder name ■ Cleaning mode

■ Power save ■ Select folder ■ AF Micro Adj.

■ Video output ■ New folder ■ Focusing Screen

■ HDMI output ■ USB connection ■ APS-C size capt.

■ Language ■ Mass storage card ■ Reset default

■ Date/Time setup ■ Menu start

■ Memory card ■ Delete confirm.

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Figure 3.11The Sony

Alpha’sPlaybackmenu 2.

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LCD BrightnessOptions: Auto/Manual: Plus or minus 2

Default: 0

When you access this menu choice, a pair of grayscale steps appears on the screen, allow-ing you to see the effect of your brightness changes on the dark, light, and middle tones.Use the left/right action of the multi-selector or the front or rear control dial to adjustthe brightness of the LCD screen by up to five positive or negative (arbitrary) incre-ments. There is no automatic setting, only this manual adjustment option. You canreach a similar adjustment screen without entering the menu system by pressing andholding the DISP button for a few seconds.

Info. Disp. TimeOptions: 5 seconds, 10 seconds, 30 seconds, 1 minute

Default: 5 seconds

This setting determines how long the recording information display remains activebefore the Alpha switches the display off to save power. Then, the display vanishes butcan be restored by tapping the shutter release button. Of course, the display disappearswhenever your eye (or another object) gets close to the viewfinder.

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Figure 3.12The SonyAlpha’s Setupmenu 1.

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Power SaveOptions: 1 minute, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 30 minutes

Default: 3 minutes

This setting allows you to determine how long the Sony Alpha remains active beforegoing into Power save mode, which is essentially the same as powering off, rather thanjust dimming the display. You can select 1, 3, 5, 10, or 30 minutes. (If the camera isconnected to a video display through the video cable, it will shut off after 30 minutesregardless of the time period this option is set for.) However, even if the camera has shutitself off, if the power switch remains in the On position, you can bring the camera backto life by performing a function, such as pressing the shutter button halfway.

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SAVING POWER WITH THE Sony Alpha

There are several settings and techniques you can use to help you stretch the longevity ofyour Alpha’s battery. These include setting the Auto review, LCD brightness, Power save,and Info. disp. time options to turn off the LCD and/or camera as quickly as possiblewhen not needed. That big 3-inch LCD uses a lot of juice, so reducing the amount oftime it is used (either for information display or for manually playing back your images)can boost the effectiveness of your battery. If you’re willing to shade the LCD with yourhand, you can often get away with lower LCD brightness settings outdoors, which willfurther increase the useful life of your battery. The techniques? Turn off SteadyShot if youfeel you don’t need it. When transferring pictures from your Alpha to your computer, usea card reader instead of the USB cable. Linking your camera to your computer and trans-ferring images using the cable takes longer and uses a lot more power.

Video OutputOptions: NTSC/PAL

Default: None

This setting controls the output of the DSLR-A850 through the supplied AV cable whenyou’re displaying images on an external monitor. You can select either NTSC, used inthe United States, Canada, Mexico, many Central, South American, and Caribbeancountries, much of Asia, and other countries; or PAL, which is used in the UK, muchof Europe, Africa, India, China, and parts of the Middle East.

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HDMI OutputOptions: HD (1080) priority, HD (720) priority SD priority

Default: HD (1080) priority

As noted above, you can view the display output of your Alpha on a high definition tel-evision (HDTV) if you make the investment in an HDMI cable with a mini-HDMIconnector on the camera end (which Sony does not supply) and you own an HDTV(which Sony does not supply with the camera, either). When connecting HDMI-to-HDMI, the camera automatically selects the correct image settings, including colorbroadcast system, for viewing. However, you can use the HDMI output menu optionto select one of the options shown above; in some instances, you may be able to improvethe image quality on the HDTV by changing this setting.

If you’re lucky enough to own a TV that supports the Sony Bravia synchronization pro-tocol, you can operate the camera using that TV’s remote control. Just press the LinkMenu button on the remote, and then use the device’s controls to delete images, dis-play an image index of photos in the camera, display a slide show, protect/unprotectimages in the camera, specify printing options, and play back single images on the TVscreen.

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VIEWING ON A TELEVISION

Sony makes it quite easy to view your images on a standard television screen with theA850, and not much more difficult on a high definition television (HDTV). (You haveto buy a separate cable for HDTV.) For regular TV, just open the video port cover on theleft side of the camera, plug the cable supplied with the camera into the Micro USB port,and connect the other end to the yellow VIDEO RCA composite jack on your televisionor monitor.

For HDTV display with the A850, purchase the optional HDMI Cable VMC-15MHD(about 5 feet long) or the VMC-30MHD (about 10 feet long), and connect it to theHDMI Out terminal above the standard video terminal on the left side of the camera.Connect the other end to an HDMI input port on your television or monitor (my 42-inch HDTV has three of them; my 26-inch monitor has just two). Then turn on thecamera and press the Playback button. The image will appear on the externalTV/HDTV/monitor and will not be displayed on the camera’s LCD. HDTV systemsautomatically show your images at the appropriate resolution for that set.

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LanguageOptions: English, French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Chinese languages

Default: Language of country where camera is sold

If you accidentally set a language you don’t read and find yourself with incomprehen-sible menus, don’t panic. Just choose the second option from the bottom of the Setupmenu 1, and select the idioma, lingua, or langue of your choice. English appears at thetop of the list.

Date/Time SetupOptions: Year, Day, Month, Time, Date Format

Default: None

Use this option to specify the date and time that will be embedded in the image filealong with exposure information and other data. You can select year, day, month, hour,and date format, but you cannot choose AM/PM specifically. To set, say 2:32 AM ratherthan 2:32 PM, you’ll have to pretend you’re using a digital clock and cycle past mid-night or noon to get to the AM/PM hours, respectively.

Memory CardOptions: Compact Flash, Memory Stick

Default: None

You need to set this option, the first on Setup menu 2 (see Figure 3.13), so that the cam-era will know which type of memory card is installed. As I discussed in Chapter 1, ifyou set the wrong option on this menu, the camera will think no card is installed, andyou won’t be able to take any pictures. (You may be able to operate the shutter, depend-ing on the setting for Release w/o Card on Custom menu 2, but the images won’t bestored.) The Sony Alpha cannot use both memory cards at once, unlike some cameras.You can, if you want, install both types of card in the camera, but you will have to switchbetween them using this menu setting, or by pressing the Fn button and using the QuickNavi screen.

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File NumberOptions: Series, Reset

Default: Series

The Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 will automatically apply a file number to each picture youtake when this option is set to Series, using consecutive numbering for all your photosover a long period of time, spanning many different memory cards, and even if youreformat a card. Numbers are applied from 0001 to 9999, at which time the camerastarts back at 0001. The camera keeps track of the last number used in its internal mem-ory. So, you could take pictures numbered as high as 100-0240 on one card, removethe card and insert another, and the next picture will be numbered 100-0241 on thenew card. Reformat either card, take a picture, and the next image will be numbered100-0242. Use the Series option when you want all the photos you take to have con-secutive numbers (at least, until your camera exceeds 9999 shots taken).

If you want to restart numbering back at 0001 on a more frequent basis, set the Resetoption. In that case, the file number will be reset to 0001 each time you format a mem-ory card or delete all the images in a folder, insert a different memory card, or changethe folder name format (as described in the next menu entry).

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Figure 3.13The SonyAlpha’s Setupmenu 2.

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Folder NameOptions: Standard form, Date form

Default: Standard form

If you have viewed one of your memory cards’ contents on a computer using a cardreader, you may have noticed that the top-level folder on the card is always namedDCIM. Inside that folder is another folder created by your camera. Different camerasuse different folder names, and they can coexist on the same card. For example, if yourmemory card is removed from your Sony camera and used in, say, a camera from anothervendor that also accepts Compact Flash or Memory Stick cards, the other camera willcreate a new folder using a different folder name within the DCIM directory.

By default, the Alpha creates its folders using a three-number prefix (starting with 100),followed by MSDCF. As each folder fills up with 999 images, a new folder with a pre-fix that’s one higher (say, 101) is used. So, with the “Standard form” the folders on yourmemory card will be named 100MSDCF, 101MSDCF, and so forth.

You can select Date form instead, and the Alpha will use an xxxymmdd format, such as10090204, where the 100 is the folder number, 9 is the last digit of the year, 02 is themonth, and 04 is the day of that month. If you want your folder names to be more date-oriented rather than generic, use the Date form option instead of Standard form.

Select Folder/New FolderOptions: Select folder, Create new folder

Default: None

Although your Alpha will create new folders automatically as needed, you can create anew folder at any time, and switch among available folders already created on yourmemory card. (But only, of course, if a memory card is installed in the camera.) This isan easy way to segregate photos by folder. For example, if you’re on vacation, you canchange the Folder name convention to Date form (described previously), and thendeposit each day’s shots into different folders, which you create with this menu entry.

■ Select folder. To switch to a different folder (when more than one folder is avail-able on your CF card), when you are using Standard form folder naming, chooseSelect folder from the menu. A scrolling list of available folders appears. Use theup/down motion of the multi-selector to choose the folder you want, and press themulti-selector’s center button to confirm your choice.

■ New folder. To create a brand new folder, choose Select folder/New folder fromSetup menu 2. Press the multi-selector’s center button, and a message like“101090114 folder created” appears on the LCD. Press the center button again todismiss the screen and return to the menu.

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USB ConnectionOptions: Mass storage, PTP, Remote PC

Default: Mass storage

This option allows you to switch your USB connection protocol between the defaultMass Storage setting (used when you transfer images from your camera to your com-puter), PTP (Picture Transfer Protocol), which you’d use to connect your camera to aPictBridge-compatible printer, and Remote PC. In Mass Storage mode, your cameraappears to the computer as just another storage device, like a disk drive. You can dragand drop files between the computer’s drives and this device. In PTP mode, the deviceyou’re connected to recognizes your camera and can communicate with it, which is whathappens when you use a PictBridge printer. With the Remote PC setting, when yourcamera is connected to the computer you can operate some of its functions remotelyusing the Remote Camera Control software that is provided with the camera. SeeChapter 8 for more details about this option.

Most of the time, you’ll want to leave this setting at Mass Storage, changing it only whenyou’re communicating with a PictBridge printer that requires a PTP connection, or con-trolling the camera from your computer with the remote control software.

Mass Strg. CardOptions: Selected card, Both cards

Default: Selected card

This option shows up on the camera’s menu as a suboption to the previous item, USBconnection, when Mass Storage is selected as the option for the USB connection,

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Tip

Whoa! Sony has thrown you a curveball in this folder switching business. Note that ifyou are using Date form naming, you can create folders using the date convention, butyou can’t switch among them—but only when Date form is active. If you do want toswitch among folders named using the date convention, you can do it. But you have toswitch from Date form back to Standard form. Then you can change to any of the avail-able folders (of either naming format). So, if you’re on that vacation, select Date form,and then choose New folder each day of your trip, if you like. But if, for some reason,you want to put some additional pictures in a different folder (say, you’re revisiting a cityand want the new shots to go in the same folder as those taken a few days earlier), you’llneed to change to Standard form, switch folders, and then resume shooting. Sony proba-bly did this to preserve the “integrity” of the date/folder system, but it can be annoying.

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meaning that the camera’s memory is being used as a storage device for your computer.In that case, you have the option of displaying the contents of both cards on the com-puter (if you have both a Compact Flash card and a Memory Stick PRO Duo cardinstalled), or just the card that is currently selected for storage. (Remember, with theSony Alpha DSLR-A850, only one card can be active, even if both are installed.)Although I have never had occasion to install two cards in the camera, there could bea situation in which this would be a useful option, and there’s no harm in setting thismenu item so the camera uses both cards as devices that show up on your computer.

Menu StartOptions: Top, Previous

Default: Top

This option, the first on Setup menu 3 (see Figure 3.14), controls which menu screenappears when you press the Menu button. If you leave this option set at its default, Top,you will always start with the first screen of the Recording or Playback menus, depend-ing on whether the camera is in Recording or Playback mode. If you change this optionto Previous, you will return to the last menu screen that was displayed, with the high-light bar on the last item you accessed. So, if you find yourself using a particular menu

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Figure 3.14The Sony

Alpha’s Setupmenu 3.

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screen more often than others, such as the Recording 3 screen, for example, you mightwant to set this option to Previous so you will return directly to that screen wheneveryou press the Menu button.

Delete Confirm.Options: Delete first, Cancel first

Default: Cancel first

When you are deleting images or folders from your memory card in the camera, youwill always see a confirmation screen on which you must select either Delete or Cancel.By default, the Cancel option is highlighted, so it is the “first” option; if you go aheadand press the center button of the multi-selector, either intentionally or perhaps by over-quick reflex, you will have canceled the operation, and nothing will be deleted. If you’rethe confident type and would like to save the step of moving the highlight onto theDelete option, you can change this setting so the highlight is positioned over the Deleteoption first, so all you have to do is press the button to confirm the deletion. Personally,I am a bit conservative when it comes to deleting images, so I leave this option set toCancel first.

Audio SignalsOptions: On/Off

Default: On

The Sony Alpha DSLR-A850’s internal beeper provides a helpful chirp to signify vari-ous functions, such as the countdown of your camera’s self-timer and the confirmationof focus. You can switch it off if you want to avoid the beep because it’s annoying, impo-lite, or distracting (at a concert or museum), or undesired for any other reason. (I’veactually had new dSLR owners ask me how to turn off the “shutter sound” the cameramakes; such an option was available in the point-and-shoot camera they’d used previ-ously. Of course, the “shutter sound” you hear is the sound of the mirror moving andcannot be silenced.) Select Audio signals from Setup menu 3, choose On or Off, andpress the multi-selector’s center button to confirm.

Cleaning ModeOptions: OK (flip up mirror), Cancel

Default: None

One of the Sony Alpha’s best features is the automatic sensor cleaning system thatreduces or eliminates the need to clean your camera’s sensor manually using brushes,

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swabs, or bulb blowers (you’ll find instructions on how to do that in Chapter 9). Sonyhas applied anti-static coatings to the sensor and other portions of the camera body inte-rior to counter charge build-ups that attract dust. A separate filter over the sensorvibrates ultrasonically each time the Alpha is powered off, shaking loose any dust, whichis captured by a sticky strip beneath the sensor.

When it’s time to clean the sensor manually, use this menu entry to lock up the mirrorto provide access to the complementary metal-oxide semiconductor device (CMOS).Use a fully charged battery or optional AC adapter and choose Cleaning mode fromSetup menu 3. A warning screen pops up: “After cleaning turn camera off. Continue?”Choose OK and press the multi-selector’s center button to move the mirror into its fullyupright and locked position, after the Alpha makes one last stab at automatic cleaningand vibrates for a short time. Turn the camera off (as advised by the on-screen prompt)to return the mirror to its picture taking position.

AF Micro Adj.Options: On, Off, Clear, amount

Default: Off

With any luck, you will never need to use this option. It’s designed to let you make fine-tuning focus adjustments for any individual lens that you use with the DSLR-A850.The only reason you would need to do this is if you are finding that the lens is not focus-ing properly. Once you have attached a particular lens and made the adjustment, thatadjustment is registered in the camera and will be in effect whenever you attach thatlens, unless you change the adjustment, or use the Clear option from this menu itemto delete the adjustment for that lens. I provide detailed instructions about this proce-dure in Chapter 5.

Focusing ScreenOptions: Type G, Type M, Type L

Default: Type G

The Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 comes equipped with the standard focusing screen, TypeG. If you purchase an optional screen of one of the other types, M or L, you need tochange this menu setting so the camera will compensate for the different screen whenit measures the light. The Type M screen is suitable for use with lenses of wide aper-tures; the Type L screen has a grid that can be useful for composition.

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APS-C Size CaptureOptions: On, Off

Default: Off

The Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 is, of course, a camera with a full-frame sensor, meaningits sensor is approximately the same size as a standard frame of 35mm film (35.9mm ×24.0mm). However, because of the camera’s heritage as springing from the Minolta sys-tem of cameras and lenses, there are many lenses available that will fit on your camerabut that were designed for cameras using the smaller APS-C sized sensor. (There are dif-ferent varieties of APS-C sized sensors; their size is generally about 21mm × 14mm.) Ifyou were to attach one of these lenses (such as a Minolta DT series lens) to your cam-era, its image would not cover the A850’s full-frame sensor, because the lens wasdesigned to produce an image that covers only the smaller area of the APS-C sensor.The result would be vignetting, with the image cut off at the corners. Sony’s solutionto this problem is to put the camera into APS-C size capture mode, which you can dowith this menu option, the first one on Setup menu 4 (see Figure 3.15). When that hap-pens, the camera uses only the smaller APS-C area on the sensor, so the image is fulland has no vignetting. However, the image has lower resolution because of the smallernumber of pixels that are used.

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Figure 3.15The SonyAlpha's Setupmenu 4.

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Now that you know all about this menu option, though, you can usually ignore it,because, in most cases, the camera automatically senses when a lens designed for theAPS-C sensor is attached, and the camera automatically enters this mode. If you everuse a DT lens and see vignetting in the images it produces, try using this menu optionto correct the problem.

Reset DefaultOptions: OK, cancel

Default: None

You can use this menu option to reset all of the camera’s settings to their default values.This can be very useful if you have been playing around with the settings and wouldlike to start over with the camera in its factory condition. I have mentioned the defaultvalues for all of the menu options as I discussed them. You can also find the completelist of items that will be reset, and the values they will be reset to, at pages 132-134 ofthe Sony instruction manual.

Quick Navi ScreenIt’s time to drag out again the Alpha DSLR-A850’s Quick Navi screen that was men-tioned in Chapters 1 and 2, but not explained in a great amount of detail in either chap-ter. That’s because several of the functions that are accessible from this screen deservecomplete descriptions within the context of their respective applications. For example,discussions of AF area and Creative Style are best deferred to the chapters that explainthose features in exhaustive detail. This section will provide an overview that points youto the parts of the book that do delve into the functions available from this screen.

The Quick Navi screen appears when you press the Fn button when the camera is inShooting mode—that is, when you’re not reviewing an image on the LCD. (If you areviewing an image in Playback mode, the Fn button produces a screen that lets you rotatethe image, as discussed in Chapter 2.) The Quick Navi screen is very similar to therecording information display that appears on the LCD when the camera is in shoot-ing mode. The differences are that a few more items (such as flash mode) become acces-sible on the screen, and the screen changes colors, using an orange highlight box to showwhich setting is ready to be adjusted.

There are two slightly different versions of the Quick Navi screen, depending onwhether the camera was using the Detailed or the Enlarged version of the recordinginformation display when you pressed the Fn button. (You cycle between the Detailedand Enlarged displays, and a blank screen, using the DISP button.) I’ll discuss theDetailed version below; the Enlarged version is similar, except that it does not provideaccess to three adjustments that are available on the Detailed screen: flash mode, Creative

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Figure 3.16The SonyAlpha’s QuickNavi screen.

Style, and memory card. On either version of the Quick Navi screen, some items aregrayed out; those are items you cannot adjust at all, such as battery status and imagesremaining, or items you cannot adjust from this screen, such as autofocus mode andmetering mode, which are controlled by physical switches.

Settings on the Quick Navi ScreenThis screen (see Figure 3.16) provides you with quick access to eleven settings, whichyou navigate through using the left/right or up/down motion of the multi-selector.

■ Flash mode. This entry summons a submenu that allows you to choose the oper-ating mode for your flash unit, such as the Fill flash mode shown in the figure. Notethat you can make this setting even if no flash is attached; the setting will becomeeffective if and when a flash unit is attached. I’ll discuss the various modes and theiruses in Chapter 7.

■ Exposure compensation and Flash exposure compensation. When you highlightthis block in the top center of the (Detailed) Quick Navi screen, you will see an EVscale with indicators at the top and bottom. The top indicator points down to indi-cate the exposure compensation adjustment and the bottom one points up to

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indicate the flash exposure compensation adjustment. A zero, as shown in the fig-ure, indicates that no compensation has been applied. Move the multi-selector’sstick up or down to highlight either the top or bottom indicator, then use that stickor the front or rear control dial to make your desired adjustment. There are moredetails about exposure compensation in Chapter 4, and flash exposure compensa-tion is discussed in Chapter 7.

■ ISO. With this option, you can set the camera’s ISO sensitivity to Auto, or to var-ious values ranging from 100 to 6400. In the figure, the ISO has been set to 200.This topic is discussed in detail in Chapter 4.

■ Drive mode. On the Detailed Quick Navi screen, this is the first option on the lefton the second line. There are several options available through this single item onthe screen: continuous shooting mode; self-timer; exposure bracketing; white bal-ance bracketing; D-Range Optimizer bracketing; mirror lockup; and RemoteCommander. I discuss bracketing in Chapter 4, and continuous shooting and theother topics in Chapter 5. The screen illustrated in Figure 3.16 shows the drivemode set to Single-shot adv.

■ AF area. I discussed this setting earlier in this chapter, because it can be set fromRecording menu 3. The choices are Wide, Spot, and Local. I discuss this topic inmore detail in Chapter 5, in the discussion of the various settings and options forfocus. In the figure, the AF area is set to Wide.

■ D-Range Optimizer. The brightness/darkness range of many images is so broadthat the sensor has difficulty capturing both the brightest highlight areas and thedarkest shadow areas. The Alpha DSLR-A850 is able to expand its dynamic rangeusing the D-Range Optimizer feature available in Standard and Advanced optionsfrom this menu entry. I’ll provide tips and examples in Chapter 5. In the figure, D-Range Optimizer is set to Advanced Auto.

■ Creative Style. This option gives you thirteen different combinations of contrast,saturation, sharpness, and exposure zones, as I discussed earlier in this chapter inconnection with the Creative Style item on Recording menu 1. I’ll discuss the“looks” of each of these styles in Chapter 5. In the case illustrated here, the CreativeStyle selected is Standard.

■ White balance. The different light sources you shoot under have differing colorbalances. Indoor light, for example, is much redder than outdoor illumination,which tends to have a bluish bias. The Alpha DSLR-A850 lets you choose thecolor/white balance that’s appropriate, or can make this adjustment automatically.This topic is discussed in more detail in Chapter 5. The screen illustrated in Figure3.16 shows the Auto White Balance setting.

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■ Quality. The next block on the Quick Navi screen lets you pick the quality of theimages recorded by the camera, ranging from Standard, Fine, and Extra Fine forJPEG files to cRAW and RAW. You also can select RAW or cRAW along with anyquality of JPEG. I discussed this topic in detail earlier in this chapter. The qualityshown on the screen illustrated in Figure 3.16 is Extra Fine.

■ Image size. This next block deals with the size of your images, rather than the qual-ity, and applies only to JPEG files. The choices are Small, Medium, and Large; thistopic also was discussed earlier in this chapter. On the screen shown in Figure 3.16,the image size shown is Large.

■ Memory card. This last option on the Detailed Quick Navi screen lets you specifywhich type of memory card is active in your camera. (As I discussed earlier in thischapter, you can have both a Compact Flash and a Memory Stick card installed,but only one of them can be active at a time.) In Figure 3.16, the Quick Navi screenshows that a Compact Flash card is active.

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When you bought your Sony Alpha DSLR-A850, you probably thought your days ofworrying about getting the correct exposure were over. To paraphrase an old Kodaktagline dating back to the 19th century—the goal is, “you press the button, and thecamera does the rest.” For the most part, that’s a realistic objective. The Alpha is one ofthe smartest cameras available when it comes to calculating the right exposure for mostsituations. You can generally spin the mode dial to the aqua Auto setting, but if you arewilling to put a little more thought and effort into your photography, spin the dial toProgram (P), Aperture priority (A), or Shutter priority (S), and shoot away.

So, why am I including an entire chapter on exposure? As you learn to use your Alphacreatively, you’re going to find that the right settings—as determined by the camera’sexposure meter and intelligence—need to be adjusted to account for your creative deci-sions or special situations.

For example, when you shoot with the main light source behind the subject, you endup with backlighting, which can result in an overexposed background and/or an under-exposed subject. The Sony Alpha recognizes backlit situations nicely, and can properlybase exposure on the main subject, producing a decent photo. Features like D-RangeOptimization (discussed in Chapter 5) can fine-tune exposure to preserve detail in thehighlights and shadows.

But what if you want to underexpose the subject, to produce a silhouette effect? Or, per-haps, you might want to use an electronic flash unit to fill in the shadows on your sub-ject. The more you know about how to use your Alpha, the more you’ll run into

4Getting the Right

Exposure

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situations where you want to creatively tweak the exposure to produce a different lookthan you’d get with an automatically produced shot.

This chapter shows you the fundamentals of exposure, so you’ll be better equipped tooverride the Sony Alpha’s default settings when you want to, or need to. After all, cor-rect exposure is one of the foundations of good photography, along with accurate focusand sharpness, appropriate color balance, freedom from unwanted noise and excessivecontrast, as well as pleasing composition.

The Sony Alpha gives you a great deal of control over all of these, although composi-tion is entirely up to you. You must still frame the photograph to create an interestingarrangement of subject matter, but all the other parameters are basic functions of thecamera. You can let your Alpha set them for you automatically, you can fine-tune howthe camera applies its automatic settings, or you can make them yourself, manually. Theamount of control you have over exposure, sensitivity (ISO settings), color balance,focus, and image parameters like sharpness and contrast makes the Alpha a versatile toolfor creating images.

In the next few pages I’m going to give you a grounding in one of those foundations,and explain the basics of exposure, either as an introduction or as a refresher course,depending on your current level of expertise. When you finish this chapter, you’ll under-stand most of what you need to know to take well exposed photographs creatively in abroad range of situations.

Getting a Handle on ExposureIn the most basic sense, exposure is all about light. Exposure can make or break yourphoto. Correct exposure brings out the detail in the areas you want to picture, provid-ing the range of tones and colors you need to create the desired image. Poor exposurecan cloak important details in shadow, or wash them out in glare-filled, featurelessexpanses of white. However, getting the perfect exposure requires some intelligence—either that built into the camera, or the smarts in your head—because digital sensorscan’t capture all the tones we are able to see. If the range of tones in an image is exten-sive, embracing both inky black shadows and bright highlights, we often must settle foran exposure that renders most of those tones—but not all—in a way that best suits thephoto we want to produce.

For example, look at the two typical tourist snapshots presented side by side in Figure4.1. The camera was mounted on a tripod for both, so the only way you can really seethat they are two different images is by examining the differences in the way the waterflows in the ice-free area of the foreground. However, the pair of pictures does vary inexposure. The version on the left was underexposed, which helps bring out detail in the

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Figure 4.1 At left, the image is exposed for the background highlights, losing shadow detail. At right, the exposurecaptures detail in the shadows, but the background highlights are washed out.

snow and sky in the background, but makes the shadows of the building look murkyand dark. The overexposed version on the right offers better exposure for the foregroundarea, but now the brightest areas of the building and sky are much too light.

With digital camera sensors, it’s tricky to capture detail in both highlights and shadowsin a single image, because the number of tones, the dynamic range of the sensor, is lim-ited. The solution, in this particular case, was to resort to a technique called HighDynamic Range (HDR) photography, in which the two exposures from Figure 4.1 werecombined in an image editor such as Photoshop, or a specialized HDR tool likePhotomatix (about $100 from www.hdrsoft.com). The resulting shot is shown in Figure4.2. I’ll explain more about HDR photography later in this chapter. For now, though,I’m going to concentrate on showing you how to get the best exposures possible with-out resorting to such tools, using only the features of your Sony Alpha DSLR-A850.

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Figure 4.2Combining thetwo exposuresproduces thebest compro-mise image.

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To understand exposure, you need to understand the six aspects of light that combineto produce an image. Start with a light source—the sun, an interior lamp, or the glowfrom a campfire—and trace its path to your camera, through the lens, and finally to thesensor that captures the illumination. Here’s a brief review of the things within our con-trol that affect exposure.

■ Light at its source. Our eyes and our cameras—film or digital—are most sensitiveto that portion of the electromagnetic spectrum we call visible light. That light hasseveral important aspects that are relevant to photography, such as color, and harsh-ness (which is determined primarily by the apparent size of the light source as itilluminates a subject). But, in terms of exposure, the important attribute of a lightsource is its intensity. We may have direct control over intensity, which might be thecase with an interior light that can be brightened or dimmed. Or, we might haveonly indirect control over intensity, as with sunlight, which can be made to appeardimmer by introducing translucent light-absorbing or reflective materials in its path.

■ Light’s duration. We tend to think of most light sources as continuous. But, asyou’ll learn in Chapter 7, the duration of light can change quickly enough to mod-ify the exposure, as when the main illumination in a photograph comes from anintermittent source, such as an electronic flash.

■ Light reflected, transmitted, or emitted. Once light is produced by its source,either continuously or in a brief burst, we are able to see and photograph objectsby the light that is reflected from our subjects towards the camera lens; transmit-ted (say, from translucent objects that are lit from behind); or emitted (by a candleor television screen). When more or less light reaches the lens from the subject, weneed to adjust the exposure. This part of the equation is under our control to theextent we can increase the amount of light falling on or passing through the sub-ject (by adding extra light sources or using reflectors), or by pumping up the lightthat’s emitted (by increasing the brightness of the glowing object).

■ Light passed by the lens. Not all the illumination that reaches the front of the lensmakes it all the way through. Filters can remove some of the light before it entersthe lens. Inside the lens barrel is a variable-sized diaphragm called an aperture thatdilates and contracts to control the amount of light that enters the lens. You, or theAlpha’s autoexposure system, can control exposure by varying the size of the aper-ture. The relative size of the aperture is called the f/stop. (See Figure 4.3.)

■ Light passing through the shutter. Once light passes through the lens, the amountof time the sensor receives it is determined by the Alpha’s shutter, which can remainopen for as long as 30 seconds (or even longer if you use the Bulb setting) or asbriefly as 1/8,000th second.

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■ Light captured by the sensor. Not all the light falling onto the sensor is captured.If the number of photons reaching a particular photosite doesn’t pass a set thresh-old, no information is recorded. Similarly, if too much light illuminates a pixel inthe sensor, then the excess isn’t recorded or, worse, spills over to contaminate adja-cent pixels. We can modify the minimum and maximum number of pixels that con-tribute to image detail by adjusting the ISO setting. At higher ISOs, the incominglight is amplified to boost the effective sensitivity of the sensor.

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F/STOPS AND SHUTTER SPEEDS

If you’re really new to more advanced cameras (and I realize that some ambitious ama-teurs may purchase the Alpha as their first digital SLR), you might need to know that thelens aperture, or f/stop, is a ratio, much like a fraction, which is why f/2 is larger than f/4,just as 1/2 is larger than 1/4. However, f/2 is actually four times as large as f/4. (If youremember your high school geometry, you’ll know that to double the area of a circle, youmultiply its diameter by the square root of two: 1.4.)

Lenses are usually marked with intermediate f/stops that represent a size that’s twice asmuch/half as much as the previous aperture. So, a lens might be marked:

f/2, f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16, f/22, with each larger number representing an aper-ture that admits half as much light as the one before, as shown in Figure 4.3.

Shutter speeds are actual fractions (of a second), but the numerator is omitted in theA850’s viewfinder display and on the top LCD panel, so that 60, 125, 250, 500, 1,000,and so forth represent 1/60th, 1/125th, 1/250th, 1/500th, and 1/1,000th second. Toavoid confusion, Sony Alpha uses quotation marks to signify longer exposures: 2", 2"5,4", and so forth representing 2.0, 2.5, and 4.0-second exposures, respectively. (Sony didfind room for the shutter speed numerators on the rear LCD display.)

Figure 4.3Top row (left to right): f/2,f/2.8, f/4; bottom row,f/5.6, f/8, f11.

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These four factors—quantity of light, light passed by the lens, the amount of time theshutter is open, and the sensitivity of the sensor—all work proportionately and recip-rocally to produce an exposure. That is, if you double the amount of light, increase theaperture by one stop, make the shutter speed twice as long, or boost the ISO setting 2X,you’ll get twice as much exposure. Similarly, you can increase any of these factors whiledecreasing one of the others by a similar amount to keep the same exposure.

Most commonly, exposure settings are made using the aperture and shutter speed, fol-lowed by adjusting the ISO sensitivity if it’s not possible to get the preferred exposure(that is, the one that uses the “best” f/stop or shutter speed for the depth-of-field oraction stopping we want). Table 4.1 shows equivalent exposure settings using variousshutter speeds and f/stops.

Chapter 4 ■ Getting the Right Exposure 113

Table 4.1 Equivalent Exposures

Shutter speed f/stop Shutter speed f/stop

1/30th second f/22 1/500th second f/5.6

1/60th second f/16 1/1,000th second f/4

1/125th second f/11 1/2,000th second f/2.8

1/250th second f/8 1/4,000th second f/2

When the Alpha is set for Auto mode, the metering system selects the correct exposurefor you automatically. You can then change the exposure by using the exposure com-pensation control, but there is no way to choose an equivalent setting using a differentpairing of shutter speed and aperture.

If you’re shooting in Program (P) mode, though, you can take advantage of a feature ofthe Alpha (and of many other advanced cameras) known as Program Shift. After youhave pressed the shutter button to obtain the metered exposure, you can use either thefront or rear control dial to switch to other exposure settings that are equivalent, usingdifferent shutter speeds and f/stops. If you use the front control dial, you will vary theshutter speed, and the camera will choose a new aperture that results in an equivalentexposure, if possible. You will see the new settings in the viewfinder as well as on thetop and rear LCD displays. At the upper left of the rear LCD display, you will see thenotation Ps, indicating Program Shift with Shutter priority.

If you follow the same procedure but turn the rear control dial to vary the aperture, youwill reach a similar result, except that the notation at the top left of the recording infor-mation display will be PA, for Program Shift with Aperture priority.

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In Aperture priority (A) and Shutter priority (S) modes, you can change to an equiva-lent exposure, but only by adjusting either the aperture (the camera chooses the shut-ter speed) or shutter speed (the camera selects the aperture). In Manual exposure mode,you can also change to an equivalent exposure using a feature similar to Program Shift,called Manual Shift. In that case, after manually setting your aperture and shutter speedand letting the camera do its metering, you have to press the AEL button, located at theupper right of the rear LCD display. (This is a situation in which it’s useful to use theCustom menu 2 to set the operation of the AEL button to Toggle, so you don’t have tohold it down.) To use Manual Shift, while the AEL button is held down (or if it’s beentoggled), spin the front control dial to change the shutter speed, or the rear control dialto change the aperture. In either case, the A850 will adjust the corresponding setting tomaintain the same exposure if possible, just as with Program Shift. You can override thecamera’s selected exposure in any mode by using the Exposure Compensation settings.I’ll cover all these exposure modes later in the chapter.

One important note to bear in mind is that Program Shift does not function when aflash is attached to the camera and turned on. Manual Shift, however, does function inthat situation.

How the Sony Alpha Calculates ExposureYour Alpha DSLR-A850 calculates exposure by measuring the light that passes throughthe lens using a metering pattern you can select (more on that later) and based on theassumption that each area being measured reflects about the same amount of light as aneutral gray card with approximately 18-percent reflectance. That assumption is nec-essary because different subjects reflect different amounts of light. It’s approximatebecause digital cameras are rarely calibrated for exactly 18-percent reflectance; a figurebetween 13-14 percent is more common.

In a photo containing a white cat and a dark gray cat, the white cat might reflect fivetimes as much light as the gray cat. An exposure based on the white cat will cause thegray cat to appear to be black, while an exposure based on the gray cat will make thewhite cat appear washed out. Light-measuring devices handle this by assuming that theareas measured average the standard calibrated value in the neighborhood of 18-percentgray, a figure that’s been used as a rough standard for many years (as I noted, not all ven-dors calibrate their metering for exactly 18-percent gray). Black, white, and gray catshave been a standard metaphor for many years, as well, so I’m going to explain this con-cept using a different, and more cooperative, life form: peppers.

Figure 4.4 shows three types of peppers. The yellow peppers at top represents a whitecat, or any object that is very light but contains detail that we want to see in the lightareas. The red peppers in the center are a stand-in for a gray cat, because it has most ofits details in the middle tones. The green peppers serve as our black cat, because theyare dark objects with detail in the shadows.

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The colors confuse the issue, so I’m going to convert our color peppers to black andwhite. For the version shown in Figure 4.5, the exposure was optimized for the white(yellow) peppers, changing its tonal value to a medium, 18-percent gray. The dark(green) and medium-toned (red) peppers are now too dark. For Figure 4.6, the expo-sure was optimized for the dark (green) peppers, making most of their surface, now, fallinto the middle-tone, 18-percent gray range. The yellow (light) and midtone (red) pep-pers are now too light.

The solution, of course, is to measure exposure from the object with the middle tonesthat most closely correspond to the 18-percent gray “standard.” Do that, and you windup with a picture that more closely resembles the original tonality of the red, yellow,and green peppers, and which looks, in black and white, like Figure 4.7.

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Figure 4.4The yellow

peppers, redpeppers, and

green peppersrepresent light,

middle, anddark tones.

Figure 4.5 Exposing for the light-colored peppers in the upper leftrenders the other two types ofpeppers excessively dark.

Figure 4.6 Exposing for the darkpeppers (bottom) causes the othervegetables to become too light.

Figure 4.7 Exposing for themiddle-toned red peppers producesan image in which the tones of allthree subjects appear accurately.

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In the real world, you could calculate exposure the hard way, and arrive at accurate set-tings by pointing your Alpha at an evenly lit object, such as an actual gray card or thepalm of your hand (the backside of the hand is too variable). You’ll need to increase theexposure by one stop in the latter case, because the human palm—of any ethnic group—reflects about twice as much light as a gray card. As you’ll see, however, it’s more prac-tical to use your Alpha’s system to meter the actual scene.

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F/STOPS VERSUS STOPS

In photography parlance, f/stop always means the aperture or lens opening. However, forlack of a current commonly used word for one exposure increment, the term stop is oftenused. (In the past, EV served this purpose, but exposure value and its abbreviation havebeen inextricably intertwined with describing exposure compensation.) In this book,when I say “stop” by itself (no f/), I mean one whole unit of exposure, and am not neces-sarily referring to an actual f/stop or lens aperture. So, adjusting the exposure by “onestop” can mean both changing to the next shutter speed increment (say, from 1/125thsecond to 1/250th second) or the next aperture (such as f/4 to f/5.6). Similarly, 1/3 stopor 1/2 stop increments can mean either shutter speed or aperture changes, depending onthe context. Be forewarned.

In most cases, your camera’s light meter will do a good job of calculating the right expo-sure, especially if you use the exposure tips in the next section. But if you want to dou-ble-check, or feel that exposure is especially critical, take the light reading off an objectof known reflectance, such as a gray card. To meter properly, you’ll want to choose boththe metering method (how light is evaluated) and exposure method (how the appropriateshutter speeds and apertures are chosen). I’ll describe both in the following sections.

Choosing a Metering MethodThe Alpha DSLR-A850 has three different schemes for evaluating the light received byits exposure sensors. You can choose among them by turning the little switch that sur-rounds the AEL button, at the upper-right corner of the LCD display.

■ Multi segment. The Alpha slices up the frame into a total of 40 different zones,arranged in a honeycomb pattern, as shown in Figure 4.8. The camera evaluatesthe measurements to make an educated guess about what kind of picture you’retaking, based on examination of exposure data derived from thousands of differ-ent real-world photos. For example, if the top sections of a picture are much lighterthan the bottom portions, the algorithm can assume that the scene is a landscapephoto with lots of sky. This mode is the best all-purpose metering method for mostpictures.

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■ Center weighted. In this mode, the exposure meter emphasizes a zone in the cen-ter of the frame to calculate exposure, as shown in Figure 4.9, on the theory that,for most pictures, the main subject will be located in the center. Center weightingworks best for portraits, architectural photos, and other pictures in which the mostimportant subject is located in the middle of the frame. As the name suggests, thelight reading is weighted towards the central portion, but information is also usedfrom the rest of the frame. If your main subject is surrounded by very bright or verydark areas, the exposure might not be exactly right. However, this scheme workswell in many situations if you don’t want to use one of the other modes.

■ Spot. This mode confines the reading to a limited area in the center of theviewfinder, as shown in Figure 4.10. This mode is useful when you want to baseexposure on a small area in the frame, such as a spot-lit performer on stage at a con-cert. If that area is in the center of the frame, so much the better. If not, you’ll haveto make your meter reading and then lock exposure by pressing the shutter releasehalfway (or by pressing the AEL button).

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Figure 4.8Multi segmentmetering uses

40 zones.

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Figure 4.9Centerweightedmetering calcu-lates exposurebased on thefull frame, butemphasizes thecenter area.

Figure 4.10Spot meteringcalculates expo-sure based on acenter spot.

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Choosing an Exposure MethodYou’ll find five methods for choosing the appropriate shutter speed and aperture withthe Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 automatically, semi-automatically, or manually. Just spinthe mode dial to choose the method you want to use (see Figure 4.11). Your choice ofwhich mode is best for a given shooting situation will depend on things like your needfor lots of (or less) depth-of-field, a desire to freeze action or allow motion blur. Eachof the Sony Alpha DSLR-A850’s semi-automatic exposure methods emphasizes oneaspect of image capture or another, and the manual and automatic ones have their ownvirtues to recommend them. This section introduces you to all five exposure modes.

Chapter 4 ■ Getting the Right Exposure 119

Figure 4.11Choose expo-sure modes by

spinning themode dial.

Auto ModeThe first exposure mode is the Auto setting, highlighted in aqua on the mode dial. Youmight wonder why I even bother discussing this one, because it sounds like the “set-it-and-forget-it” sort of feature found on many less-advanced cameras. On those cameras,the Auto mode often takes complete control of the situation and does not let you par-ticipate in the decision-making process—you can’t set exposure compensation, whitebalance, ISO, or anything else. With the Sony Alpha DSLR-A850, though, Sony hasdesigned an Auto mode that will take over if you want it to, but that also will let youtake back control of almost every shooting decision to be made.

For example, although the camera follows a standard script in making its initial settings(AF-A, AF area Wide, ISO Auto, metering mode Multi segment, D-Range OptimizerStandard, etc.), you can change any or all of these by using the menu system, the QuickNavi menu, or the direct-setting buttons. Just about the only feature that is not available

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in Auto mode is the Program Shift function I discussed previously, which lets you switchfrom the metered exposure setting to an alternate pairing of shutter speed and aperture.Exposure compensation can be used when using Auto mode. So, with the A850, Automode can be a great way to start out if you’re in a hurry, because you can be assured of asolid, standard array of settings, but you will still be able to change them to suit the occa-sion. Note, though, that if you change settings while in Auto mode, some of them (imagesize, aspect ratio, quality, and a few others; the complete list is on page 47 of the instruc-tion manual) will “stick” and stay set until you change them, even if you switch awayfrom Auto mode and back again. The other settings, such as metering mode, AF areaWide, ISO Auto, and D-Range Optimizer Standard, will revert back to their defaults ifyou switch away from Auto mode and then back again.

Program Auto ModeProgram auto mode (P) uses the Alpha’s built-in smarts to select the correct f/stop andshutter speed using a database of picture information that tells it which combination ofshutter speed and aperture will work best for a particular photo. If the correct exposurecannot be achieved at the current ISO setting, the aperture and shutter speed will bothblink in the viewfinder and on your LCD, to indicate under- or overexposure. If you’renot using the Auto ISO setting, you can then boost or reduce the ISO to increase ordecrease sensitivity.

Program mode is similar to Auto mode in that the camera will make good exposuredecisions without any intervention by you. There are some important differencesbetween the two modes, though. First, in Program mode, you can use Program Shift toswitch to different, but equivalent, settings of shutter speed and aperture. Perhaps evenmore important, in Program mode, as in all modes other than Auto, the camera willretain all of your settings of items such as ISO, white balance, AF area, D-RangeOptimizer, and the like. So, if you get the camera set up the way you want it in P mode,then turn it off, or switch to another mode and then back to P, your individual settingswill still be in place when you return to P mode. This behavior is different from theAuto mode, which always starts up with its own pre-programmed group of settings,with the exception of a few “sticky” settings that will hold their new values when youchange them, as noted in the discussion above of Auto mode.

Aperture PriorityIn Aperture priority mode (A), you specify the lens opening used, and the Alpha DSLR-A850 selects the shutter speed. Aperture priority is especially good when you want touse a particular lens opening to achieve a desired effect. Perhaps you’d like to use thesmallest f/stop possible to maximize depth-of-field in a close-up picture. Or, you mightwant to use a large f/stop to throw everything except your main subject out of focus, asin Figure 4.12. Maybe you’d just like to “lock in” a particular f/stop because it’s the

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Chapter 4 ■ Getting the Right Exposure 121

Figure 4.12Use Aperture

priority to“lock in” a

large f/stopwhen you want

to blur thebackground.

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sharpest available aperture with that lens. Or, you might prefer to use, say, f/2.8 on alens with a maximum aperture of f/1.4, because you want the best compromise betweenspeed and sharpness.

Aperture priority can even be used to specify a range of shutter speeds you want to useunder varying lighting conditions, which seems almost contradictory. But think aboutit. You’re shooting a soccer game outdoors with a telephoto lens and want a relativelyhigh shutter speed, but you don’t care if the speed changes a little should the sun duckbehind a cloud. Set your Alpha to A, and adjust the aperture until a shutter speed of,say, 1/1,000th second is selected at your current ISO setting. (In bright sunlight at ISO400, that aperture is likely to be around f/11.) Then, go ahead and shoot, knowing thatyour Alpha will maintain that f/11 aperture (for sufficient DOF as the soccer playersmove about the field), but will drop down to 1/750th or 1/500th second if necessaryshould the lighting change a little.

A blinking shutter speed on the LCD, or a blinking camera shake warning icon or blink-ing arrow on the EV scale in the viewfinder, indicates that the Alpha is unable to selectan appropriate shutter speed at the selected aperture and that over- or underexposurewill occur at the current ISO setting. That’s the major pitfall of using Aperture prior-ity: you might select an f/stop that is too small or too large to allow an optimal expo-sure with the available shutter speeds. For example, if you choose f/2.8 as your apertureand the illumination is quite bright (say, at the beach or in snow), even your camera’sfastest shutter speed might not be able to cut down the amount of light reaching thesensor to provide the right exposure. Or, if you select f/8 in a dimly lit room, you mightfind yourself shooting with a very slow shutter speed that can cause blurring from sub-ject movement or camera shake. Aperture priority is best used by those with a bit ofexperience in choosing settings. Many seasoned photographers leave their Alpha set onAperture priority all the time.

Shutter PriorityShutter priority (S) is the inverse of Aperture priority: you choose the shutter speedyou’d like to use, and the camera’s metering system selects the appropriate f/stop. Perhapsyou’re shooting action photos and you want to use the absolute fastest shutter speedavailable with your camera; in other cases, you might want to use a slow shutter speedto add some blur to a sports photo that would be mundane if the action were completelyfrozen (see Figure 4.13). Shutter priority mode gives you some control over how muchaction-freezing capability your digital camera brings to bear in a particular situation.

You’ll also encounter the same problem as with Aperture priority when you select a shut-ter speed that’s too long or too short for correct exposure under some conditions. I’veshot outdoor soccer games on sunny Fall evenings and used Shutter priority mode to

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Figure 4.13 Lock the shutter at a slow speed to introduce blur into an action shot, as with this panned image of abasketball player.

lock in a 1/1,000th second shutter speed, only to find my Alpha could not set a properexposure when the sun dipped behind some trees because there was no longer enoughlight to shoot at that speed, even with the lens wide open.

As with Aperture priority mode, it’s possible to choose an inappropriate shutter speedwhen using Shutter priority mode. If that’s the case, the maximum aperture of your lens(to indicate underexposure) or the minimum aperture (to indicate overexposure) willblink in the viewfinder and on the LCD. The Camera shake warning indicator does notappear in Shutter priority mode.

Making Exposure Value ChangesSometimes when using the automatic or semi-automatic shooting modes you’ll wantmore or less exposure than indicated by the Sony Alpha DSLR-A850’s metering sys-tem. Perhaps you want to underexpose to create a silhouette effect, or overexpose to pro-duce a high-key look. It’s easy to use the Alpha’s exposure compensation system tooverride the exposure recommendations. It’s available in any exposure mode, evenincluding Manual exposure, though in that mode it works a bit differently, as I’ll dis-cuss below in the section on Manual exposure.

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Here’s how this feature works in the Auto, P, A, and S modes. Press the exposure com-pensation button, located on top of the camera just behind the shutter button, thenrotate the front or rear control dial, or move the multi-selector, to the right to make theimage brighter (add exposure), and to the left to make the image darker (subtract expo-sure). The exposure scales in the viewfinder and on the LCD indicate the EV changeyou’ve made. Generally speaking, the EV change you’ve made remains for all exposuresthat follow, until you manually zero out the EV setting by using the exposure compen-sation button to reverse the above setting. That is, even if you turn the camera off andthen back on, the exposure compensation setting you’ve made will still be present. Butthere is an important exception to be aware of: If you set exposure compensation whilein Auto shooting mode, that setting will be erased once you switch away to anothermode or turn off the camera; it will not be there the next time you switch to Auto mode.Similarly, any exposure compensation value you set while in a mode other than Automode will not show up when you switch into Auto mode, although that value will stillbe there in all other modes, until you zero it out yourself.

Manual ExposurePart of being an experienced photographer comes from knowing when to rely on yourSony Alpha’s automation (including Auto and P modes), when to go semi-automatic(with Shutter priority or Aperture priority), and when to set exposure manually (usingM). Some photographers actually prefer to set their exposure manually, as the Alphawill be happy to provide an indication of when its metering system judges your man-ual settings provide the proper exposure, using the analog exposure scale at the bottomof the viewfinder and on the LCD.

Manual exposure can come in handy in some situations. You might be taking a silhou-ette photo and find that none of the exposure modes or EV correction features give youexactly the effect you want. For example, when I shot the windmill in Figure 4.14, therewas no way any of my Sony Alpha’s exposure modes would be able to interpret the scenethe way I wanted to shoot it. So, I took a couple test exposures, and set the exposuremanually to use the exact shutter speed and f/stop I needed. You might be working ina studio environment using multiple flash units. The additional flashes are triggered byslave devices (gadgets that set off the flash when they sense the light from another flash,or, perhaps from a radio or infrared remote control). Your camera’s exposure meter does-n’t compensate for the extra illumination, and can’t interpret the flash exposure at all,so you need to set the aperture manually.

Although, depending on your proclivities, you might not need to set exposure manu-ally very often, you should still make sure you understand how it works. Fortunately,the Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 makes setting exposure manually very easy. Just set the

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Figure 4.14Manual mode

allowed settingthe exact expo-sure for this sil-

houette shot.

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mode dial to M, turn the front control dial to set the shutter speed, and the rear con-trol dial to adjust the aperture (unless you’ve reversed the control dial’s functions as dis-cussed in Chapter 3). Press the shutter release halfway, and the exposure scale in theviewfinder displays an indicator on top of the EV scale that reveals how far your chosen setting diverges from the metered exposure. If you’re so inclined, you can adjusteither shutter speed or aperture, or both, to bring the indicator back to the zero point,so that your chosen settings agree with the metered value. Note: When you’re shootingin Manual exposure mode, you will see the indication “M.M” instead of the exposurecompensation symbol to the left of the EV scale on the Detailed recording informationdisplay. That stands for “Metered Manual,” to remind you that you are setting the expo-sure manually, while the camera meters the exposure as a backup.

Now, here’s how exposure compensation works when shooting with Manual exposuremode on the A850. Sony’s implementation is a bit unusual; with some other cameras,exposure compensation does not function when shooting in Manual exposure mode.The A850, though, allows you to use compensation in this situation. Let’s say you haveset your exposure manually to 1/250th second at f/2.8, and that exposure is in agree-ment with the camera’s metering. The indicator on the EV scale and on the LCD willbe at the zero point. Add in exposure compensation of –2.0 EV, because your subjectis dark, and the metering will call for too much exposure. After you dial in your –2.0EV, go back and meter the scene again by pressing the shutter button halfway. Now(assuming the lighting is the same) the EV scale in the viewfinder will show that yourexposure is too bright by 2.0 EV. This is because the camera has factored in your –2.0EV of exposure compensation to the “standard” exposure, and that standard readingwill prompt you to reduce the exposure by 2.0 EV in order to achieve a zero reading onthe EV scale again.

You will receive a couple of clues to show that the camera is using exposure compensa-tion in this situation, so you won’t forget and just think the camera is showing you itsunaltered “standard” metering. First, if you’re using the Detailed recording informationdisplay, it will show the exposure compensation amount in the last figure on the topline, for example: M 1/250 F2.8 -2.0. Also, the camera will display the exposure com-pensation symbol on the small LCD display on top of the camera. There will be noth-ing in the viewfinder to indicate that exposure compensation is in effect, though, so youneed to be somewhat careful if you decide to use exposure compensation with Manualexposure mode. My personal preference when using Manual exposure is just to rely onthe EV scale in the viewfinder. If I want to add or subtract EV steps, I just adjust theaperture and shutter speed until the indicator on the EV scale is offset by the desiredamount.

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Adjusting Exposure with ISO SettingsAnother way of adjusting exposures is by changing the ISO sensitivity setting.Sometimes photographers forget about this option, because the common practice is toset the ISO once for a particular shooting session (say, at ISO 100 or 200 for bright sun-light outdoors, or ISO 800 when shooting indoors) and then forget about ISO. Thereason for that is that ISOs higher than ISO 100 or 200 are seen as “bad” or “necessaryevils.” However, changing the ISO is a valid way of adjusting exposure settings, partic-ularly with the Sony Alpha DSLR-A850, which produces good results at ISO settingsthat create grainy, unusable pictures with some other camera models.

Indeed, I find myself using ISO adjustment as a convenient alternate way of adding orsubtracting EV when shooting in Manual mode, and as a quick way of choosing equiv-alent exposures when in automatic or semi-automatic modes. For example, I’ve selecteda Manual exposure with both f/stop and shutter speed suitable for my image using, say,ISO 200. I can change the exposure in full stop increments by pressing the ISO buttonon top of the camera, and spinning the control dial one click at a time. The differencein image quality/noise at the base setting of ISO 200 is negligible if I dial in ISO 100to reduce exposure a little, or change to ISO 400 to increase exposure. I keep my pre-ferred f/stop and shutter speed, but still adjust the exposure.

Or, perhaps, I am using Shutter priority mode and the metered exposure at ISO 200 is1/500th second at f/11. If I decide on the spur of the moment I’d rather use 1/500thsecond at f/8, I can press the ISO button, and spin the control dial to switch to ISO100. Of course, it’s a good idea to monitor your ISO changes, so you don’t end up atISO 1600 accidentally. ISO settings can, of course, also be used to boost or reduce sen-sitivity in particular shooting situations. The Sony Alpha can use ISO settings from ISO100 up to 6400. (Note, though, that values below 200 and above 3200 are surroundedby lines when displayed by the camera. This indicates that these are not optimum ISOvalues for this camera, and don’t give the full benefit that “real” ISO readings of thosevalues would give. Therefore, I recommend that you not use those values unless youabsolutely have to in order to expose the picture properly.)

The camera can adjust the ISO automatically as appropriate for various lighting con-ditions. As we saw in Chapter 3, you can use the ISO Auto Range option on theRecording menu 2 to set the range of ISO values that is used when ISO is set to Auto.These ranges include several options, with the broadest range of 400-1600 and the nar-rowest of 200-400. When the camera is set to the Auto shooting mode, however, theISO Auto Range option is grayed out on the menu and cannot be used. In that mode,the camera initially sets ISO to Auto with a range of ISO 200-800. In Manual expo-sure mode, you cannot set ISO to Auto. If ISO was set to Auto before you select Manualexposure mode, the camera will reset it to 200 for Manual mode; you can then changeto any other value.

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BracketingBracketing is a method for shooting several consecutive exposures using different set-tings, as a way of improving the odds that one will be exactly right. Before digital andelectronic film cameras took over the universe, it was common to bracket exposures,shooting, say, a series of three photos at 1/125th second, but varying the f/stop fromf/8 to f/11 to f/16. In practice, smaller than whole-stop increments were used for greaterprecision. Plus, it was just as common to keep the same aperture and vary the shutterspeed, although in the days before electronic shutters, film cameras often had only wholeincrement shutter speeds available.

Today, cameras like the Alpha DSLR-A850 can bracket exposures much more precisely.When this feature is activated in the basic bracketing situation, the Alpha takes threeconsecutive photos: one at the metered “correct” exposure, one with less exposure, andone with more exposure, in your choice of 1/3 stop, 1/2 stop, 2/3 stop, or 2 full stopincrements. Figure 4.15 shows an image with the metered exposure (center), flanked byexposures of 2/3 stop less (left), and 2/3 stop more (right). However, the A850 has afairly impressive array of other bracketing options in its arsenal. You have the ability to

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Figure 4.15 Metered exposure (center) accompanied by bracketed exposures of 2/3 stop less (left) and 2/3 stop more(right).

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vary the number of images taken, the way they are taken (continuously versus one shut-ter release at a time), the order in which they are taken, the amount of variation amongthe exposures, and, last but not least, what value is varied—the amount of exposure isjust one of several aspects of your shots that can be bracketed. Let’s take a look at all ofthe bracketing options.

With less sophisticated cameras, exposure bracketing is the only type of bracketing avail-able, and it is undoubtedly the most familiar and probably the most useful type. Butthe Sony DSLR-A850 offers not just exposure bracketing, but also bracketing for whitebalance and Dynamic Range Optimization. And, within those categories, it offers sev-eral suboptions.

To set up bracketing on the Sony DSLR-A850, use the DRIVE button on the top rightof the camera, or press the Fn button at the bottom right of the camera’s back to accessthe drive options. If you use the DRIVE button, you will see a submenu; navigate upand down through it with the front control dial or the multi-selector’s up and downmovement. Make selections from the menu items with the rear control dial or the multi-selector’s left and right movement. If you press the Fn button to access the Quick Naviscreen, you can then press in on the multi-selector’s center button to access the samemenu as with the DRIVE button. Or, if you want to speed up the selection process, youcan leave the whole Quick Navi screen displayed, and scroll quickly through the vari-ous drive and bracketing options with the front control dial, and make your choices ofvalues with the rear control dial. Here is the list of options you will be presented withfor bracketing.

1. Continuous-shot exposure bracketing. With this option, the camera will fire itsbracketing shots continuously when you press the shutter button once. The mostbasic option is designated by the camera as BRK C 0.3EV3, meaning the camerawill take three shots with one press of the shutter button, at an interval of 0.3 EVsteps. So, for example, if the camera meters the scene as f/2.8 at 1/30th second,when you press the shutter once the camera will take one exposure (normal) of f/2.8at 1/30th second, a second (darker) of f/2.8 at 1/40th second, and a third (lighter)of f/2.8 at 1/25th second. Using the left-right movement of the rear control dial orthe multi-selector, you can change the setting of the EV step to 0.5, 0.7, or 2.0. Inaddition, you have the option of setting the camera to take five bracketed exposureswith any of those settings except the 2.0 EV step interval; with that setting, the onlyavailable number of shots is three.

2. Single-shot exposure bracketing. This next option down on the Drive submenuhas the same options as continuous exposure bracketing, but you have to press theshutter button for each shot. This option may be useful if you need to check yoursubject between shots to make sure it is still in the correct position, or to makeadjustments to a subject, costume, or prop, etc.

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3. White balance bracketing. The next option lets you take a series of three expo-sures with variations in the white balance, rather than the exposure. You might wantto take advantage of this capability if you are in a situation with non-standard light-ing or a mixture of different light sources. Of course, before resorting to bracket-ing you will want to do your best to figure out what white balance setting is best,and you may try a custom setting, as discussed in Chapter 5. Bracketing can giveyou an extra measure of security that you’re getting at least one exposure with thecorrect white balance, though. Here, you have only two options: Lo and Hi inter-vals for the three exposures. You will hear only one shutter sound, but the camerastores three images, with the three different white balance settings. With Lo, theinterval between settings is 10 mired (mired is a technical measure of color tem-perature), with Hi, the interval is 20 mired.

4. DRO bracketing. The final type of bracketing available lets you take multiple expo-sures with Dynamic Range Optimization set at different levels. I will be discussingthe D-Range Optimizer capability in more detail in Chapter 5. Essentially, it is aform of in-camera processing that pulls details out of the shadows without wash-ing out the highlights. The Sony DSLR-A850 has several DRO settings, includingAdvanced DRO, with five levels of increasing adjustment to the image. With thisbracketing option, the camera will take three exposures, and you will hear only oneshutter sound. The camera will store three images with increasing levels of D-RangeOptimization. There are two settings: With Lo, the camera will use levels 1, 2, and3; with Hi, it will use levels 1, 3, and 5.

Bracketing can be performed using any of the A850’s shooting modes, including Auto.When bracketing is set, a set of vertical lines appears above the center of the exposurescale in the viewfinder, showing how many shots remain to be shot in the set. For exam-ple, if you set the bracketing for three shots, when you begin you’ll see ||| (three lines),followed by ||, and then | as the bracket set is exposed. Here are some more things tokeep in mind about bracketing:

■ HDR isn’t hard. The 2.0 stop setting is the best choice if you plan to perform HighDynamic Range magic later on in Photoshop or another image editor. The Mergeto HDR command in Photoshop, for example, allows you to combine three or moreimages with different exposures into one photo with an amazing amount of detailin both highlights and shadows. To get the best results, mount your camera on atripod, shoot in RAW format, use BRK C, and set the exposure increment to 2.0stops.

■ Adjust the base value. You can bracket your exposures based on something otherthan the base (metered) exposure value. Make an adjustment for extra or less expo-sure with the exposure compensation button and control dial. Bracketing will beover, under, and equal to the compensated value.

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■ What changes? In Aperture priority mode, exposure bracketing will be achievedby changing the shutter speed (this is the best mode when doing HDR photogra-phy, to avoid changing the depth-of-field of the shots that will be later merged). InShutter priority mode, bracketing will be done using different f/stops. In Manualexposure mode, bracketing is applied using the shutter speed unless you press andhold the AEL button (or toggle it, if that option is set in the Custom menu 2), inwhich case bracketing is done by changing the f/stop. You’d want to use the defaultmethod when the shutter speed selected is most important (say, because you wantto freeze action with a high shutter speed, or allow creative blur with a low shutterspeed, or when shooting HDR photos). Bracket by changing the f/stop when youwant to keep the same depth-of-field for selective focus. In Program and Automodes, the Alpha will use both shutter speed and aperture, as appropriate for yourscene.

■ Flash works, too. With some cameras, bracketing can’t be used when working withthe flash. That’s not a problem with the Sony DSLR-A850. When you have a com-patible flash unit attached that communicates through the camera’s hot shoe, thecamera will take multiple shots, but it will automatically set itself for single-shotbracketing, so you have to press the shutter for each shot. The camera will vary theexposure by changing the intensity of the flash for the successive exposures. It willalso perform white balance or DRO bracketing with flash. With those two modes,continuous versus single-shot bracketing is not an issue, because the camera storesthree different images with only one shutter actuation.

■ Remember RAW. Bracketing is a great feature, and the A850 has a terrificallyrobust implementation of it. But don’t forget that the camera also can shoot imagesin the RAW (or the virtually equivalent cRAW) format. With RAW images, youcan alter your settings of exposure and white balance after the fact, in your editingsoftware. But note that you can’t readily add Dynamic Range Optimization in soft-ware, or at least not nearly as easily as you can tweak exposure and white balancesettings. So, DRO bracketing can offer you additional tonal flexibility beyond evenwhat RAW can offer with a single shot. Of course, if you’re shooting in JPEG qual-ity rather than RAW, bracketing can be of tremendous benefit in making sure youhave at least one image with the correct settings of exposure and/or white balance.

■ Changing the order. As I discussed in Chapter 3, for white balance and exposurebracketing, you can change the order in which the camera takes the exposures. Thedefault setting is neutral-low-high; you can change the order to low-neutral-highthrough the Custom menu 3.

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Dealing with NoiseImage noise is that random grainy effect that some like to use as a visual effect, butwhich, most of the time, is objectionable because it robs your image of detail even as itadds that “interesting” texture. Noise is caused by two different phenomena: high ISOsettings and long exposures.

High ISO noise commonly appears when you raise your camera’s sensitivity settingabove ISO 400. With Sony cameras, which generally have good ISO noise characteris-tics, noise may become visible at ISO 800, and is usually fairly noticeable at ISO 1600and above. This kind of noise appears as a result of the amplification needed to increasethe sensitivity of the sensor. While higher ISOs do pull details out of dark areas, theyalso amplify non-signal information randomly, creating noise. The Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 automatically applies noise reduction that is strong enough to be visible as a reduc-tion of sharpness in the image for any exposures taken when the ISO is set at ISO 1600or above. Figure 4.16 shows two pictures shot during different at-bats at the same base-ball game. Both were exposed at ISO 1600, but with noise reduction applied in the ver-sion at top, and with no noise reduction at bottom. (I’ve exaggerated the differencesbetween the two so the grainy/less grainy images are more evident on the printed page.The halftone screen applied to printed photos tends to mask these differences.)

A similar noisy phenomenon occurs during long time exposures, which allow more pho-tons to reach the sensor, increasing your ability to capture a picture under low-light con-ditions. However, the longer exposures also increase the likelihood that some pixels willregister random phantom photons, often because the longer an imager is “hot,” thewarmer it gets, and that heat can be mistaken for photons.

With a CCD like the one used in some other cameras in the Alpha series, the entire sig-nal is conveyed off the chip and funneled through a single amplifier and analog-to-dig-ital conversion circuit. Any noise introduced there is, at least, consistent. CMOS imagerslike the one in the Alpha DSLR-A850, on the other hand, contain millions of individ-ual amplifiers and A/D converters, all working in unison. Because all these circuits don’tnecessarily all process in precisely the same way all the time, they can introduce some-thing called fixed-pattern noise into the image data.

The Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 performs long exposure noise reduction for any exposureslonger than one full second. Fortunately, Sony’s electronics geniuses have done an excep-tional job minimizing noise. Even so, there are situations in which you might want toadjust the settings of your camera’s automatic noise reduction features. For example,noise reduction can mask some detail as it removes random pixels from your image.Some of the image-making pixels are unavoidably vanquished at the same time. Tochange the setting of either type of noise reduction, navigate to the Recording menu 3and select either Long Exposure NR or High ISO NR. For Long Exposure NR, On andOff are the only options. For High ISO NR, you can select High, Normal, Low, or Off.

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Figure 4.16Noise reduc-tion applied

(top) pro-duces a less

grainy imagethan the ver-

sion at bot-tom, which

has no noisereduction.

Select High if you want to use as much noise reduction as possible, even at the expenseof image detail. Select Low if you want to preserve as much image detail as possible,while still reducing noise to some extent. The Normal setting, not surprisingly, repre-sents an intermediate setting, balancing noise reduction against preserving image detailfairly evenly.

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Long Exposure NR is automatically disabled any time you are using continuous shoot-ing or continuous bracketing. High ISO NR is not disabled for continuous shooting orcontinuous bracketing, but the speed of the continuous shots will be slowed down ifthe amount of High ISO NR is set to High.

You can also apply noise reduction to a lesser extent using Photoshop, and when con-verting RAW files to some other format, using your favorite RAW converter, or anindustrial-strength product like Noise Ninja (www.picturecode.com) to wipe out noiseafter you’ve already taken the picture.

Fixing Exposures with HistogramsWhile you can often recover poorly exposed photos in your image editor, your best betis to arrive at the correct exposure in the camera, minimizing the tweaks that you haveto make in post processing. However, you can’t always judge exposure just by viewingthe image on your Alpha DSLR-A850’s LCD after the shot is made, and the A850does not offer a Live View feature to let you judge the exposure on the LCD beforethe shot is taken. (It offers instead an Intelligent preview feature, discussed in the nextsection, which may be of use in this situation, but that feature also relies on the use ofa histogram.)

When you want to have an accurate representation of the exposure of a picture you havetaken, you can use a histogram, which is a chart displayed on the Sony Alpha’s LCDthat shows the number of tones being captured at each brightness level. You can use theinformation to provide correction for the next shot you take. The Alpha provides, dur-ing playback, a histogram screen that shows overall brightness levels for an image as wellas for the separate red, green, and blue channels.

The histogram chart includes a representation of up to 256 vertical lines on a horizon-tal axis that show the number of pixels in the image at each brightness level, from 0(black) on the left side to 255 (white) on the right. (The 3-inch LCD doesn’t haveenough pixels to show each and every one of the 256 lines, but instead provides a rep-resentation of the shape of the curve formed.) The more pixels at a given level, the tallerthe bar at that position. If no bar appears at a particular position on the scale from leftto right, there are no pixels at that particular brightness level.

A typical histogram produces a mountain-like shape, with most of the pixels bunchedin the middle tones, with fewer pixels at the dark and light ends of the scale. Ideally,though, there will be at least some pixels at either extreme, so that your image has botha true black and a true white representing some details. Learn to spot histograms thatrepresent over- and underexposure, and add or subtract exposure using an EV modifi-cation to compensate.

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For example, Figure 4.18 shows the histogram for an image that is badly underexposed.You can guess from the shape of the histogram that many of the dark tones to the leftof the graph have been clipped off. There’s plenty of room on the right side for addi-tional pixels to reside without having them become overexposed. Or, a histogram mightlook like Figure 4.19, which is overexposed. In either case, you can increase or decreasethe exposure by using exposure compensation to produce the corrected histogram shownin Figure 4.20, in which the tones “hug” the right side of the histogram to produce asmany highlight details as possible. See “Making Exposure Value Changes,” above forinformation on dialing in exposure compensation.

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DISPLAYING HISTOGRAMS

To view histograms on your screen, press the C button below the multi-selector while animage is shown on the LCD in Playback mode. The histogram screen shows brightnesslevels as well as levels for each of the red, green, and blue channels (Figure 4.17). Duringhistogram display, you’ll also see a thumbnail at the top of the screen with your imagedisplayed along with detailed information about the image, including f/stop, shutterspeed, lens focal length, ISO setting, and other camera settings.

Figure 4.17Histograms

show the rela-tionship oftones in an

image, includ-ing brightness

(top right), andred, green, and

blue tones(middle and

bottom right).

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Figure 4.18This histogramshows anunderexposedimage.

Figure 4.19This histogramreveals that theimage is over-exposed.

Figure 4.20A histogram fora properlyexposed imageshould looklike this.

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The histogram can also be used to aid in fixing the contrast of an image, although gaug-ing incorrect contrast is more difficult. For example, if the histogram shows all the tonesbunched up in one place in the image, the photo will be low in contrast. If the tonesare spread out more or less evenly, the image is probably high in contrast. In either case,your best bet may be to switch to RAW (if you’re not already using that format) so youcan adjust contrast in post processing.

There is one other very helpful feature of the histogram display screen on the Sony AlphaDSLR-A850. If any area of the image is excessively bright or too dark, that area in thethumbnail image will flash to alert you that adjustments to the exposure are called for.You may see multiple areas flash if, for example, one part of the image is too bright whileanother is too dark.

Adjusting Exposures with Intelligent PreviewUp to this point, I have discussed fairly conventional and time-tested ways to make surethat your images are exposed properly so that details are clear and no areas are eithertoo dark or too light. You know how to use the professional-level features of the SonyAlpha DSLR-A850 to meter the light properly and adjust the aperture and shutterspeed. You can choose the best exposure mode for a given situation, control the ISOsetting, and apply exposure compensation as needed.

You also are familiar with the camera’s capabilities for bracketing exposures to make surethat at least one of the images you take is exposed properly, and you are familiar withthe use of the histogram to help you analyze the brightness of your images.

You would be justified in concluding that the tools mentioned above are sufficient forexposing your shots with the proper settings. However, Sony has provided users of theA850 with one additional feature that gives you the ability to actually take a test shot,examine it on the high-resolution LCD display on the back of the camera, and tweakseveral of the most important exposure-related settings before you take the final picture.

This feature, called Intelligent preview, is one that was newly developed by Sony. It isquite powerful in that it gives you the ability to adjust not just one setting at a time, aswith bracketing, but several at once, and instantly see on the LCD display how thoseadjustments will affect the final image, before you press the shutter button to record theactual shot. Here is how it works.

1. Make sure the Preview button is set for Intelligent preview. As I discussed inChapter 3, the last option on the Custom menu 1 lets you choose whether press-ing the Preview button produces only a depth-of-field preview or activates theIntelligent preview function, which is the default option.

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2. Set up your shot. You can use any shooting mode and any other settings exceptthat you can’t set the shutter speed to BULB. Also, autofocus will not work whilethe preview is on the screen, so you need to finish your focusing before pressing thePreview button.

3. Press the Preview button. This button is located to the right of and below the lens.You may be able to reach it with one of the lower fingers of your right hand, butmany people, including me, find it easier to reach around under the lens with a fin-ger of the left hand to push this button in. As long as you hold down the button,the viewfinder will show the scene as it would look with the lens stopped down tothe aperture to which it is actually set. In that way, you will be able to see the depth-of-field, and judge whether the focus is deep enough for your purposes.

4. Release the Preview button. When you have finished observing the depth-of-fieldpreview, release the button. At that point, the camera will activate the shutter totake a test shot, which will appear on the LCD screen as a thumbnail image, accom-panied by a histogram and a display showing the values of shooting mode, shutterspeed, f/stop, exposure compensation, D-Range Optimizer, and white balance. Thisimage is not recorded by the camera, and cannot be enlarged while it’s on the screen.(See Figure 4.21.)

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Figure 4.21The Intelligentpreview featurelets you displaya screen forinteractivelyadjusting expo-sure compensa-tion, whitebalance, andD-RangeOptimizationwhile viewingthe effects ofthose adjust-ments on thescreen beforetaking theactual picture.

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5. Adjust the settings. Use the right and left motion of the multi-selector to move toeach setting you want to change. When a setting is highlighted, use the front andrear control dials to adjust its value. For D-Range Optimizer, use the front controldial to move through the main options (Off-Standard-Advanced-Levels) and usethe rear control dial to change the levels from 1 to 5 for the Levels option. You willsee the effects of each adjustment on the thumbnail image and on the histogram.To switch temporarily back to the original image from the adjusted one, press theDISP button. Use that button to toggle between those two images as many timesas you need to, to compare them. If you want to abandon all changes and leave theoriginal image on the screen, press the Delete button. You can then start adjustingthe settings again, if you want.

6. Take the picture. Once you have adjusted the settings to your satisfaction, pressthe shutter button to take the picture with the new settings.

There are a few other points to be aware of with Intelligent preview.

■ If you have a lens with a focus hold button, you can use the Focus Hold Buttonoption on the Custom menu 1 to set that button to activate Intelligent preview.

■ Although you can use Intelligent preview in any shooting mode, if you use it inAuto or Program mode, you can’t adjust the shutter speed or aperture while view-ing the test shot. With Aperture priority mode, you can adjust only the aperture,and with Shutter priority mode, you can adjust only the shutter speed. WithManual mode, you can adjust both aperture and shutter speed. With all modes,you can adjust D-Range Optimizer and white balance. With all modes other thanManual (see below), you can adjust exposure compensation.

■ There is one odd thing about the camera’s behavior in Manual mode when you useIntelligent preview. Although you can adjust the value of exposure compensationwhile viewing the test image, the adjustment has no effect when you take the actualpicture. This apparently happens because, in order to use exposure compensation inManual mode, you have to readjust the setting on the EV scale in the viewfinderyourself, but there is no way to do this when using Intelligent preview. So, although,as I discussed earlier in this chapter, you can use exposure compensation with Manualexposure mode, it is not possible to adjust it effectively using Intelligent preview.

■ Intelligent preview’s most useful application probably is to adjust the setting of theD-Range Optimizer, because that feature calls upon the camera to pull details outof the shadows, and it is very useful to see the effects of various settings before tak-ing the final shot. It also can be helpful on some occasions to tweak the white bal-ance while viewing the effects of various settings on the preview screen.

■ Intelligent preview is best used in a studio setting, or at least in a situation with anon-moving subject, because you need time to trigger the test shot, examine it, andadjust the settings before pressing the shutter button to take the actual shot.

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Of the primary foundations of great photography, only one of them—the ability to cap-ture a compelling image with a pleasing composition—takes a lifetime (or longer) tomaster. The art of making a photograph, rather than just taking a photograph, requiresan aesthetic eye that sees the right angle for the shot, as well as a sense of what shouldbe included or excluded in the frame; a knowledge of what has been done in the mediumbefore (and where photography can be taken in the future); and a willingness to explorenew areas. The more you pursue photography, the more you will learn about visualiza-tion and composition. When all is said and done, this is what photography is all about.

The other basics of photography—equally essential—involve more technical aspects:the ability to use your camera’s features to produce an image with good tonal and colorvalues; to achieve sharpness (where required) or unsharpness (when you’re using selec-tive focus); and mastering appropriate white/color balance. It’s practical to learn thesetechnical skills in a time frame that’s much less than a lifetime, although most of us findthere is always room for improvement. You’ll find the basic information you need tobecome proficient in each of these technical areas in this book.

You’ve probably already spent a lot of time learning your Sony Alpha DSLR-A850’s basicfeatures, setting it up to take decent pictures automatically, with little input from you.It probably felt great to gain the confidence to snap off picture after picture, knowingthat a large percentage of them were going to be well exposed, in sharp focus, and richwith color. The A850 is designed to produce good, basic images right out of the box.

But after you were comfortable with your camera, you began looking for ways to addyour own creativity to your shots. You explored ways of tweaking the exposure, using

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selective focus, and, perhaps, experimenting with the different looks that various lensesand focal lengths could offer.

The final, and most rewarding stage comes when you begin exploring advanced tech-niques that enable you to get stunning shots that will have your family, friends, and col-leagues asking you, “How did you do that?” These more advanced techniques deservean entire book of their own (and I have one for you called Digital SLR Pro Secrets, alsofrom Course Technology PTR). But there is plenty of room in this chapter to introduceyou to some clever things you can do with your Sony Alpha DSLR. This chapter willbe a bit of a grab bag, because I’m including some specific advanced shooting techniquesthat didn’t quite fit into the other chapters.

Exploring Ultra-Fast ExposuresFast shutter speeds stop action because they capture only a tiny slice of time. Electronicflash also freezes motion by virtue of its extremely short duration—as brief as 1/50,000thsecond or less. The Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 has a top shutter speed of 1/8,000th sec-ond and, if you attach an external flash, such as one of the Sony HVL-series strobes,you add even more versatility. You can read more about using electronic flash to stopaction in Chapter 7.

In this chapter, I’m going to emphasize the use of short exposures to capture a momentin time. The Sony Alpha is fully capable of immobilizing all but the fastest movementusing only its shutter speeds. You won’t often have a need for a shutter speed that fast.For example, the image shown in Figure 5.1 required a shutter speed of just 1/2,000thsecond to freeze the runner as she cleared the hurdles. But it’s nice to have that extracapacity on hand for that one time in a thousand when you need to freeze a very rapidaction on a very bright day.

When it comes to stopping action, most sports can be frozen at 1/2,000th second orslower, and for many sports a slower shutter speed is actually preferable—for example,to allow the wheels of a racing automobile or motorcycle, or the propeller on a classicaircraft to blur realistically.

In practice, shutter speeds faster than 1/8,000th second are rarely required. If youwanted to use an aperture of f/1.8 at ISO 100 outdoors in bright sunlight, say, to throwa background out of focus with a wide aperture’s shallow depth-of-field, a shutter speedof 1/8,000th second would more than do the job. You’d need a faster shutter speed onlyif you moved the ISO setting to a higher sensitivity, and you probably wouldn’t do thatif your goal were to use the widest f/stop possible. Under less than full sunlight,1/8,000th second is more than fast enough for any conditions you’re likely to encounter.That’s why electronic flash units work so well for high-speed photography when usedas the only source of illumination: they provide both the effect of a very brief shutterspeed and the high levels of light needed for an exposure.

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Of course, as you’ll see, the tiny slices of time extracted by the millisecond duration ofan electronic flash exact a penalty. To use flash at its full power setting, you have to usea shutter speed equal to or slower than the maximum sync speed of your Alpha camera.With the A850, the top speed usable for flash is 1/250th second (unless you’re using theHigh Speed Sync mode I’ll describe in Chapter 7). The sync speed is the fastest speedat which the camera’s focal plane shutter is completely open. At shorter speeds, the cam-era uses a “slit” passed in front of the sensor to make an exposure. The flash will illu-minate only the portion of the slit exposed during the duration of the flash.

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Figure 5.1A shutter speed

of 1/2,000thsecond will

stop mostaction.

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Indoors, that shutter speed limitation may cause problems: at 1/250th second, theremay be enough existing (“ambient”) light to cause ghost images. Outdoors, you mayfind it difficult to achieve a correct exposure. In bright sunlight at the lowest ISO set-tings available with the Sony Alpha DSLR-A850, an exposure of 1/250th second at f/10might be required. So, even if you want to use daylight as your main light source, andwork with flash only as a fill for shadows, you can have problems. I’ll explain the vagariesof electronic flash in more detail in Chapter 7.

You can have a lot of fun exploring the kinds of pictures you can take using very briefexposure times, whether you decide to take advantage of the action-stopping capabili-ties of your built-in or external electronic flash or work with the motion-freezing capa-bilities of the A850’s faster shutter speeds (between 1/1,000th and 1/8,000th second).Here are a few ideas to get you started:

■ Take revealing images. Fast shutter speeds can help you reveal the real subjectbehind the façade, by freezing constant motion to capture an enlightening momentin time. Legendary fashion/portrait photographer Philippe Halsman used leapingphotos of famous people, such as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, RichardNixon, and Salvador Dali to illuminate their real selves. Halsman said, “When youask a person to jump, his attention is mostly directed toward the act of jumping and themask falls so that the real person appears.” Try some high-speed portraits of peopleyou know in motion to see how they appear when concentrating on somethingother than the portrait.

■ Create unreal images. High-speed photography can also produce photographs thatshow your subjects in ways that are quite unreal. A helicopter in mid-air with itsrotors frozen or a motocross cyclist leaping over a ramp, but with all motion stoppedso that the rider and machine look as if they were frozen in mid-air, make for anunusual picture. Or, you can capture a ballet dancer in mid-leap (see Figure 5.2),not to reveal his or her personality, as with a Halsman image, but to capture amoment of artistry that, in real life, comes and goes in an instant. When we’re accus-tomed to seeing subjects, such as ballet dancers, in motion, seeing them stopped intime provides a special view.

■ Capture unseen perspectives. Some things are never seen in real life, except whenviewed in a stop-action photograph. M.I.T. professor Dr. Harold Edgerton’s famousballoon burst photographs were only a starting point for the inventor of the elec-tronic flash unit. Freeze a hummingbird in flight for a view of wings that never seemto stop. Or, capture the splashes as liquid falls into a bowl, as shown in Figure 5.3.No electronic flash was required for this image (and wouldn’t have illuminated thewater in the bowl as evenly). Instead, a group of high intensity lamps and an ISOsetting of 1600 allowed the Sony DSLR to capture this image at 1/2,000th second.

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Chapter 5 ■ Advanced Techniques for Your Sony Alpha DSLR 145

Figure 5.2Freezing a

pair of leap-ing dancers

required ahigh shutter

speed.

Figure 5.3A large amountof blue-filtered

artificial illumi-nation and an

ISO 1600 sen-sitivity setting

allowed captur-ing this shot at1/2,000th sec-

ond withoutuse of an elec-

tronic flash.

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Long ExposuresLonger exposures are a doorway into another world, showing us how even familiarscenes can look much different when photographed over periods measured in seconds.At night, long exposures produce streaks of light from moving, illuminated subjects likeautomobiles or amusement park rides. Or, you can move the camera or zoom the lensto get interesting streaks from non-moving light sources, such as the holiday lightsshown in Figure 5.4. Extra long exposures of seemingly pitch dark subjects can revealinteresting views using light levels barely bright enough to see by. Long exposures cancause moving objects to vanish entirely (including during the day, in which case you’lloften need the help of neutral density filters to make the long exposure practical),because they don’t remain stationary long enough to register in a photograph.

Three Ways to Take Long ExposuresThere are actually three common types of lengthy exposures: timed exposures, bulb expo-sures, and time exposures. The Sony DSLR offers only the first two, but once you under-stand all three, you’ll see why Sony made the choice it did. Because of the length of theexposure, all of the following techniques should be used with a tripod to hold the cam-era steady. Also, be sure to take advantage of the A850’s very handy eyepiece lever tobring down the built-in shutter that keeps light from leaking onto the sensor throughthe viewfinder during the long exposure.

■ Timed exposures. These are long exposures from 1 second to 30 seconds, meas-ured by the camera itself. To take a picture in this range, simply use Manual orShutter priority mode and use the control dial to set the shutter speed to the lengthof time you want, choosing from preset speeds of 1.0, 1.3, 1.6, 2.0, 2.5, 3.2, 4.0,5.0, 6.0, 8.0, 10.0, 13.0, 15.0, 20.0, 25.0, and 30.0 seconds. (The speeds availableare different if you set Exposure step to 0.5 EV on the Recording menu 2.) Theadvantage of timed exposures is that the camera does all the calculating for you.There’s no need for a stop-watch. If you review your image on the LCD and decideto try again with the exposure doubled or halved, you can dial in the correct expo-sure with precision. The disadvantage of timed exposures is that you can’t take aphoto for longer than 30 seconds.

■ Bulb exposures. This type of exposure is so-called because in the olden days thephotographer squeezed and held an air bulb attached to a tube that provided theforce necessary to keep the shutter open. Traditionally, a bulb exposure is one thatlasts as long as the shutter release button is pressed; when you release the button,the exposure ends. To make a bulb exposure with the Sony Alpha DSLR-A850, setthe camera on Manual mode and use the control dial to select the shutter speedimmediately after 30 seconds. BULB will be displayed on the LCD and buLb

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Figure 5.4 Zooming during exposure can produce interesting streaks of light.

shown in the viewfinder and on the small LCD display on the top of the camera.Then, press the shutter to start the exposure, and release it to close the shutter. Ifyou’d like to minimize camera shake, you can use the self-timer or the optional Sonywired or wireless remote control, discussed below.

■ Time exposures. This is a setting found on some cameras to produce longer expo-sures. With cameras that implement this option, the shutter opens when you pressthe shutter release button, and remains open until you press the button again.Usually, you’ll be able to close the shutter using a mechanical cable release or, morecommonly, an electronic release cable. The advantage of this approach is that youcan take an exposure of virtually any duration without the need for special equip-ment. You can press the shutter release button, go off for a few minutes, and comeback to close the shutter (assuming your camera is still there). The disadvantages ofthis mode are exposures must be timed manually, and with shorter exposures it’spossible for the vibration of manually opening and closing the shutter to register inthe photo. For longer exposures, the period of vibration is relatively brief and notusually a problem—and there is always the release cable option to eliminate pho-tographer-caused camera shake entirely. While the Sony Alpha does not have a built-in time exposure capability, you can still get lengthy exposures using the RM-S1AMRemote Commander, a wired remote control that has a shutter lock button to holdthe shutter open for the duration of your time exposure. You also can use the wire-less remote for this camera—the RMT-DSLR1—which Sony confusingly also callsthe Remote Commander. When you press the shutter button once on that unit inBULB mode, the shutter opens; when you press the button again, the shutter closes.

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Working with Long ExposuresBecause the Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 produces such good images at longer exposures,and there are so many creative things you can do with long exposure techniques, you’llwant to do some experimenting. Get yourself a tripod, a monopod, or another firm sup-port and take some test shots with long exposure noise reduction both enabled and dis-abled using the Recording menu 3 (to see whether you prefer low noise or high detail)and get started. Here are some things to try:

■ Make people invisible. One very cool thing about long exposures is that objectsthat move rapidly enough won’t register at all in a photograph, while the subjectsthat remain stationary are portrayed in the normal way. That makes it easy to pro-duce people-free landscape photos and architectural photos at night, or even in fulldaylight if you use a neutral density filter (or two or three) to allow an exposure ofat least a few seconds. At ISO 100, f/22, and with a pair of 8X (three-stop) neutraldensity filters, you can use exposures of nearly two seconds; overcast days and/oreven more neutral density filtration would work even better if daylight people-van-ishing is your goal. They’ll have to be walking very briskly and across the field ofview (rather than directly toward or away from the camera) for this to work. Atnight, it’s much easier to achieve this effect with the 20- to 30-second exposuresthat are possible.

■ Create streaks. If you aren’t shooting for total invisibility, long exposures with thecamera on a tripod can produce some interesting streaky effects. Even a single 8XND filter will let you shoot at f/22 and 1/6th second in daylight. Indoors, you canachieve interesting streaks with slow shutter speeds, as shown in Figure 5.5. I shotthe dancers using a 1/2 second exposure, triggering the shot at the beginning of amovement.

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Tip

Neutral density filters are gray (non-colored) filters that reduce the amount oflight passing through the lens, without adding any color or effect of their own.

■ Produce light trails. At night, car headlights, taillights, and other moving sourcesof illumination can generate interesting light trails. Your camera doesn’t even needto be mounted on a tripod; handholding the Sony Alpha for longer exposures addsmovement and patterns to your trails. If you’re shooting fireworks, a longer expo-sure—with a tripod—may allow you to combine several bursts into one picture, asshown in Figure 5.6, in which the branches of the trees in the foreground echo theburst of fireworks in the sky.

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Figure 5.5The shutter

opened as thedancers began

their move-ment from a

standing posi-tion, and fin-

ished whenthey had bent

over andpaused.

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■ Blur waterfalls, etc. You’ll find that waterfalls and other sources of moving liquidproduce a special type of long exposure blur, because the water merges into a fan-tasy-like veil that looks different at different exposure times, and with differentwaterfalls. Cascades with turbulent flow produce a rougher look at a given longerexposure than falls that flow smoothly. Although blurred waterfalls have becomealmost a cliché, there are still plenty of variations for a creative photographer toexplore, as you can see in Figure 5.7. For that shot, I incorporated the flowingstream in the background.

■ Show total darkness in new ways. Even on the darkest, moonless nights, there isenough starlight or glow from distant illumination sources to see by, and, if you usea long exposure, there is enough light to take a picture, too. I was visiting a lake-side park hours after sunset, but found that a several-second exposure revealed thescene shown in Figure 5.8, even though in real life, there was barely enough lightto make out the boats in the distance. Although the photo appears as if it were takenat twilight or sunset, in fact the shot was made at 10 PM.

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Figure 5.6I caught thefireworks froma half-mileaway, using afour-secondexposure tocapture severalbursts in oneshot.

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Figure 5.7 Long exposures can transform a waterfall and stream into a display of flowing silk.

Figure 5.8 A long exposure transformed this night scene into a picture apparently taken at dusk.

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Delayed ExposuresSometimes it’s desirable to have a delay of some sort before a picture is actually taken.Perhaps you’d like to get in the picture yourself, and would appreciate it if the camerawaited 10 seconds after you press the shutter release to actually take the picture. Maybeyou want to give a tripod-mounted camera time to settle down and damp any residualvibration after the release is pressed to improve sharpness for an exposure with a rela-tively slow shutter speed. It’s possible you want to explore the world of time-lapse pho-tography. The next sections present your delayed exposure options.

Self-TimerThe Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 has a built-in self-timer with 10-second and 2-seconddelays. Activate the timer by pressing the DRIVE button (located on top of the cam-era, just southeast of the shutter button), then navigate to the self-timer icon with theup/down motion of the multi-selector or by spinning the front control dial. When thaticon is highlighted, use the left/right motion of the multi-selector or spin the rear con-trol dial to toggle between 2-second and 10-second exposures. Press in on the centerbutton of the multi-selector to lock in your choice.

Next, press the shutter release button halfway to lock in focus on your subjects (if you’retaking a self-portrait, focus on an object at a similar distance and use focus lock). Whenyou’re ready to take the photo, continue pressing the shutter release the rest of the way.The red lamp on the front of the camera next to the handgrip will blink slowly for eightseconds (when using the 10-second timer) and the beeper will chirp (if you haven’t dis-abled it). During the final two seconds, the beeper sounds more rapidly and the lampblinks faster until the picture is taken. (With the 2-second timer, the camera dispenseswith all the signaling; it just calmly waits for two seconds, then snaps the shutter.)

Remote ControlAs outlined in the discussions of bulb and time exposures above, your Sony AlphaDSLR-A850 can be triggered using a plug-in remote control or a wireless control withan infrared connection. For example, the RM-S1AM wired remote gives you very basicfunctions, such as activating the shutter and locking down the shutter for long expo-sures. More versatile is the RMT-DSLR1 infrared remote, which includes a 2-second-delay shutter release as well as an immediate shutter release. It also includes numerouscontrols for playing back your pictures, but it has to be connected to a TV set for thosefunctions to operate.

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Time-Lapse/Interval PhotographyWho hasn’t marveled at a time-lapse photograph of a flower opening, a series of shots ofthe moon marching across the sky, or one of those extreme time-lapse picture sets show-ing something that takes a very, very long time, such as a building under construction?

You probably won’t be shooting such construction shots, unless you have a spare A850you don’t need for a few months or are willing to go through the rigmarole of figuringout how to set up your camera in precisely the same position using the same lens set-tings to shoot a series of pictures at intervals. However, other kinds of time-lapse pho-tography are entirely within reach.

Although the Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 can’t take time-lapse/interval photographs all byitself, if you’re willing to tether the camera to a computer (a laptop will do) using theUSB cable, you can take time-lapse photos using the Remote Camera Control softwarefurnished with your camera. That software provides rather rudimentary time-lapse func-tioning; it has a limited range of intervals and numbers of images available, but it’s bet-ter than nothing, and it does a nice job within its limitations. (The interval-shootingcapability of this software is available only with Windows-based computers.) I providemore details about this and other software packages in Chapter 8.

Getting into FocusPrior to the invention of autofocus (in which Sony’s predecessor Minolta was instru-mental), focusing was always done manually. Honest. Even though viewfinders of filmcameras were bigger and brighter than they are today, special focusing screens, magni-fiers, and other gadgets were often used to help the photographer achieve correct focus.Imagine what it must have been like to focus manually under demanding, fast-movingconditions such as sports photography.

Learning to use the Sony Alpha DSLR-A850’s modern autofocus system is easy, but youdo need to fully understand how the system works to get the most benefit from it. Onceyou’re comfortable with autofocus, you’ll know when it’s appropriate to use the man-ual focus option, too. The important thing to remember is that focus isn’t absolute. Forexample, some things that look in sharp focus at a given viewing size and distance mightnot be in focus at a larger size and/or closer distance. In addition, the goal of optimumfocus isn’t always to make things look sharp. Not all of an image will be or should besharp. Controlling exactly what is sharp and what is not is part of your creative palette.Use of depth-of-field characteristics to throw part of an image out of focus while otherparts are sharply focused is one of the most valuable tools available to a photographer.But selective focus works only when the desired areas of an image are in focus properly.For the digital SLR photographer, correct focus can be one of the trickiest parts of thetechnical and creative process.

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To make your job easier, the Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 has a precision nine-point auto-focus system that uses a separate sensor in the viewing system to measure the contrastof the image. When the contrast is highest at the active autofocus point(s), that part ofthe image is in sharp focus. The active primary focus points are actually nine sets of linesrepresented by horizontal dashes visible in the viewfinder (see Figure 5.9), plus an addi-tional 10 secondary autofocus points (I’ll explain the difference in the next section).Theprimary autofocus points can be selected automatically by the camera, or manually byyou, the photographer, while the secondary points are used to provide additional infor-mation the A850’s “smarts” can use to determine focus. The center autofocus point isof the advanced “cross” type (that is, it measures in both horizontal and vertical direc-tions) that works with all Sony lenses having a maximum aperture of f/2.8 or larger, buthas enhanced sensitivity when used with faster lenses.

The camera also looks for these contrast differences among pixels to determine relativesharpness. There are two ways that sharp focus can be determined, phase detection(which is what the A850 uses), and contrast detection, which is used by some otherSony digital SLR cameras that have a Live View mode. Contrast detection is also howour eyes operate, and how you focus the camera when you focus manually. Because con-trast detection—detecting focus by how contrasty (or non-blurry) an image looks—isso natural to humans, many people have the misconception that digital SLRs use con-trast detection, too. So I’m going to explain both concepts so you can easily see the dif-ference between the two. But first, I’ll explain the A850’s phase detection mode.

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Figure 5.9Any of the nineprimary auto-focus pointscan be selectedby the photog-rapher manu-ally or by the cameraautomatically.

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Phase DetectionIn this mode, the autofocus sampling area is divided into two halves by a lens in thesensor. The two halves are compared, much like (actually, exactly like) a two-windowrangefinder used in surveying, weaponry, and non-SLR cameras like the venerable LeicaM film models. The contrast between the two images changes as focus is moved in orout, until sharp focus is achieved when the images are “in phase,” or lined up.

You can visualize how phase detection autofocus works if you look at Figures 5.10 and5.11. (However, your camera’s actual autofocus sensors don’t look anything like this; I’mproviding a greatly simplified view just for illustration; later, I’ll supply some illustra-tions that more closely resemble what’s going on in your camera.) In Figure 5.10, a typ-ical horizontally oriented focus sensor is looking at a series of parallel vertical lines in aweathered piece of wood. The lines are broken into two halves by the sensor’srangefinder prism, and you can see that they don’t line up exactly; the image is slightlyout of focus.

Fortunately, the rangefinder approach of phase detection tells the Alpha exactly howout of focus the image is, and in which direction (focus is too near, or too far) thanksto the amount and direction of the displacement of the split image. The camera canquickly and precisely snap the image into sharp focus and line up the vertical lines, as

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Figure 5.10 When an image is out of focus, the splitlines don’t align precisely.

Figure 5.11 Using phase detection, the Alpha is able toalign the features of the image and achieve sharp focusquickly.

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shown in Figure 5.11. Of course, this scenario—vertical lines being interpreted by ahorizontally oriented sensor—is ideal. When the same sensor is asked to measure focusfor, say, horizontal lines that don’t split up quite so conveniently, or, in the worst case,subjects such as the sky (which may have neither vertical nor horizontal lines), focuscan slow down drastically, or even become impossible.

Phase detection is the normal mode used by the Alpha for autofocus. As with anyrangefinder-like function, accuracy is better when the “base length” between the twoimages is larger. (Think back to your high school trigonometry; you could calculate adistance more accurately when the separation between the two points where the angleswere measured was greater.) For that reason, phase detection autofocus is more accuratewith larger (wider) lens openings—especially those with maximum f/stops of f/2.8 orbetter—than with smaller lens openings, and may not work at all when the f/stop issmaller than f/5.6. As I noted, the Alpha is able to perform these comparisons veryquickly.

Improved Cross-Type Focus PointOne point that new Sony Alpha owners sometimes overlook is the advantage of havinga cross-type focus point at the center position. Why is this important? It helps to takea closer look at the phase detection system when presented with a non-ideal subject.

Figure 5.12 shows the same weathered wood pictured earlier, except in this case we’vechosen to rotate the camera 90 degrees (say, because we want a vertically oriented com-position). In the illustration, the image within the focus sensor’s area is split in two anddisplaced slightly side to side, but the amount and direction of the misalignment is farfrom obvious. A horizontally oriented focus sensor will be forced to look for less obvi-ous vertical lines to match up. Our best-case subject has been transformed into a worst-case subject for a horizontal focus sensor.

The value of the cross-type focus sensor, which can interpret contrast in both horizon-tal and vertical directions, can be seen in Figure 5.13. The horizontal lines are still giv-ing the horizontal portion of the cross sensor fits, but the vertical bar can easily splitand align the subject to achieve optimum focus. Cross-type sensors can handle hori-zontal and vertical lines with equal aplomb and, if you think about it, lines at any diag-onal angle as well. In lower light levels, with subjects that are moving, or with subjectsthat have no pattern and less contrast to begin with, the cross-type sensor not only worksfaster but can use phase detection to focus subjects that a horizontal- or vertical-onlysensor can’t handle at all.

So, you can see that having a center cross-type focus sensor that is extra sensitive withfaster lenses is a definite advantage.

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The Alpha A850’s AF SensorsThe generalized description of phase detection, horizontal, vertical, and cross-type sen-sors should provide enough of a grounding in what’s going on to provide a closer lookat the A850’s true autofocus system.

As I mentioned earlier, the A850 actually has two classes of autofocus sensors, primaryand secondary, all clustered around the center of the image frame. This centralized posi-tioning means that the camera is not able to adjust focus for subjects that are outsidethe central area, and positioned at the edges of the frame. That’s actually a typicalarrangement for full-frame cameras, which use the same (or similar) AF sensor arraysthat their cropped sensor stablemates use; in a camera that has a 1.5X crop factor, theAF sensors will cover more of the image frame. Most of the time, however, the mainsubject of an image is located within the AF sensor area, so the tighter arrangement isn’ta serious disadvantage. If your subject is located outside the central area, you can alwayslock focus on that subject by doing one of the following:

■ Focus on your subject, then press the shutter release halfway down, and then recom-pose your shot.

■ Use the AF/MF button to lock focus, independently of the shutter release. To dothat, you’ll need to define that action by visiting the Custom menu 1, choosing theAF/MF Button setting, and choosing the AF lock option. That transforms theAF/MF button into a focus lock control.

■ Center your subject and press the center of the multi-selector. That locks focus onthe subject located at the center focus spot.

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Figure 5.12 A horizontal focus sensor doesn’t handlehorizontal lines very well.

Figure 5.13 Cross-type sensors can evaluate contrast inboth horizontal and vertical directions, as well asdiagonally.

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The nine primary autofocus points are shown in Figure 5.14, highlighted with green toshow the approximate area covered by the focus sensors. Note that six of the focuspoints, located to the left and right of the center, are vertical focus sensors. That makesthem especially suitable for focusing horizontal lines, fairly good at handling diagonallines, and not so good at differentiating focus with vertical lines (as I described in theprevious section).

Two of the AF sensors, located above and below the center spot, are horizontal sensors,which makes them work best with vertical lines, and diagonal lines. In the center of theframe is a larger cross-type sensor that handles horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lineswith equal aplomb. A horizontal band of this central focusing area is also more sensi-tive when using a lens with an f/2.8 or larger aperture.

If you’re keeping score, that means your camera has nine primary sensors that work greatwith diagonal lines, seven that work well with horizontal lines, and three that do a goodjob with vertical lines. You can select any of these nine points (or allow the A850 toselect them for you), as I’ll describe in the next section. But wait, as the info-mercialsays, there’s more.

The A850 has ten additional secondary or supplemental AF points adjacent to the pri-mary points, as shown highlighted in blue in Figure 5.15. Sony doesn’t indicate whetherthey are horizontal or vertical points, but you can make some excellent guesses by theway they are arranged; the supplemental points appear to be of the same type as thepoints they are adjacent to.

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Figure 5.14There are nineprimary auto-focus points,highlighted inthe figure withgreen. (Thegreen tone doesnot appear inthe viewfinder.)

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These “bonus” points, used only when the camera is set for Wide Area autofocus mode(discussed shortly), aren’t user-selectable, and aren’t illuminated in the viewfinder whenactive. Instead, they provide the camera with more information about position andmovement of your subject, which is useful when tracking subjects. You can see the fullAF coverage area in Wide mode in Figure 5.16.

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Figure 5.15Ten supple-

mentary auto-focus points are clustered

around the pri-mary points

(highlighted inblue so you cansee where they

are located).

Figure 5.16Working

together, theprimary and

supplementaryautofocus

points can lockfocus on sub-

jects located inthe center of

the frame.

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Contrast DetectionThis is a slower mode, suitable for static subjects, and used by point-and-shoot camerasand Sony models with Live View mode. It’s a bit easier to understand, and is illustratedby Figure 5.17. At top in the figure, the transitions between the edges found in the imageare soft and blurred because of the low contrast between them. Although the illustrationuses the same vertical lines used with the phase detection example, the orientation of thefeatures doesn’t matter. The focus system (in this case, our eyes when using manual focus)looks only for contrast between edges, and those edges can run in any direction.

At the bottom of Figure 5.17, the image has been brought into sharp focus, and theedges have much more contrast; the transitions are sharp and clear. Although this exam-ple is a bit exaggerated so you can see the results on the printed page, it’s easy to under-stand that when maximum contrast in a subject is achieved, it can be deemed to be insharp focus. Although achieving focus with contrast detection is generally quite a bitslower, because you’re doing it manually, there are several advantages to this method:

■ Works with more image types. Contrast detection doesn’t require subject matterrotated 90 degrees from the sensor’s orientation for you to use it to focus manually.Any subject that has edges will work.

■ Focus on any point. While phase detection focus can be achieved only at the pointsthat fall under one of the nine autofocus sensors, with contrast detection, any por-tion of the image can be used as you view the image. Focus is achieved with theactual sensor image, so focus point selection is simply a matter of choosing whichpart of the sensor image to use.

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Figure 5.17Manual focusin contrastdetection modeallows you toevaluate theincrease in con-trast in theedges of sub-jects, startingwith a blurryimage (top)and producinga sharp, con-trasty image(bottom).

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■ Potentially more accurate. Phase detection can fall prey to the vagaries of unco-operative subject matter: if suitable lines aren’t available, the system may have tohunt for focus or achieve less than optimal focus. Contrast detection is more clear-cut. The eye can clearly see when the highest contrast has been achieved.

The Alpha’s phase detect autofocus mechanism, like all such systems found in SLR cam-eras, evaluates the degree of focus, but, unlike the human eye, it is able to rememberthe progression perfectly, so that autofocus can lock in much more quickly and, withan image that has sufficient contrast, more precisely. Many of the techniques for usingautofocus effectively involve telling the Sony Alpha exactly what it should be focusingon, by choosing a focus zone or by allowing the camera to choose a focus zone for you.I’ll address that topic shortly.

As the camera collects focus information from the sensors, it then evaluates it to deter-mine whether the desired sharp focus has been achieved. The calculations may includewhether the subject is moving, and whether the camera needs to “predict” where thesubject will be when the shutter release button is fully depressed and the picture is taken.The speed with which the camera is able to evaluate focus and then move the lens ele-ments into the proper position to achieve the sharpest focus determines how fast theautofocus mechanism is.

Focus ModesThe Sony Alpha has three AF modes: Single-shot AF (also known as single autofocus,or AF-S), Continuous AF (or AF-C), and Automatic AF (AF-A, which switches betweenthe two as appropriate). I’ll explain all of these in more detail later in this section.

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MANUAL FOCUS

With manual focus activated by setting the switch on the front of the camera body, yourSony Alpha lets you set the focus yourself. If you’re using autofocus, you can always fine-tune focus and switch to manual by pressing the AF/MF button. There are some advan-tages and disadvantages to this approach. While your batteries will last slightly longer inManual focus mode, it will take you longer to focus the camera for each photo, a processthat can be tricky. Modern digital cameras, even dSLRs, depend so much on autofocusthat the viewfinders of models that have less than full-frame-sized sensors are no longerdesigned for optimum manual focus. Pick up any film camera and you’ll see a bigger,brighter viewfinder with a focusing screen that’s a joy to focus on manually. The DSLR-A850 offers .74X magnification. (That means that with a 50mm focal length, the imageappears to be 74 percent of life size.)

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Focus PocusPrior to the introduction of dSLR autofocus capabilities in the 1980s, back in the daysof film cameras, focusing was always done manually. Honest. Even though viewfind-ers were bigger and brighter than they are today, special focusing screens, magnifiers,and other gadgets were often used to help the photographer achieve correct focus.Imagine what it must have been like to focus manually under demanding, fast-movingconditions such as sports photography. Minolta, which pioneered the technology nowused in Sony Alpha cameras and lenses, was actually a pioneer in developing autofocussystems.

Manual focusing is problematic because our eyes and brains have poor memory for cor-rect focus, which is why your eye doctor must shift back and forth between sets of lensesand ask “Does that look sharper—or was it sharper before?” in determining your cor-rect prescription. Similarly, manual focusing involves jogging the focus ring back andforth as you go from almost in focus, to sharp focus, to almost focused again. The lit-tle clockwise and counterclockwise arcs decrease in size until you’ve zeroed in on thepoint of correct focus. As I mentioned earlier in this chapter, what you’re looking for isthe image with the most contrast between the edges of elements in the image.

The Sony Alpha’s autofocus mechanism, like all such systems found in SLR cameras,also evaluates these increases and decreases in sharpness, but it is able to remember theprogression perfectly, so that autofocus can lock in much more quickly and, with animage that has sufficient contrast, more precisely. Unfortunately, while the Sony Alpha’sfocus system finds it easy to measure degrees of apparent focus at each of the focus pointsin the viewfinder, it doesn’t really know with any certainty which object should be insharpest focus. Is it the closest object? The subject in the center? Something lurkingbehind the closest subject? A person standing over at the side of the picture? Using aut-ofocus effectively involves telling the Sony DSLR exactly what it should be focusing on.

Adding Circles of ConfusionBut there are other factors in play, as well. You know that increased depth-of-field bringsmore of your subject into focus. But more depth-of-field also makes autofocusing (ormanual focusing) more difficult because the contrast is lower between objects at differ-ent distances. So, autofocus with a 200mm lens (or zoom setting) may be easier than ata 28mm focal length (or zoom setting) because the longer lens has less apparent depth-of-field. By the same token, a lens with a maximum aperture of f/1.8 will be easier toautofocus (or manually focus) than one of the same focal length with an f/4 maximumaperture, because the f/4 lens has more depth-of-field and a dimmer view. That’s whylenses with a maximum aperture smaller than f/5.6 can give your Sony Alpha’s autofo-cus system fits, because the largest f/stop is the lens opening the camera uses to focus.

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To make things even more complicated, many subjects aren’t polite enough to remainstill. They move around in the frame, so that even if the Alpha is sharply focused onyour main subject, it may change position and require refocusing. An intervening sub-ject may pop into the frame and pass between you and the subject you meant to pho-tograph. You (or the Alpha DSLR) have to decide whether to lock focus on this newsubject, or remain focused on the original subject. Finally, there are some kinds of sub-jects that are difficult to bring into sharp focus because they lack enough contrast toallow the Sony Alpha’s AF system (or our eyes) to lock in. Blank walls, a clear blue sky,or other subject matter may make focusing difficult.

If you find all these focus factors confusing, you’re on the right track. Focus is, in fact,measured using something called a circle of confusion. An ideal image consists of zil-lions of tiny little points, which, like all points, theoretically have no height or width.There is perfect contrast between the point and its surroundings. You can think of eachpoint as a pinpoint of light in a darkened room. When a given point is out of focus,its edges decrease in contrast and it changes from a perfect point to a tiny disc withblurry edges (remember, blur is the lack of contrast between boundaries in an image).(See Figure 5.18.)

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Figure 5.18When a pin-point of light(left) goes out

of focus, itsblurry edges

form a circle ofconfusion (cen-

ter and right).

If this blurry disc—the circle of confusion—is small enough, our eye still perceives it asa point. It’s only when the disc grows large enough that we can see it as a blur ratherthan a sharp point that a given point is viewed as out of focus. You can see, then, thatenlarging an image, either by displaying it larger on your computer monitor or by mak-ing a large print, also enlarges the size of each circle of confusion. Moving closer to theimage does the same thing. So, parts of an image that may look perfectly sharp in a 5× 7-inch print viewed at arm’s length, might appear blurry when blown up to 11 × 14and examined at the same distance. Take a few steps back, however, and the image maylook sharp again.

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To a lesser extent, the viewer also affects the apparent size of these circles of confusion.Some people see details better at a given distance and may perceive smaller circles ofconfusion than someone standing next to them. For the most part, however, such dif-ferences are small. Truly blurry images will look blurry to just about everyone under thesame conditions.

Technically, there is just one plane within your picture area, parallel to the back of thecamera (or sensor, in the case of a digital camera), that is in sharp focus. That’s the planein which the points of the image are rendered as precise points. At every other plane infront of or behind the focus plane, the points show up as discs that range from slightlyblurry to extremely blurry. In practice, the discs in many of these planes will still be sosmall that we see them as points, and that’s where we get depth-of-field. Depth-of-fieldis just the range of planes that include discs that we perceive as points rather than blurredsplotches. The size of this range increases as the aperture is reduced in size and is allo-cated roughly one-third in front of the plane of sharpest focus, and two-thirds behindit. The range of sharp focus is always greater behind your subject than in front of it—although in many cases, depth-of-field will be very shallow, as shown in Figure 5.19.

Making Sense of Focus SensorsThe number and type of autofocus sensors can affect how well the system operates. AsI mentioned, the Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 has nine main AF points and ten supple-mentary points. The Alpha DSLR-A700 has eleven AF points, and some cameras fromother vendors have as many as 45-51 autofocus sensors. These focus sensors can con-sist of vertical or horizontal lines of pixels, cross-shapes, and often a mixture of thesetypes within a single camera, although, as I said earlier, the Sony A850 includes a cross-type sensor at the center position. The more AF points available, the more easily thecamera can differentiate among areas of the frame, and the more precisely you can spec-ify the area you want to be in focus if you’re manually choosing a focus spot.

As the camera collects focus information from the sensors, it then evaluates it to deter-mine whether the desired sharp focus has been achieved. The calculations may includewhether the subject is moving, and whether the camera needs to “predict” where thesubject will be when the shutter release button is fully depressed and the picture is taken.The speed with which the camera is able to evaluate focus and then move the lens ele-ments into the proper position to achieve the sharpest focus determines how fast theautofocus mechanism is. Although your Sony Alpha will almost always focus morequickly than a human, there are types of shooting situations where that’s not fastenough.

For example, if you’re having problems shooting sports because the Sony Alpha’s auto-focus system manically follows each moving subject, a better choice might be to switchautofocus modes or shift into Manual and prefocus on a spot where you anticipate the

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Figure 5.19Only the owl is

in focus, butthe area behind

him appearsblurry becausethe depth-of-

field is limited.

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action will be, such as a goal line or soccer net. At night football games, for example,when I am shooting with a telephoto lens almost wide open, I often focus manually onone of the referees who happens to be standing where I expect the action to be takingplace (say, a halfback run or a pass reception). When I am less sure about what is goingto happen, I may switch to Continuous (AF-C ) AF and let the camera decide.

Your Autofocus Mode OptionsChoosing the right autofocus mode and the way in which focus points are selected isyour key to success. Using the wrong mode for a particular type of photography canlead to a series of pictures that are all sharply focused—on the wrong subject. When Ifirst started shooting sports with an autofocus SLR (back in the film camera days), Icovered one baseball game alternating between shots of base runners and outfielderswith pictures of a promising young pitcher, all from a position next to the third basedugout. The base runner and outfielder photos were great, because their backgroundsdidn’t distract the autofocus mechanism. But all my photos of the pitcher had the focustightly zeroed in on the fans in the stands behind him. Because I was shooting filminstead of a digital camera, I didn’t know about my gaffe until the film was developed.A simple change, such as locking in focus or focus zone manually, or even manuallyfocusing, would have done the trick.

To save battery power, your Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 doesn’t start to focus the lens untilyou partially depress the shutter release. But, autofocus isn’t some mindless beast outthere snapping your pictures in and out of focus with no feedback from you after youpress that button. There are several settings you can modify that return at least a mod-icum of control to you. Your first decision should be whether you set the Sony Alphato Single-shot AF (AF-S), Continuous AF (AF-C), or Automatic AF (AF-A). Use theswitch below the lens at the left front of the camera to choose from among AF-S, AF-A, and AF-C. (The AF/MF switch on the side of a Sony AF lens does not need to beset to AF before you can change autofocus mode, but the mode will not be activateduntil you switch the lens to AF mode.)

When the image under the current focus area (described later) is in sharp focus, thefocus confirmation indicator in the viewfinder will glow a steady green; the camera isready to shoot. If the green light framed by parentheses-like brackets is illuminated,focus is set, and the focus point will follow a moving subject. You can take a picture atany time. When only the green brackets are illuminated, the Alpha is still seeking focus,and the shutter is locked. A flashing green indicator dot indicates that the Alpha isunable to focus. The shutter is locked. You may need to switch to Manual focus to getthis shot.

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Single-Shot AFIn this mode, also called single autofocus, focus is set once and remains at that settinguntil the button is fully depressed, taking the picture, or until you release the shutterbutton without taking a shot. Activate by pressing the shutter release halfway down. Fornon-action photography, this setting is usually your best choice, as it minimizes out-of-focus pictures (at the expense of spontaneity). The drawback here is that you might notbe able to take a picture at all while the camera is seeking focus; you’re locked out untilthe autofocus mechanism is happy with the current setting. Single autofocus is some-times referred to as focus priority for that reason. Because of the small delay while thecamera zeroes in on correct focus, you might experience slightly more shutter lag. Thismode uses less battery power. When sharp focus is achieved, the selected focus pointwill flash red in the viewfinder, and the focus confirmation light at the lower right willglow green.

Continuous AFThis mode is the one to use for sports and other fast-moving subjects. In this mode,once the shutter release is partially depressed, the camera sets the focus but continuesto monitor the subject, so that if it moves or you move, the lens will be refocused tosuit. Focus and exposure aren’t really locked until you press the shutter release down allthe way to take the picture. As I mentioned, the focus confirmation indicator in theviewfinder is flanked by parentheses-like brackets, which indicates that the image is infocus, but the Alpha will change focus as your subject moves. Continuous AF uses themost battery power, because the autofocus system operates as long as the shutter releasebutton is partially depressed.

Continuous AF uses a technology called predictive AF, which allows the camera to cal-culate the correct focus if the subject is moving toward or away from the camera at aconstant rate. It uses either the automatically selected AF point or the point you selectmanually to set focus.

Automatic AFThis setting is actually a combination of the first two. When this mode is selected, thecamera focuses using Single-shot AF and locks in the focus setting. But, if the subjectbegins moving, it will switch automatically to Continuous AF and change the focus tokeep the subject sharp. Automatic AF is a good choice when you’re shooting a mixtureof action pictures and less dynamic shots and want to use Single-shot AF when possi-ble. The camera will default to that mode, yet switch automatically to Continuous AFwhen it would be useful for subjects that might begin moving unexpectedly.

Manual FocusThe same focus mode switch can be used to choose Manual focus, which means youmust choose the focus yourself by rotating the focus ring on the lens.

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Setting the AF AreaYou can specify which of the nine main focus points the Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 usesto calculate correct focus, or you can allow the camera to select the point for you. Notethat the A850 has its autofocus points clustered within the square brackets in the cen-ter of the screen, which indicate the general AF area. That means that you (or the cam-era) can focus only on subjects that fall under one of the autofocus marks. To focussomewhere else in the frame, you’ll need to place your subject under the appropriateautofocus area, focus, and then lock focus by pressing the shutter release button halfway(or by pressing the AF/MF button, if you have set it to Focus-lock with the Custommenu 1). You can then reframe your photo with the focus locked in.

There are three AF area options, shown in Figure 5.20. Press the Fn button, navigateto the AF area selection, press the multi-selector’s center button, and select one of thesethree choices from the menu screen. If you don’t need the menu screen to remind youwhich icon represents which AF area, you can take a shortcut, and just spin either thefront or rear control dial to scroll through the three choices. Then you can just press theshutter button halfway (or press the Fn button) to return to shooting mode.

■ Wide. The Alpha chooses the appropriate focus zone from the nine main AF areason the screen. However, you can switch to the center (Spot) focus zone by pressingin on the multi-selector’s center button.

■ Spot. The Alpha always uses the center, cross-type focus zone to calculate correctfocus.

■ Local. Use the multi-selector to move the focus zone among the nine availablezones. Press the multi-selector’s center button to switch to the center, cross-typefocus sensor quickly.

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Figure 5.20 Choose from (left to right): Wide (the Alpha selects one of the nine AF areas), Spot (only the centerfocus spot is used), or Local (you can choose which area to use).

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Fine-Tuning the Focus of Your LensesIn Chapter 3, I introduced you to the A850’s AF Micro Adjustment feature, which,I noted, you might not ever need to use, because it is applied only when you findthat a particular lens is not focusing properly. If the lens happens to focus a bit aheador a bit behind the actual point of sharp focus, and it does that consistently, you canuse the adjustment feature, found in the Setup menu 3, to “calibrate” the lens’s focus.

Why is the focus “off ” for some lenses in the first place? There are lots of factors,including the age of the lens (an older lens may focus slightly differently), tempera-ture effects on certain types of glass, humidity, and tolerances built into a lens’s designthat all add up to a slight misadjustment, even though the components themselves are,strictly speaking, within specs. A very slight variation in your lens’s mount can causefocus to vary slightly. With any luck (if you can call it that) a lens that doesn’t focusexactly right will at least be consistent. If a lens always focuses a bit behind the sub-ject, the symptom is back focus. If it focuses in front of the subject, it’s called frontfocus.

You’re almost always better off sending such a lens in to Sony to have them make itright. But that’s not always possible. Perhaps you need your lens recalibrated right now,or you purchased a used lens that is long out of warranty. If you want to do it your-self, the first thing to do is determine whether or not your lens has a back focus or frontfocus problem.

For a quick-and-dirty diagnosis (not a calibration; you’ll use a different target for that),lay down a piece of graph paper on a flat surface, and place an object on the line at themiddle, which will represent the point of focus (we hope). Then, shoot the target at anangle using your lens’s widest aperture and the autofocus mode you want to test. Mountthe camera on a tripod so you can get accurate, repeatable results.

If your camera/lens combination doesn’t suffer from front or back focus, the point ofsharpest focus will be the center line of the chart, as you can see in Figure 5.21. If youdo have a problem, one of the other lines will be sharply focused instead. Should youdiscover that your lens consistently front or back focuses, it needs to be recalibrated.Unfortunately, it’s only possible to calibrate a lens for a single focusing distance. So, ifyou use a particular lens (such as a macro lens) for close-focusing, calibrate for that. Ifyou use a lens primarily for middle distances, calibrate for that. Close-to-middle dis-tances are most likely to cause focus problems, anyway, because as you get closer to infin-ity, small changes in focus are less likely to have an effect.

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Figure 5.21Correct focus(top), frontfocus (middle),and back focus(bottom).

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Lens Tune-UpThe key tool you can use to fine-tune your lens is the AF Micro Adj entry in the Setupmenu 3. You’ll find the process easier to understand if you first run through this quickoverview of the menu options:

■ On. This option enables AF fine tuning for all the lenses you’ve registered using themenu entry. If you discover you don’t care for the calibrations you make in certainsituations (say, it works better for the lens you have mounted at middle distances,but is less successful at correcting close-up focus errors) you can deactivate the fea-ture as you require. You should set this to On when you’re doing the actual fine-tuning. Adjustment values range from –20 to +20.

■ Off. Disables autofocus micro adjustment.

■ Clear. Erases all user-entered adjustment values for the lenses you’ve registered.When you select the entry, a message will appear. Select OK and then press the cen-ter button of the multi-selector to confirm.

Evaluate Current FocusThe first step is to capture a baseline image that represents how the lens you want tofine-tune autofocuses at a particular distance. You’ll often see advice for photographinga test chart with millimeter markings from an angle, and the suggestion that you auto-focus on a particular point on the chart. Supposedly, the markings that actually are infocus will help you recalibrate your lens. The problem with this approach is that theinformation you get from photographing a test chart at an angle doesn’t actually tell youwhat to do to make a precise correction. So, your lens back focuses three millimetersbehind the target area on the chart. So what? Does that mean you change the SavedValue by –3 clicks? Or –15 clicks? Angled targets are a “shortcut” that don’t save youtime.

Instead, you’ll want to photograph a target that represents what you’re actually tryingto achieve: a plane of focus locked in by your lens that represents the actual plane offocus of your subject. For that, you’ll need a flat target, mounted precisely perpendicu-lar to the sensor plane of the camera. Then, you can take a photo, see if the plane offocus is correct, and if not, dial in a bit of fine-tuning in the AF Fine Tuning menu, andshoot again. Lather, rinse, and repeat until the target is sharply focused.

You can use the focus target shown in Figure 5.22, or you can use a chart of your own,as long as it has contrasty areas that will be easily seen by the autofocus system, andwithout very small details that are likely to confuse the AF. Download your own copyof my chart from www.dslrguides.com/FocusChart.pdf. Then print out a copy on thelargest paper your printer can handle. (I don’t recommend just displaying the file on

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Figure 5.22 Use this focus test chart, or create one of your own.

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your monitor and focusing on that; it’s unlikely you’ll have the monitor screen lined upperfectly perpendicular to the camera sensor.) Then, follow these steps:

1. Position the camera. Place your camera on a sturdy tripod with a remote releaseattached, positioned at roughly eye-level at a distance from a wall that representsthe distance you want to test for. Keep in mind that autofocus problems can be dif-ferent at varying distances and lens focal lengths, and that you can enter only onecorrection value for a particular lens. So, choose a distance (close-up or mid range)and zoom setting with your shooting habits in mind.

2. Set the autofocus mode. Choose the autofocus mode (AF-C or AF-S) you wantto test. (Because AF-A mode just alternates between the two, you don’t need to testthat mode.)

3. Level the camera (in an ideal world). If the wall happens to be perfectly perpen-dicular, you can use a bubble level, plumb bob, or other device of your choice toensure that the camera is level to match. Many tripods and tripod heads have bub-ble levels built in. Avoid using the center column, if you can. When the camera isproperly oriented, lock the legs and tripod head tightly.

4. Level the camera (in the real world). If your wall is not perfectly perpendicular,use this old trick. Tape a mirror to the wall, and then adjust the camera on the tri-pod so that when you look through the viewfinder at the mirror, you see directlyinto the reflection of the lens. Then, lock the tripod and remove the mirror.

5. Mount the test chart. Tape the test chart on the wall so it is centered in your cam-era’s viewfinder.

6. Photograph the test chart using AF. Allow the camera to autofocus, and take atest photo, using the remote release to avoid shaking or moving the camera.

7. Make an adjustment and rephotograph. Make a fine-tuning adjustment and pho-tograph the target again.

8. Evaluate the image. If you have the camera connected to your computer with aUSB cable or through a WiFi connection, so much the better. You can view theimage after it’s transferred to your computer. Otherwise, carefully open the cameracard door and slip the memory card out and copy the images to your computer.

9. Evaluate focus. Which image is sharpest? That’s the setting you need to use for thislens. If your initial range doesn’t provide the correction you need, repeat the stepsbetween –20 and +20 until you find the best fine-tuning.

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Continuous ShootingThe Sony DSLR’s continuous shooting modes remind me how far digital photographyhas brought us. The first accessory I purchased when I worked as a sports photographersome years ago was a motor drive for my film SLR. It enabled me to snap off a series ofshots at a 3 fps rate, which came in very handy when a fullback broke through the lineand headed for the end zone. Even a seasoned action photographer can miss the deci-sive instant when a crucial block is made, or a baseball superstar’s bat shatters and piecesof cork fly out. Continuous shooting simplifies taking a series of pictures, either toensure that one has more or less the exact moment you want to capture or to capture asequence that is interesting as a collection of successive images.

The Sony Alpha DSLR-A850’s “motor drive” capabilities are, in many ways, much supe-rior to what you get with a film camera. For one thing, a motor-driven film camera caneat up film at an incredible pace, which is why many of them are used with cassettes thathold hundreds of feet of film stock. At three frames per second (typical of film cameras),a short burst of a few seconds can burn up as much as half of an ordinary 36 exposureroll of film. Digital cameras like the Alpha, in contrast, have reusable “film,” so if youwaste a few dozen shots on non-decisive moments, you can erase them and shoot more.

The increased capacity of digital film cards gives you a prodigious number of frames towork with. At a baseball game I covered last year, I took more than 1,000 images in acouple hours. Yet, even with my Alpha DSLR-A850’s 24-megapixel resolution, I wasable to cram 790 JPEG Fine images on a single 8GB Compact Flash or Memory StickPRO Duo card. That’s a lot of shooting. Given an average burst of about eight framesper sequence (nobody really takes 15-20 shots or more of one play in a baseball game),I was able to capture 38 different sequences before I needed to swap cards. Figure 5.23shows a typical short burst of three shots taken at a basketball game as a player drove infor a lay-up.

On the other hand, for some sports (such as football) the longer bursts came in handy,because running and passing plays often last 5 to 10 seconds, and change in characteras the action switches from the quarterback dropping back to pass or hand off the ball,then to the receiver or running back trying to gain as much yardage as possible.

To use the Sony Alpha DSLR-A850’s Continuous shooting mode, press the DRIVEbutton on top of the camera. Then navigate through the list with the up/down motionof the multi-selector or by spinning the front control dial, until the Continuous Adv.(continuous advance) mode is selected. Press the controller center button to confirmyour choice, or just press the shutter button halfway to return to shooting mode. (SeeFigure 5.24.) When you partially depress the shutter button, the viewfinder will displaya number representing the maximum number of continuous shots you can take at thecurrent quality settings at the Alpha’s 3 fps burst rate. (This display cannot show a num-ber above 9, so there may be more shots remaining than the viewfinder’s display shows.)

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Figure 5.23 Continuous shooting allows you to capture an entire sequence of exciting moments as they unfold.

Figure 5.24Press the

DRIVE buttonand navigate

with the multi-selector or thefront controldial to selectContinuous

adv.

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To increase this number, reduce the image quality setting by switching to JPEG only(from RAW & JPEG), to a lower JPEG quality setting, or by reducing the Sony Alpha’sresolution (image size) from L (24 MP) to M (13 MP) or S (6.1 MP) (these sizes are forthe 3:2 aspect ratio). Your bursts are limited because continuous images are first shuttledinto the Sony Alpha’s internal memory buffer, then doled out to the memory card asquickly as they can be written to the card. Technically, the Sony Alpha takes the RAWdata received from the digital image processor and converts it to the output format you’veselected—either JPEG or RAW—and deposits it in the buffer ready to store on the card.

This internal “smart” buffer can suck up photos much more quickly than the memorycard and, indeed, some memory cards are significantly faster or slower than others.When the buffer fills, you can’t take any more continuous shots until the Sony Alphahas written some of them to the card, making more room in the buffer. (You shouldkeep in mind that faster memory cards write images more quickly, freeing up bufferspace faster.)

Setting Image ParametersYou can fine-tune the images that you take in several different ways. For example, if youdon’t want to choose a predefined white balance or use white balance bracketing (dis-cussed earlier in this book in Chapter 4), you can set a custom white balance based onthe illumination of the site where you’ll be taking photos, or choose a white balancebased on color temperature. With the Creative Style options, you can set up customizedsaturation, contrast, sharpness, and other values for various types of pictures. This sec-tion shows you how to use the available image parameters.

Customizing White BalanceBack in the film days, color films were standardized, or balanced, for a particular “color”of light. Digital cameras like the Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 use a “white balance” that is,ideally, correctly matched to the color of light used to expose your photograph. Theright white balance is measured using a scale called color temperature. Color tempera-tures were assigned by heating a theoretical “black body radiator” and recording thespectrum of light it emitted at a given temperature in degrees Kelvin. So, daylight atnoon has a color temperature in the 5,500 to 6,000 degree range. Indoor illuminationis around 3,400 degrees. Hotter temperatures produce bluer images (think blue-whitehot) while cooler temperatures produce redder images (think of a dull-red glowingember). Because of human nature, though, bluer images are actually called “cool” (thinkwintry day) and redder images are called “warm” (think ruddy sunset), even thoughtheir color temperatures are reversed.

If a photograph is exposed indoors under warm illumination with a digital camera sen-sor balanced for cooler daylight, the image will appear much too reddish. An image

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exposed outdoors with the white balance set for incandescent illumination will seemmuch too blue. These color casts may be too strong to remove from JPEG files in animage editor, though if you shoot RAW you can change the WB setting to the correctvalue when you import the image into your editor.

Mismatched white balance settings are easier to achieve accidentally than you mightthink, even for experienced photographers. I’d just arrived at a concert after shootingsome photos indoors with electronic flash and had manually set WB for flash. Then, asthe concert began, I resumed shooting using the incandescent stage lighting—whichlooked white to the eye—and ended up with a few shots like Figure 5.25. Eventually,

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Figure 5.25An image

exposedindoors with

the WB set fordaylight or

electronic flashwill appear too

reddish.

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I caught the error during picture review, and changed my white balance. Another time,I was shooting outdoors, but had the camera white balance still set for incandescent illu-mination. The excessively blue image shown in Figure 5.26 resulted.

The Auto White Balance (AWB) setting, available by pressing the WB button or bypressing the Fn key and navigating to the White balance item on the Quick Navi menu,causes the camera to examine your scene and choose an appropriate value based on yourscene and the colors it contains. However, the Sony Alpha’s selection process is far fromfoolproof. Under bright lighting conditions, it may evaluate the colors in the image andstill assume the light source is daylight and balance the picture accordingly, even though,in fact, you may be shooting under extremely bright incandescent illumination. In dim-mer light, the camera’s electronics may assume that the illumination is tungsten, and ifthere are lots of reddish colors present, set color balance for that value. Sony notes thatwith mercury vapor or sodium lamps, correct white balance is virtually impossible toachieve; it’s recommended that you use flash instead, or shoot in RAW and make yourcorrections when importing the file into your image editor.

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Figure 5.26An imageexposed underdaylight illumi-nation with theWB set fortungsten illu-mination willappear tooblue.

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Of course, flash isn’t completely consistent in white balance, either. However, some elec-tronic flash units, such as the Sony HVL-series dedicated flash units, can report to thecamera the particular white balance that they are outputting, since a flash’s color tem-perature can vary depending on how brief the flash exposure is. The Alpha can adjustits own white balance setting automatically, based on the information it receives fromthe flash.

The other presets in the WB list apply to specific lighting conditions. You can choosefrom Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, and Flash. All but Flash areshown in Figure 5.27 (it’s scrolled off the bottom). When any of these other than AWBare selected, you can fine-tune the white balance by pressing the multi-selector left orright, or spinning the rear control dial. Moving to the right makes the image more red-dish; going to the left makes the image bluer. You can choose plus/minus 3 increments(each increment amounts to about 10 mired, which is a unit used to classify color con-version filters). If you want to be more precise, you’ll need to use the Color tempera-ture option, described shortly.

The Daylight setting sets WB to about 5,300K, while the Shade setting uses a muchbluer 7,500K. The chief difference between direct daylight and shade or even tungstenlight sources is nothing more than the proportion of red and blue light. The spectrumof colors is continuous, but it is biased toward one end of the spectrum or the other.

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Figure 5.27Your white

balance presetselections

include (top to bottom):Automatic,

Daylight,Shade, Cloudy,Tungsten, and

Fluorescent,plus (not

shown) Flash,Color Temp-erature, and

Custom.

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However, some types of fluorescent lights produce illumination that has a severe deficitin certain colors, such as only particular shades of red. If you looked at the spectrum orrainbow of colors encompassed by such a light source, it would have black bands in it,representing particular wavelengths of light that are absent. You can’t compensate forthis deficiency by adding all tones of red. That’s why the fluorescent setting of your SonyAlpha may provide less than satisfactory results with some kinds of fluorescent bulbs.If you take many photographs under a particular kind of non-compatible fluorescentlight, you might want to investigate specialized fluorescent light filters for your lenses,available from camera stores, or learn how to adjust for various sources in your imageeditor. However, you might also get acceptable results using the fluorescent choice onthe WB list. Try that first.

The setting for Flash provides a color temperature of about 6,500K. If you find thatnone of the presets fit your lighting conditions, and the Automatic setting is not ableto set the white balance adequately, you have two other options—using the Color tem-perature option, or setting a custom white balance.

Setting White Balance by Color TemperatureIf you want to set your white balance by color temperature, you have the option of set-ting it anywhere from 2,500K (resulting in bluish images) to 9,900K (resulting in red-dish images). Of course, if you have instrumentation or reliable information that givesyou a precise reading of the color temperature of your lighting, this option is likely tobe your best bet. Even if you don’t have that information, you may want to experimentwith this setting, especially if you are trying to achieve creative effects with color castsalong the spectrum from blue to red. To use this setting, just highlight it on the Whitebalance menu and use the multi-selector or the rear control dial to scroll through thenumerical color temperature scale.

There’s also a suboption to this setting called Color filter, which corresponds to the useof CC (Color Compensation) filters that are used to compensate for various types oflighting when shooting with film. These filter values range from G9 (G is for green) atthe far left of the scale to M9 (M is for magenta) at the far right. When you use thisoption, the color filter value you set takes effect in conjunction with the color temper-ature you have set. In other words, both of these settings work together to give you veryprecise control over the degree of color correction you are using.

Setting a Custom White BalanceThe final choice on the white balance selection screen is Custom, which allows you touse specific white balances you’ve captured by shooting a white surface with the cam-era. Setting a custom white balance expressly for the scene you want to shoot may bethe most accurate way of getting the right color balance.

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It’s easy to do with the Sony Alpha DSLR-A850. Just follow these steps:

1. Press the WB button, or press the Fn button and navigate to the WB item on theQuick Navi screen.

2. Use the up/down motion of the multi-selector or spin the front control dial to scrolldown the list of white balance options until the Custom entry is highlighted. Pressthe multi-selector to the right or spin the rear control dial to move the highlight-ing over to the “business” side of the menu.

3. Scroll to the right again until the word “SET” appears, next to the Custom icon.

4. Press the multi-selector’s center button. A message will appear on the LCD: “SET.Use spot metering area. Press shutter to calibrate.”

5. Point the camera at a white surface that is large enough to fill the center meteringarea.

6. Press the shutter release. The color temperature of the custom white balance thatwas calculated appears on the LCD, along with the message, “Select register.”

7. Scroll to select either register 1, 2, or 3, and press the multi-selector’s center buttonto confirm the selection and return to the recording information display.

The Alpha A850 will retain the custom setting you just captured until you repeat theprocess to replace the setting with a new one. Thereafter, you can activate this customsetting by scrolling down to Custom in the White balance menu, scrolling to select reg-ister 1, 2, or 3, and pressing the multi-selector’s center button to confirm your choice.

Image ProcessingAs I outlined in Chapter 3, the Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 offers several ways of cus-tomizing the rendition of your images. You can use the Dynamic Range Optimizer (aka,D-Range Optimizer and DRO), or specify certain changes to contrast, saturation, andsharpness in the Creative Style menu. The functions are available by pressing the Fnbutton with the Alpha set to any one of its shooting modes: Auto, P, A, S, or M.

D-Range OptimizerThis innovative tool helps you adjust the relative brightness range of your JPEG imagesas they are taken. With the Alpha DSLR-A850, Sony has provided a more sophisticatedand powerful implementation of DRO than it had in earlier cameras. For one thing,unlike DRO in older Sony models, the A850’s DRO does have an effect on your RAWimages, although that is the case only when DRO is set to Standard. The higher settingsdo not alter RAW files. (To apply dynamic range effects beyond the Standard level tothese files, use the bundled Image Data Converter SR program described in Chapter 8when you upload the images to your computer.)

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The other major improvement in the A850’s DRO capability is that it has additionallevels of settings, which give you more control over when and to what extent DRO willbe applied to your images. The DRO in the A850 still includes the Standard andAdvanced settings, which cause the camera to analyze the image and apply DRO if itappears to be called for, as described below. With the A850, though, you now also havethe ability to choose from five specific levels of DRO processing, and apply any one ofthese levels regardless of whether the camera “thinks” it is needed.

The DRO feature, available by pressing the Fn button and choosing D-RangeOptimizer from the Quick Navi screen, has eight settings: Off, Standard, Advanced,and Levels 1-5, giving you results like those illustrated in Figure 5.28. These optionswork as follows:

■ Off. No optimization. You’re on your own. But if you have the foresight to shootRAW+JPEG, you can apply DRO effects to your image when converting it withthe Image Data Converter SR software, as I mentioned earlier. Use this setting whenshooting subjects of normal contrast, or when you want to capture an image justas you see it, without modification by the camera.

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Figure 5.28 DRO off (left), D-R Standard (middle), and D-R+ (right), provide progressively more dynamic rangeoptimization.

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■ D-R (Standard). In this mode, the Alpha examines your photograph, and if thereis a great deal of contrast between light and dark areas, the digital image processorreduces the contrast of the entire image. Use this option if you are shooting intothe sun, or have a scene with bright/dark areas scattered throughout. This functionis, more or less, an automatic contrast control. As noted above, this is the only DROsetting that has an effect on RAW images.

■ D-R+ (Advanced Auto). In this mode, the Alpha dives into your image, lookingat various small areas to examine the contrast of highlights and shadows, makingmodifications to each section to produce the best combination of brightness andtones with detail.

■ D-R+ (Advanced Levels 1-5). With these selections, the camera does not analyzethe image to determine how much DRO processing to apply; rather, you, as thephotographer, have complete control over that decision. If you dial in Level 1, whichSony calls “weak” DRO, the image will have its shadows lightened somewhat. Ifyou dial in Level 5, which Sony calls “strong,” the result will be aggressive lighten-ing of shadow areas.

While DRO can rob your image of some detail when it performs its “magic,” and youmay prefer the results you would have gotten using your original settings, the bottomline is that you should definitely explore its use, and experiment with it in different sit-uations to see when and how it can improve your images. Don’t forget that the A850provides DRO bracketing, using either a narrow range of levels (1, 2, and 3) or a broadrange (1, 3, and 5). You may be surprised when you find how useful this in-camera pro-cessing can be.

Using Creative StylesThis option, found on the Quick Navi menu, gives you 13 different combinations offive parameters: contrast, saturation, sharpness, brightness, and zone. The 13 presetcombinations are Standard, Vivid, Neutral, Clear, Deep, Light, Portrait, Landscape,Sunset, Night view, Autumn, B/W (black-and-white), and Sepia. As I explained inChapter 3, you can save any six of these styles to the six numbered “slots” that are avail-able on the Quick Navi menu. These styles are useful enough that you should makethem a part of your everyday toolkit when shooting JPEG images. (They have no effecton RAW or cRAW images, even though you can still choose them when shooting inthose formats. The images on the camera’s display will show the effects, but the actualRAW files will not.) Also, don’t be afraid to combine any of these styles with the cam-era’s other image processing options, such as Dynamic Range Optimization. If you’refeeling especially creative, you might even mix in some adjustments of white balance toachieve interesting effects with unusual color casts.

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But that’s not all—that is, there are even more options to consider here. When work-ing with Creative Styles, you can adjust the five parameters for each of the 13 presetoptions to fine-tune that particular rendition. First, look at the “stock” Creative Styles:

■ Standard. This is, as you might expect, your default setting, with a good compro-mise of sharpness, color saturation, and contrast. Choose this, and your photos willhave excellent colors, a broad range of tonal values, and standard sharpness thatavoids the “oversharpened” look that some digital pictures acquire.

■ Vivid. If you want more punch in your images, with richer colors, heightened con-trast that makes those colors stand out, and moderate sharpness, this setting is foryou. It’s good for flowers, seaside photos, any picture with expanses of blue sky, andon overcast days where a punchier image can relieve the dullness.

■ Neutral. With this setting, all colors are somewhat subdued through a lowering ofsaturation and contrast. This can be a good setting to use when you will do furtherprocessing of the images on your computer.

■ Clear. This preset selection is similar to Vivid, but with somewhat more richnessand contrast.

■ Deep. Choose this setting for decreased brightness to give images a somewhatdarker cast.

■ Light. This option provides increased brightness to give images a lighter feeling.

■ Portrait. Unless you’re shooting a clown, you don’t want overly vivid colors in yourportraits. Nor do you need lots of contrast to emphasize facial flaws and defects.This setting provides realistic, muted skin tones, and a softer look that flatters yoursubjects.

■ Landscape. As with the Vivid setting, this option boosts saturation and contrast togive you rich scenery and purple mountain majesties, even when your subject mat-ter is located far enough from your camera that distant haze might otherwise be aproblem. There’s extra sharpness, too, to give you added crispness when you’reshooting Fall colors.

■ Sunset. This preset accentuates the red tones found in sunrise and sunset pictures.

■ Night view. This setting boosts the contrast to produce a more realistic night scene.If your available darkness shots are coming out a little blah, give this Creative Stylea try.

■ Autumn. This setting emphasizes the reds and yellows of autumn leaves.

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■ B/W. If you’re shooting black-and-white photos in the camera, this setting does notallow you to change the saturation, because all saturation has been removed in orderto achieve the black-and-white effect. You can adjust the other four parameters aswith the other styles.

■ Sepia. This option removes colors in the same way as black-and-white, but addsback in a light-brown monotone. As with black-and-white, you cannot adjust saturation with this style.

To customize any of these settings, highlight the style you want to change on the menu,and press the multi-selector to the right or spin the rear control to move over to the“business” side again. Then, continue to use either of those controls to choose from (leftto right) contrast, saturation, sharpness, brightness, and zone. With the parameter youwant to modify highlighted, use the up/down motion of the multi-selector or spin thefront control dial to choose +/–3 increments for the first four values; for zone you canonly choose up to +2 or down to –1 increment. (See Figure 5.29.) Press the center but-ton of the multi-selector to confirm your changes and exit the menu screen.

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Figure 5.29You can cus-

tomize thesharpness, con-trast, and color

saturation ofany of the

Creative Styles.

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Here is a summary of how the parameters you can change with Creative Styles affectyour images:

■ Sharpness. Increases or decreases the contrast of the edge outlines in your image,making the photo appear more or less sharp, depending on whether you’ve selected0 (no sharpening), +3 (extra sharpening), to –3 (softening). Remember that boost-ing sharpness also increases the overall contrast of an image, so you’ll want to usethis parameter in conjunction with the contrast parameter with caution.

■ Contrast. Compresses the range of tones in an image (increase contrast from 0 to+3) or expands the range of tones (from 0 to –3) to decrease contrast. Higher con-trast images tend to lose detail in both shadows and highlights, while lower con-trast images retain the detail but appear more flat and have less snap.

■ Color saturation. You can adjust the richness of the color from low saturation (0to –3) to high saturation (0 to +3). Lower saturation produces a muted look thatcan be more realistic for certain kinds of subjects, such as humans. Higher satura-tion produces a more vibrant appearance, but can be garish and unrealistic if car-ried too far. Boost your saturation if you want a vivid image, or to brighten uppictures taken on overcast days. As I noted above, this setting cannot be changedfor the B/W or Sepia Creative Styles.

■ Brightness. This adjustment changes the overall brightness of the image from a set-ting of –3 units to as high as +3. Unlike the contrast adjustment, this adjustmentboosts or reduces dark and light colors to the same extent, resulting in a uniformlydarker or lighter image.

■ Zone. As noted above, this setting can be adjusted only up to +2 or down to –1unit. The zone adjustment is intended to help you avoid having blown-out high-lights or loss of detail in the shadows. When you set this value to a positive num-ber (1 or 2), it causes the image to be underexposed somewhat, to avoid blowingthe highlights, while still preserving detail in the shadows. When you set it to itsonly negative value (–1), it boosts the detail in the shadows while avoiding makingthe highlights too bright. When you adjust zone to any value other than zero, thecontrast setting becomes unavailable and cannot be adjusted; similarly, you cannotadjust zone at all if contrast has been adjusted. (If you try to adjust zone in that sit-uation, the camera will return contrast to zero.)

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Although it’s sometimes alarming for those of us who have been taking pictures a verylong time, the recent tendency for larger companies to absorb smaller vendors has paidsome big dividends, most notably in the huge selection of lenses available for the rela-tively new Sony Alpha DSLR camera line.

In my youth, I managed a camera store for a while, and had access to a broad range ofdifferent models, and so used both Konica and Minolta cameras for many years—dat-ing back to the Konica Autoreflex T (the first SLR with autoexposure/through-the-lensmetering) and the legendary Minolta SRT-101. Only a few years into the digital SLRera, the two companies joined forces as Konica Minolta, and in turn saw their technol-ogy eventually taken over by Sony in 2006. Bye-bye Konica Minolta 7D, hello SonyAlpha models, like the company’s first entry, the Alpha DSLR-A100, each with a legacyof hundreds of lenses from the sorely missed Minolta lineup.

Thanks to the head start provided by Konica and Minolta (and boosted by Minolta-com-patible lenses from third parties), your Sony Alpha A850 camera can be used with a verybroad range of high-quality lenses, suitable for a user base that extends from novice photoenthusiasts to advanced amateur and professional photographers. It’s this mind-bendingassortment of high-quality lenses available to enhance the capabilities of cameras like theSony Alpha DSLR-A850 that make the still-new camera line so attractive. Hundreds ofcurrent and older lenses introduced by Minolta, Sony, and third-party vendors since thelate 1980s can be used to give you a wider view, bring distant subjects closer, let you focuscloser, shoot under lower light conditions, or provide a more detailed, sharper image forcritical work. Other than the sensor itself, the lens you choose for your dSLR is the mostimportant component in determining image quality and perspective of your images.

This chapter explains how to select the best lenses for the kinds of photography youwant to do.

6Working with Lenses

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Don’t Forget the Crop FactorFrom time to time you’ve heard the term crop factor, and you’ve probably also heard theterm lens multiplier factor. Both are misleading and inaccurate terms used to describethe same phenomenon: the fact that cameras like some Sony models (and most otheraffordable digital SLRs), such as the Alpha DSLR-A550, provide a field of view that’ssmaller and narrower than that produced by certain other models, such as your A850,when fitted with exactly the same lens. That’s because the A850 is a “full-frame” cam-era, while the A550 uses an APS-C, or “cropped” size sensor.

Figure 6.1 quite clearly shows the phenomenon at work. The outer rectangle, marked1X, shows the field of view you might expect with a 50mm lens mounted on the AlphaA850, or a 35mm film camera, like the 1985 Minolta Maxxum 7000 (which happenedto be the first SLR to feature both autofocus and motorized advance, something we takefor granted in the digital SLR age). The rectangle marked 1.5X shows the field of viewyou’d get with that 50mm lens installed on a Sony Alpha A550/A500, or any of theother entry-level or mid-level Sony models with an APS-C sensor. It’s easy to see fromthe illustration that the A850’s 1X rendition provides a wider, more expansive view,while the other two are, in comparison, cropped.

The cropping effect is produced because the sensors of the APS-C cameras are smallerthan the sensors of a full-frame camera like the A850. Your “full-frame” camera has asensor that’s the size of the standard 35mm film frame, 24mm × 36mm. Non-full-frameSony Alpha models have a sensor that does not measure 24mm × 36mm; instead, they

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Figure 6.1Sony offers dig-ital SLRs withfull-frame (1X)crops, as well as1.5X crops.

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spec out at roughly 24 × 16mm (there is a difference of a few tenths of a millimeter ineach direction among the various Alpha models), or about 66 percent of the area of afull-frame sensor, as shown by the yellow boxes in the figure. You can calculate the rel-ative field of view by dividing the focal length of the lens by .667. Thus, a 100mm lensmounted on a Sony Alpha A550 has the same field of view as a 150mm lens on a full-frame camera like the A850. We humans tend to perform multiplication operations inour heads more easily than division, so such field of view comparisons are usually cal-culated using the reciprocal of .667—1.5—so we can multiply instead. (100 / .667=150;100 × 1.5=150.)

This translation is generally useful only if you’re accustomed to using full-frame cam-eras (usually of the film variety) and want to know how a familiar lens will perform ona digital camera. I strongly prefer crop factor to lens multiplier, because nothing is beingmultiplied; a 100mm lens doesn’t “become” a 150mm lens—the depth-of-field and lensaperture remain the same. (I’ll explain more about these later in this chapter.) Only thefield of view is cropped. But the term crop factor isn’t much better, as it implies that the24 × 36mm frame is “full” and anything else is “less.” I get e-mails all the time fromphotographers who point out that they own full-frame cameras with 36mm × 48mmsensors (like the Mamiya 645ZD or Hasselblad H3D-39 medium format digitals). Bytheir reckoning, the “half-size” sensors found in full-frame cameras like the Sony AlphaDSLR-A550 are “cropped.”

If you’re accustomed to using full-frame film cameras, you might find it helpful to usethe crop factor “multiplier” to translate a lens’s real focal length into the full-frame equiv-alent, even though, as I said, nothing is actually being multiplied.

Your DSLR-A850’s full-frame 24-megapixel sensor captures pictures using lensesdesigned for full-frame imaging without that pesky “crop factor” that plagues (or bene-fits, as we shall see), Sony Alpha cameras that use a smaller-than-full-frame APS-C sen-sor, such as the Alpha A550. Sony offers both full-frame lenses and lenses intended forits APS-C cameras, which are given the DT designation in their name. That introducesa fly in your lens choice ointment.

Sony DT lenses designed for the APS-C format may or may not be usable for full-frameimages on your A850 (or any other Sony full-frame model, such as the A900). Theimage circle produced by a DT lens is generally smaller than the area of a full frame, atleast at the widest focal length setting. Figure 6.2 shows the approximate coverage of aparticular APS-C lens at 35mm. It covers the inner ASP-C rectangle (just barely; somelenses exhibit darkening, or vignetting in the corners of the frame for this reason). Butthere is severe darkening at the corners of the full frame. Zoom the same lens in to the60mm setting, however (Figure 6.3), and the image coverage circle enlarges so that thelens is almost acceptable for full-frame use. Of course, even if there were no vignettingat a particular focal length, this lens might not be a great choice for full-frame photog-raphy; the image quality/sharpness at the very edges of the circle is likely to be deficient.

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If you do own a selection of DT lenses because you upgraded from an APS-C cameraor because you intend to use such a camera side-by-side with your A850, you have sev-eral alternatives:

■ Give it a go. Try them out on your A850 to see if they cover the full frame at var-ious focal lengths.

■ Keep as a backup lens. If you own a Sony Alpha backup camera in the APS-C for-mat, you can still use your old lenses on that camera. It may be a pain carryingaround lenses that you can’t use on all your cameras, but the pain will be less thanif you must sell those lenses for hundreds of dollars less than you paid for them.

■ Crop, crop, crop. Because your A850 has 24 megapixels of resolution, you can goahead and shoot with your DT lenses. In most cases, the A850 will sense when aDT lens is attached and crop to the APS-C format automatically. If not, you canspecify APS-C format in Setup menu 4, as discussed in Chapter 3. The croppedphoto will still have about 10 megapixels of resolution. It hasn’t been so long agothat 10 MP was considered pretty good, so you might be entirely happy with yourcropped photos.

■ Dump and replace. Sony has shown with its recent camera introductions that itwon’t be dumping the APS-C format anytime soon. So, your old lenses haveretained a lot of their value on the used market. Instead of taking a bath when yousell them, you might have to endure little more than a splash in the face.

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Figure 6.2 At a wide-angle setting, the image circle ofa typical DT lens won’t cover the full frame.

Figure 6.3 Zoom in, and the image circle enlarges,making the lens acceptable for full-frame coverage.

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Do You Need a “Cropped” Camera, Too?For many photographers, the choice of a full-frame or cropped-sensor camera is seriousbusiness. Wildlife and sports photographers appreciate having their longer lensesboosted 1.5X when using one of the Sony APS-C models (as I discuss next), while land-scape and architectural photographers need wide-angle optics that provide a truly widefield of view. There’s a lot of debate over the “advantages” and “disadvantages” of usinga camera with a “cropped” sensor, versus one with a “full-frame” sensor. The argumentsgo like this:

■ “Free” 1.5X teleconverter. A cropped sensor model like the A550, can magicallytransform any telephoto lens you have into a longer lens, which can be useful forsports, wildlife photography, and other endeavors that benefit from more reach. Yet,your f/stop remains the same (that is, a 300mm f/4 becomes a very fast 450mm f/4lens). Some discount this advantage, pointing out that the exact same field of viewcan be had by taking a full-frame image and trimming it to the 1.5X equivalent.While that is strictly true, it doesn’t take into account a factor called pixel density.As I noted earlier, your A850’s 24-megapixel image yields only 10 megapixels whencropped to APS-C size. Your non-full-frame Alpha may have 12 to 14 megapixels,a much higher density of pixels within that 1.5X cropped frame. So, the image qual-ity will be better. A camera like the Alpha A380, with its 14-megapixel sensor, reallydoes provide a “free” 1.5X teleconverter.

■ Lack of wide-angle perspective. Of course, the 1.5X “crop” factor applies to wide-angle lenses, too, so your 20mm ultrawide lens becomes a hum-drum 30mm near-wide-angle, and a 35mm focal length is transformed into what photographers calla “normal” lens, which has a “tweener” focal length that’s neither wide angle nortelephoto.

■ Mixed body mix-up. The A850 owners who also have an APS-C camera can’tignore the focal-length mix-up factor. If you own both formats, it’s vexing to haveto adjust to the different fields of view that the cameras provide. If you remove agiven lens from one camera and put it on the other, the effective focal length/fieldof view changes. That 16-35mm f/2.8 zoom works as an ultrawide to wide angleon an A850 , but functions more as a moderate wide-angle to normal lens on anAlpha A550. It’s possible to become accustomed to this FOV shake-up and, indeed,some photographers put it to work by mounting their longest telephoto lens ontheir APS-C camera and their wide-angle lenses on their full-frame camera. But, ifyou’ve never owned both a full-frame and APS-C camera, you should be aware ofthe possible confusion.

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Your First LensesThe Sony Alpha is frequently purchased with a lens, but it can be bought as a bodyalone by those who already have a selection of suitable full-frame lenses. But at somepoint, you’ll need to make a decision about what lens to buy, or decide what other kindof lenses you need to fill out your complement of Sony optics. This section helps youthrough the decision making process.

When deciding on a lens, there are several factors you’ll want to consider:

■ Cost. If you stretched your budget to buy the A850, you might want to keep thecost of your first lenses fairly low. Fortunately, there are excellent lenses availablethat will add only a few hundred dollars to the price of your camera if purchasedat the same time. Others cost a little more, but have very desirable features. I boughtmine with the SAL50F14, 50mm f/1.4 lens because I wanted a very fast lens forindoor sports and available light shooting. (See Figure 6.4.)

■ Zoom range. If you have only a few lenses, you’ll want a fairly long zoom range toprovide as much flexibility as possible. An SAL-24105, a 24-105mm f/3.5-4.5zoom, which would take you from wide angle to short telephoto, might make agood choice. The exquisite SAL-2470Z, a Zeiss Sonar T* (“T-star”) f/2.8 lens, pro-vides a little less range, but more speed and outstanding image quality.

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Figure 6.4This 50mmf/1.4 lens isexcellent foravailable lightshooting.

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■ Adequate maximum aperture. You’ll want an f/stop of at least f/3.5 to f/4 forshooting under fairly low light conditions. The thing to watch for is the maximumaperture when the lens is zoomed to its telephoto end. You may end up with nobetter than an f/5.6 maximum aperture if you buy a kit lens. That’s not great, butyou can often live with it.

■ Image quality. Your starter lens should have good image quality, because that’sone of the primary factors that will be used to judge your photos. Lenses like theSAL-24105 I mentioned earlier (about $470) include aspheric elements that min-imize distortion and chromatic aberration, and it’s plenty sharp enough for mostapplications.

■ Size matters. A good walking-around lens is compact in size and light in weight.You’ll find fairly compact zooms (like the SAL-24105) at around 14 ounces. TheSAL-2875 weighs 50 percent more at 20 ounces, but other similar zoom lenses canweigh two pounds or more.

■ Fast/close focusing. Your first lens should have a speedy autofocus system. Closefocusing (to 12 inches or closer) will let you use your basic lens for some types ofmacro photography.

You can find comparisons of the lenses discussed in the next section. I’ll provide my rec-ommendations, but more information is always helpful.

Buy Now, Expand LaterThe Alpha is commonly available with several good, basic lenses that can serve you wellas a “walk-around” lens (one you keep on the camera most of the time, especially whenyou’re out and about without your camera bag). The number of options available to youis actually quite amazing when you consider third-party lenses, even if your budget islimited to about $100-$400 for your first lens. One useful lens Sony offers for the Alphais shown in Figure 6.4. Sony’s best-bet first lenses are as follows:

■ Sony SAL-24105 24-105mm f/3.5-4.5 Zoom lens. This lens is not inexpensiveat about $500, but, if you can find one, may be a smarter choice if you intend toshoot indoor or outdoor sports. It’s faster at its longest focal length, and providesthe equivalent of a moderate wide angle to short telephoto 5X zoom in one com-pact lens.

■ Sony SAL-2470Z Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 24-70mm f/2.8 Zoom lens. If youhave $1,600 to spare, this lens is truly wonderful in terms of image quality andspeed. It’s great for sports, landscapes, and portraits.

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■ Sony SAL-2875 28-75mm f/2.8 Zoom lens. Half the price of the 24-70mm Zeisslens, this one weighs a third less, too, at 20 ounces, and makes a great all-aroundzoom.

■ Sony SAL75300 75-300mm f/4.5-5.6 Telephoto Zoom lens. This is a $250 bar-gain, and provides a long reach, out to 300mm. This is a compact lens (weighingjust 18 ounces). It focuses as close as 5 feet at 300mm, which allows you to shootskittish creatures (and humans) from a non-threatening distance.

Your Second (and Third…) LensThere are really only two advantages to owning just a single lens. One of them is cre-ativity. Keeping one set of optics mounted on your Alpha all the time forces you to beespecially imaginative in your approach to your subjects. I once visited Europe with onlya single camera body and a 35mm f/2 lens. The experience was actually quite exciting,because I had to use a variety of techniques to allow that one lens to serve for landscapes,available light photos, action, close-ups, portraits, and other kinds of images. Sonymakes an excellent 35mm lens (actually, it’s the SAL-35F14G 35mm f/1.4 Wide-Anglelens). At almost $1,400, this lens is expensive—and very sharp. It would be perfect formy Europe experiment today.

Of course, it’s more likely that your “single” lens is actually a zoom, which is, in truth,many lenses in one, taking you from, say, 16mm to 35mm (or some other range) witha rapid twist of the zoom ring. You’ll still find some creative challenges when you stickto a single zoom lens’s focal lengths.

The second advantage of the unilens camera is only a marginal technical benefit sincethe introduction of the sensor cleaning technology. If you don’t exchange lenses, thechances of dust and dirt getting inside your Alpha and settling on the sensor are reduced(but not eliminated entirely). Although I’ve known some photographers who minimizedthe number of lens changes they made for this very reason, reducing the number oflenses you work with is not a productive or rewarding approach for most of us. TheAlpha’s automatic sensor cleaning feature has made this “advantage” much less signifi-cant than it was in the past.

It’s more likely that you’ll succumb to the malady known as Lens Lust, which is definedas an incurable disease marked by a significant yen for newer, better, longer, faster,sharper, anything-er optics for your camera. (And, it must be noted, this disease can costyou significant yen—or dollars, or whatever currency you use.) In its worst manifesta-tions, sufferers find themselves with lenses that have overlapping zoom ranges or capa-bilities, because one or the other offers a slight margin in performance or suitability forspecific tasks. When you find yourself already lusting after a new lens before you’ve reallyhad a chance to put your latest purchase to the test, you’ll know the disease has reachedthe terminal phase.

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Sony’s Alpha-bet SoupHere’s a quick translation of some of the nomenclature used when referring to variousSony lenses.

■ ADI. Advanced Distance Integration allows the lens to communicate distance datato the camera to be used with the camera’s flash unit for more advanced through-the-lens (TTL) metering.

■ DT. This designation is applied to lenses that are designed for Sony’s APS-C-for-mat cameras only. They produce an image circle designed to cover APS-C size imagesensors, and may not be useable on full-frame cameras like the A850 at all (or most)focal lengths.

■ ED. These lenses feature extra-low dispersion glass, a higher quality glass thatreduces chromatic aberration or “color fringing.”

■ IF. Internal focus lenses do not change their physical length as you focus on sub-jects that are closer or farther away. Instead, lens elements move inside the lens bar-rel to accomplish focusing.

■ SSM. Supersonic wave motor, a piezoelectric motor that provides smooth and silentautofocus operation.

■ SAM (Smooth Autofocus motor). An in-lens focusing motor offered on someentry-level Sony lenses.

■ G. Lenses with the G designation include Sony’s most costly large-aperture lensesdesigned for professional photographers. They feature ED glass, which minimizeschromatic aberration, and quiet, responsive focusing thanks to their supersonic wavemotor and internal focusing.

■ T* (pronounced T-Star). This designation refers to an anti-reflective optical coat-ing developed by Carl Zeiss as a way to increase the efficiency of light transmissionand reduce contrast-robbing flare caused by internal reflections.

What Lenses Can Do for YouA saner approach to expanding your lens collection is to consider what each of youroptions can do for you and then choose the type of lens that will really boost your cre-ative opportunities. Here’s a general guide to the sort of capabilities you can gain byadding a lens to your repertoire.

■ Wider perspective. Your 24-105mm f/3.5-4.5 lens has served you well for mod-erate wide-angle shots. Now you find your back is up against a wall and you can’ttake a step backwards to take in more subject matter. Perhaps you’re standing on

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the rim of the Grand Canyon, and you want to take in as much of the breathtak-ing view as you can. You might find yourself just behind the baseline at a highschool basketball game and want an interesting shot with a little perspective dis-tortion tossed in the mix. There’s a lens out there that will provide you with whatyou need, such as the SAL-1635Z lens I mentioned earlier, or any of the array ofavailable Sony non-zoom wide-angle lenses. Your extra-wide choices may not beabundant, but they are there. Figure 6.5 shows the perspective you get from an ultra-wide-angle lens.

■ Bring objects closer. A long lens brings distant subjects closer to you, offers bet-ter control over depth-of-field, and avoids the perspective distortion that wide-anglelenses provide. They compress the apparent distance between objects in your frame.In the telephoto realm, Sony is right in the ballgame, with lenses like the telephotozooms I mentioned earlier to some super high-end models like the SAL-70200G70-200mm f/2.8 G-series telephoto zoom. (You’ll pay $1,800 for this baby.) Figures6.6 and 6.7 were taken from the same position as Figure 6.5, but with a 135mmand 500mm focal length, respectively.

■ Bring your camera closer. Sony has two excellent full-frame close-up lenses, theSAL-50M28 50mm f/2.8 Macro lens, and the SAL-100M28 100mm f/2.8 Macrolens. Paying $479 for the 50mm lens, or $679 for the 100mm version is not out oforder for someone who wants to shoot close-up subjects but needs to stay fartheraway from a subject to provide more flexibility in lighting and enough distance toavoid spooking small wildlife.

■ Look sharp. Many lenses, particularly the higher-priced Sony optics, are prized fortheir sharpness and overall image quality. While your run-of-the-mill lens is likelyto be plenty sharp for most applications, the very best optics are even better overtheir entire field of view (which means no fuzzy corners), are sharper at a widerrange of focal lengths (in the case of zooms), and have better correction for varioustypes of distortion. That, along with a constant f/2.8 aperture, is why the 70-200mm f/2.8 lens I mentioned earlier sells for $1,800.

■ More speed. Your basic telephoto lens might have the perfect focal length andsharpness for sports photography, but the maximum aperture won’t cut it fornight baseball or football games, or, even, any sports shooting in daylight if theweather is cloudy or you need to use some ungodly fast shutter speed, such as1/4,000th second. You might be happier with the Sony SAL-135F18Z Carl ZeissSonnar T* 135mm f/1.8 telephoto lens (if money is no object: it costs $1,400).But there are lower cost fast lens options, such as my favored SAL-50F14 50mmf/1.4 lens ($350), which might be suitable for indoor sports such as basketball orvolleyball.

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Chapter 6 ■ Working with Lenses 197

Figure 6.5An ultrawide-

angle lens provided this

view of PragueCastle in the

CzechRepublic.

Figure 6.6This photo,taken fromroughly the

same distanceshows the view

using a shorttelephoto lens.

Figure 6.7A longer tele-

photo lens captured this

closer viewfrom approxi-

mately thesame shooting

position.

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Zoom or Prime?Zoom lenses have changed the way serious photographers take pictures. One of the rea-sons that I own 12 SLR film bodies is that in ancient times it was common to mounta different fixed focal length prime lens on various cameras and take pictures with twoor three cameras around your neck (or tucked in a camera case) so you’d be ready totake a long shot or an intimate close-up or wide-angle view on a moment’s notice, with-out the need to switch lenses. It made sense (at the time) to have a half dozen or so bod-ies (two to use, one in the shop, one in transit, and a couple backups). Zoom lenses ofthe time had a limited zoom range, were heavy, and not very sharp (especially when youtried to wield one of those monsters handheld).

That’s all changed today. Lenses like the sharp Sony lenses I’ve already described, includ-ing the top-of-the-line Carl Zeiss optics, have impressive zoom ranges, and (some) arelight in weight. The best zooms might seem expensive, but they are actually much lesscostly than the six or so lenses replaced. When selecting between zoom and prime lenses,there are several considerations to ponder. Here’s a checklist of the most important fac-tors. I already mentioned image quality and maximum aperture earlier, but those aspectstake on additional meaning when comparing zooms and primes.

■ Logistics. As prime lenses offer just a single focal length, you’ll need more of themto encompass the full range offered by a single zoom. More lenses mean additionalslots in your camera bag, and extra weight to carry. Even so, you might be willingto carry an extra prime lens or two in order to gain the speed or image quality thatlens offers.

■ Image quality. Prime lenses usually produce better image quality at their focallength than even the most sophisticated zoom lenses at the same magnification.Zoom lenses, with their shifting elements and f/stops that can vary from zoom posi-tion to zoom position, are in general more complex to design than fixed focal lengthlenses. That’s not to say that the very best prime lenses can’t be complicated as well.However, the exotic designs, aspheric elements, and other tweaks can be applied toimproving the quality of the lens, rather than wasting a lot of it on compensatingfor problems caused by the zoom process itself.

■ Maximum aperture. Because of the same design constraints, zoom lenses usuallyhave smaller maximum apertures than prime lenses, and the most affordable zoomshave a lens opening that grows effectively smaller as you zoom to the telephoto posi-tion. The difference in lens speed verges on the ridiculous at some focal lengths.For example, the inexpensive Sony 70-300mm lens gives you a 300mm f/5.6 lenswhen zoomed all the way out, while prime lenses in that focal length commonlyhave f/4 or faster maximum apertures. Indeed, the fastest Sony lenses are all primes,and if you require speed, a fixed focal length lens is what you should rely on. Figure6.8 shows an image taken with an 85mm f/1.4 telephoto lens.

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■ Speed. Using prime lenses takes time and slows you down. It takes a few secondsto remove your current lens and mount a new one, and the more often you needto do that, the more time is wasted. If you choose not to swap lenses, when usinga fixed focal length lens you’ll still have to move closer or farther away from yoursubject to get the field of view you want. A zoom lens allows you to change mag-nifications and focal lengths with the twist of a ring and generally saves a great dealof time.

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Figure 6.8An 85mm f/1.4lens was perfect

for this hand-held photo.

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Categories of LensesLenses can be categorized by their intended purpose—general photography, macro pho-tography, and so forth—or by their focal length. The range of available focal lengths isusually divided into three main groups: wide-angle, normal, and telephoto. Prime lensesfall neatly into one of these classifications. Zooms can overlap designations, with a sig-nificant number falling into the catchall wide-to-telephoto zoom range. This sectionprovides more information about focal length ranges, and how they are used.

Any lens with a focal length of 10mm to 20mm is said to be an ultrawide-angle lens;from about 20mm to 40mm is said to be a wide-angle lens. Normal lenses have a focallength roughly equivalent to the diagonal of the film or sensor, in millimeters, and sofall into the range of about 45mm to 60mm (on a full-frame camera). Telephoto lensesusually fall into the 75mm and longer focal lengths, while those from about 300mm-400mm and longer often are referred to as super-telephotos.

Using Wide-Angle and Wide-Zoom LensesTo use wide-angle prime lenses and wide zooms, you need to understand how they affectyour photography. Here’s a quick summary of the things you need to know.

■ More depth-of-field. Practically speaking, wide-angle lenses offer more depth-of-field at a particular subject distance and aperture. (But see the sidebar below for animportant note.) You’ll find that helpful when you want to maximize sharpness ofa large zone, but not very useful when you’d rather isolate your subject using selec-tive focus (telephoto lenses are better for that).

■ Stepping back. Wide-angle lenses have the effect of making it seem that you arestanding farther from your subject than you really are. They’re helpful when youdon’t want to back up, or can’t because there are impediments in your way.

■ Wider field of view. While making your subject seem farther away, as impliedabove, a wide-angle lens also provides a larger field of view, including more of thesubject in your photos.

■ More foreground. As background objects retreat, more of the foreground isbrought into view by a wide-angle lens. That gives you extra emphasis on the areathat’s closest to the camera. Photograph your home with a normal lens/normalzoom setting, and the front yard probably looks fairly conventional in your photo(that’s why they’re called “normal” lenses). Switch to a wider lens and you’ll discoverthat your lawn now makes up much more of the photo. So, wide-angle lenses aregreat when you want to emphasize that lake in the foreground, but problematicwhen your intended subject is located farther in the distance.

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■ Super-sized subjects. The tendency of a wide-angle lens to emphasize objects inthe foreground, while de-emphasizing objects in the background, can lead to a kindof size distortion that may be more objectionable for some types of subjects thanothers. Shoot a bed of flowers up close with a wide angle, and you might like thedistorted effect of the larger blossoms nearer the lens. Take a photo of a family mem-ber with the same lens from the same distance, and you’re likely to get some com-plaints about that gigantic nose in the foreground.

■ Perspective distortion. When you tilt the camera so the plane of the sensor is nolonger perpendicular to the vertical plane of your subject, some parts of the subjectare now closer to the sensor than they were before, while other parts are fartheraway. So, buildings, flagpoles, or NBA players appear to be falling backwards (build-ing shown in Figure 6.9). While this kind of apparent distortion (it’s not caused bya defect in the lens) can happen with any lens, it’s most apparent when a wide angleis used.

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Figure 6.9Tilting the

camera backproduces this“falling back”look in archi-

tectural photos.

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■ Steady cam. You’ll find that you can handhold a wide-angle lens more easily atslower shutter speeds, without need for SteadyShot, than you can with a telephotolens. The reduced magnification of the wide-lens or wide-zoom setting doesn’temphasize camera shake like a telephoto lens does.

■ Interesting angles. Many of the factors already listed combine to produce moreinteresting angles when shooting with wide-angle lenses. Raising or lowering a tele-photo lens a few feet probably will have little effect on the appearance of the dis-tant subjects you’re shooting. The same change in elevation can produce a dramaticeffect for the much closer subjects typically captured with a wide-angle lens or wide-zoom setting.

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DOF IN DEPTH

The DOF advantage of wide-angle lenses is diminished when you enlarge your picture;believe it or not, a wide-angle image enlarged and cropped to provide the same subjectsize as a telephoto shot would have the same depth-of-field. Try it: take a wide-anglephoto of a friend from a fair distance, and then zoom in to duplicate the picture in a tele-photo image. Then, enlarge the wide shot so your friend is the same size in both. Thewide photo will have the same depth-of-field (and will have much less detail, too).

Avoiding Potential Wide-Angle ProblemsWide-angle lenses have a few quirks that you’ll want to keep in mind when shooting soyou can avoid falling into some common traps. Here’s a checklist of tips for avoidingcommon problems:

■ Symptom: converging lines. Unless you want to use wildly converging lines as acreative effect, it’s a good idea to keep horizontal and vertical lines in landscapes,architecture, and other subjects carefully aligned with the sides, top, and bottom ofthe frame. That will help you avoid undesired perspective distortion. Sometimes ithelps to shoot from a slightly elevated position so you don’t have to tilt the cameraup or down.

■ Symptom: color fringes around objects. Lenses are often plagued with fringes ofcolor around backlit objects, produced by chromatic aberration, which comes in twoforms: longitudinal/axial, in which all the colors of light don’t focus in the sameplane; and lateral/transverse, in which the colors are shifted to one side. Axial chro-matic aberration can be reduced by stopping down the lens, but transverse chro-matic aberration cannot. Both can be reduced if you purchase lenses with lowdiffraction index glass and which incorporate elements that cancel the chromaticaberration of other glass in the lens. For example, a strong positive lens made of

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low-dispersion crown glass (made of a soda-lime-silica composite) may be matedwith a weaker negative lens made of high dispersion flint glass, which contains lead.

■ Symptom: lines that bow outward. Some wide-angle lenses cause straight lines tobow outwards, with the strongest effect at the edges. In fisheye (or curvilinear)lenses, this defect is a feature, as you can see in Figure 6.10. When distortion is notdesired, you’ll need to use a lens that has corrected barrel distortion. Manufacturerslike Sony do their best to minimize or eliminate it (producing a rectilinear lens),often using aspherical lens elements (which are not cross-sections of a sphere). Youcan also minimize barrel distortion simply by framing your photo with some extraspace all around, so the edges where the defect is most obvious can be cropped outof the picture.

■ Symptom: dark corners and shadows in flash photos. Although the Sony AlphaA850 lacks a built-in electronic flash, its add-on flash units are designed to provideeven coverage for fairly wide lenses. If you use a wider lens, you can expect dark-ening, or vignetting, in the corners of the frame.

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Figure 6.10 Many wide-angle lenses cause lines to bow outwards towards the edges of the image; with a fisheye lens,this tendency is considered an interesting feature.

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■ Symptom: light and dark areas when using polarizing filter. If you know thatpolarizers work best when the camera is pointed 90 degrees away from the sun andhave the least effect when the camera is oriented 180 degrees from the sun, youknow only half the story. With lenses having a focal length of 16mm-28mm, theangle of view (107 to 75 degrees diagonally, or 97 to 44 degrees horizontally) isextensive enough to cause problems. Think about it: when a 16mm lens is pointedat the proper 90-degree angle from the sun, objects at the edges of the frame willbe oriented at 135 to 41 degrees, with only the center at exactly 90 degrees. Eitheredge will have much less of a polarized effect. The solution is to avoid using a polar-izing filter with lenses having an actual focal length of less than 28mm.

Using Telephoto and Tele-Zoom LensesTelephoto lenses also can have a dramatic effect on your photography, and Sony is espe-cially strong in the long lens arena, with lots of choices in many focal lengths and zoomranges. You should be able to find an affordable telephoto or tele-zoom to enhance yourphotography in several different ways. Here are the most important things you need toknow. In the next section, I’ll concentrate on telephoto considerations that can be prob-lematic—and how to avoid those problems.

■ Selective focus. Long lenses have reduced depth-of-field within the frame, allow-ing you to use selective focus to isolate your subject. You can open the lens up wideto create shallow depth-of-field, or close it down a bit to allow more to be in focus.The flip side of the coin is that when you want to make a range of objects sharp,you’ll need to use a smaller f/stop to get the depth-of-field you need. Like fire, thedepth-of-field of a telephoto lens can be friend or foe. Figure 6.11 shows a “wild”lemur photographed at an f/4 aperture with a telephoto lens, which throws thebackground and foreground foliage out of focus.

■ Getting closer. Telephoto lenses bring you closer to wildlife, sports action, and can-did subjects. No one wants to get a reputation as a surreptitious or “sneaky” pho-tographer (except for paparazzi), but when applied to candids in an open and honestway, a long lens can help you capture memorable moments while retaining enoughdistance to stay out of the way of events as they transpire.

■ Reduced foreground/increased compression. Telephoto lenses have the oppositeeffect of wide angles: they reduce the importance of things in the foreground bysqueezing everything together. This compression even makes distant objects appearto be closer to subjects in the foreground and middle ranges. You can use this effectas a creative tool.

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■ Accentuates camera shakiness. Telephoto focal lengths hit you with a double-whammy in terms of camera/photographer shake. The lenses themselves are bulkier,more difficult to hold steady, and may even produce a barely perceptible seesawrocking effect when you support them with one hand halfway down the lens bar-rel. Telephotos also magnify any camera shake. It’s no wonder that image stabiliza-tion is popular in longer lenses.

■ Interesting angles require creativity. Telephoto lenses require more imaginationin selecting interesting angles, because the “angle” you do get on your subjects is sonarrow. Moving from side to side or a bit higher or lower can make a dramatic dif-ference in a wide-angle shot, but raising or lowering a telephoto lens a few feet prob-ably will have little effect on the appearance of the distant subjects you’re shooting.

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Figure 6.11 A wide f/stop helped isolate this lemur in his natural habitat.

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Avoiding Telephoto Lens ProblemsMany of the “problems” that telephoto lenses pose are really just challenges and not thatdifficult to overcome. Here is a list of the seven most common picture maladies andsuggested solutions.

■ Symptom: flat faces in portraits. Head-and-shoulders portraits of humans tendto be more flattering when a focal length of 85mm to 105mm is used. Longer focallengths compress the distance between features like noses and ears, making the facelook wider and flat. A wide-angle might make noses look huge and ears tiny whenyou fill the frame with a face. So stick with 85mm to 105mm focal lengths or zoomsettings, going longer only when you’re forced to shoot from a greater distance, andwider only when shooting three-quarters/full-length portraits, or group shots.

■ Symptom: blur due to camera shake. First, make sure you have SteadyShot turnedon! Then, if possible, use a higher shutter speed (boosting ISO if necessary), ormount your camera on a tripod, monopod, or brace it with some other support.Of those three solutions, only the second will reduce blur caused by subject motion;SteadyShot or a tripod won’t help you freeze a racecar in mid-lap.

■ Symptom: color fringes. Chromatic aberration is the most pernicious opticalproblem found in telephoto lenses. There are others, including spherical aberra-tion, astigmatism, coma, curvature of field, and similarly scary sounding phe-nomena. The best solution for any of these is to use a better lens that offers theproper degree of correction, or stop down the lens to minimize the problem. Butthat’s not always possible. Your second-best choice may be to correct the fringingin your favorite RAW conversion tool or image editor. Photoshop’s Lens Correctionfilter (found in the Filter menu) offers sliders that minimize both red/cyan andblue/yellow fringing.

■ Symptom: lines that curve inwards. Pincushion distortion is found in many tele-photo lenses. You might find after a bit of testing that it is worse at certain focallengths with your particular zoom lens. Like chromatic aberration, it can be par-tially corrected using tools like Photoshop’s Lens Correction filter.

■ Symptom: low contrast from haze or fog. When you’re photographing distantobjects, a long lens shoots through a lot more atmosphere, which generally is mud-died up with extra haze and fog. That dirt or moisture in the atmosphere can reducecontrast and mute colors. Some feel that a skylight or UV filter can help, but thispractice is mostly a holdover from the film days. Digital sensors are not sensitiveenough to UV light for a UV filter to have much effect. So you should be preparedto boost contrast and color saturation in your Picture Styles menu or image editorif necessary.

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■ Symptom: low contrast from flare. Lenses are furnished with lens hoods for agood reason: to reduce flare from bright light sources at the periphery of the pic-ture area, or completely outside it. Because telephoto lenses often create images thatare lower in contrast in the first place, you’ll want to be especially careful to use alens hood to prevent further effects on your image (or shade the front of the lenswith your hand).

■ Symptom: dark flash photos. Edge-to-edge flash coverage isn’t a problem withtelephoto lenses as it is with wide angles. The shooting distance is. A long lens mightmake a subject that’s 50 feet away look as if it’s right next to you, but your camera’sflash isn’t fooled. You’ll need extra power for distant flash shots unless you increasethe ISO setting to ISO 3200.

Telephotos and BokehBokeh describes the aesthetic qualities of the out-of-focus parts of an image and whetherout-of-focus points of light—circles of confusion—are rendered as distracting fuzzydiscs or smoothly fade into the background. Boke is a Japanese word for “blur,” and theh was added to keep English speakers from rendering it monosyllabically to rhyme withbroke. Although bokeh is visible in blurry portions of any image, it’s of particular con-cern with telephoto lenses, which, thanks to the magic of reduced depth-of-field, pro-duce more obviously out-of-focus areas. Sony applies the term defocusing to the effectsof bokeh, and even offers a special lens, the SAL135F28 135mm f/2.8 STF (SmoothTrue Focus) lens designed with creamy backgrounds in mind.

Bokeh can vary from lens to lens, or even within a given lens depending on the f/stopin use. Bokeh becomes objectionable when the circles of confusion are evenly illumi-nated, making them stand out as distinct discs, or, worse, when these circles are darkerin the center, producing an ugly “doughnut” effect. A lens defect called spherical aber-ration may produce out-of-focus discs that are brighter on the edges and darker in thecenter, because the lens doesn’t focus light passing through the edges of the lens exactlyas it does light going through the center. (Mirror or catadioptric lenses also produce thiseffect.)

Other kinds of spherical aberration generate circles of confusion that are brightest inthe center and fade out at the edges, producing a smooth blending effect, as you can seeat right in Figure 6.12. Ironically, when no spherical aberration is present at all, the discsare a uniform shade, which, while better than the doughnut effect, is not as pleasing asthe bright center/dark edge rendition. The shape of the disc also comes into play, withround smooth circles considered the best, and nonagonal or some other polygon (deter-mined by the shape of the lens diaphragm) considered less desirable. Most Sony lenseshave seven or nine aperture blades with near-circular irises, producing very pleasingbokeh.

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If you plan to use selective focus a lot, you should investigate the bokeh characteristicsof a particular lens before you buy. Sony user groups and forums will usually be full ofcomments and questions about bokeh, so the research is fairly easy.

Add-ons and Special FeaturesOnce you’ve purchased your telephoto lens, you’ll want to think about some appropri-ate accessories for it. There are some handy add-ons available that can be valuable. Hereare a couple of them to think about.

Lens HoodsLens hoods are an important accessory for all lenses, but they’re especially valuable withtelephotos. As I mentioned earlier, lens hoods do a good job of preserving image con-trast by keeping bright light sources outside the field of view from striking the lens and,potentially, bouncing around inside that long tube to generate flare that, when coupledwith atmospheric haze, can rob your image of detail and snap. In addition, lens hoodsserve as valuable protection for that large, vulnerable, front lens element. It’s easy to for-get that you’ve got that long tube sticking out in front of your camera and accidentally

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Figure 6.12 Bokeh is less pleasing when the discs are prominent (left), and less obtrusive when they blend into thebackground (right).

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whack the front of your lens into something. It’s cheaper to replace a lens hood than itis to have a lens repaired, so you might find that a good hood is valuable protection foryour prized optics.

When choosing a lens hood, it’s important to have the right hood for the lens, usuallythe one offered for that lens by Sony or the third-party manufacturer. You want a hoodthat blocks precisely the right amount of light: neither too much light nor too little. Ahood with a front diameter that is too small can show up in your pictures as vignetting.A hood that has a front diameter that’s too large isn’t stopping all the light it should.Generic lens hoods may not do the job.

When your telephoto is a zoom lens, it’s even more important to get the right hood,because you need one that does what it is supposed to at both the wide-angle and tele-photo ends of the zoom range. Lens hoods may be cylindrical, rectangular (shaped likethe image frame), or petal shaped (that is, cylindrical, but with cutout areas at the cor-ners that correspond to the actual image area). Lens hoods should be mounted in thecorrect orientation (a bayonet mount for the hood usually takes care of this).

Telephoto ExtendersTelephoto extenders, like the SAL-14TC 1.4X G-series tele-converter lens and SAL-20TC 2.0X G-series tele-converter lens multiply the actual focal length of your lens,giving you a longer telephoto for much less than the price of a lens with that actual focallength. These extenders fit between the lens and your camera and contain optical ele-ments that magnify the image produced by the lens. Available in 1.4X and 2.0X con-figurations from Sony, an extender transforms, say, a 200mm lens into a 280mm or400mm optic, respectively. Given the Alpha’s crop factor, your 200mm lens now hasthe same field of view as a 420mm or 600mm lens on a full-frame camera. At around$450 each, they’re quite a bargain, aren’t they?

Actually, there are some downsides. While extenders retain the closest focusing distanceof your original lens, autofocus is maintained only if the lens’s original maximum aper-ture is f/4 or larger (for the 1.4X extender) or f/2.8 or larger (for the 2X extender). Thecomponents reduce the effective aperture of any lens they are used with, by one f/stopwith the 1.4X extender, and 2 f/stops with the 2X extender.

Macro FocusingSome telephotos and telephoto zooms available for the Sony Alpha have particularlyclose focusing capabilities, making them macro lenses. Of course, the object is not nec-essarily to get close (get too close and you’ll find it difficult to light your subject). Whatyou’re really looking for in a macro lens is to magnify the apparent size of the subject inthe final image. Camera-to-subject distance is most important when you want to backup farther from your subject (say, to avoid spooking skittish insects or small animals).

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In that case, you’ll want a macro lens with a longer focal length to allow that distancewhile retaining the desired magnification.

Sony makes two lenses with official macro designations. You’ll also find macro lenses,macro zooms, and other close-focusing lenses available from Sigma, Tamron, andTokina. If you want to focus closer with a macro lens, or any other lens, you can addan accessory called an extension tube, like the ones shown in Figure 6.13. These add-onsmove the lens farther from the focal plane, allowing it to focus more closely. You canalso buy add-on close-up lenses, which look like filters, and allow lenses to focus moreclosely.

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Figure 6.13Extensiontubes enableany lens tofocus moreclosely to thesubject.

SteadyShot and Your LensesVendors like Nikon and Canon sell special lenses with anti-shake features built in. Withyour Sony Alpha A850, every lens you own has image stabilization. SteadyShot providesyou with camera steadiness that’s the equivalent of at least two or three shutter speedincrements. This extra margin can be invaluable when you’re shooting under dim light-ing conditions or handholding a long lens for, say, wildlife photography. Perhaps thatshot of a foraging deer calls for a shutter speed of 1/1,000th second at f/5.6 with yourlens. Relax. You can shoot at 1/250th second at f/11 and get virtually the same results,as long as the deer doesn’t decide to bound off.

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Or, maybe you’re shooting a high school play without a tripod or monopod, and you’dreally, really like to use 1/15th second at f/4. Assuming the actors aren’t flitting aroundthe stage at high speed, your wide-angle lens can grab the shot for you at its wide-angleposition. However, keep these facts in mind:

■ SteadyShot doesn’t stop action. Unfortunately, no stabilization is a panacea toreplace the action-stopping capabilities of a higher shutter speed. Image stabiliza-tion applies only to camera shake. You still need a fast shutter speed to freeze action.SteadyShot works great in low light, when you’re using long lenses, and for macrophotography. It’s not always the best choice for action photography, unless there’senough light to allow a sufficiently high shutter speed. If so, stabilization can makeyour shot even sharper.

■ Stabilization might slow you down. The process of adjusting the sensor to countercamera shake takes time, just as autofocus does, so you might find that SteadyShotadds to the lag between when you press the shutter and when the picture is actu-ally taken. That’s another reason why image stabilization might not be a good choicefor sports.

■ Use when appropriate. Sometimes, stabilization produces worse results if usedwhile you’re panning. You might want to switch off IS when panning or when yourcamera is mounted on a tripod.

■ Do you need SteadyShot at all? Remember that an inexpensive monopod mightbe able to provide the same additional steadiness as SteadyShot. If you’re out in thefield shooting wild animals or flowers and think a tripod isn’t practical, try a mono-pod first.

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Successful photographers and artists have an intimate understanding of the importanceof light in shaping an image. Rembrandt was a master of using light to create moodsand reveal the character of his subjects. Artist Thomas Kinkade’s official tagline is“Painter of Light.” The late Dean Collins, co-founder of Finelight Studios, revolution-ized how a whole generation of photographers learned and used lighting. It’s impossi-ble to underestimate how the use of light adds to—and how misuse can detractfrom—your photographs.

All forms of visual art use light to shape the finished product. Sculptors don’t have con-trol over the light used to illuminate their finished work, so they must create shapesusing planes and curved surfaces so that the form envisioned by the artist comes to lifefrom a variety of viewing and lighting angles. Painters, in contrast, have absolute con-trol over both shape and light in their work, as well as the viewing angle, so they canuse both the contours of their two-dimensional subjects and the qualities of the “light”they use to illuminate those subjects to evoke the image they want to produce.

Photography is a third form of art. The photographer may have little or no control overthe subject (other than posing human subjects) but can often adjust both viewing angleand the nature of the light source to create a particular compelling image. The direc-tion and intensity of the light sources create the shapes and textures that we see. Thedistribution and proportions determine the contrast and tonal values: whether the imageis stark or high key, or muted and low in contrast. The colors of the light (because even“white” light has a color balance that the sensor can detect), and how much of thosecolors the subject reflects or absorbs, paint the hues visible in the image.

7Making LightWork for You

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As a Sony Alpha photographer, you must learn to be a painter and sculptor of light ifyou want to move from taking a picture to making a photograph. This chapter providesan introduction to using the two main types of illumination: continuous lighting (suchas daylight, incandescent, or fluorescent sources) and the brief, but brilliant snippets oflight we call electronic flash.

The Elements of LightUnless you’re extraordinarily lucky, or supremely observant, great lighting, like mostthings of artistic value, doesn’t happen by accident. It’s entirely possible that you’ll ran-domly encounter a scene or subject that’s bathed in marvelous lighting, illuminationthat perfectly sculpts an image in highlights and shadows. That’s what happened whenI encountered the stark geometric shapes of the fountain in the infrared shot shown inFigure 7.1. All I really needed to do was walk around the fountain until I found the bestangle. The light was already there; I just needed to be lucky enough to encounter andrecognize it.

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Figure 7.1 Recognizing and using interesting illumination allows you to sculpt your photographs with light.

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But how often can you count on such luck? Ansel Adams, producer Samuel Goldwyn,and golfer Gary Player have all been credited with originating the phrase, “The harderI work, the luckier I get.” If you work at learning what light can do, and how to use it,you’ll find yourself becoming luckier too.

Knowledge, patience, and the ability to use the lighting tools at your disposal are thekeys to great lighting. Ansel Adams was known for his patience in seeking out the bestlighting for a composition, and he did actually say, “A good photograph is knowingwhere to stand.” You have to possess the ability to recognize effective lighting when it isalready present, and have the skill to manipulate the light when it is not.

One of my favorite stories is about photographer George Krause, who spent the earlypart of his career shooting photographs only on overcast days, under diffuse, low-contrast illumination. That kind of lighting can be exceptionally challenging,because there is no interplay of highlights and shadows to add depth to a composi-tion. Only when Krause was convinced that he understood soft lighting did he moveon to work with more dramatic applications of light. Check out Krause’s Shadow,taken in Seville, Spain more than 40 years ago at http://georgekrause.com/gallery/streetDetail.php5?SHADOW-2. Does the photo show an old woman—or an oldwoman followed by a dark secret?

Continuous Lighting—or Electronic Flash?Continuous lighting is exactly what you might think: uninterrupted illumination thatis available all the time during a shooting session. Daylight, moonlight, and the artifi-cial lighting encountered both indoors and outdoors count as continuous light sources(although all of them can be “interrupted” by passing clouds, solar eclipses, a blownfuse, or simply by switching a lamp off ). Indoor continuous illumination includes boththe lights that are there already (such as incandescent lamps or overhead fluorescentlights indoors) and fixtures you supply yourself, including photoflood lamps or reflec-tors used to bounce existing light onto your subject.

The surge of light we call electronic flash is produced by a burst of photons generatedby an electrical charge that is accumulated in a component called a capacitor and thendirected through a glass tube containing xenon gas, which absorbs the energy and emitsthe brief flash. Electronic flash is notable because it can be much more intense than con-tinuous lighting, lasts only a brief moment, and can be much more portable than sup-plementary incandescent sources. It’s a light source you can carry with you and useanywhere.

Your Sony Alpha DSLR-A850, as a “pro” camera, does not incorporate a flip-up built-in electronic flash. Instead, you’ll have to work with an external flash, either mountedon the Alpha’s accessory shoe or used off-camera and linked with a cable or triggered bya slave light (which sets off a flash when it senses the firing of another unit). Studio flash

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units are electronic flash, too, and aren’t limited to “professional” shooters, as there areeconomical “monolight” (one-piece flash/power supply) units available in the $200 pricerange. Those who want to set up a home studio with some cash to spare can buy a cou-ple to store in a closet and use to set up a home studio, or use as supplementary light-ing when traveling away from home. There are advantages and disadvantages to eachtype of illumination. Here’s a quick checklist of pros and cons:

■ Lighting preview—Pro: continuous lighting. With continuous lighting, such asincandescent lamps or daylight (see Figure 7.2), you always know exactly what kindof lighting effect you’re going to get and, if multiple lights are used, how they willinteract with each other. With electronic flash, the general effect you’re going to seemay be a mystery until you’ve built some experience, and you may need to reviewa shot on the LCD, make some adjustments, and then reshoot to get the look youwant. (In this sense, a digital camera’s review capabilities replace the Polaroid testshots pro photographers relied on in decades past.)

■ Lighting preview—Con: electronic flash. While some external flash have a mod-eling light function (consisting of a series of low-powered bursts that flash for aperiod of time), this feature is no substitute for continuous illumination, or analways-on modeling lamp like that found in studio flash. As the number of flashunits increases, lighting previews, especially if you want to see the proportions ofillumination provided by each flash, grow more complex.

■ Exposure calculation—Pro: continuous lighting. Your Alpha has no problemcalculating exposure for continuous lighting, because the lighting remains constantand can be measured through a sensor that interprets the light reaching theviewfinder. The amount of light available just before the exposure will, in almostall cases, be the same amount of light present when the shutter is released. TheAlpha’s Spot metering mode can be used to measure and compare the proportionsof light in the highlights and shadows, so you can make an adjustment (such asusing more or less fill light) if necessary. You can even use a handheld light meterto measure the light yourself.

■ Exposure calculation—Con: electronic flash. Electronic flash illumination does-n’t exist until the flash fires, and so it can’t be measured by the Alpha’s exposure sen-sor when the mirror is flipped up during the exposure. Instead, the light must bemeasured by metering the intensity of a preflash triggered an instant before the mainflash, as it is reflected back to the camera and through the lens. The Alpha camerasactually have two exposure measuring modes using the preflash: the ADI (AdvancedDistance Integration) flash mode, which adds in distance information to calculateflash exposure, and Pre-Flash TTL, which uses only the information from the pre-flash reflected back to the camera from the subject. If you have a do-it-yourself bent,there are handheld flash meters, too, including models that measure both flash andcontinuous light.

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Figure 7.2 You always know how the highlights will look, and how the shadows will fall, when using continuousillumination.

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■ Evenness of illumination—Pro/con: continuous lighting. Of continuous lightsources, daylight, in particular, provides illumination that tends to fill an imagecompletely, lighting up the foreground, background, and your subject almostequally. Shadows do come into play, of course, so you might need to use reflectorsor fill-in light sources to even out the illumination further, but barring objects thatblock large sections of your image from daylight, the light is spread fairly evenly.Indoors, however, continuous lighting is commonly less evenly distributed. Theaverage living room, for example, has hot spots and dark corners. But on the plusside, you can see this uneven illumination and compensate with additional lampsor reflectors.

■ Evenness of illumination—Con: electronic flash: Electronic flash units, like con-tinuous light sources such as lamps that don’t have the advantage of being located93 million miles from the subject, suffer from the effects of their proximity. Theinverse square law, first applied to both gravity and light by Sir Isaac Newton, dic-tates that as a light source’s distance increases from the subject, the amount of lightreaching the subject falls off proportionately to the square of the distance. In plainEnglish, that means that a flash or lamp that’s eight feet away from a subject pro-vides only one-quarter as much illumination as a source that’s four feet away (ratherthan half as much). (See Figure 7.3.) This translates into relatively shallow “depth-of-light.”

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Figure 7.3 A light source that is twice as far away provides only one-quarter as much illumination.

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■ Action stopping—Con: continuous lighting. Action stopping with continuouslight sources is completely dependent on the shutter speed you’ve dialed in on thecamera. And the speeds available are dependent on the amount of light availableand your camera’s ISO sensitivity setting. Outdoors in daylight, there will proba-bly be enough sunlight to let you shoot at 1/2,000th second and f/6.3 with a non-grainy sensitivity setting of ISO 400. That’s a fairly useful combination of settingsif you’re not using a super-telephoto with a small maximum aperture. But inside,the reduced illumination quickly has you pushing your Sony Alpha to its limits.For example, if you’re shooting indoor sports, there probably won’t be enoughavailable light to allow you to use a 1/2,000th second shutter speed (although Iroutinely shoot indoor basketball at ISO 1600 and 1/500th second at f/4). Inmany indoor sports situations, you may find yourself limited to 1/500th secondor slower.

■ Action stopping—Pro: electronic flash. When it comes to the ability to freezemoving objects in their tracks, the advantage goes to electronic flash. The brief dura-tion of electronic flash serves as a very high “shutter speed” when the flash is themain or only source of illumination for the photo. Your Sony Alpha’s shutter speedmay be set for 1/160th second during a flash exposure, but if the flash illuminationpredominates, the effective exposure time will be the 1/1,000th to 1/50,000th sec-ond or less duration of the flash, as you can see in Figure 7.4, by Cleveland pho-tographer Kris Bosworth, because the flash unit reduces the amount of light releasedby cutting short the duration of the flash. The only fly in the ointment is that, ifthe ambient light is strong enough, it may produce a secondary “ghost” exposure,as I’ll explain later in this chapter.

■ Cost—Pro: continuous lighting. Incandescent or fluorescent lamps are generallymuch less expensive than external electronic flash units, which can easily cost sev-eral hundred dollars. I’ve used everything from desktop hi-intensity lamps to reflec-tor floodlights for continuous illumination at very little cost. There are lamps madeespecially for photographic purposes, too, priced up to $50 or so. Maintenance iseconomical, too; many incandescent or fluorescents use bulbs that cost only a fewdollars.

■ Cost—Con: electronic flash. Electronic flash units aren’t particularly cheap. Thelowest-cost dedicated flash designed specifically for the Sony dSLRs (the HVL-F20AM) is less than $130. Such units are limited in features, however, and intendedfor those with entry-level cameras. Plan on spending some money to get the fea-tures that a sophisticated electronic such as the HVL-F58AM flash offers.

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■ Flexibility—Con: continuous lighting. Because incandescent and fluorescentlamps are not as bright as electronic flash, the slower shutter speeds required (see“Action stopping,” above) mean that you may have to use a tripod more often, espe-cially when shooting portraits. The incandescent variety of continuous lighting getshot, especially in the studio, and the side effects range from discomfort (for yourhuman models) to disintegration (if you happen to be shooting perishable foodslike ice cream).

■ Flexibility—Pro: electronic flash. Electronic flash’s action-freezing power allowsyou to work without a tripod in the studio (and elsewhere), adding flexibility andspeed when choosing angles and positions. Flash units can be easily filtered, and,because the filtration is placed over the light source rather than the lens, you don’tneed to use high quality filter material. For example, a couple sheets of unexposed,processed Ektachrome film can make a dandy infrared-pass filter for your flash unit.Theatrical lighting gels, which may be too flimsy to use in front of the lens, can bemounted or taped in front of your flash with ease to change the color or quality oflight falling on a scene.

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Figure 7.4Electronic flashcan freezealmost anyaction.

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Continuous Lighting BasicsWhile continuous lighting and its effects are generally much easier to visualize and usethan electronic flash, there are some factors you need to take into account, particularlythe color temperature of the light. (Color temperature concerns aren’t exclusive to con-tinuous light sources, of course, but the variations tend to be more extreme and less pre-dictable than those of electronic flash.)

Color temperature, in practical terms, is how “bluish” or how “reddish” the light appearsto be to the digital camera’s sensor. Indoor illumination is quite warm, comparatively,and appears reddish to the sensor. Daylight, in contrast, seems much bluer to the sen-sor. Our eyes (our brains, actually) are quite adaptable to these variations, so whiteobjects don’t appear to have an orange tinge when viewed indoors, nor do they seemexcessively blue outdoors in full daylight. Yet, these color temperature variations are realand the sensor is not fooled. To capture the most accurate colors, we need to take thecolor temperature into account in setting the color balance (or white balance) of theAlpha—either automatically using the camera’s smarts or manually using our ownknowledge and experience.

Color temperature can be confusing, because of a seeming contradiction in how colortemperatures are named: warmer (more reddish) color temperatures (measured indegrees Kelvin) are the lower numbers, while cooler (bluer) color temperatures are highernumbers. It might not make sense to say that 3,400K is warmer than 6,000K, but that’sthe way it is. If it helps, think of a glowing red ember contrasted with a white-hotwelder’s torch, rather than fire and ice.

The confusion comes from physics. Scientists calculate color temperature from the lightemitted by a mythical object called a black body radiator, which absorbs all the radiantenergy that strikes it, and reflects none at all. Such a black body not only absorbs lightperfectly, but it emits it perfectly when heated (and since nothing in the universe is per-fect, that makes it mythical).

At a particular physical temperature, this imaginary object always emits light of the samewavelength or color. That makes it possible to define color temperature in terms ofactual temperature in degrees on the Kelvin scale that scientists use. Incandescent light,for example, typically has a color temperature of 3,200K to 3,400K. Daylight mightrange from 5,500K to 6,000K. Each type of illumination we use for photography hasits own color temperature range—with some cautions. The next sections will summa-rize everything you need to know about the qualities of these light sources.

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DaylightDaylight is produced by the sun, and so is moonlight (which is just reflected sunlight).Daylight is present, of course, even when you can’t see the sun. When sunlight is direct,it can be bright and harsh. If daylight is diffused by clouds, softened by bouncing offobjects such as walls or your photo reflectors, or filtered by shade, it can be much dim-mer and less contrasty.

Daylight’s color temperature can vary quite widely. It is highest (most blue) at noonwhen the sun is directly overhead, because the light is traveling through a minimumamount of the filtering layer we call the atmosphere. The color temperature at high noonmay be 6,000K. At other times of day, the sun is lower in the sky and the particles inthe air provide a filtering effect that warms the illumination to about 5,500K for mostof the day. Starting an hour before dusk and for an hour after sunrise, the warm appear-ance of the sunlight is even visible to our eyes when the color temperature may dip to5,000-4,500K, as shown in Figure 7.5.

Because you’ll be taking so many photos in daylight, you’ll want to learn how to use orcompensate for the brightness and contrast of sunlight, as well as how to deal with itscolor temperature. I’ll provide some hints later in this chapter.

Incandescent/Tungsten LightThe term incandescent or tungsten illumination is usually applied to the direct descen-dents of Thomas Edison’s original electric lamp. Such lights consist of a glass bulb thatcontains a vacuum, or is filled with a halogen gas, and contains a tungsten filament thatis heated by an electrical current, producing photons and heat. Tungsten-halogen lampsare a variation on the basic light bulb, using a more rugged (and longer-lasting) fila-ment that can be heated to a higher temperature, housed in a thicker glass or quartzenvelope, and filled with iodine or bromine (“halogen”) gases. The higher temperatureallows tungsten-halogen (or quartz-halogen/quartz-iodine, depending on their con-struction) lamps to burn “hotter” and whiter. Although popular for automobile head-lamps today, they’ve also been popular for photographic illumination.

Although incandescent illumination isn’t a perfect black body radiator, it’s close enoughthat the color temperature of such lamps can be precisely calculated (about 3,200-3,400K, depending on the type of lamp) and used for photography without concernsabout color variation (at least, until the very end of the lamp’s life).

The other qualities of this type of lighting, such as contrast, are dependent on the dis-tance of the lamp from the subject, type of reflectors used, and other factors that I’llexplain later in this chapter.

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Figure 7.5At dawn and

dusk, the colortemperature of

the sky maydip as low as

4,500K.

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Fluorescent Light/Other Light SourcesFluorescent light has some advantages in terms of illumination, but some disadvantagesfrom a photographic standpoint. This type of lamp generates light through an electro-chemical reaction that emits most of its energy as visible light, rather than heat, whichis why the bulbs don’t get as hot. The type of light produced varies depending on thephosphor coatings and type of gas in the tube. So, the illumination fluorescent bulbsproduce can vary widely in its characteristics.

That’s not great news for photographers. Different types of lamps have different “colortemperatures” that can’t be precisely measured in degrees Kelvin, because the light isn’tproduced by heating. Worse, fluorescent lamps have a discontinuous spectrum of lightthat can have some colors missing entirely. A particular type of tube can lack certainshades of red or other colors (see Figure 7.6), which is why fluorescent lamps and otheralternative technologies such as sodium-vapor illumination can produce ghastly look-ing human skin tones. Their spectra can lack the reddish tones we associate with healthyskin and emphasize the blues and greens popular in horror movies.

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Figure 7.6The fluorescentlighting in thisgym added adistinct green-ish cast to theimage.

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Adjusting White BalanceIn most cases, the Sony Alpha will do a good job of calculating white balance for you, soAuto, described in Chapter 5, can be used as your choice most of the time. Use the pre-set values or set a custom white balance that matches the current shooting conditions whenyou need to. The only really problematic light sources are likely to be fluorescents. Vendors,such as GE and Sylvania, may actually provide a figure known as the color rendering index(or CRI), which is a measure of how accurately a particular light source represents stan-dard colors, using a scale of 0 (some sodium-vapor lamps) to 100 (daylight and most incan-descent lamps). Daylight fluorescents and deluxe cool white fluorescents might have a CRIof about 79 to 95, which is perfectly acceptable for most photographic applications. Warmwhite fluorescents might have a CRI of 55. White deluxe mercury vapor lights are lesssuitable with a CRI of 45, while low-pressure sodium lamps can vary from CRI 0-18.

Remember that if you shoot RAW, you can specify the white balance of your imagewhen you import it into Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, or another image editor usingyour preferred RAW converter, including Image Data Converter SR. While color-bal-ancing filters that fit on the front of the lens exist, they are primarily useful for film cam-eras, because film’s color balance can’t be tweaked as extensively as that of a sensor.

Electronic Flash BasicsUntil you delve into the situation deeply enough, it might appear that serious photog-raphers have a love/hate relationship with electronic flash. You’ll often hear that flashphotography is less natural looking, and that the built-in flash in most cameras shouldnever be used as the primary source of illumination because it provides a harsh, garishlook. Available (“continuous”) lighting is praised, and built-in flash photography seemsto be roundly denounced.

In truth, however, the bias is against bad flash photography. Indeed, flash has becomethe studio light source of choice for pro photographers, because it’s more intense (and itsintensity can be varied to order by the photographer), freezes action, frees you from usinga tripod (unless you want to use one to lock down a composition), and has a snappy, con-sistent light quality that matches daylight. (While color balance changes as the flash dura-tion shortens, some Sony flash units can communicate to the camera the exact whitebalance provided for that shot.) And even pros will cede that electronic flash has someimportant uses as an adjunct to existing light, particularly to fill in dark shadows.

But electronic flash isn’t as inherently easy to use as continuous lighting. As I noted ear-lier, electronic flash units are more expensive, don’t show you exactly what the lightingeffect will be, unless you use a second source called a modeling light for a preview (someflashes, such as the HVL-F58AM, have pulsed light rudimentary modeling light capa-bilities built in), and the exposure of electronic flash units is more difficult to calculateaccurately.

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How Electronic Flash WorksThe electronic flash you use will be connected to the camera by slipping it onto the hotshoe, or linked by a cable connected to the PC connector on the front of the camera.In all cases, the flash is triggered at the instant of exposure, during a period when thesensor is fully exposed by the shutter.

As I mentioned earlier in this book, the Alpha has a vertically traveling shutter that con-sists of two curtains. The first curtain opens and moves to the opposite side of the frame,at which point the shutter is completely open. The flash can be triggered at this point(so-called first-curtain sync), making the flash exposure. Then, there is a delay that canvary from 30 seconds to 1/200th or 1/250th second. (The 1/200th second figure applieswhen SteadyShot is activated; turn SteadyShot off and you can synchronize flash withthe Sony Alpha A850 at up to 1/250th second.) After the delay, a second curtain beginsmoving across the sensor plane, covering up the sensor again. If the flash is triggeredjust before the second curtain starts to close, then second-curtain sync is used. In bothcases, though, a shutter speed of 1/200th or 1/250th second is the maximum that canbe used to take a photo.

Figure 7.7 illustrates how this works, with a fanciful illustration of a generic shutter(your Alpha’s shutter does not look like this, and some vertically traveling shutters movebottom to top rather than the top-to-bottom motion shown). Both curtains are tightlyclosed at upper left. At upper right, the first curtain begins to move downwards, start-ing to expose a narrow slit that reveals the sensor behind the shutter. At lower left, the

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Figure 7.7A focal planeshutter has twocurtains, thelower, or firstcurtain, and anupper, secondcurtain.

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first curtain moves downward farther until, as you can see at lower right in the figure,the sensor is fully exposed.

When first-curtain sync is used, the flash is triggered at the instant that the sensor iscompletely exposed. The shutter then remains open for an additional length of time(from 30 seconds to 1/200 or 1/250th second), and the second curtain begins to movedownward, covering the sensor once more. When second-curtain sync is activated, theflash is triggered after the main exposure is over, just before the second curtain beginsto move downward.

I explained how to set flash sync mode in Chapter 3. The Alpha cameras always defaultto front/first-curtain sync unless you explicitly select another mode using the Flash modescreen (use the Recording menu 2 or the Quick Navi screen to make this setting). Autoflash mode is blocked when using P, S, A, or M modes.

Avoiding Sync Speed ProblemsUsing a shutter speed faster than the maximum sync speed can cause problems.Triggering the electronic flash only when the shutter is completely open makes a lot ofsense if you think about what’s going on. To obtain shutter speeds faster than 1/200thor 1/250th second, the Alpha exposes only part of the sensor at one time, by startingthe second curtain on its journey before the first curtain has completely opened. Thateffectively provides a briefer exposure as the slit of the shutter passes over the surface ofthe sensor. If the flash were to fire during the time when the first and second curtainspartially obscured the sensor, only the slit that was actually open would be exposed.

You’d end up with only a narrow band, representing the portion of the sensor that wasexposed when the picture is taken. For shutter speeds faster than the top sync speed, thesecond curtain begins moving before the first curtain reaches the bottom of the frame.As a result, a moving slit, the distance between the first and second curtains, exposesone portion of the sensor at a time as it moves from the bottom to the top. Figure 7.8shows three views of our typical (but imaginary) focal plane shutter. At left is picturedthe closed shutter; in the middle version you can see the first curtain has moved upabout 1/4 of the distance down from the top; and in the right-hand version, the secondcurtain has started to “chase” the first curtain across the frame towards the bottom.

If the flash is triggered while this slit is moving, only the exposed portion of the sensorwill receive any illumination. You end up with a photo like the one shown in Figure7.9. Note that a band across the bottom of the image is black. That’s a shadow of thesecond shutter curtain, which had started to move when the flash was triggered. Sharp-eyed readers will wonder why the black band is at the bottom of the frame rather thanat the top, where the second curtain begins its journey. The answer is simple: your lensflips the image upside down and forms it on the sensor in a reversed position. You nevernotice that, because the camera is smart enough to show you the pixels that make upyour photo in their proper orientation during picture review. But this image flip is why,

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Figure 7.8 A closed shutter (left); partially open shutter as the first curtain begins to move downwards (middle); onlypart of the sensor is exposed as the slit moves (right).

Figure 7.9If a shutterspeed fasterthan 1/200thor 1/250th second is usedwith flash, youcan end upphotographingonly a portionof the image.

if your sensor gets dirty and you detect a spot of dust in the upper half of a test photo,if cleaning manually, you need to look for the speck in the bottom half of the sensor.

I generally end up with sync speed problems only when shooting in the studio, usingstudio flash units rather than my Sony dedicated unit. That’s because if you’re usingeither type of “smart” flash, the camera knows that a strobe is attached, and remediesany unintentional goof in shutter speed settings. If you happen to set the Alpha’s shut-ter to a faster speed in S or M mode, the camera will automatically adjust the shutterspeed down to the maximum sync speed as soon as you attach and turn on an externalflash (or prevent you from choosing a faster speed if the flash is powered up). In A, orP, where the Alpha selects the shutter speed, it will never choose a shutter speed higherthan 1/200th or 1/250th second when using flash.

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But when using a non-dedicated flash, such as a studio unit plugged into the Alpha’sPC/X connector, the camera has no way of knowing that a flash is connected, so shut-ter speeds faster than 1/200th or 1/250th second can be set inadvertently.

Note that the Alpha can use a feature called high-speed sync that allows shutter speedsfaster than the maximum sync speed with certain external dedicated Sony flash units.When using high-speed sync, the flash fires a continuous series of bursts at reducedpower for the entire duration of the exposure, so that the illumination is able to exposethe sensor as the slit moves.

HS sync is set using the controls that adjust the compatible external flash units, whichinclude the HVL-F58AM, HVL-F56AM, HVL-F42AM, and HVL-F36AM. It cannotbe used when working with multiple flash units. When active, the message HSS appearson the LCD panel on the back of the flash, and H/HSS appears on the A850’s LCDpanel and viewfinder. You’ll find complete instructions accompanying those flash units.

Ghost ImagesThe difference might not seem like much, but whether you use first-curtain sync (thedefault setting) or rear-curtain sync (an optional setting) can make a significant differ-ence to your photograph if the ambient light in your scene also contributes to the image.At faster shutter speeds, particularly 1/160th second, there isn’t much time for the ambi-ent light to register, unless it is very bright. It’s likely that the electronic flash will pro-vide almost all the illumination, so first-curtain sync or second-curtain sync isn’t veryimportant.

However, at slower shutter speeds, or with very bright ambient light levels, there is asignificant difference, particularly if your subject is moving, or the camera isn’t steady.In any of those situations, the ambient light will register as a second image accompa-nying the flash exposure, and if there is movement (camera or subject), that additionalimage will not be in the same place as the flash exposure. It will show as a ghost imageand, if the movement is significant enough, as a blurred ghost image trailing in front ofor behind your subject in the direction of the movement.

As I mentioned earlier, when you’re using first-curtain sync, the flash goes off the instantthe shutter opens, producing an image of the subject on the sensor. Then, the shutterremains open for an additional period (which can be from 30 seconds to 1/200th or1/250th second). If your subject is moving, say, towards the right side of the frame, theghost image produced by the ambient light will produce a blur on the right side of theoriginal subject image, making it look as if your sharp (flash-produced) image is chas-ing the ghost. For those of us who grew up with lightning-fast superheroes who alwaysleft a ghost trail behind them, that looks unnatural (see Figure 7.10).

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So, Sony provides rear (second) curtain sync to remedy the situation. In that mode, theshutter opens, as before. The shutter remains open for its designated duration, and theghost image forms. If your subject moves from the left side of the frame to the rightside, the ghost will move from left to right, too. Then, about 1.5 milliseconds before thesecond shutter curtain closes, the flash is triggered, producing a nice, sharp flash imageahead of the ghost image. Voilà! We have monsieur le Flash outrunning his own trail-ing image.

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Figure 7.10 Front-curtain sync produces an image that trails in front of the flash exposure (top), whereas rear-curtain sync creates a more “natural looking” trail behind the flash image (bottom).

EVERY WHICH WAY, INCLUDING UP

Note that although I describe the ghost effect in terms of subject matter that is movingleft to right in a horizontally oriented composition, it can occur in any orientation, andwith the subject moving in any direction. (Try photographing a falling rock, if you can,and you’ll see the same effect.) Nor are the ghost images affected by the fact that modernshutters travel vertically rather than horizontally. Secondary images are caused betweenthe time the first curtain fully opens, and the second curtain begins to close. The direc-tion of travel of the shutter curtains, or the direction of your subject does not matter.

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Slow SyncAnother flash synchronization option is slow sync, which is actually an exposure optionthat tells the A850 to use slower shutter speeds when possible, to allow you to capturea scene by both flash and ambient illumination. With a flash unit mounted, press theSlow Sync button on the back of the camera, just to the lower right of the viewfinderwindow. A * symbol appears on the LCD and in the viewfinder to indicate that SlowSync is active and the exposure has been locked. Continue pressing the button whileshooting with flash to keep Slow Sync active.

Then, the exposure system will try to use longer shutter speeds with the flash, so thatan initial exposure is made with the flash unit, and a secondary exposure of subjects inthe background will be produced by the slower shutter speed. This will let you shoot aportrait of a person at night and, much of the time, avoid a dark background. Your por-trait subject will be illuminated by the flash, and the background by the ambient light.It’s a good idea to have the camera mounted on a tripod or some other support, or haveSteadyShot switched on to avoid having this secondary exposure produce ghost imagesdue to camera movement during the exposure.

Because Slow Sync is a type of exposure control, it does not work in Manual mode orShutter priority mode (because the A850 doesn’t choose the shutter speed in those modes).

Determining ExposureCalculating the proper exposure for an electronic flash photograph is a bit more com-plicated than determining the settings by continuous light. The right exposure isn’t sim-ply a function of how far away your subject is, even though the inverse square law Imentioned does have an effect: the farther away the subject is, the less light is availablefor the exposure. The Alpha can calculate distance if you’re using a lens with “DT” inits name (these lenses transmit distance codes to the camera), based on the autofocusdistance that’s locked in just prior to taking the picture.

But, of course, flash exposure isn’t based on distance alone. Various objects reflect moreor less light at the same distance so, obviously, the camera needs to measure the amountof light reflected back and through the lens. Yet, as the flash itself isn’t available for meas-uring until it’s triggered, the Alpha has nothing to measure.

The solution is to fire the flash twice. The initial shot is a preflash that can be analyzed,then followed by a main flash that’s given exactly the calculated intensity needed to pro-vide a correct exposure. As a result, the primary flash may be longer for distant objectsand shorter for closer subjects, depending on the required intensity for exposure. Thisthrough-the-lens evaluative flash exposure system when coupled with distance infor-mation from a DT lens is called ADI flash exposure (ADI stands for Advanced DistanceIntegration), and it operates whenever you have attached a Sony dedicated flash unit tothe Alpha, and a lens that provides distance integration information. (Check the doc-umentation that came with your lens to see if it is compatible with ADI.)

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Using the External Electronic FlashSony currently offers several accessory electronic flash units for the Sony Alpha cam-eras. They can be mounted to the flash accessory shoe, or used off-camera with a ded-icated cord that plugs into the flash shoe to maintain full communications with thecamera for all special features. The beefier units range from the HVL-F58AM (see Figure7.11), which can correctly expose subjects up to 17 feet away at f/11 and ISO 100, tothe HVL-F36AM, which is good out to 11 feet at f/11 and ISO 100. (You’ll get greaterranges at even higher ISO settings, of course.) A very inexpensive and useful unit, the$129 HVL-F20AM, was introduced recently, along with several entry-level dSLR models. There is also an electronic flash unit, the HVL-RLAM Alpha Ring Light, specif-ically for specialized close-up flash photography.

HVL-F58AM Flash UnitThis $499 flagship of the Sony accessory flash line is the most powerful unit the com-pany offers, with an ISO 100 guide number of 58/190 (meters/feet). Guide numbersare a standard way of specifying the power of a flash in manual, non-autoexposure mode.Divide the guide number by the distance to determine the correct f/stop. With a GNof 190, you would use f/19 at 10 feet (190 divided by 10), or f/8.5 at 20 feet.

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Figure 7.11The SonyHVL-F58AMis a top-of-the-line externalflash unit forthe Alpha.

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This flash automatically adjusts for focal length settings from 24mm to 105mm, and abuilt-in slide-out diffuser panel boosts wide-angle coverage to 16mm. You can zoomcoverage manually, if you like. There’s also a slide-out “white card” that reflects somelight forward even when bouncing the flash off the ceiling, to fill in shadows or add acatch light in the eyes of your portrait subjects.

Bouncing is particularly convenient and effective, thanks to what Sony calls a “quickshift bounce” system. This configuration is particularly effective when shooting verticalpictures. With most other on-camera external flash units, as soon as you turn the cam-era vertically, the flash is oriented vertically, too, whether you’re using direct flash orbouncing off the ceiling (or, wall, when the camera is rotated). The HVL-58AM’s cleverpivoting system allows re-orienting the flash when the camera is in the vertical position,so flash coverage is still horizontal, and can be tilted up or down for ceiling bounce.

The 15.6 ounce unit uses convenient AA batteries in a four-pack, but can also be con-nected to the FA-EB1AM external battery adapter (you just blew another $250), whichhas room for 6 AA batteries for increased capacity and faster recycling. It automaticallycommunicates white balance information to your camera, allowing the Alpha to adjustWB to match the flash output.

You can even simulate a modeling light effect. A test button on the back of the flashunit can be rotated for flash mode (one test flash, with no modeling light); three low-power flashes at a rate of two flashes per second, as a rough guide; and a more useful(but more power-consuming) mode that flashes for 40 flashes per second for 4 seconds(160 continuous mini-bursts in all). This switch also has a HOLD position that locksall flash operations except for the LCD data display on the flash, and the test button.Use this when you want to take a few pictures without flash, but don’t want to turn offyour flash or change its settings.

The HVL-F58AM can function as a main flash, or be triggered wirelessly by anothercompatible flash unit. The preflash from the second “main” flash is used to trigger theremote, wireless flash unit that has been removed or disconnected from the camera.When using flash wirelessly, Sony recommends rotating the unit so that the flashtubeis pointed where you want the light to go, but the front (light sensor) of the flash isdirected at the flash mounted on the camera. In wireless mode, you can control up tothree groups of flashes, and specify the output levels for each group, giving you an easyway to control the lighting ratios of multiple flash units.

Those who are frustrated by an inability to use a shutter speed faster than 1/200th or1/250th second will love the High Speed Sync (HSS) mode offered by this unit and theHVL-F36AM flash. When activated, you can take flash pictures at any shutter speedfrom 1/500th to 1/8,000th second! For example, if you want to use a high shutter speedand a very wide aperture to apply selective focus to a subject, HSS is one way to avoidoverexposure when using flash. The mode button on the back of the flash is used tochoose either TTL or Manual flash exposure. Once the flash mode is chosen, then use

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the Select button and flash plus/minus keys to activate HSS mode. HSS appears on thedata panel of the flash, and an indicator appears on the camera’s LCD monitor. (Note:HSS is not available when using the 2-second self-timer or rear sync mode.)

Keep in mind that because less than the full duration of the flash is being used to exposeeach portion of the image as it is exposed by the slit passing in front of the sensor, theeffective flash range of this “reduced” output is smaller. In addition, HSS cannot be usedwhen using multiple flash or left/right/up bounce flash. (If you’re pointing the flashdownwards, say, at a close-up subject, HSS can be used.)

Another feature I like is the HVL-F58AM’s multiple flash feature, which allows you tocreate interesting stroboscopic effects with several images of the same subject presentedin the same frame, as you can see in Figure 7.12. If you want to shoot subjects at dis-tances of more than a few feet, however, you’ll need to crank up the ISO setting of yourAlpha, as the output of each strobe burst is significantly less than when using the flashfor single shots.

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Figure 7.12Stroboscopiclighting allowstaking severalpictures in oneframe.

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HVL-F42AM Flash UnitThis less pricey ($299) electronic flash shares many of the advanced features of the HVL-F58AM, but has a lower guide number of 42/138 (meters/feet). (By now, you’ve fig-ured out that the model numbers of Sony’s electronic flash units include the GN inmeters, so the power rating of the HVL-F36AM, described next, will not come as a sur-prise to you.)

The shared features include high speed sync, automatic white balance adjustment, andautomatic zoom with the same coverage from 24-105mm (16mm with the slide-outdiffuser). This unit also can be used in wireless mode to operate other Sony strobes usinga preflash signal. Bounce flash swiveling is still versatile, with adjustable angles of 90degrees up, 90 degrees left, and 180 degrees right, so you can reflect your flash off ceil-ings, walls, or persons wearing large items of clothing in light colors. The HVL-F42AMis a tad lighter than its bigger sibling, at 12 ounces.

HVL-F36AM Flash UnitThe guide number for this lower cost ($199) Sony flash unit is (surprise!) 36/118(meters/feet). Although (relatively) tiny at 9 ounces, you still get some big-flash features,such as wireless operation, auto zoom, and high speed sync capabilities. Bounce flashflexibility is reduced a little, with no swiveling from side to side and only a vertical adjust-ment of up to 90 degrees available. Like its four siblings, this one uses four AA batteries.

HVL-F20AM Flash UnitThe least expensive Sony flash (see Figure 7.13) is this one, designed to appeal to thebudget conscious, especially those who need just a bit of a boost for fill flash, or want

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Figure 7.13The HVL-

F20AM flashunit is com-

pact andinexpensive.

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a small unit (just 3.2 ounces) on their camera. It has a guide number of 20 at ISO 100,and features simplified operation. For example, there’s a switch on the side of the unitproviding Indoor and Outdoor settings (the indoor setting tilts the flash upwards toprovide bounce light; with the outdoor setting, the flash fires directly at your subject).There are special modes for wide-angle shooting (use the built-in diffuser to spread theflash’s coverage to that of a 27mm lens) or choose the Tele position to narrow the flashcoverage to that of a 50mm lens for illuminating more distant subjects.

While it’s handy for fill flash, owners of an Alpha A850 will probably want a more pow-erful unit as their main electronic flash.

Setting Flash Exposure CompensationIt’s important to keep in mind how the Alpha cameras’ exposure compensation system(discussed in Chapter 4) works when you’re using electronic flash. To activate exposurecompensation for both flash and continuous light sources, choose Flash compens. fromthe Recording menu 2 or press the FN button and use the Quick Navi screen. The Flashcompens. screen appears (see Figure 7.14) with its plus/minus scale.

Press the multi-selector to the left or right, or use the front or rear control dial, to reduceor increase flash exposure; then press the multi-selector’s center button to confirm your

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Figure 7.14Adjust flashexposure usingthis screen.

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choice. If you’ve made a flash compensation adjustment, the amount of your compen-sation will be indicated by a pointer in the lower half of the exposure scale in theDetailed recording information display, and the flash compensation icon will be illu-minated in the viewfinder whenever a compatible flash unit is attached to the camera’shot shoe and turned on. (If no flash is attached, the setting will not show up on the dis-play, even if you dialed in a positive or negative amount of flash compensation.) To nul-lify your flash compensation, return to this menu entry and return the pointer to thecenter of the scale.

Setting Flash ModeThe Flash mode option is the first entry on Recording menu 2, as described in Chapter3. The functions of this menu entry are applied only when you’ve connected an exter-nal flash unit, although you can set some of the options regardless of whether a flash isattached. You can also set flash modes by pressing the Fn button to display the QuickNavi screen. With either method, the available options include the following:

■ Autoflash. This setting fires the attached flash when lighting conditions are dark,or when your subject is backlit. It is available only when the mode dial has been setto the Auto position.

■ Fill flash. When this setting is activated, the attached flash fires every time the shut-ter release is pressed, even under bright lighting conditions. The TTL exposure willadjust the output of the flash so that only the amount of illumination needed toprovide fill lighting is released. (See Figure 7.15.)

■ Rear sync. This mode fires the flash just before the second curtain begins to close,producing “trailing” ghost images if the ambient lighting is sufficient to produce asecondary exposure. I discussed these “ghost” images earlier in the chapter.

■ Wireless. In this mode, the main flash attached to the camera will trigger one ormore additional external flash units wirelessly, using a preflash to set and controlthe additional flash units.

More Advanced Lighting TechniquesAs you advance in your Sony Alpha photography, you’ll want to learn more sophisti-cated lighting techniques, using more than just straight-on flash, or using just a singleflash unit. Entire books have been written on lighting techniques. (If you’re really intocomplex lighting setups, you might want to check out my book, David Busch’s QuickSnap Guide to Lighting, available from the same folks who brought you this guidebook.)I’m going to provide a quick introduction to some of the techniques you should beconsidering.

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Figure 7.15The flamingo(top) was inshadow. Fillflash (bottom)brightened upthe bird, whileadding a littlecatch light toits eye.

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Diffusing and Softening the LightDirect light can be harsh and glaring, especially if you’re using the flash built into yourcamera, or an auxiliary flash mounted in the hot shoe and pointed directly at your sub-ject. The first thing you should do is stop using direct light (unless you’re looking for astark, contrasty appearance as a creative effect). There are a number of simple thingsyou can do with both continuous and flash illumination.

■ Use window light. Light coming in a window can be soft and flattering, and a goodchoice for human subjects. Move your subject close enough to the window that itslight provides the primary source of illumination. You might want to turn off otherlights in the room, particularly to avoid mixing daylight and incandescent light (seeFigure 7.16).

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Figure 7.16Window light

makes the perfect diffuse

illuminationfor informal

soft focus portraits like

this one.

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■ Use fill light. A flash unit attached to your A850 makes a perfect fill-in light forthe shadows, brightening inky depths with a kicker of illumination (see Figure 7.15,shown earlier).

■ Bounce the light. All the Sony flashes have a swivel that allows them to be pointedup at a ceiling for a bounce light effect. As I noted, two of them let you bounce thelight off a wall. You’ll want the ceiling or wall to be white or have a neutral graycolor to avoid a color cast.

■ Use reflectors. Another way to bounce the light is to use reflectors or umbrellasthat you can position yourself to provide a greater degree of control over the quan-tity and direction of the bounced light. Good reflectors can be pieces of foamboard,Mylar, or a reflective disk held in place by a clamp and stand. Although some expen-sive umbrellas and reflectors are available, spending a lot isn’t necessary. A simplepiece of white foamboard does the job beautifully. Umbrellas have the advantage ofbeing compact and foldable, while providing a soft, even kind of light. They’re rel-atively cheap, too, with a good 40-inch umbrella available for as little as $20.

■ Use a diffuser. Sto-fen (www.stofen.com) makes a clip-on diffuser for Sony HVL-series flash units. This simple device (see Figure 7.17) creates a softer light for directflash or bounce.

■ Try a soft box. Inexpensive attachments like the one shown in Figure 7.18 can pro-vide the equivalent of a miniature photo studio “soft box,” although in a muchsmaller, more convenient size.

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Figure 7.17 Sto-fen’s Omni-Bounce diffuser isavailable for Sony electronic flash units.

Figure 7.18 Soft boxes use Velcro strips to attach tothird-party flash units (like the one shown) or any Sonyexternal flash.

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Using Multiple Light SourcesOnce you gain control over the qualities and effects you get with a single light source,you’ll want to graduate to using multiple light sources. Using several lights allows youto shape and mold the illumination of your subjects to provide a variety of effects, frombacklighting to side lighting to more formal portrait lighting. You can start simply withseveral incandescent light sources, bounced off umbrellas or reflectors that you con-struct. Or you can use more flexible multiple electronic flash setups.

Effective lighting is the one element that differentiates great photography from candidor snapshot shooting. Lighting can make a mundane subject look a little more glam-orous; it can make subjects appear to be soft when you want a soft look, or bright andsparkly when you want a vivid look, or strong and dramatic if that’s what you desire. Asyou might guess, having control over your lighting means that you probably can’t usethe lights that are already in the room. You’ll need separate, discrete lighting fixturesthat can be moved, aimed, brightened, and dimmed on command.

Selecting your lighting gear will depend on the type of photography you do, and thebudget you have to support it. It’s entirely possible for a beginning Alpha photographerto create a basic, inexpensive lighting system capable of delivering high quality resultsfor a few hundred dollars, just as you can spend megabucks ($1,000 and up) for asophisticated lighting system.

Basic Flash SetupsIf you want to use multiple electronic flash units, the Sony flash units in wireless modewill serve admirably. The two higher-end models can be used with Sony’s wireless fea-ture, which allows you to set up to three separate groups of flash units (several flashescan be included in each group) and trigger them using a master flash and the camera.Just set up one master unit and arrange the compatible slave units around your subject.You can set the relative power of each unit separately, thereby controlling how much ofthe scene’s illumination comes from the main flash, and how much from the auxiliaryflash units, which can be used as fill flash, background lights, or, if you’re careful, to illu-minate the hair of portrait subjects.

Studio FlashIf you’re serious about using multiple flash units, a studio flash setup might be morepractical. The traditional studio flash is a multi-part unit, consisting of a flash head thatmounts on your light stand, and is tethered to an AC (or sometimes battery) power sup-ply. A single power supply can feed two or more flash heads at a time, with separate con-trol over the output of each head.

When they are operating off AC power, studio flash don’t have to be frugal with the juice,and are often powerful enough to illuminate very large subjects or to supply lots and lots

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of light to smaller subjects. The output of such units is measured in watt seconds (ws),so you could purchase a 200ws, 400ws, or 800ws unit, and a power pack to match.

Their advantages include greater power output, much faster recycling, built-in model-ing lamps, multiple power levels, and ruggedness that can stand up to transport, becausemany photographers pack up these kits and tote them around as location lighting rigs.Studio lighting kits can range in price from a few hundred dollars for a set of lights,stands, and reflectors, to thousands for a high-end lighting system complete with all thenecessary accessories.

A more practical choice these days are monolights (see Figure 7.19), which are “all-in-one” studio lights that sell for about $200-$400. They have the flash tube, modelinglight, and power supply built into a single unit that can be mounted on a light stand.Monolights are available in AC-only and battery-pack versions, although an externalbattery eliminates some of the advantages of having a flash with everything in one unit.They are very portable, because all you need is a case for the monolight itself, plus thestands and other accessories you want to carry along. Because these units are so popu-lar with photographers who are not full-time professionals, the lower-cost monolightsare often designed more for lighter duty than professional studio flash. That doesn’tmean they aren’t rugged; you’ll just need to handle them with a little more care, and,perhaps, not expect them to be used eight hours a day for weeks on end. In most otherrespects, however, monolights are the equal of traditional studio flash units in terms offast recycling, built-in modeling lamps, adjustable power, and so forth.

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Figure 7.19All-in-one“monolights”contain flash,power supply,and a modelinglight in onecompact pack-age (umbrellanot included).

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Other Lighting AccessoriesOnce you start working with light, you’ll find there are plenty of useful accessories thatcan help you. Here are some of the most popular that you might want to consider.

Soft BoxesSoft boxes are large square or rectangular devices that may resemble a square umbrellawith a front cover, and produce a similar lighting effect. They can extend from a fewfeet square to massive boxes that stand five or six feet tall—virtually a wall of light. Witha flash unit or two inside a soft box, you have a very large, semi-directional light sourcethat’s very diffuse and very flattering for portraiture and other people photography.

Soft boxes are also handy for photographing shiny objects. They not only provide a softlight, but if the box itself happens to reflect in the subject (say you’re photographing achromium toaster), the box will provide an interesting highlight that’s indistinct andnot distracting.

You can buy soft boxes, like the one shown in Figure 7.20, or make your own. Somelengths of friction-fit plastic pipe and a lot of muslin cut and sewed just so may be allthat you need.

Light StandsBoth electronic flash and incandescent lamps can benefit from light stands. These arelightweight, tripod-like devices (but without a swiveling or tilting head) that can be seton the floor, tabletops, or other elevated surfaces and positioned as needed. You’ll beusing these stands for a lifetime, so invest in good ones. I bought the light stand shownin Figure 7.21 when I was in college, and I have been using it for decades. Light stands

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Figure 7.20 Soft boxes provide alarge, diffuse light source.

Figure 7.21 Light stands can hold lights,umbrellas, backdrops, and other equipment.

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should be strong enough to support an external lighting unit, up to and including a rel-atively heavy flash with soft box or umbrella reflectors. You want the supports to becapable of raising the lights high enough to be effective. Look for light stands capableof extending six to seven feet high. The nine-foot units usually have larger, steadier bases,and extend high enough that you can use them as background supports.

BackgroundsBackgrounds can be backdrops of cloth, sheets of muslin you’ve painted yourself usinga sponge dipped in paint, rolls of seamless paper, or any other suitable surface your mindcan dream up. Backgrounds provide a complementary and non-distracting area behindsubjects (especially portraits) and can be lit separately to provide contrast and separa-tion that outlines the subject, or which helps set a mood.

I like to use plain-colored backgrounds for portraits, and white seamless backgroundsfor product photography. You can usually construct supports for these yourself fromcheap materials and tape them up on the wall behind your subject, or mount them ona pole stretched between a pair of light stands.

Snoots and Barn DoorsThese fit over the flash unit and direct the light at your subject. Snoots are excellent forconverting a flash unit into a hair light, while barn doors give you enough control overthe illumination by opening and closing their flaps that you can use another flash as abackground light, with the capability of feathering the light exactly where you want it.Barn doors are shown in Figure 7.22.

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Figure 7.22Barn doorsallow you tomodulate thelight from aflash or lamp,and they areespecially use-ful for hairlights andbackgroundlights.

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Taking the picture is only half the work and, in some cases, only half the fun. Afteryou’ve captured some great images and have them safely stored on your Sony Alpha’smemory card, you’ll need to transfer them from your camera and memory card to yourcomputer, where they can be organized, fine-tuned in an image editor, and prepared forweb display, printing, or some other final destination.

Fortunately, there are lots of software utilities and applications to help you do all thesethings. This chapter will introduce you to a few of them. Don’t expect a lot of “how-to-do-it” or instructions on using the software itself. This is primarily a camera guide, ratherthan a software manual. My intent in this chapter is to let you know what options areavailable, to help you choose what is right for you.

What’s in the Box?Sony includes four basic software utilities with the Alpha DSLR-A850. They are thePicture Motion Browser (compatible with Windows only), Image Data Lightbox SR(for Windows and Macs), Remote Camera Control, (for Windows and Macs), andImage Data Converter SR (supplied for both Windows and Mac operating systems).Install them using the CD supplied with the camera. Picture Motion Browser is animporting utility that collects images into folders and offers some simple editing capa-bilities for making minor fixes. Image Data Lightbox is a more advanced image brows-ing and workflow manager; Remote Camera Control allows you to operate your A850while tethered to a personal computer. Image Data Converter SR is a sophisticated toolfor importing and manipulating RAW images.

8Downloading and

Editing Your Images

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Picture Motion BrowserThis tool, supplied with a variety of Sony cameras, camcorders, and other imagingdevices, works with both still images and video files. It is available for Windows only,but Mac users can get most of its functions in iPhoto, and can import images to theircomputer by dragging and dropping image files as described in the “Transferring YourPhotos” section that follows. Once you’ve imported/registered images with this browser,they are displayed either in a folder view (see Figure 8.1) or in a calendar view thatarranges the photos by the date they were taken. You can also tag images to open in amap view.

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Figure 8.1 Picture Motion Browser displays thumbnails of images in both folder view and arranged in a calendar bythe date the picture was taken.

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Double-click a thumbnail to display it in an editing window (see Figure 8.2), along withtools for trimming, rotating, adjusting brightness and contrast, enhancing or reducingsaturation, adjusting sharpness, manipulating tonal curves, and activating red-eye reduc-tion. You can also put the date on your photo. Picture Motion Browser can display allthe photos in a folder as a slide show, burn them to a CD or DVD, and mark them forprinting or e-mailing.

Picture Motion Browser has a photo-downloading utility that you can activate or deac-tivate in the Tools menu. As images are imported, they are moved into a folder withinyour My Pictures folder and are named after the import date, or deposited in a folderwith a different name that you specify.

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Figure 8.2Simple editing

fixes can beapplied within

Picture MotionBrowser.

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Image Data Lightbox SRThis is a newer application than Picture Motion Browser (it wasn’t furnished with theoriginal Alpha DSLR-A100, for example) and is better for viewing, sorting, and com-paring images than the older program. It’s no Adobe Lightroom (or Apple Aperture, forthat matter), but the price—free—is right. The application lets you compare images,even when still in RAW format, and apply star ratings, so you can segregate your bestshots from a group of similar images (as shown in Figure 8.3) while you manage yourphoto library. You can choose to view the images as all thumbnails or in the PreviewDisplay format which features a line of images and one large image. It includes tools forcreating image collections, batch printing, and converting photos to JPEG or TIFF for-mat. To manipulate RAW files, you need Image Data Converter SR, discussed later.

If you’re using Remote Camera Control to take pictures with an A850 tethered to acomputer, you can request that the remote control application load each photo intoImage Data Lightbox as it is taken, so you can evaluate, sort, and compare imagesimmediately.

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Figure 8.3 Image Data Lightbox SR helps you manage your picture collection.

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Remote Camera ControlThis utility lets you control your A850 through a USB cable connected to your per-sonal computer (either PC or Mac). It’s easy to adjust settings of the camera, tell theAlpha to focus, and then take a picture. While you can’t preview the photos before theyare taken, you can direct RCC to load each one into Image Data Lightbox for review.To use the software, just follow these steps:

1. Access the Setup menu 2 and navigate to USB connection.

2. Select the Remote PC Connection option.

3. Connect the camera to your PC or Mac using the supplied USB cable.

4. If the Remote Camera Control utility doesn’t appear automatically, launch it fromyour computer’s Program/All Programs menu or from the Mac Applications folder.

5. A dialog box like the one shown at left in Figure 8.4 will appear. If you have a num-ber of different audio/imaging devices connected to your computer, like the net-work scanner, attached scanner, and MP3 player I use, they may be shown aschoices. Select your Alpha A850 and click OK.

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Figure 8.4These dialog

boxes allow youto control your

cameraremotely.

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6. The controller dialog box, shown at right in Figure 8.4, pops up.

7. Adjust any settings you want to change.

8. To take a picture, click the “shutter release” button (it’s shown at upper right witha red dot).

9. The A850 will take a picture and save it to the folder you specify at the bottom ofthe dialog box. If you check the Open In Image Data Lightbox SR box, the photowill be downloaded from the camera and opened in the Lightbox application.

Image Data Converter SRThis RAW converter is Sony’s equivalent of Adobe Camera Raw, except that as yourARW files are converted, they can be transferred to the image editor of your choice,such as Corel Paint Shop Pro, rather than just to Adobe Photoshop or PhotoshopElements.

Like all RAW converters, Image Data Converter SR (see Figure 8.5) enables you tochange any of the settings you could have made in the camera, plus modify a selectionof additional settings, such as tonal curves, that you can’t normally adjust when you takethe photo. Making these changes after the picture is taken enables you to fine-tune your

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Figure 8.5Image DataConverter SRlets you man-age any of thein-camera set-tings as RAWfiles areimported—aswell as manyother options.

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images, correct errors you might have made when you shot the photo, and fix thingssuch as color balance that the camera (or you) might have set incorrectly.

This program includes four Adjustment palettes that enable you to invoke specific dia-log boxes with sliders and other adjustments. For example, there are separate exposurevalue (EV) adjustment settings, contrast and saturation settings, and a three-channelhistogram, which can, optionally, display separate red, green, and blue histograms ratherthan the simple brightness (luminance) histogram shown in the camera. Press theHistogram/C button during playback to view the histograms.

Palette 1 is used for adjusting and setting white balance, color correction, hue, and sat-uration; Palette 2 is used to modify exposure, contrast, D-Range Optimizer, and othersettings; Palette 3 makes it easy to set Creative Style adjustments, and specify sharpness,noise reduction, and picture effects, etc.; Palette 4 is where you’ll find controls for dis-play area, histograms, and tone curves. (On the Mac, you’ll find only the 12 adjustmentareas shown at right in Figure 8.5.)

The Image Properties dialog box, shown in Figure 8.6, has an icon you can click toview a complete listing of all the settings you applied when you originally took thephoto, such as lens, f/stop, shutter speed, ISO setting, and metering mode. These canall be changed within Image Data Converter SR as the files are imported for your imageeditor.

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Figure 8.6Check out

your originalsettings inthe ImageProperties

dialog box.

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Transferring Your PhotosWhile it’s rewarding to capture some great images and have them ensconced in yourcamera, eventually you’ll be transferring them to your laptop or PC, whether you’reusing a Windows or Macintosh machine. You have three options for image transfer:direct transfer over a USB cable; automated transfer using a card reader and transfersoftware such as the Sony Import Media Files utility that is a part of the Picture MotionBrowser and Image Data Converter SR applications, Adobe Photoshop Elements PhotoDownloader; or manual transfer using drag and drop from a memory card inserted ina card reader.

If you want to transfer your photos directly from your Sony Alpha camera to your com-puter, you’ll first need to visit Setup menu 2 to make sure that the USB connectionoption is set to Mass Storage. That allows your computer to recognize the memory cardin your computer as just another external drive, as if the camera were a hard drive orthumb/flash drive. While this method consumes a lot more battery power than the card-reader option discussed later, and may be quite a bit slower, it is convenient (assumingyou have the USB cable handy) and easy. Just follow these steps:

1. With the Alpha’s USB connection option set to Mass Storage, turn the camera andcomputer on.

2. Open the Video-Out/USB terminal door and plug the smaller connector of theUSB cable into the camera.

Then, plug the larger cable plug into a USB socket on your computer.

3. If you’re using Windows, its Autoplay Wizard may pop up (see Figure 8.7), offer-ing a selection of downloading utilities (including the Windows Scanner andCamera Wizard, Adobe Photo Downloader, and the Media Importer). Choose one.Mac OS X offers similar options.

4. Use the options in the downloading utility you selected. You may be able to spec-ify automatic red-eye correction, rename your files, place your files in a folder youselect, or even view thumbnails of the available images so you download only theones you want.

5. Activate the download process.

Using a Card Reader and SoftwareYou can also use a memory card reader and software to transfer photos and automatethe process using any of the downloading applications available with your computer.The process is similar to downloading directly from the camera, except that you mustremove the memory card from the Alpha camera and insert it into a memory card readerattached to your computer.

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Where USB-to-computer transfers are limited to the speed of your USB connection,card readers can be potentially much faster. This method is more frugal in its use of yourcamera’s battery and can be faster if you have a speedy USB 2.0 or FireWire card readerattached to an appropriate port. I have FireWire 800 ports in my computer, and a LexarFireWire 800 card reader, and I get roughly four times the transfer speed I got with myold USB card reader.

The installed software automatically remains in memory as you work, and it recognizeswhen a memory card is inserted in your card reader; you don’t have to launch it your-self. You’ll see the Import Media Files dialog box (see Figure 8.8), or, sometimes, sev-eral competing downloaders will pop up at once, such as the Windows Autoplay Wizardshown earlier. If that happens, you may want to disable the superfluous downloaders soyour utility of choice will take precedence.

With Photoshop Elements’ Photo Downloader, you can choose basic options, such asfile renaming and folder location, and then click Get Photos to begin the transfer of allimages immediately. (See Figure 8.9.) Or choose Advanced Dialog for additionaloptions, such as the ability to select which images to download from the memory cardby marking them on a display of thumbnails. You can select other options, such asAutomatically Fix Red Eyes, or inserting a copyright notice of your choice. Start thedownload by clicking Get Photos, and a confirmation dialog box like the one in Figure8.10 shows the progress.

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Figure 8.7 Windows Autoplay Wizardallows you to choose which utility to use totransfer your photos.

Figure 8.8 The Import Media Files utility is installedautomatically with the Sony software suite.

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Dragging and DroppingThe final way to move photos from your memory card to your computer is the old-fashioned way: manually dragging and dropping the files from one window on yourcomputer to another. The procedure works pretty much the same whether you’re usinga Mac or a PC.

1. Remove the memory card from the Sony Alpha and insert it in your memory cardreader. (Make sure the USB connection option in Setup menu 2 is set to MassStorage.)

2. Using Windows Explorer, My Computer, Computer, or your Mac desktop, openthe icon representing the memory card, which appears on your desktop as justanother disk drive.

3. Open a second window representing the folder on your computer that you want touse as the destination for the files you are copying or moving.

4. Drag and drop the files from the memory card window to the folder on your com-puter. You can select individual files, press Ctrl/Command+A to select all the files,or Ctrl/Command+click to select multiple files.

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Figure 8.9 With Basic view activated, PhotoshopElements’ Photo Downloader allows you to choose a filename and destination for your photos.

Figure 8.10 The Photo Downloader’s confirmationdialog box shows the progress as images aretransferred.

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Editing Your PhotosImage manipulation tasks fall into several categories. You might want to fine-tune yourimages, retouch them, change color balance, composite several images together, and per-form other tasks we know as image editing, with a program like Adobe Photoshop,Photoshop Elements, or Corel Photo Paint.

You might want to play with the settings in RAW files, too, as you import them fromtheir ARW state into an image editor. There are specialized tools expressly for tweakingRAW files, ranging from Sony’s own Digital Image Converter to Adobe Camera Raw,and PhaseOne’s Capture One 5 Pro (C1 Pro). A third type of manipulation is the spe-cialized task of noise reduction, which can be performed within Photoshop, AdobeCamera Raw, or tools like Bibble Professional. There are also specialized tools just fornoise reduction, such as Noise Ninja (also included with Bibble) and Neat Image.

Each of these utilities and applications deserves a chapter of its own, so I’m simply goingto enumerate some of the most popular image editing and RAW conversion programshere and tell you a little about what they do.

Image EditorsImage editors are general purpose photo-editing applications that can do color correc-tion, tonal modifications, retouching, combining of several images into one, and usu-ally include tools for working with RAW files and reducing noise. So, you’ll findprograms like those listed here good for all-around image manipulation. The leadingprograms are as follows:

■ Adobe Photoshop/Photoshop Elements. Photoshop is the serious photographer’snumber one choice for image editing, and Elements is an excellent option for thosewho need most of Photoshop’s power, but not all of its professional-level features.Both Photoshop and Elements editors use the latest version of Adobe’s Camera Rawplug-in, which makes it easy to adjust things like color space profiles, color depth(either 8 bits or 16 bits per color channel), image resolution, white balance, expo-sure, shadows, brightness, sharpness, luminance, and noise reduction. One pluswith the Adobe products is that they are available in identical versions for bothWindows and Macs.

■ Corel Photo Paint. This is the image-editing program that is included in the pop-ular CorelDRAW Graphics suite. Although a Mac version was available in the past,this is exclusively a Windows application today. It’s a full-featured photo retouch-ing and image-editing program with selection, retouching, and painting tools formanual image manipulations, and it also includes convenient automated commandsfor a few common tasks, such as red-eye removal. Photo Paint accepts Photoshopplug-ins to expand its assortment of filters and special effects.

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■ Corel Paint Shop Pro. This is a general purpose Windows-only image editor thathas gained a reputation as the “poor man’s Photoshop” for providing a substantialportion of Photoshop’s capabilities at a fraction of the cost. It includes a nifty set ofwizard-like commands that automate common tasks, such as removing red eye andscratches, as well as filters and effects, which can be expanded with other Photoshopplug-ins.

■ Corel Painter. Here’s another image-editing program from Corel for both Mac andWindows. This one’s strength is in mimicking natural media, such as charcoal, pas-tels, and various kinds of paint. Painter includes a basic assortment of tools that youcan use to edit existing images, but the program is really designed for artists to usein creating original illustrations. As a photographer, you might prefer another imageeditor, but if you like to paint on top of your photographic images, nothing elsereally does the job of Painter.

■ Corel PhotoImpact. Corel finally brought one of the last remaining non-Adobeimage editors into its fold when it acquired PhotoImpact. This is a general purposephoto-editing program for Windows with a huge assortment of brushes for paint-ing, retouching, and cloning in addition to the usual selection, cropping, and filltools. If you frequently find yourself performing the same image manipulations ona number of files, you’ll appreciate PhotoImpact’s batch operations. Using this fea-ture, you can select multiple image files and then apply any one of a long list of fil-ters, enhancements, or auto-process commands to all the selected files.

RAW UtilitiesYour software choices for manipulating RAW files are broader than you might think.Camera vendors always supply a utility to read their cameras’ own RAW files, but some-times, particularly with those point-and-shoot cameras that can produce RAW files, theoptions are fairly limited.

Because in the past digital camera vendors offered RAW converters that weren’t verygood, there is a lively market for third-party RAW utilities available at extra cost. Thethird-party solutions are usually available as standalone applications (often for bothWindows and Macintosh platforms), as Photoshop-compatible plug-ins, or both.Because the RAW plug-ins displace Photoshop’s own RAW converter, I tend to preferto use most RAW utilities in standalone mode. That way, if I choose to open a filedirectly in Photoshop, it automatically opens using Photoshop’s fast and easy-to-useAdobe Camera Raw (ACR) plug-in. If I have more time or need the capabilities ofanother converter, I can load that, open the file, and make my corrections there. Mostare able to transfer the processed file directly to Photoshop even if you aren’t using plug-in mode.

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The latest version of Photoshop includes a built-in RAW plug-in that is compatible withthe proprietary formats of a growing number of digital cameras, both new and old, andit’s continually updated to embrace any new cameras that are introduced. This plug-inalso works with Photoshop Elements.

To open a RAW image in Photoshop, just follow these steps (Elements users can usemuch the same workflow, although fewer settings are available):

1. Transfer the ARW images from your camera to your computer’s hard drive.

2. In Photoshop, choose Open from the File menu, or use Bridge.

3. Select an ARW image file. The Adobe Camera Raw plug-in will pop up, showinga preview of the image, like the one shown in Figure 8.11.

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Figure 8.11 The basic ACR dialog box looks like this when processing a single image.

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4. If you like, use one of the tools found in the toolbar at the top left of the dialogbox. From left to right, they are as follows:

■ Zoom. Operates just like the Zoom tool in Photoshop.

■ Hand. Use like the Hand tool in Photoshop.

■ White Balance. Click an area in the image that should be neutral gray or whiteto set the white balance quickly.

■ Color Sampler. Use to determine the RGB values of areas you click with thiseyedropper.

■ Crop. Pre-crop the image so that only the portion you specify is imported intoPhotoshop. This option saves time when you want to work on a section of a largeimage, and you don’t need the entire file.

■ Straighten. Drag in the preview image to define what should be a horizontal orvertical line, and ACR will realign the image to straighten it.

■ Retouch. Use to heal or clone areas you define.

■ Red-Eye Removal. Quickly zap red pupils in your human subjects.

■ ACR Preferences. Produces a dialog box of Adobe Camera Raw preferences.

■ Rotate Counterclockwise. Rotates counterclockwise in 90-degree incrementswith a click.

■ Rotate Clockwise. Rotates clockwise in 90-degree increments with a click.

5. Using the Basic tab, you can have ACR show you red and blue highlights in thepreview that indicate shadow areas that are clipped (too dark to show detail) andlight areas that are blown out (too bright). Click the triangles in the upper-left cor-ner of the histogram display (shadow clipping) and upper-right corner (highlightclipping) to toggle these indicators on or off.

6. Also in the Basic tab you can choose white balance, either from the drop-down listor by setting a color temperature and green/magenta color bias (tint) using thesliders.

7. Other sliders are available to control exposure, recovery, fill light, blacks, bright-ness, contrast, vibrance, and saturation. A checkbox can be marked to convert theimage to grayscale.

8. Make other adjustments (described in more detail below).

9. ACR makes automatic adjustments for you. You can click Default and make thechanges for yourself, or click the Auto link (located just above the Exposure slider)to reapply the automatic adjustments after you’ve made your own modifications.

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10. If you’ve marked more than one image to be opened, the additional images appearin a “filmstrip” at the left side of the screen. You can click on each thumbnail in thefilmstrip in turn and apply different settings to each.

11. Click Open Image/Open image(s) into Photoshop using the settings you’ve made.You can also click Save or Done to save the changes you’ve made without openingthe file in your image editor.

The Basic tab is displayed by default when the ACR dialog box opens, and it includesmost of the sliders and controls you’ll need to fine-tune your image as you import itinto Photoshop. These include

■ White Balance. Leave it As Shot or change to a value such as Daylight, Cloudy,Shade, Tungsten, Fluorescent, or Flash. If you like, you can set a custom white bal-ance using the Temperature and Tint sliders.

■ Exposure. This slider adjusts the overall brightness and darkness of the image.

■ Recovery. Restores detail in the red, green, and blue color channels.

■ Fill Light. Reconstructs detail in shadows.

■ Blacks. Increases the number of tones represented as black in the final image,emphasizing tones in the shadow areas of the image.

■ Brightness. This slider adjusts the brightness and darkness of an image.

■ Contrast. Manipulates the contrast of the midtones of your image.

■ Convert to Grayscale. Mark this box to convert the image to black-and-white.

■ Vibrance. Prevents over-saturation when enriching the colors of an image.

■ Saturation. Manipulates the richness of all colors equally, from zero saturation(gray/black, no color) at the –100 setting to double the usual saturation at the +100setting.

Additional controls are available on the Tone Curve, Detail, HSL/Grayscale, SplitToning, Lens Corrections, Camera Calibration, and Presets tabs, shown in Figure 8.12.The Tone Curve tab can change the tonal values of your image. The Detail tab lets youadjust sharpness, luminance smoothing, and apply color noise reduction. TheHSL/Grayscale tab offers controls for adjusting hue, saturation, and lightness and con-verting an image to black-and-white. Split Toning helps you colorize an image withsepia or cyanotype (blue) shades. The Lens Corrections tab has sliders to adjust for chro-matic aberrations and vignetting. The Camera Calibration tab provides a way for cali-brating the color corrections made in the Camera Raw plug-in. The Presets tab (notshown) is used to load settings you’ve stored for reuse.

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Figure 8.12 More controls are available within the additional tabbed dialog boxes in Adobe Camera Raw.

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One of the nice things about modern electronic cameras like the A850 series is that theyhave fewer mechanical moving parts to fail, so they are less likely to “wear out.” No filmtransport mechanism, no wind lever or motor drive, no complicated mechanical link-ages from camera to lens to physically stop down the lens aperture. Instead, tiny, reli-able motors are built into each lens (and you lose the use of only that lens shouldsomething fail), and one of the few major moving parts in the camera itself is a light-weight mirror that flips up and down with each shot.

Of course, the camera also has a moving shutter that can fail, but the shutter is builtrugged enough that you can expect it to last 100,000 shutter cycles or more. Unlessyou’re shooting sports in continuous mode day in and day out, the shutter on yourAlpha is likely to last as long as you expect to use the camera.

The only other things on the camera that move are switches, dials, buttons, and thedoor that slides open to allow you to remove and insert the memory card. Unless you’reextraordinarily clumsy or unlucky, there’s not a lot that can go wrong mechanically withyour Sony Alpha.

On the other hand, one of the chief drawbacks of modern electronic cameras is that theyare modern electronic cameras. Your Alpha is fully dependent on its battery. Without it,the camera can’t be used. There are numerous other electrical and electronic connections

9Sony Alpha DSLR-A850:

Troubleshooting andPrevention

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in the camera (many connected to those mechanical switches and dials), and compo-nents like the 3-inch color LCD on the A850 that can potentially fail or suffer damage.The camera also relies on its “operating system,” or firmware, which can be plagued bybugs that cause unexpected behavior. Luckily, electronic components are generally morereliable and trouble-free, especially when compared to their mechanical counterpartsfrom the pre-electronic film camera days. (Film cameras of the last 10 to 20 years havehad almost as many electronic features as digital cameras, but, believe it or not, therewere whole generations of film cameras that had no electronics or batteries.)

Digital cameras have problems unique to their breed, too; the most troublesome beingthe need to clean the sensor of dust and grime periodically. This chapter will show youhow to diagnose problems, fix some common ills, and, importantly, learn how to avoidthem in the future.

Update Your FirmwareAs I said, the firmware in your Sony Alpha is the camera’s operating system, which han-dles everything from menu display (including fonts, colors, and the actual entries them-selves), what languages are available, and even support for specific devices and features.Upgrading the firmware to a new version makes it possible to add new features whilefixing some of the bugs that sneak in.

If you’re a follower of the various Sony forums, particularly the one at DP Review(www.dpreview.com), you’ve probably seen the exchanges between Sony owners of theA850 model (and its A900 full-frame stablemate) who are agonizing over the wait forthe first firmware update for either of those cameras, and the annoyed, but satisfiedusers of the same cameras who find the endless speculation distracting. Although nei-ther camera has had a firmware update since its introduction (as I write this), the rumorsof an impending release, along with theories about what changes will be made, havebeen endless.

I feel the pain, including that of one forum member who was distressed at using “anti-quated” firmware, but, when it comes to your camera’s software operating system, nonews is usually good news. As far as I am concerned, if my camera isn’t crippled by anobvious bug, Sony can take as long as it likes to fine-tune the minor tweaks that I sus-pect are coming.

The exact changes made to the firmware are generally spelled out in the firmware releaseannouncement. You can examine the remedies provided and decide if a given firmwarepatch is important to you. If not, you can usually safely wait a while before goingthrough the bother of upgrading your firmware—at least long enough for the earlyadopters to report whether the bug fixes have introduced new bugs of their own. Eachnew firmware release incorporates the changes from previous releases, so if you skip aminor upgrade you should have no problems.

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Sony has “hidden” the firmware version number, and doesn’t make it available from anyof the ordinary menu entries. Nor is the secret to seeing the firmware version obviousin the manual (there’s no “firmware” entry in the manual’s index). But you can easilyunearth this information by turning your camera on, first pressing the Menu button,and then holding down the DISP button. (Do not press the buttons at the same time;the Menu button must be pressed first.) A screen pops up with the name of your cam-era and firmware version, as shown in Figure 9.1. Press the multi-selector button, tapthe shutter release, or hit the Menu button to dismiss this screen. Write down thefirmware version installed in your camera, and then check to see if a firmware updateis available.

To do that, visit the Sony support site at www.esupport.sony.com. The support pageprovides updates and information about a huge range of Sony products, but there is aSearch box you can use to jump directly to the page for your particular camera. I’vefound that all you need to enter is “DSLR-A850” to get to the correct page. There, you’llfind a notice listing “Hot Topics” and other support information. If new firmware isavailable, it will be listed as a link under the “Hot Topics” display. Follow the links anddownload the update.

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WARNING

Use a fully charged battery to ensure that you’ll have enough power to operate the camerafor the entire upgrade. Moreover, you should not turn off the camera while your oldfirmware is being overwritten. Don’t open the memory card door or do anything else thatmight disrupt operation of the Alpha while the firmware is being installed.

Figure 9.1Press the Menu

button andDISP button to

show the cur-rent firmware

version in yourcamera.

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Then follow these steps:

1. Put the firmware software in a separate directory or folder. It will have a namelike DSCA850v11.exe (for Windows computers) or DSCA850v11.zip (for Mac OS).

2. Extract the firmware file. Go to the directory/folder where the firmware down-load was placed and extract DSCA850.APP (or DSC.APP) by double-clicking thefile you downloaded. The APP file extension may not be displayed if your com-puter has been set to hide extensions of known file types.

3. Format a Compact Flash or Memory Stick card. Format the memory card in thecamera and not in your computer.

4. Copy the firmware to the CF card. Use a card reader or USB cable linked to yourcamera and computer to copy the firmware to the top (root) directory/folder ofyour memory card. If using the USB cable, make sure the USB connection has beenset to Mass Storage in Setup menu 2.

5. Turn off power and make sure fully charged battery is installed.

6. Install firmware. With the memory card containing the firmware update in thecamera, hold down the Menu button and slide the Power switch on the back of thecamera to the ON position. Continue to hold down the Menu button until theconfirmation window appears.

7. Activate installation. Use the multi-selector keys to highlight OK, and press thecenter button to begin the update. A screen indicating that the update is completewill appear, and the camera will restart.

8. Check update. Turn off the camera, then switch it on again. Press the Menu but-ton, followed by the DISP button to confirm that the firmware has been correctlyupdated.

Protect Your LCDThe 3-inch color LCD on the back of your Sony Alpha almost seems like a target forbanging, scratching, and other abuse. Fortunately, this LCD is quite rugged, and a fewerrant knocks are unlikely to shatter the protective cover over the LCD, and scratcheswon’t easily mar its surface. However, if you want to be on the safe side, there are sev-eral protective products you can purchase to keep your LCD safe—and, in some cases,make it a little easier to view.

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Here’s a quick overview of your options.

■ Plastic overlays. The simplest solution (although not always the cheapest) is toapply a plastic overlay sheet or “skin” cut to fit your LCD. These adhere either bystatic electricity or through a light adhesive coating that’s even less clingy than stick-it notes. You can cut down overlays made for PDAs (although these can be priceyat up to $19.95 for a set of several sheets), or purchase overlays sold specifically fordigital cameras. Vendors such as Zagg (www.zagg.com) offer overlays of this type.These products will do a good job of shielding your Alpha’s LCD screen fromscratches and minor impacts, but will not offer much protection from a goodwhack.

■ Acrylic/glass/polycarbonate shields. Sony offers a clip-on polycarbonate LCDshield for the A850, the PCK-LH4AM, which costs about $12. A company inChina called GGS makes a very popular glass screen protector for various Alphamodels. Unfortunately, it seems to be available only through eBay, so I can’t giveyou a specific URL to visit. There are a number of different sellers offering theseshields for $5 to $12, plus shipping, and I’ve ordered from several of them withgood luck. The protectors attach using strips of sticky adhesive that hold the panelflush and tight, but which allow the protector to be pried off and the adhesiveremoved easily if you want to remove or replace the shield. They don’t attenuateyour view of the LCD and are non-reflective enough for use under a variety of light-ing conditions.

■ Hoods. Various hood-type devices are available for the Alpha series, including afold-up hood offered by Sony itself. My objection to these hoods is that you mustclose them to use the optical viewfinder, and then open them if you want to reviewyour image.

Troubleshooting Memory CardsSometimes good memory cards go bad. Sometimes good photographers can treat theirmemory cards badly. It’s possible that a memory card that works fine in one camerawon’t be recognized when inserted into another. In the worst case, you can have a cardfull of important photos and find that the card seems to be corrupted and you can’taccess any of them. Don’t panic! If these scenarios sound horrific to you, there are lotsof things you can do to prevent them from happening, and a variety of remedies avail-able if they do occur. You’ll want to take some time—before disaster strikes—to con-sider your options.

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All Your Eggs in One Basket?The debate about whether it’s better to use one large memory card or several smallerones has been going on since even before there were memory cards. I can rememberwhen computer users wondered whether it was smarter to install a pair of 200MB (notgigabyte) hard drives in their computer, or if they should go for one of those new-fan-gled 500MB models. By the same token, a few years ago the user groups were full ofproponents who insisted that you ought to use 128MB memory cards rather than thehuge 512MB versions. Today, most of the arguments involve 16GB and 32GB cardsversus 8GB cards.

Why all the fuss? Are 16GB memory cards more likely to fail than 8GB cards? Are yourisking all your photos if you trust your images to a larger card? Isn’t it better to use sev-eral smaller cards, so that if one fails you lose only half as many photos? Or, isn’t it wiserto put all your photos onto one larger card, because the more cards you use, the betteryour odds of misplacing or damaging one and losing at least some pictures?

In the end, the “eggs in one basket” argument boils down to statistics, and how you hap-pen to use your A850. The rationales can go both ways. If you have multiple smallercards, you do increase your chances of something happening to one of them, so,arguably, you might be boosting the odds of losing some pictures. If all your images areimportant, the fact that you’ve lost 100 rather than 200 pictures isn’t very comforting.

After all, the myth assumes that a damaged card will always be full before it becomescorrupted. Fortunately, memory cards don’t magically wait until they are full before theyfail. In a typical shooting session, it doesn’t matter whether you’ve shot 7.5GB worth ofpictures on an 8GB card or 7.5GB worth of pictures on a 16GB card. If either card fails,you’ve lost the same number of images. Your risk increases only when you start shoot-ing additional photos on the larger card. In the real world, most of us who use largermemory cards don’t fill them up very often. We just like having the extra capacity therewhen we need it.

The myth also says that by using several smaller cards, you’re spreading the risk aroundso that only some pictures will be lost in case of a failure. What is more important toyou, your photographs or the members of your family? When going on vacation, doyou insist on splitting up your kin and driving several smaller cars?

If you shoot photojournalist-type pictures, you probably change memory cards whenthey’re less than completely full in order to avoid the need to do so at a crucial moment.(When I shoot sports, my cards rarely reach 80 to 90 percent of capacity before Ichange them.) Using multiple smaller cards means you have to change them that moreoften, which can be a real pain when you’re taking a lot of photos. As an example, ifyou use 4GB memory cards with an A850 and shoot both RAW and JPEG files, you

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may get only a few dozen pictures on the card. That’s not even twice the capacity of a36-exposure roll of film (remember those?). In my book, I prefer keeping all my eggsin one basket, and then making very sure that nothing happens to that basket.

Preventive MeasuresHere are some options for preventing loss of valuable images:

■ Interleaving. One option is to interleave your shots. Say you don’t shoot weddings,but you do go on vacation from time to time. Take 50 or so pictures on one card,or whatever number of images might fill about 25 percent of its capacity. Then,replace it with a different card and shoot about 25 percent of that card’s availablespace. Repeat these steps with diligence (you’d have to be determined to go throughthis inconvenience), and, if you use four or more memory cards you’ll find yourpictures from each location scattered among the different memory cards. If you loseor damage one, you’ll still have some pictures from all the various stops on your tripon the other cards. That’s more work than I like to do (I usually tote around aportable hard disk and copy the files to the drive as I go), but it’s an option.

■ External backup. You can purchase external hard disk gadgets called PersonalStorage Devices (see Figure 9.2), which can copy files from your memory cardsautomatically. More expensive models have color LCD screens so you can reviewyour images. I tend to prefer using a netbook, like the one shown in Figure 9.3. Ican store images on the netbook’s internal hard disk, and make an extra backupcopy to an external drive as well. Plus, I can access the Internet from WiFi hotspots,all using a very compact device.

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Figure 9.2Small battery-operated per-sonal storage

devices canback up your

images.

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What Can Go Wrong?There are lots of things that can go wrong with your memory card, but the ones thataren’t caused by human stupidity are statistically very rare. Yes, a memory card’s inter-nal bit bin or controller can suddenly fail due to a manufacturing error or some inex-plicable event caused by old age. However, if your card works for the first week or twothat you own it, it should work forever. There’s really not a lot that can wear out.

The typical memory card is rated for a Mean Time Between Failures of 1,000,000 hoursof use. That’s constant use 24/7 for more than 100 years! According to the manufac-turers, they are good for 10,000 insertions in your camera, and should be able to retaintheir data (and that’s without an external power source) for something on the order of11 years. Of course, with the millions of cards in use, there are bound to be a few lemonshere or there.

Given the reliability of solid-state memory compared to magnetic memory, though, it’smore likely that your problems will stem from something that you do. Compact Flashcards are small and easy to misplace if you’re not careful. For that reason, it’s a good ideato keep them in their original cases or a “card safe” offered by Gepe (www.gepe.com),Pelican (www.pelican.com), and others. Always placing your memory card in a case canprovide protection from the second-most common mishap that befalls memory cards:the common household laundry. If you slip a card in a pocket, rather than a case or yourcamera bag often enough, sooner or later it’s going to end up in the washing machineand probably the clothes dryer, too. There are plenty of reports of relieved digital cam-era owners who’ve laundered their memory cards and found they still worked fine, butit’s not uncommon for such mistreatment to do some damage.

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Figure 9.3A small net-book, linked toa card reader,and with orwithout anexternal harddrive, isanother backupoption.

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Memory cards can also be stomped on, accidentally bent, dropped into the ocean,chewed by pets, and otherwise rendered unusable in myriad ways. It’s also possible toforce a Compact Flash card into your A850’s Compact Flash card slot incorrectly ifyou’re diligent enough, doing little damage to the card itself, but bending the connec-tor pins in the camera, eliminating its ability to read or write to any memory card.

Or, if the card is formatted in your computer with a memory card reader, your A850may fail to recognize it. Occasionally, I’ve found that a memory card used in one camera would fail if used in a different camera (until I reformatted it in Windows, andthen again in the camera). Every once in awhile, a card goes completely bad and—seemingly—can’t be salvaged.

Another way to lose images is to do commonplace things with your card at an inop-portune time. If you remove the card from the A850 while the camera is writing imagesto the card, you’ll lose any photos in the buffer and may damage the file structure of thecard, making it difficult or impossible to retrieve the other pictures you’ve taken. Thesame thing can happen if you remove the memory card from your computer’s card readerwhile the computer is writing to the card (say, to erase files you’ve already moved to yourcomputer). You can avoid this by not using your computer to erase files on a memorycard but, instead, always reformatting the card in your A850 before you use it again.

What Can You Do?Pay attention: If you’re having problems, the first thing you should do is stop using thatmemory card. Don’t take any more pictures. Don’t do anything with the card untilyou’ve figured out what’s wrong. Your second line of defense (your first line is to be suf-ficiently careful with your cards that you avoid problems in the first place) is to do noharm that hasn’t already been done. Read the rest of this section and then, if necessary,decide on a course of action (such as using a data recovery service or software describedlater) before you risk damaging the data on your card further.

Now that you’ve calmed down, the first thing to check is whether you’ve actually inserteda card in the camera. If you’ve set the camera so that shooting without a card (Releasew/o Card in the Custom menu 2) has been turned on, it’s entirely possible (althoughnot particularly plausible) that you’ve been snapping away with no memory card to storethe pictures (you’ll have to ignore the warning that the A850 presents to you), whichcan lead to massive disappointment later on. But maybe you’re inattentive, aren’t usingpicture review, or have purchased one of those LCD fold-up hoods mentioned earlierin this chapter. You can avoid all this by disabling the ability to shoot without a mem-ory card, as explained in Chapter 3.

Things get more exciting when the card itself is put in jeopardy. If you lose a card, there’snot a lot you can do other than take a picture of a similar card and print up some HaveYou Seen This Lost Flash Memory? flyers to post on utility poles all around town.

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If all you care about is reusing the card, and have resigned yourself to losing the pic-tures, try reformatting the card in your camera. You may find that reformatting removesthe corrupted data and restores your card to health. Sometimes I’ve had success refor-matting a card in my computer using a memory card reader (this is normally a no-nobecause your operating system doesn’t understand the needs of your A850), and thenreformatting again in the camera.

If your memory card is not behaving properly, and you do want to recover your images,things get a little more complicated. If your pictures are very valuable, either to you orto others (for example, a wedding), you can always turn to professional data recoveryfirms. Be prepared to pay hundreds of dollars to get your pictures back, but these prosoften do an amazing job. You wouldn’t want them working on your memory card onbehalf of the police if you’d tried to erase some incriminating pictures. There are manyfirms of this type, and I’ve never used them myself, so I can’t offer a recommendation.Use a Google search to turn up a ton of them.

One approach is to try special data recovery software you can install on your com-puter and use to attempt to resurrect your “lost” images yourself. They may not actu-ally be gone completely. Perhaps your card’s “table of contents” is jumbled, or only afew pictures are damaged in such a way that your camera and computer can’t readsome or any of the pictures on the card. Some of the available software was writtenspecifically to reconstruct lost pictures, while other utilities are more general purpose applications that can be used with any media, including floppy disks andhard disk drives. They have names like OnTrack, Photo Rescue 2, Digital ImageRecovery, MediaRecover, Image Recall, and the aptly named Recover My Photos.You’ll find a comprehensive list and links, as well as some picture recovery tips atwww.ultimateslr.com/memory-card-recovery.php. I like the RescuePro software thatSanDisk supplies (see Figure 9.4), especially since it came on a mini-CD that I wastotally unable to erase by mistake.

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THE ULTIMATE IRONY

I recently purchased an 8GB Kingston memory card that was furnished with some niftyOnTrack data recovery software. The first thing I did was format the card to make sure itwas OK. Then I hunted around for the free software, only to discover it was preloadedonto the memory card. I was supposed to copy the software to my computer before usingthe memory card for the first time.

Fortunately, I had the OnTrack software that would reverse my dumb move, so I couldretrieve the software. No, wait. I didn’t have the software I needed to recover the softwareI erased. I’d reformatted it to oblivion. Chalk this one up as either the ultimate irony orStupid Photographer Trick #523.

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Clean Your SensorYes, your Alpha A850 does have an anti-static coating on the cover that protects the sen-sor. And it does have an automatic sensor dust removal system that activates every timeyou turn on the camera. But, even with those high tech aids, you’ll still get some stub-born dust on your sensor. There’s no avoiding it. No matter how careful you are, somedust is going to settle on your camera and on the mounts of your lenses, eventually mak-ing its way inside your camera to settle in the mirror chamber. As you take photos, themirror flipping up and down causes the dust to become airborne and eventually make

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Figure 9.4SanDisk supplies

RescuePROrecovery soft-

ware withsome of its

memorycards.

DIMINISHING RETURNS

Usually, once you’ve recovered any images on a memory card, reformatted it, andreturned it to service, it will function reliably for the rest of its useful life. However, if youfind a particular card going bad more than once, you’ll almost certainly want to stopusing it forever. See if you can get it replaced by the manufacturer if you can, but, in thecase of memory card failures, the third time is never the charm.

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its way past the shutter curtain to come to rest on the anti-aliasing filter atop your sen-sor. There, dust and particles can show up in every single picture you take at a smallenough aperture to bring the foreign matter into sharp focus. No matter how carefulyou are and how cleanly you work, eventually you will get some of this dust on yourcamera’s sensor. But even the cleanest-working photographers using Sony cameras arefar from immune.

Dust the FAQs, Ma’am.Here are some of the most frequently asked questions about sensor dust issues.

Q. I see tiny specks in my viewfinder. Do I have dust on my sensor?

A. If you see sharp, well-defined specks, they are clinging to the underside of your focusscreen and not on your sensor. They have absolutely no effect on your photographs,and are merely annoying or distracting.

Q. I can see dust on my mirror. How can I remove it?

A. Like focus screen dust, any artifacts that have settled on your mirror won’t affectyour photos. You can often remove dust on the mirror or focus screen with a bulbair blower, which will loosen it and whisk it away. Stubborn dust on the focus screencan sometimes be gently flicked away with a soft brush designed for cleaning lenses.I don’t recommend brushing the mirror or touching it in any way. The mirror is aspecial front-surface-silvered optical device (unlike conventional mirrors, which aresilvered on the back side of a piece of glass or plastic) and can be easily scratched.If you can’t blow mirror dust off, it’s best to just forget about it. You can’t see it inthe viewfinder, anyway.

Q. I see a bright spot in the same place in all of my photos. Is that sensor dust?

A. You’ve probably got either a “hot” pixel or one that is permanently “stuck” due toa defect in the sensor. A hot pixel is one that shows up as a bright spot only duringlong exposures as the sensor warms. A pixel stuck in the “on” position always appearsin the image. Both show up as bright red, green, or blue pixels, usually surroundedby a small cluster of other improperly illuminated pixels, caused by the camera’sinterpolating the hot or stuck pixel into its surroundings, as shown in Figure 9.5.A stuck pixel can also be permanently dark. Either kind is likely to show up whenthey contrast with plain, evenly colored areas of your image.

Finding one or two hot or stuck pixels in your sensor is unfortunately fairly com-mon. They can be “removed” by telling the Alpha to ignore them through a sim-ple process called pixel mapping.

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Q. I see an irregular out-of-focus blob in the same place in my photos. Is that sen-sor dust?

A. Yes. Sensor contaminants can take the form of tiny spots, larger blobs, or even curvylines if they are caused by minuscule fibers that have settled on the sensor. They’llappear out of focus because they aren’t actually on the sensor surface but, rather, afraction of a millimeter above it on the filter that covers the sensor. The smaller thef/stop used, the more in-focus the dust becomes. At large apertures, it may not bevisible at all.

Q. I never see any dust on my sensor. What’s all the fuss about?

A. Those who never have dust problems with their Sony Alpha fall into one of fourcategories: those for whom the camera’s automatic dust removal features are work-ing well; those who seldom change their lenses and have clean working habits thatminimize the amount of dust that invades their cameras in the first place; those whosimply don’t notice the dust (often because they don’t shoot many macro photos orother pictures using the small f/stops that make dust evident in their images); andthose who are very, very lucky.

Identifying and Dealing with Stubborn DustSensor dust that isn’t automatically removed by the Alpha’s anti-dust features is less ofa problem than it might be because it shows up only under certain circumstances.Indeed, you might have dust on your sensor right now and not be aware of it. The dustdoesn’t actually settle on the sensor itself, but, rather, on a protective filter a very tinydistance above the sensor, subjecting it to the phenomenon of depth-of-focus. Depth-of-focus is the distance the focal plane can be moved and still render an object in sharpfocus. At f/2.8 to f/5.6 or even smaller, sensor dust, particularly if small, is likely to beoutside the range of depth-of-focus and blur into an unnoticeable dot.

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Figure 9.5A stuck pixel issurrounded by

improperlyinterpolated

pixels createdby the Alpha’s

demosaicingalgorithm.

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However, if you’re shooting at f/16 to f/22 or smaller, those dust motes suddenly popinto focus. Forget about trying to spot them by peering directly at your sensor with theshutter open and the lens removed. The period at the end of this sentence, about .33mmin diameter, could block a group of pixels measuring 40 × 40 pixels (160 pixels in all!).Dust spots that are even smaller than that can easily show up in your images if you’reshooting large, empty areas that are light colored. Dust motes are most likely to showup in the sky, as in Figure 9.6, or in white backgrounds of your seamless product shotsand are less likely to be a problem in images that contain lots of dark areas and detail.

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Figure 9.6Only the dustspots in the skyare apparent inthis shot.

To see if you have dust on your sensor, take a few test shots of a plain, blank surface(such as a piece of paper or a cloudless sky) at small f/stops, such as f/22, and a few wideopen. Open Photoshop, copy several shots into a single document in separate layers,then flip back and forth between layers to see if any spots you see are present in all lay-ers. You may have to boost contrast and sharpness to make the dust easier to spot.

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Avoiding DustOf course, the easiest way to protect your sensor from dust is to prevent it from settlingon the sensor in the first place. Here are my stock tips for eliminating the problem beforeit begins.

■ Clean environment. Avoid working in dusty areas if you can do so. Hah! Seriousphotographers will take this one with a grain of salt, because it usually makes senseto go where the pictures are. Only a few of us are so paranoid about sensor dust(considering that it is so easily removed) that we’ll avoid moderately grimy loca-tions just to protect something that is, when you get down to it, just a tool. If youfind a great picture opportunity at a raging fire, during a sandstorm, or while sur-rounded by dust clouds, you might hesitate to take the picture, but, with a littlecaution (don’t remove your lens in these situations, and clean the camera after-wards!) you can still shoot. However, it still makes sense to store your camera in aclean environment. One place cameras and lenses pick up a lot of dust is inside acamera bag. Clean your bag from time to time, and you can avoid problems.

■ Clean lenses. There are a few paranoid types that avoid swapping lenses in orderto minimize the chance of dust getting inside their cameras. It makes more sensejust to use a blower or brush to dust off the rear lens mount of the replacement lensfirst, so you won’t be introducing dust into your camera simply by attaching a new,dusty lens. Do this before you remove the lens from your camera, and then avoidstirring up dust before making the exchange.

■ Work fast. Minimize the time your camera is lens-less and exposed to dust. Thatmeans having your replacement lens ready and dusted off, and a place to set downthe old lens as soon as it is removed, so you can quickly attach the new lens.

■ Let gravity help you. Face the camera downward when the lens is detached soany dust in the mirror box will tend to fall away from the sensor. Turn your backto any breezes, indoor forced air vents, fans, or other sources of dust to minimizeinfiltration.

■ Protect the lens you just removed. Once you’ve attached the new lens, quicklyput the end cap on the one you just removed to reduce the dust that might fallon it.

■ Clean out the vestibule. From time to time, remove the lens while in a relativelydust-free environment and use a blower bulb like the one shown in Figure 9.7 (notcompressed air or a vacuum hose) to clean out the mirror box area. A blower bulbis generally safer than a can of compressed air, or a strong positive/negative airflow,which can tend to drive dust further into nooks and crannies.

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■ Be prepared. If you’re embarking on an important shooting session, it’s a good ideato clean your sensor now, rather than come home with hundreds or thousands ofimages with dust spots caused by flecks that were sitting on your sensor before youeven started. Before I left on my recent trip to Spain, I put both cameras I was tak-ing through a rigid cleaning regimen, figuring they could remain dust-free for ameasly 10 days. I even left my bulky blower bulb at home. It was a big mistake, butmy intentions were good. I now have a smaller version of the Giottos RocketBlower, and that goes with me everywhere.

■ Clone out existing spots in your image editor. Photoshop and other editors havea clone tool or healing brush you can use to copy pixels from surrounding areas overthe dust spot or dead pixel. This process can be tedious, especially if you have lotsof dust spots and/or lots of images to be corrected. The advantage is that this sortof manual fix-it probably will do the least damage to the rest of your photo. Onlythe cloned pixels will be affected.

■ Use filtration in your image editor. A semi-smart filter like Photoshop’s Dust &Scratches filter can remove dust and other artifacts by selectively blurring areas thatthe plug-in decides represent dust spots. This method can work well if you havemany dust spots, because you won’t need to patch them manually. However, anyautomated method like this has the possibility of blurring areas of your image thatyou didn’t intend to soften.

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Figure 9.7Use a robust airbulb like theGiottos Rocketfor cleaningyour sensor.

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Sensor CleaningThose new to the concept of sensor dust actually hesitate before deciding to clean theircamera themselves. Isn’t it a better idea to pack up your Alpha and send it to a Sonyservice center so their crack technical staff can do the job for you? Or, at the very least,shouldn’t you let the friendly folks at your local camera store do it?

Of course, if you choose to let someone else clean your sensor, they will be using meth-ods that are more or less identical to the techniques you would use yourself. None ofthese techniques are difficult, and the only difference between their cleaning and yourcleaning is that they might have done it dozens or hundreds of times. If you’re careful,you can do just as good a job.

Of course vendors like Sony won’t tell you this, but it’s not because they don’t trust you.It’s not that difficult for a real goofball to mess up his camera by hurrying or taking ashortcut. Perhaps the person uses the “Bulb” method of holding the shutter open anda finger slips, allowing the shutter curtain to close on top of a sensor cleaning brush.Or, someone tries to clean the sensor using masking tape, and ends up with goo all overits surface. If Sony recommended any method that’s mildly risky, someone would do itwrong, and then the company would face lawsuits from those who’d contend they didit exactly in the way the vendor suggested, so the ruined camera is not their fault.

You can see that vendors like Sony tend to be conservative in their recommendations,and, in doing so, make it seem as if sensor cleaning is more daunting and dangerousthan it really is. Some vendors recommend only dust-off cleaning, through the use ofreasonably gentle blasts of air, while condemning more serious scrubbing with swabsand cleaning fluids. However, these cleaning kits for the exact types of cleaning theyrecommended against are for sale in Japan only, where, apparently, your average pho-tographer is more dexterous than those of us in the rest of the world. These kits are sim-ilar to those used by official repair staff to clean your sensor if you decide to send yourcamera in for a dust-up.

As I noted, sensors can be affected by dust particles that are much smaller than youmight be able to spot visually on the surface of your lens. The filters that cover sensorstend to be fairly hard compared to optical glass. Cleaning the (roughly) 24mm × 36mmsensor in your Sony Alpha within the tight confines of the mirror box can call for asteady hand and careful touch. If your sensor’s filter becomes scratched through ineptcleaning, you can’t simply remove it yourself and replace it with a new one.

There are four basic kinds of cleaning processes that can be used to remove dusty andsticky stuff that settles on your dSLR’s sensor. All of these must be performed with theshutter locked open. I’ll describe these methods and provide instructions for lockingthe shutter later in this section.

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■ Air cleaning. This process involves squirting blasts of air inside your camera withthe shutter locked open. This works well for dust that’s not clinging stubbornly toyour sensor.

■ Brushing. A soft, very fine brush is passed across the surface of the sensor’s filter,dislodging mildly persistent dust particles and sweeping them off the imager.

■ Liquid cleaning. A soft swab dipped in a cleaning solution such as ethanol is usedto wipe the sensor filter, removing more obstinate particles.

■ Tape cleaning. There are some who get good results by applying a special form oftape to the surface of their sensor. When the tape is peeled off, all the dust goes withit. Supposedly. I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out right now that this form of clean-ing is somewhat controversial; the other three methods are much more widelyaccepted. Now that Sony has equipped the front sensor filter with a special anti-dust coating, I wouldn’t chance damaging that coating by using any kind of adhe-sive tape.

Placing the Shutter in the Locked and Fully Upright Position for LandingMake sure you’re using a fully charged battery.

1. Press the Menu button.

2. Choose Setup menu 3 and select Cleaning mode and press the multi-selector center button.

3. The screen that pops up says After cleaning turn camera off. Continue? Choose OKand press the multi-selector center button.

4. You’ll hear the mirror flip up. The sensor will be exposed as you can see in Figure9.8.

5. Remove the lens and use one of the methods described below to remove dust andgrime from your sensor. Be careful not to accidentally switch the power off or openthe memory card or battery compartment doors as you work. If that happens, theshutter may be damaged if it closes on your cleaning tool.

6. When you’re finished, turn off the power, replace your lens, and switch your cam-era back on.

Air CleaningYour first attempts at cleaning your sensor should always involve gentle blasts of air.Many times, you’ll be able to dislodge dust spots, which will fall off the sensor and, withluck, out of the mirror box. Attempt one of the other methods only when you’ve alreadytried air cleaning and it didn’t remove all the dust.

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Here are some tips for air cleaning:

■ Use a clean, powerful air bulb. Your best bet is bulb cleaners designed for the job,like the Giottos Rocket shown in Figure 9.9. Smaller bulbs, like those air bulbs witha brush attached sometimes sold for lens cleaning or weak nasal aspirators may notprovide sufficient air or a strong enough blast to do much good.

■ Hold the Sony Alpha upside down. Then look up into the mirror box as yousquirt your air blasts, increasing the odds that gravity will help pull the expelleddust downward, away from the sensor. You may have to use some imagination inpositioning yourself. (And don’t let dust fall into your eye!)

■ Never use air canisters. The propellant inside these cans can permanently coat yoursensor if you tilt the can while spraying. It’s not worth taking a chance.

■ Avoid air compressors. Super-strong blasts of air are likely to force dust under thesensor filter.

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Figure 9.8With the mir-ror flipped up,

the sensor isexposed.

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Brush CleaningIf your dust is a little more stubborn and can’t be dislodged by air alone, you may wantto try a brush, charged with static electricity, that can pick off dust spots by electricalattraction. One good, but expensive, option is the Sensor Brush sold at www.visible-dust.com. A cheaper version can be purchased at www.copperhillimages.com. You needa 24mm version, like the one shown in Figure 9.10, which can be stroked across thelong dimension of your Alpha’s sensor.

Ordinary artist’s brushes are much too coarse and stiff and have fibers that are tangledor can come loose and settle on your sensor. A good sensor brush’s fibers are resilientand described as “thinner than a human hair.” Moreover, the brush has a wooden han-dle that reduces the risk of static sparks. Check out my Digital SLR Pro Secrets book ifyou want to make a sensor brush (or sensor swabs) yourself.

Brush cleaning is done with a dry brush by gently swiping the surface of the sensor fil-ter with the tip. The dust particles are attracted to the brush particles and cling to them.You should clean the brush with compressed air before and after each use, and store itin an appropriate air-tight container between applications to keep it clean and dust-free.Although these special brushes are expensive, one should last you a long time.

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Figure 9.9Turn the cam-era upsidedown whilecleaning withan air bulb toallow dust tofall out of thecamera.

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Liquid CleaningUnfortunately, you’ll often encounter really stubborn dust spots that can’t be removedwith a blast of air or flick of a brush. These spots may be combined with some greaseor a liquid that causes them to stick to the sensor filter’s surface. In such cases, liquidcleaning with a swab may be necessary. During my first clumsy attempts to clean myown sensor, I accidentally got my blower bulb tip too close to the sensor, and some sortof deposit from the tip of the bulb ended up on the sensor. I panicked until I discov-ered that liquid cleaning did a good job of removing whatever it was that took up resi-dence on my sensor.

You can make your own swabs out of pieces of plastic (some use fast food restaurantknives, with the tip cut at an angle to the proper size) covered with a soft cloth or Pec-Pad, as shown in Figures 9.11 and 9.12. However, if you’ve got the bucks to spend, youcan’t go wrong with good-quality commercial sensor cleaning swabs, such as those soldby Photographic Solutions, Inc. (www.photosol.com/swabproduct.htm).

You want a sturdy swab that won’t bend or break so you can apply gentle pressure tothe swab as you wipe the sensor surface. Use the swab with methanol (as pure as youcan get it, particularly medical grade; other ingredients can leave a residue), or theEclipse solution also sold by Photographic Solutions. Eclipse is actually quite a bit purerthan even medical-grade methanol. A couple drops of solution should be enough, unlessyou have a spot that’s extremely difficult to remove. In that case, you may need to useextra solution on the swab to help “soak” the dirt off.

Once you overcome your nervousness at touching your Alpha’s sensor, the process iseasy. You’ll wipe continuously with the swab in one direction, then flip it over andwipe in the other direction. You need to completely wipe the entire surface; otherwise,you may end up depositing the dust you collect at the far end of your stroke. Wipe;don’t rub.

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Figure 9.10A proper brushis required for

dusting offyour sensor.

The long cordshown is

attached to agroundedobject to

reduce staticelectricity.

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Magnifier Assisted CleaningUsing a magnifier to view your sensor as you clean it is a good idea. I rely on two types.I have four Carson MiniBrite PO-25 magnifiers (see Figure 9.13), and keep one in eachcamera bag. So, no matter where I am shooting, I have one of these $8.95 gadgets withme. When I’m not traveling, I use a SensorKlear loupe. It’s a magnifier with a built-inLED illuminator. There’s an opening on one side that allows you to insert a SensorKlearcleaning wand, a lens pen-like stylus with a surface treated to capture dust particles. (SeeFigure 9.14.) Both the SensorKlear loupe and the SensorKlear wand are available fromwww.lenspen.com.

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Figure 9.11 You can make your own sensor swab from aplastic knife that’s been truncated.

Figure 9.12 Carefully wrap a Pec-Pad around theswab.

Figure 9.13The CarsonMiniBrite is agood value sen-sor magnifier.

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When I’m using the MiniBrite, I locate the dust on the sensor with the magnifier,remembering that the position of the dust will be reversed from what I might have seenon an image on the camera’s LCD (because the camera lens flips the image when mak-ing the exposure). Then, I use the SensorKlear wand or the blower brush to remove theartifact.

The SensorKlear loupe actually allows you to keep your eye on the prize as you do thecleaning. You can peer through the viewer, rotate the opening to the side opposite theposition of the dust, then insert the hinged wand to tap the dust while you’re watching.This method allows removing a bunch of dust particles quickly, so it’s my preferred pro-cedure when I have the loupe with me.

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Figure 9.14The SensorKlear

Loupe and wand allow

quickly remov-ing multiple

dust particles.

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Tape CleaningThere are people who absolutely swear by the tape method of sensor cleaning. The con-cept seems totally wacky, and I have never tried it personally, so I can’t say with certaintythat it either does or does not work. In the interest of completeness, I’m including ithere. I can’t give you a recommendation, so if you have problems, please don’t blameme. The Sony Alpha is still too new to have generated any reports of users accidentallydamaging the anti-dust coating on the sensor filter using this method.

Tape cleaning works by applying a layer of Scotch Brand Magic Tape to the sensor. Thisis a minimally sticky tape that some of the tape cleaning proponents claim contains noadhesive. I did check this out with 3M, and can say that Magic Tape certainly does con-tain an adhesive. The question is whether the adhesive comes off when you peel backthe tape, taking any dust spots on your sensor with it. The folks who love this methodclaim there is no residue. There have been reports from those who don’t like the methodthat residue is left behind. This is all anecdotal evidence, so you’re pretty much on yourown in making the decision whether to try out the tape cleaning method.

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THE ECLIPSE SAGA

If you read my advice in one of my earlier camera guides to use only Eclipse 2 cleaningsolution (as recommended by Photographic Solutions) rather than the older Eclipseproduct, forget what I said—I was only repeating the manufacturer’s advice, and thecompany has now reversed itself, discontinued Eclipse 2, and is recommending only theoriginal solution once again. Wha’ happen?

Photographic Solutions is fairly mum about the reversal. The original rationale forEclipse 2 in the first place, as far as I’ve been able to piece together, was that the originalEclipse’s methanol could change the properties of the indium tin oxide (ITO) coating onthe glass anti-aliasing filter that covers the sensor. ITO is electrically conductive, and thushelps fend off the static electricity build-up that attracts dust to the sensor. Eclipse 2 was,presumably, more friendly to this coating. I suspect that the vendor discovered that thepotential damage to ITO coatings by the original Eclipse was less than estimated, andthat Eclipse 2 was not as effective in cleaning the sensor. So, New Eclipse was dumpedand the recommendation is to use Eclipse Classic once again.

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Here are some terms you might encounter while reading this book or working with yourSony Alpha.

additive primary colors The red, green, and blue hues that are used alone or in com-binations to create all other colors that you capture with a digital camera, view on acomputer monitor, or work with in an image-editing program, such as Photoshop. Seealso CMYK color model.

Adobe RGB One of two color space choices offered by the Sony Alpha. Adobe RGBis an expanded color space useful for commercial and professional printing, and it canreproduce a larger number of colors. Sony recommends against using this color spaceif your images will be displayed primarily on your computer screen or output by yourpersonal printer. See also sRGB.

ambient lighting Diffuse, non-directional lighting that doesn’t appear to come froma specific source but, rather, bounces off walls, ceilings, and other objects in the scenewhen a picture is taken.

analog/digital converter The electronics built into a camera that convert the analoginformation captured by the Alpha’s sensor into digital bits that can be stored as animage bitmap.

angle of view The area of a scene that a lens can capture, determined by the focal lengthof the lens. Lenses with a shorter focal length have a wider angle of view than lenseswith a longer focal length.

anti-alias A process that smoothes the look of rough edges in images (called jaggies orstaircasing) by adding partially transparent pixels along the boundaries of diagonal linesthat are merged into a smoother line by our eyes. See also jaggies.

Aperture priority A camera setting that allows you to specify the lens opening or f/stopthat you want to use, with the camera selecting the required shutter speed automaticallybased on its light meter reading. This setting is represented by the abbreviation A onthe Alpha’s mode dial. See also Shutter priority.

Glossary

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artifact A type of noise in an image, or an unintentional image component producedin error by a digital camera during processing, usually caused by the JPEG compressionprocess in digital cameras.

aspect ratio The proportions of an image as printed, displayed on a monitor, or cap-tured by a digital camera. The Sony Alpha cameras offer both the traditional 3:2 aspectratio used by most other digital SLRs, and also the 16:9 (“HDTV”) aspect ratio.

autofocus A camera setting that allows the Sony Alpha to choose the correct focus dis-tance for you, based on a system called phase detection that compares two halves of asplit image at designated focus points or zones. The camera can be set for Single-shotAF, in which the lens is not focused until the shutter release is partially depressed;Continuous AF, in which the lens refocuses constantly as you frame and reframe theimage; and Automatic AF, which allows the camera to switch back and forth betweenSingle-shot AF and Continuous AF, based on subject movement.

backlighting A lighting effect produced when the main light source is located behindthe subject. Backlighting can be used to create a silhouette effect, or to illuminatetranslucent objects. See also front lighting and sidelighting.

barrel distortion A lens defect that causes straight lines at the top or side edges of animage to bow outward into a barrel shape. See also pincushion distortion.

blooming An image distortion caused when a photosite in an image sensor hasabsorbed all the photons it can handle so that additional photons reaching that pixeloverflow to affect surrounding pixels, producing unwanted brightness and overexpo-sure around the edges of objects.

blur To soften an image or part of an image by throwing it out of focus, or by allow-ing it to become soft due to subject or camera motion. Blur can also be applied in animage-editing program.

bokeh A term derived from the Japanese word for blur, which describes the aestheticqualities of the out-of-focus parts of an image. Some lenses produce “good” bokeh andothers offer “bad” bokeh. Some lenses produce uniformly illuminated out-of-focus discs.Others produce a disc that has a bright edge and a dark center, creating a “doughnut”effect, which is the worst from a bokeh standpoint. Lenses that generate a bright cen-ter that fades to a darker edge are favored, because their bokeh allows the circle of con-fusion to blend more smoothly with the surroundings. The bokeh characteristics of alens are most important when you’re using selective focus (say, when shooting a por-trait) to deemphasize the background, or when shallow depth-of-field is a given becauseyou’re working with a macro lens, with a long telephoto, or with a wide-open aperture.See also circle of confusion.

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bounce lighting Light bounced off a reflector, including ceiling and walls, to providea soft, natural-looking light.

bracketing Taking a series of photographs of the same subject at different settings,including exposure and white balance, to help ensure that one setting will be the cor-rect one.

buffer The digital camera’s internal memory where an image is stored immediately afterit is taken until it can be written to the camera’s non-volatile (semi-permanent) mem-ory or a memory card.

burst mode The digital camera’s equivalent of the film camera’s motor drive, used totake multiple shots within a short period of time, at a rate of 3.0 frames per second,each stored in a memory buffer temporarily before writing them to the media.

calibration A process used to correct for the differences in the output of a printer ormonitor when compared to the original image. Once you’ve calibrated your scanner,monitor, and/or your image editor, the images you see on the screen more closely rep-resent what you’ll get from your printer, even though calibration is never perfect.

Camera Raw A plug-in included with Photoshop and Photoshop Elements that canmanipulate the unprocessed images captured by digital cameras, such as the Sony Alpha’sARW files. The latest versions of this module can also work with JPEG and TIFFimages.

camera shake Movement of the camera, aggravated by slower shutter speeds, whichproduces a blurred image, unless countered by the Alpha’s SteadyShot feature.

Center weighted metering A light measuring device that emphasizes the area in themiddle of the frame when calculating the correct exposure for an image. See also Multisegment metering and Spot metering.

chromatic aberration An image defect, often seen as green or purple fringing aroundthe edges of an object, caused by a lens failing to focus all colors of a light source at thesame point. See also fringing.

circle of confusion A term applied to the fuzzy discs produced when a point of lightis out of focus. The circle of confusion is not a fixed size. The viewing distance andamount of enlargement of the image determine whether we see a particular spot on theimage as a point or as a disc. See also bokeh.

close-up lens A lens add-on that allows you to take pictures at a distance that is lessthan the closest focusing distance of the lens alone.

CMYK color model A way of defining all possible colors in percentages of cyan,magenta, yellow, and frequently, black. (K represents black, to differentiate it from bluein the RGB color model.) Black is added to improve rendition of shadow detail. CMYKis commonly used for printing (both on press and with your inkjet or laser color printer).

Glossary 287

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color correction Changing the relative amounts of color in an image to produce adesired effect, typically a more accurate representation of those colors. Color correctioncan fix faulty color balance in the original image, or compensate for the deficiencies ofthe inks used to reproduce the image.

compression Reducing the size of a file by encoding using fewer bits of informationto represent the original. Some compression schemes, such as JPEG, operate by dis-carding some image information, while others, such as RAW, preserve all the detail inthe original, discarding only redundant data.

Continuous AF An automatic focusing setting in which the camera constantly refo-cuses the image as you frame the picture. This setting is often the best choice for mov-ing subjects.

contrast The range between the lightest and darkest tones in an image. A high-con-trast image is one in which the shades fall at the extremes of the range between whiteand black. In a low-contrast image, the tones are closer together.

dedicated flash An electronic flash unit designed to work with the automatic exposurefeatures of a specific camera.

depth-of-field A distance range in a photograph in which all included portions of animage are at least acceptably sharp.

diaphragm An adjustable component, similar to the iris in the human eye, that canopen and close to provide specific-sized lens openings, or f/stops, and thus control theamount of light reaching the sensor or film.

diffuse lighting Soft, low-contrast lighting.

digital processing chip A solid-state device found in digital cameras (such as the SonyAlpha’s BIONZ module) that’s in charge of applying the image algorithms to the rawpicture data prior to storage on the memory card.

diopter A value used to represent the magnification power of a lens, calculated as thereciprocal of a lens’s focal length (in meters). Diopters are most often used to representthe optical correction used in a viewfinder to adjust for limitations of the photographer’seyesight, and to describe the magnification of a close-up lens attachment.

evaluative metering A system of exposure calculation that looks at many different seg-ments of an image to determine the brightest and darkest portions. The Sony Alphauses this system when you select the Multi segment metering mode.

exchangeable image file format (Exif ) Developed to standardize the exchange ofimage data between hardware devices and software. A variation on JPEG, Exif is usedby most digital cameras, and includes information such as the date and time a photowas taken, the camera settings, resolution, amount of compression, and other data.

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Exif See exchangeable image file format (Exif ).

exposure The amount of light allowed to reach the film or sensor, determined by theintensity of the light, the amount admitted by the iris of the lens, the length of timedetermined by the shutter speed, and the ISO sensitivity setting.

exposure values (EV) EV settings are a way of adding or decreasing exposure withoutthe need to reference f/stops or shutter speeds. For example, if you tell your camera toadd +1EV, it will provide twice as much exposure by using a larger f/stop, slower shut-ter speed, or both.

fill lighting In photography, lighting used to illuminate shadows. Reflectors or addi-tional incandescent lighting or electronic flash can be used to brighten shadows. Onecommon technique outdoors is to use the camera’s external flash as a fill.

filter In photography, a device that fits over the lens, changing the light in some way.In image editing, a feature that changes the pixels in an image to produce blurring,sharpening, and other special effects. Photoshop includes several interesting filter effects,including Lens Blur and Photo Filters.

flash sync The timing mechanism that ensures that an internal or external electronicflash fires at the correct time during the exposure cycle. A digital SLR’s flash sync speedis the highest shutter speed that can be used with flash, ordinarily 1/200th of a second(or 1/250th second if SteadyShot is turned off ). See also front-curtain sync (first-cur-tain sync) and rear-curtain sync (second-curtain sync).

focal length The distance between the film and the optical center of the lens when thelens is focused on infinity, usually measured in millimeters.

focal plane A line, perpendicular to the optical access, that passes through the focalpoint forming a plane of sharp focus when the lens is set at infinity. A focal plane indi-cator (a line drawn through a circle) is painted on the top surface of the Sony Alpha tothe left of the mode dial.

focus tracking The ability of the automatic focus feature of a camera to change focusas the distance between the subject and the camera changes. One type of focus track-ing is predictive, in which the mechanism anticipates the motion of the object beingfocused on, and adjusts the focus to suit.

format To erase a memory card and prepare it to accept files.

fringing A chromatic aberration that produces fringes of color around the edges of sub-jects, caused by a lens’s inability to focus the various wavelengths of light onto the samespot. Purple fringing is especially troublesome with backlit images.

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front-curtain sync (first-curtain sync) The default kind of electronic flash synchro-nization technique, originally associated with focal plane shutters, which consists of atraveling set of curtains, including a front curtain, which opens to reveal the film or sen-sor, and a rear curtain, which follows at a distance determined by shutter speed to con-ceal the film or sensor at the conclusion of the exposure. For a flash picture to be taken,the entire sensor must be exposed at one time to the brief flash exposure, so the imageis exposed after the front curtain has reached the other side of the focal plane, but beforethe rear curtain begins to move. Front-curtain sync causes the flash to fire at the begin-ning of this period when the shutter is completely open, in the instant that the first cur-tain of the focal plane shutter finishes its movement across the film or sensor plane.With slow shutter speeds, this feature can create a blur effect from the ambient light,showing as patterns that follow a moving subject with the subject shown sharply frozenat the beginning of the blur trail. See also rear-curtain sync (second-curtain sync).

front lighting Illumination that comes from the direction of the camera. See also back-lighting and sidelighting.

f/stop The relative size of the lens aperture, which helps determine both exposure anddepth-of-field. The larger the f/stop number, the smaller the f/stop itself.

graduated filter A lens attachment with variable density or color from one edge toanother. A graduated neutral density filter, for example, can be oriented so the neutraldensity portion is concentrated at the top of the lens’s view with the less dense or clearportion at the bottom, thus reducing the amount of light from a very bright sky whilenot interfering with the exposure of the landscape in the foreground. Graduated filterscan also be split into several color sections to provide a color gradient between portionsof the image.

gray card A piece of cardboard or other material with a standardized 18-percentreflectance. Gray cards can be used as a reference for determining correct exposure orfor setting white balance.

high contrast A wide range of density in a print, negative, or other image.

highlights The brightest parts of an image containing detail.

histogram A kind of chart showing the relationship of tones in an image using a seriesof 256 vertical bars, one for each brightness level. A histogram chart, such as the onethe Sony Alpha can display during picture review, typically looks like a curve with oneor more slopes and peaks, depending on how many highlight, midtone, and shadowtones are present in the image. The Alpha can also display separate histograms for bright-ness, as well as the red, green, and blue channels of an image.

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hot shoe A mount on top of a camera used to hold an electronic flash, while provid-ing an electrical connection between the flash and the camera. Sony cameras use a pro-prietary, non-standard hot shoe.

hyperfocal distance A point of focus where everything from half that distance to infin-ity appears to be acceptably sharp. For example, if your lens has a hyperfocal distanceof four feet, everything from two feet to infinity would be sharp. The hyperfocal dis-tance varies by the lens and the aperture in use. If you know you’ll be making a grabshot without warning, sometimes it is useful to turn off your camera’s automatic focus,and set the lens to infinity, or, better yet, the hyperfocal distance. Then, you can snapoff a quick picture without having to wait for the lag that occurs with most digital cam-eras as their autofocus locks in.

image rotation A feature that senses whether a picture was taken in horizontal or ver-tical orientation. That information is embedded in the picture file so that the cameraand compatible software applications can automatically display the image in the cor-rect orientation.

image stabilization A technology that compensates for camera shake, which, in Sony’sSteadyShot implementation, is achieved by adjusting the position of the camera sensor.Some other vendors, such as Nikon and Canon, move the lens elements in response tomovements of the camera (which means that the feature is available only with lensesdesigned to provide it).

incident light Light falling on a surface.

International Organization for Standardization (ISO) A governing body that pro-vides standards used to represent film speed, or the equivalent sensitivity of a digitalcamera’s sensor. Digital camera sensitivity is expressed in ISO settings.

interpolation A technique digital cameras, scanners, and image editors use to createnew pixels required whenever you resize or change the resolution of an image based onthe values of surrounding pixels. Devices such as scanners and digital cameras can alsouse interpolation to create pixels in addition to those actually captured, thereby increas-ing the apparent resolution or color information in an image.

ISO See International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

jaggies Staircasing effect of lines that are not perfectly horizontal or vertical, caused bypixels that are too large to represent the line accurately. See also anti-alias.

JPEG A file “lossy” format (short for Joint Photographic Experts Group) that supports24-bit color and reduces file sizes by selectively discarding image data. Digital camerasgenerally use JPEG compression to pack more images onto memory cards. You can selecthow much compression is used (and, therefore, how much information is thrown away)by selecting from among the Standard, Fine, Super Fine, or other quality settings offeredby your camera. See also RAW.

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Kelvin (K) A unit of measure based on the absolute temperature scale in which absolutezero is zero; it’s used to describe the color of continuous-spectrum light sources andapplied when setting white balance. For example, daylight has a color temperature ofabout 5,500K, and a tungsten lamp has a temperature of about 3,400K.

lag time The interval between when the shutter is pressed and when the picture is actu-ally taken. During that span, the camera may be automatically focusing and calculat-ing exposure. With digital SLRs like the Sony Alpha, lag time is generally very short;with non-dSLRs, the elapsed time easily can be one second or more.

latitude The range of camera exposures that produces acceptable images with a par-ticular digital sensor or film.

lens flare A feature of conventional photography that is both a bane and a creative out-let. It is an effect produced by the reflection of light internally among elements of anoptical lens. Bright light sources within or just outside the field of view cause lens flare.Flare can be reduced by the use of coatings on the lens elements or with the use of lenshoods. Photographers sometimes use the effect as a creative technique, and Photoshopincludes a filter that lets you add lens flare at your whim.

lighting ratio The proportional relationship between the amount of light falling onthe subject from the main light and other lights, expressed in a ratio, such as 3:1.

lossless compression An image-compression scheme, such as TIFF, that preserves allimage detail. When the image is decompressed, it is identical to the original version.

lossy compression An image-compression scheme, such as JPEG, that creates smallerfiles by discarding image information, which can affect image quality.

macro lens A lens that provides continuous focusing from infinity to extreme close-ups, often to a reproduction ratio of 1:2 (half life-size) or 1:1 (life-size).

maximum burst The number of frames that can be exposed at the current settingsuntil the buffer fills.

midtones Parts of an image with tones of an intermediate value, usually in the 25 to75 percent brightness range. Many image-editing features allow you to manipulate mid-tones independently from the highlights and shadows.

mirror lock-up The ability of the Alpha to retract its mirror to allow access to the sen-sor for cleaning.

Multi segment metering. An exposure measuring system that uses 40 different zonesin the frame to calculate the correct f/stop and shutter speed.

neutral color A color in which red, green, and blue are present in equal amounts, pro-ducing a gray.

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neutral density filter A gray camera filter that reduces the amount of light enteringthe camera without affecting the colors.

noise In an image, pixels with randomly distributed color values. Visual noise in dig-ital photographs tends to be the product of low-light conditions and long exposures,particularly when you’ve set your camera to a higher ISO rating than normal.

noise reduction A technology used to cut down on the amount of random informa-tion in a digital picture, usually caused by long exposures and/or increased sensitivityratings.

normal lens A lens that makes the image in a photograph appear in a perspective thatis like that of the original scene, typically with a field of view of roughly 45 degrees.

overexposure A condition in which too much light reaches the film or sensor, pro-ducing a dense negative or a very bright/light print, slide, or digital image.

pincushion distortion A type of lens distortion in which lines at the top and side edgesof an image are bent inward, producing an effect that looks like a pincushion. See alsobarrel distortion.

polarizing filter A filter that forces light, which normally vibrates in all directions, tovibrate only in a single plane, reducing or removing the specular reflections from thesurface of objects.

RAW An image file format, such as the ARW format in the Sony Alpha, that includesall the unprocessed information captured by the camera after conversion to digital form.RAW files are very large compared to JPEG files and must be processed by a special pro-gram such as Sony Image Data Converter SR, or Adobe’s Camera Raw filter after beingdownloaded from the camera.

rear-curtain sync (second-curtain sync) An optional kind of electronic flash syn-chronization technique, originally associated with focal plane shutters, which consistsof a traveling set of curtains, including a front (first) curtain (which opens to reveal thefilm or sensor) and a rear (second) curtain (which follows at a distance determined byshutter speed to conceal the film or sensor at the conclusion of the exposure). For a flashpicture to be taken, the entire sensor must be exposed at one time to the brief flash expo-sure, so the image is exposed after the front curtain has reached the other side of thefocal plane, but before the rear curtain begins to move. Rear-curtain sync causes theflash to fire at the end of the exposure, an instant before the second or rear curtain ofthe focal plane shutter begins to move. With slow shutter speeds, this feature can cre-ate a blur effect from the ambient light, showing as patterns that follow a moving sub-ject with the subject shown sharply frozen at the end of the blur trail. If you wereshooting a photo of The Flash, the superhero would appear sharp, with a ghostly trailbehind him. See also front-curtain sync (first-curtain sync).

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red-eye An effect from flash photography that appears to make a person’s eyes glowred, or an animal’s yellow or green. It’s caused by light bouncing from the retina of theeye and is most pronounced in dim illumination (when the irises are wide open) andwhen the electronic flash is close to the lens and, therefore, prone to reflect directly back.Image editors can fix red-eye through cloning other pixels over the offending red ororange ones.

RGB color A color model that represents the three colors—red, green, and blue—usedby devices such as scanners or monitors to reproduce color. Photoshop works in RGBmode by default, and even displays CMYK images by converting them to RGB.

saturation The purity of color; the amount by which a pure color is diluted with whiteor gray.

selective focus Choosing a lens opening that produces a shallow depth-of-field. Usuallythis is used to isolate a subject in portraits, close-ups, and other types of images, by caus-ing most other elements in the scene to be blurred.

self-timer A mechanism that delays the opening of the shutter for some seconds afterthe release has been operated.

sensitivity A measure of the degree of response of a film or sensor to light, measuredusing the ISO setting.

shadow The darkest part of an image, represented on a digital image by pixels withlow numeric values.

sharpening Increasing the apparent sharpness of an image by boosting the contrastbetween adjacent pixels that form an edge.

shutter In a conventional film camera, the shutter is a mechanism consisting of blades,a curtain, a plate, or some other movable cover that controls the time during which lightreaches the film. Digital cameras may use actual mechanical shutters for the slower shut-ter speeds (less than 1/160th second) and an electronic shutter for higher speeds.

Shutter priority An exposure mode, represented by the letter S on the Alpha’s modedial, in which you set the shutter speed and the camera determines the appropriatef/stop. See also Aperture priority.

sidelighting Applying illumination from the left or right sides of the camera. See alsobacklighting and front lighting.

slave unit An accessory flash unit that supplements the main flash, usually triggeredelectronically when the slave senses the light output by the main unit, or through radiowaves. Slave units can also be trigged by the preflash normally used to measure expo-sure, so you may need to set your main flash to Manual to avoid this.

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slow sync An electronic flash synchronizing method that uses a slow shutter speed sothat ambient light is recorded by the camera in addition to the electronic flash illumi-nation. This allows the background to receive more exposure for a more realistic effect.

specular highlight Bright spots in an image caused by reflection of light sources.

Spot metering An exposure system that concentrates on a small area in the image, rep-resented by the circle in the center of the Alpha’s viewfinder. See also Center weightedmeter and Multi segment meter.

sRGB One of two color space choices available with the Sony Alpha. The sRGB set-ting is recommended for images that will be output locally on the user’s own printer, asthis color space matches that of the typical inkjet printer and a properly calibrated mon-itor fairly closely. See also Adobe RGB.

subtractive primary colors Cyan, magenta, and yellow, which are the printing inksthat theoretically absorb all color and produce black. In practice, however, they gener-ate a muddy brown, so black is added to preserve detail (especially in shadows). Thecombination of the three colors and black is referred to as CMYK. (K represents black,to differentiate it from blue in the RGB model.)

time exposure A picture taken by leaving the shutter open for a long period, usuallymore than one second. The camera is generally locked down with a tripod to preventblur during the long exposure. For exposures longer than 30 seconds, you need to usethe Bulb setting.

through-the-lens (TTL) A system of providing viewing and exposure calculationthrough the actual lens taking the picture.

tungsten light Light from ordinary room lamps and ceiling fixtures, as opposed to flu-orescent illumination.

underexposure A condition in which too little light reaches the film or sensor, pro-ducing a thin negative, a dark slide, a muddy-looking print, or a dark digital image.

unsharp masking The process for increasing the contrast between adjacent pixels inan image, increasing sharpness, especially around edges.

vignetting Dark corners of an image, often produced by using a lens hood that is toosmall for the field of view, a lens that does not completely fill the image frame, or gen-erated artificially using image-editing techniques.

white balance The adjustment of a digital camera to the color temperature of the lightsource. Interior illumination is relatively red; outdoor light is relatively blue. Digital cam-eras like the Alpha set correct white balance automatically or let you do it through menus.Image editors can often do some color correction of images that were exposed using thewrong white balance setting, especially when working with RAW files that contain theinformation originally captured by the camera before white balance was applied.

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AA (automatic) AF, 18–19, 161, 166–167A (Aperture Priority) mode, 16

bracketing in, 131with Intelligent preview, 139Program Shift feature in, 113–114sync speed problems with, 228working with, 120–122

AC powerfor monolights, 242for studio flash, 241

accessory shoe, 45cover, 4for flash, 215, 225

accuracy, contrast detection and, 161acrylic shields for LCD, 265action-stopping. See freezing actionAdams, Ansel, 215ADI (Advanced Distance Integration)

flash, 216, 231lenses, 195

Adobe Camera Raw, 63, 255Photoshop’s ACR plug-in, 256–260

Adobe Lightroom, 248Adobe Photoshop/Photoshop Elements,

255Adobe Camera Raw plug in, 256–260Basic tab of ACR dialog box, 259dust, dealing with, 274, 276Lens Correction filter for color fringes,

206Merge to HDR command, 130noise reduction with, 134opening RAW image in, 257–259

Photo Downloader, transferring imageswith, 253–254

transferring images with, 250, 252white balance, adjusting, 225

Adobe RGB, 67–69sRGB compared, 68

AEL button, 39–40Custom menu options, 82Manual Shift feature with, 114for reviewing images, 25–26

AF (autofocus). See also AF area; focusmodes; focus points

center spot, viewfinder information on,53–54

contrast detection, 154, 160–161Detailed information display, 43drive speed, Custom menu options, 80for first lenses, 193micro adjustment options, Setup menu,

101modes, 166–168phase detection, 154–159sensors, 157–159, 164–166supplemental AF points, 158–159viewfinder information, 53–54working with, 153–161

AF-A setup, Recording menu, 71–72AF area

Custom menu display options, 80Detailed information display, 43, 51Enlarged information display, 44, 51Quick Navi screen settings, 105Recording menu options, 72setting, 168viewfinder information, 53

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AF illuminator, 31–32Recording menu options, 73

AF/MF button, 18, 37–38Custom menu options, 78–79

AF sensors, 154, 157–159, 164–166viewfinder information on, 53

AF w/shutter option, Recording menu,73–74

air blowers. See blower bulbsair canisters/compressors, avoiding, 279air cleaning sensors, 278–280Alien Bees’ monolights, 242Allway Sync, 65ambient light

Custom menu ambient & flash setting,85–86

ghost images and, 229short exposures and, 144

anglesof light, 213with telephoto lenses, 205with wide-angle lenses, 202

aperture. See also f/stopsadjusting, 113circles of confusion and, 162–164Detailed information display, 43, 50Enlarged information display, 44, 50of first lens, 193with Intelligent preview, 139light and, 111prime lenses, maximum aperture of, 198viewfinder information, 53–54zoom lenses, maximum aperture of, 198

Apple Aperture, 248application software CD, 5APS-C cameras, 60–61

crop factor in, 188–191size capture options, Setup menu,

102–103architectural photography and cropped

sensor cameras, 191ARW file extension, 62aspect ratio

Detailed information display, 43, 51Enlarged information display, 44, 51Recording menu options, 61–62viewfinder information, 53, 55

audio, Setup menu options, 100Audio/Video-Out port, 35Auto mode, 15–16

equivalent exposures and, 113working with, 119–120

Auto review, Custom menu options, 80–81auto white balance. See AWB (automatic

white balance)autoflash, setting, 237autofocus. See AF (autofocus)Automatic AF, 18–19, 161, 166–167Autumn Creative Style, 183–184AWB (automatic white balance), 178

Quick Navi screen settings, 105

Bback focus, 169back view of camera, 36–44backgrounds, 244backing up files on hard drive, 65backlighting, 107barn doors, 244barrel distortion with wide-angle lenses,

203batteries, 4, 6

charging, 6–7compartment door, 48Detailed information display, 43, 51Enlarged information display, 44, 51for firmware upgrades, 263for HVL-F58AM flash unit, 233initial setup for, 6–7inserting or removing, 6–7for monolights, 242standby mode for power-saving, 11for studio flash, 241

battery chargers, 4on initial setup, 6–7

beeper, Setup menu options, 100Bibble Professional, 255BIONZ chips, 63black and white

with Adobe Camera Raw plug-in, 259Creative Style, 183, 185

black body radiators, 221incandescent light as, 222

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blacks with Adobe Camera Raw plug-in,259

blower bulbssensor cleaning with, 278–280vestibule, cleaning, 275–276

blurbokeh, 207–208circles of confusion and, 162–164contrast detection and, 160with telephoto lenses, 206waterfalls, bluring, 150–151

body cap, 4removing, 7

bokeh, 207–208Bosworth, Kris, 219–220bottom view of camera, 48bounce flash

with HVL-F36AM flash unit, 235with HVL-F42AM flash unit, 235quick shift bounce system, 233for softening light, 240

bowing-outward lines with wide-anglelenses, 203

box, unpacking, 2–5Bracket: Cont. drive mode, 23–24Bracket: Single drive mode, 24bracketing. See also white balance

bracketingin A (Aperture Priority) mode, 131base value, adjusting, 130continuous-shot exposure bracketing, 129Custom menu bracket order options, 86DRO bracketing, 130HDR (High Dynamic Range) and,

130–131single-shot exposure bracketing, 129working with, 128–131

brightness. See also D-Range Optimizer;histograms; LCD

with Adobe Camera Raw plug-in, 259Creative Style parameter, 186

brush cleaning sensors, 278, 280–281bugs in firmware, 262bulb blowers. See blower bulbsbulb exposures, 146–147

CC (continuous) AF, 18–19, 161, 166–167C (Custom) button, 41, 84

Detailed information display, 43Enlarged information display, 44histograms, displaying, 135Recording menu options, 66for reviewing images, 24–25

cables. See also USB cablesvideo cables, 5

calibrating lenses, 169camera shake. See also SteadyShot

telephoto lenses and, 205–206viewfinder, warning in, 53–55wide-angle lenses and, 202

capacitors, 215card readers, 26–27

netbooks linked to, 267–268power saving with, 93transferring images to computer with,

26–27, 252–254card safes, 268Carson MiniBrite magnifier, 282–283catadioptric lenses, 207CCD sensors and noise, 132CD-ROM for application software, 5center-weighted metering, 17–18, 117–118chromatic aberration

ED lenses and, 195with telephoto lenses, 206with wide-angle lenses, 202–203

CIPA (Camera and Imaging ProductsAssociation), 6

circles of confusion, 162–164bokeh and, 207–208

cleaning. See also sensor cleaninglenses, 275vestibule, 275–276

Clear Creative Style, 183–184cloning out dust spots, 276close-ups

lenses for, 196with telephoto lenses, 204

cloudy white balance (WB), 179CMOS sensors and noise, 132

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Collins, Dean, 213color filter option, 180color fringing. See chromatic aberrationcolor rendering index (CRI), 225color sampler with Adobe Camera Raw

plug-in, 258color space, Recording menu options,

67–69color temperature, 176, 221. See also white

balance (WB)of daylight, 221–222of fluorescent light, 224

colors. See also histogramsof light, 213

Compact Flash cards. See also memorycards

slot for, 32–33computers. See also transferring images to

computermanaging files on, 65memory cards, formatting, 14

contact lenses, diopter correction for, 8–9contents of box, 2–5Continuous adv. drive mode, 23–24continuous lighting

basics of, 221–225calculating exposure with, 216cost of, 219diffusing light, 239–240evenness of illumination with, 218flash compared, 215–221flexibility of, 220freezing action with, 219previewing with, 216–217

continuous shooting, 174–176exposure bracketing, 129

contrastwith Adobe Camera Raw plug-in, 259Creative Style parameter, 186histograms for fixing, 137telephoto lenses, problems with, 206–207

contrast detection, 154, 160–161control dial

Custom menu options, 83exposure compensation, options for, 83lock options, 83–84setup options, 83

converging lines with wide-angle lenses,202

Corel Paint Shop Pro, 256transferring images to, 250

Corel Painter, 256Corel Photo Paint, 255Corel PhotoImpact, 256cost

of continuous lighting, 219of flash, 219, 232of lenses, 192

Cover Open notice, 10cRAW

bracketing and, 131Quick Navi screen settings, 106RAW formats compared, 64–65Recording menu options, 62

Creative Stylescustomizing, 185–186Detailed information display, 43, 52parameters in, 186Quick Navi screen settings, 105Recording menu options, 66–67steps for changing, 67working with, 183–186

crop factor, 188–191telephoto extenders and, 209

cropped-sensor cameras, 191cropping

with Adobe Camera Raw plug-in, 258crop factor, 188–191, 209DT lenses and, 190

cross-type focus point, 156–157curvilinear lenses, 203curving inward lines with telephoto lenses,

206Custom button. See C (Custom) buttonCustom menu, 78–86

AEL button options, 82AF area display options, 80AF drive speed options, 80AF/MF button options, 78–79AF/MF control options, 79Auto review options, 80–81Bracket order options, 86button ops., 84

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Ctrl dial lock options, 83–84Ctrl dial setup options, 83–84Dial exp. comp options, 83Exp. comp. set option, 85–86Focus hold button, 80Preview function options, 81Rec. info. DISP/Beep/PC submenu, 85Release w/o card options, 84resetting defaults, 86

DD-Range Optimizer

bracketing, 130Detailed information display, 43, 52Enlarged information display, 44, 52Intelligent preview, adjusting with,

138–139Quick Navi screen settings, 105Recording menu options, 65–66settings in, 182–183working with, 181–183

Dali, Salvador, 144dark areas with wide-angle lenses, 204dark flash photos with telephoto lenses,

207darkness, long exposures and, 150–151dates and times

DPOF setup with date imprint, 90setting, 12Setup menu options, 95

David Busch’s Quick Snap Guide toLighting, 237

dawn, color temperature at, 222–223daylight, 215

color temperature of, 221, 222incandescent light, mixing, 239white balance (WB), 177–179

DC-IN port, 35Deep Creative Style, 183–184defaults, restoring

Custom menu defaults, 86Recording menu defaults, 77–78Setup menu defaults, 103

degrees Kelvin, 221, 224

delayed exposures, 152. See also self-timerDelete button, 44deleting

confirmation options, 100currently displayed images, 25Playback menu options, 87–88

depth-of-field (DOF). See also Intelligentpreview

AF (autofocus) and, 153circles of confusion, 162–164with telephoto lenses, 204with wide-angle lenses, 200, 202

depth-of-focus and dust, 273–274depth-of-light, 218Detailed display, 12, 43, 50–52

exposure compensation information, 126Quick Navi screen in, 103–106

diffusers, 240diffusing light, 239–240digital image processing (DIP) chips, 63Digital Image Recovery, 270Digital SLR Pro Secrets, 142, 280diopter adjustment dial, 8–9, 36–37diopter correction, 8–9Direct Manual Focus (DMF), 71–72DISP button, 12, 42–43

for reviewing images, 25–26, 52display panel, 46, 48

illumination button, 46, 48distance scale on lens, 50distortion

barrel distortion with wide-angle lenses,203

converging lines with wide-angle lenses,202

pincushion distortion with telephotolenses, 206

with wide-angle lenses, 201downloading. See also transferring images

to computerfirmware upgrades, 262–264with Picture Motion Browser, 247

DPOF (Digital Print Order Format)Playback menu options, 89–90

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dragging and dropping images tocomputer, 254

Drive button, 23, 46–47, 84bracketing, setting up, 129for continuous shooting mode, 174–175

drive modes, 23–24. See also self-timerDetailed information display, 43, 51Enlarged information display, 44, 51Quick Navi screen settings, 105

DRO (Dynamic Range Optimization) adv.bracket drive mode, 24

DT lenses, 189–190, 195duration of light, 111dusk, color temperature at, 222–223dust, 271–272

avoiding, 275–276body cap and, 7cloning out spots, 276dealing with, 273–274FAQs about, 272–273identifying, 273–274

Dynamic Range Optimization. See D-Range Optimizer

EEclipse solution, 281, 284ED lenses, 195Edgerton, Harold, 145Edison, Thomas, 222editing photos, 255–260

image editors, 255–25618-percent gray standard, 114–116electrical contacts on lens, 49emitted light, 111Enlarged display, 12–13, 38–39, 43–44,

50–52Quick Navi screen in, 103–104

Enter button, 39equivalent exposures, 113EV (exposure value). See exposure

compensationEV scale, viewfinder information on,

53–54evenness of illumination

with continuous lighting, 218with flash, 218

Exclusive display setting, 84exposure, 107–139. See also bracketing;

exposure compensation; histograms;ISO sensitivity; long exposures

with Adobe Camera Raw plug-in, 259calculation, 114–116

flash, calculating for, 216, 231continuous lighting, calculation with, 216delayed exposures, 152equivalent exposures, 113explanation of, 108–114flash, calculating for, 216, 231Intelligent preview, adjusting with,

137–139Manual Shift feature, 114Program Shift feature, 113–114short exposures, 142–145

exposure compensation, 22–23changes, making, 123–124control dial options, 83Detailed information display, 43, 51, 126Enlarged information display, 44, 51EV scale, viewfinder information on,

53–54Intelligent preview, adjusting with,

138–139ISO adjustments and, 127with M (Manual) mode, 126Quick Navi screen settings, 104–105Recording menu exposure step option, 71

Exposure compensation button, 46–47, 84exposure modes

choosing, 116, 119–126Detailed information display, 43, 50Enlarged information display, 44, 50

extension tubes, 210external flash. See flasheyecup, 3eyeglasses, diopter correction for, 8–9eyepiece

correctors, 8sensors, 36–37shutter, 24shutter lever, 36–37viewfinder eyepiece, 36–37

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Ff/stops. See also aperture

bokeh and, 207circles of confusion and, 162–164equivalent exposures, 113of first lens, 193light and, 111shutter speeds and, 112stops compared, 116

faces with telephoto lenses, 206factory settings, restoring. See defaults,

restoringfalling back look with wide-angle lenses,

201field of view with wide-angle lenses, 200file numbering, Setup menu options, 96fill flash

with Adobe Camera Raw plug-in, 259HVL-F20AM flash unit as, 235–236setting, 237–238for softening light, 240

filter thread on lens, 50filters

Color filter option, 180dust spots, filtering out, 276neutral density filters, 148wide-angle lenses, polarizing filters with,

204Finelight Studios, 213firmware

updating, 262–264version, displaying, 263

first-curtain sync, 226–229ghost images and, 229–230

first lenses, 192–194fisheye lenses, 203flare with telephoto lenses, 207flash. See also first-curtain sync; flash EV

compensation; second-curtain sync;sync speeds; wireless flash

ambient & flash setting, Custom menu,85–86

basic setups for, 241basics of, 225–231bracketing and, 131

calculating exposure for, 216, 231continuous lighting compared, 215–221cost of, 219Detailed information display, 43, 51diffusing light, 239–240Enlarged information display, 44, 51evenness of illumination with, 218flexibility of, 220freezing action with, 219high-speed sync, 229M (Manual) mode and, 124previewing with, 216Quick Navi screen settings, 104Recording menu options, 69setting, 237short exposures and, 143–144slow sync, 231telephoto lenses, dark flash photos with,

207white balance (WB), 179–180working with, 232–237

flash charging indicator in viewfinder,53–54

flash EV compensationDetailed information display, 43, 51Enlarged information display, 44, 51Quick Navi screen settings, 104–105Recording menu option, 70, 236setting, 236–238viewfinder information, 53–54

flash sync terminal, 33–34flexibility

of continuous lighting, 220of flash, 220

fluorescent light, 215. See also continuouslighting

color temperature of, 224white balance (WB), 179–180

Fn (Function) button, 38, 58bracketing, setting up, 129Detailed information display, 43Enlarged information display, 44for reviewing images, 24–25

focal length of cropped sensor cameras,191

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focus. See also AF (autofocus); focusmodes; focus points

fine-tuning focus of lenses, 169–170target, 171–172telephoto lenses, selective focus with, 204viewfinder information on focus status,

53–54Focus hold button, 80

with Intelligent preview, 139focus modes, 161. See also MF (manual

focus)A (automatic) AF, 18–19, 161, 166–167C (continuous) AF, 18–19, 161, 166–167choosing, 18–19Detailed information display, 51lever, 33–34S (single-shot) AF, 18–19, 161, 166–167

focus points, 162–168circles of confusion, 162–164contrast detection and, 160cross-type focus point, 156–157local focus, 21prediction of, 164selecting, 20–21spot focus, 21supplemental AF points, 158–159wide focus point, 20–21

focus ring, 49focusing screen, Setup menu options, 101foggy photos with telephoto lenses, 206folders

naming folders, 97new folders, creating, 97–98selecting folders, 97Setup menu options, 97–98switching between, 98

foregroundswith telephoto lenses, 204with wide-angle lenses, 200

foreign language options, 95formatting. See memory cardsfreezing action

with continuous lighting, 219with flash, 219short exposures for, 142–145SteadyShot and, 211

front control dial, 31–32, 46front-curtain sync. See first-curtain syncfront focus, 169front view of camera, 31–35full-frame cameras

crop factor and, 188–191

GG lenses, 195gamuts, 67–69GE color rendering index (CRI), 225gels, lighting, 220Gepe card safes, 268GGS glass LCD protectors, 265ghost images, 219, 229–230Giottos Rocket blower bulb, 276, 279glass shields for LCD, 265glasses, diopter correction for, 8–9glossary, 285–295Goldwyn, Samuel, 215gravity and dust, 275gray cards, 114–116grayscale. See black and whiteguide numbers (GN)

with HVL-F42AM flash unit, 235with HVL-F58AM flash unit, 232

Hhalogen light, 222Halsman, Philippe, 144hand grip, 31–32Hand tool with Adobe Camera Raw plug-

in, 258hard drive, backing up files on, 65Hasselblad H3D-39 camera, 189hazy photos with telephoto lenses, 206HDMI

port, 35Setup menu output options, 94television, cable for viewing images on, 94

HDR (High Dynamic Range), 109–110.See also D-Range Optimizer

bracketing and, 130–131HDTV, viewing images on, 94

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help from Sony support site, 263high ISO noise, 132–134

Recording menu option, 74–75high-speed photography, 142–145high-speed sync, 229

with HVL-F42AM flash unit, 235with HVL-F58AM flash unit, 233–234

histograms, 134–137Custom button for, 41displaying, 135

hoods for protecting LCD, 265horizontally-aligned focus, 156–157hot pixels, 272–273hot shoe. See accessory shoeHS sync. See high-speed syncHVL-F20AM flash unit, 235–236HVL-F36AM flash unit, 219, 229, 235HVL-F42AM flash unit, 229, 235HVL-F56AM flash unit, 229HVL-F58AM flash unit, 225, 229,

232–234high-speed sync with, 233–234multiple flash feature, 234wireless trigger for, 233

IIF lenses, 195Image Data Converter SR, 63, 245,

250–251Import Media Files utility, 252white balance, adjusting, 225

Image Data Lightbox SR, 245Remote Camera Control with, 249working with, 248

image editors, 255–256. See also AdobePhotoshop/Photoshop Elements

dust spots, dealing with, 276image quality. See also JPEG formats;

RAW formats; RAW+JPEG formatDetailed information display, 43, 51Enlarged information display, 44, 51of first lens, 193of prime lenses, 198Quick Navi screen settings, 106Recording menu options, 62–65of zoom lenses, 198

Image Recall, 270image size

Detailed information display, 43, 51Enlarged information display, 44, 51Quick Navi screen settings, 106Recording menu option, 60–61

image stabilization. See SteadyShotImport Media Files utility, 252incandescent light, 215. See also

continuous lightingcolor temperature of, 222daylight, mixing, 239white balance (WB), 177–179

incorrect slot, forcing cards into, 268Index button, 39–40

for reviewing images, 25–26index print, DPOF setup with, 90indium tin oxide (ITO) coating on sensor,

284information display. See also Detailed

display; Enlarged displaySetup menu options for, 92

initial setup, 5–15inserting memory cards, 10–11instruction manual, 5, 57Intelligent preview, 13, 32

Custom menu options, 81exposure, adjusting, 137–139in M (Manual) mode, 139

intensity of light, 111interleaving shots on memory cards, 267interval photography, 153inverse square law, 218invisible people with long exposures, 148iodine gas light, 222iPhoto, Picture Motion Browser with, 246ISO button, 46–47, 84ISO sensitivity. See also high ISO noise

adjusting, 21–22, 113Auto Range options, 127Detailed information display, 43, 51Enlarged information display, 44, 51exposure with, 127light and, 112Quick Navi screen settings, 105Recording menu ISO auto range option,

71

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JJPEG formats. See also D-Range

Optimizerin continuous shooting mode, 176Image Data Lightbox SR with, 248Quick Navi screen settings, 106RAW formats compared, 63–64Recording menu options, 62–65size options, 60–61

KKelvin scale, 221, 224Kinkade, Thomas, 213Konica Autoreflex T lens, 187Krause, George, 215

LLandscape Creative Style, 183–184landscape photography and cropped

sensor cameras, 191language options, 95Large image setting, 60–61lateral/transverse chromatic aberration,

202LCD, 36–37. See also Detailed display;

Enlarged display; Intelligent previewacrylic shields for, 265brightness

power saving options, 93Setup menu options, 92

display panel, 46, 48glass shields for, 265hoods for protecting, 265plastic overlays for, 265polycarbonate shields for, 265protecting, 264–265readouts on panel, 50–52recording information display, 12–13rotating information display on, 85

leaping photos, 144left side of camera, 35Leica M cameras, 155lens bayonet, 49–50lens hood bayonet, 49

lens hoods, 208–209lens mounting index, 33–34lens multiplier factor, 188–191Lens release button, 33–34lenses, 187–211

add-ons for, 208–211AF micro adjustment options, Setup

menu, 101back-up lenses, DT lenses as, 190calibrating, 169categories of, 200cleaning, 275components of, 49–50crop factor, 188–191current focus, evaluating, 171–172fine-tuning focus of, 169–170first lenses, 192–194light captured by, 112maximum aperture for, 193mounting lenses, 7–8nomenclature of, 195perspective and, 195–197tuning-up lenses, 171–173unpacking, 4

light, 213–244. See also continuouslighting; exposure; flash

diffusing light, 239–240duration of, 111elements of, 214–215emitted light, 111lens, light passed by, 111multiple light sources, 241–242reflected light, 111sensors, light captured by, 112shutter, light passed through, 111softening light, 239–240source, light at, 111transmitted light, 111

light areas with wide-angle lenses, 204Light Creative Style, 183–184light stands, 243–244light streaks

with long exposures, 148–149zooming and, 147

light trails with long exposures, 148, 150lighting gels, 220

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liquid cleaning sensors, 278, 281–282lithium-ion batteries. See batterieslive view with Alpha DSLR-A850, 13Local AF area, 168local focus, 21long exposure noise, 132–134

Recording menu option, 74–75long exposures, 146–151

bulb exposures, 146–147time exposures, 147–148timed exposures, 146working with, 148–151

longitudinal/axial chromatic aberration,202

low diffraction index glass in lenses, 202

MM (Manual) mode, 16–17. See also MF

(manual focus)camera shake warning in, 55exposure compensation with, 126with Intelligent preview, 139ISO adjustments in, 127Manual Shift feature, 114working with, 124–126

macro lenses, 209–210Mamiya 645 ZD camera, 189Manual Shift feature, 114manuals for users, 5, 57marked images, protecting, 88–89Mass Storage settings, 98–99Mean Time Between Failures, 268Media Recover, 270Medium image setting, 60–61, 63memory card access lamp, 36memory cards, 2. See also remaining shots;

transferring images to computeraccess door, 31–32Compact Flash card slot, 32–33compatible cards, 10computer, formatting in, 14Detailed information display, 43, 51eggs in one basket argument, 266–267external backup for, 267

formatting, 13–15Playback menu options, 14–15, 88reformatting, 270transferring files to computer,

formatting by, 13–14inserting, 10–11interleaving shots on, 267No Card warning, 10problems with, 267–269recovering images from, 270–271reformatting, 270Release w/o card options, Custom menu,

84transferring files to computer, formatting

by, 13–14Memory option, Recording menu, 75–77Memory Stick Pro Duo cards. See also

memory cardsslot for, 32–33

Menu button, 42, 58menu start options, 99–100

menusdescription of, 58–59menu start option, Setup menu, 99–100scrolling through, 58

mercury vapor light, 225Merge to HDR command, 130Metered Manual setting, 126metering mode dial, 40metering modes

center-weighted metering, 17–18,117–118

choosing, 116–118Detailed information display, 43, 52multi segment metering, 17–18, 116–117selecting, 17–18spot metering, 17–18, 117–118

MF (manual focus), 18–19, 161, 167with HVL-F58AM flash unit, 233Recording menu options, 71–72viewfinder information, 53–54

Micro Adjustment feature, 101, 169tuning-up lenses with, 171–173

MinoltaMaxxum 7000 camera, 188SRT-101 lens, 187

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mirrorbody cap protecting, 7dust on, 272

mirror lenses, 207mirror lockup, 24mode dial, 15–16, 45

metering mode dial, 40modeling light, 225

with HVL-F58AM flash unit, 233monolights, 242moonlight, 215multi segment metering, 17–18, 116–117multi-selector, 39

for reviewing images, 24–25multiple flash with HVL-F58AM flash

unit, 234multiple light sources, 241–242

Nnaming folders, 97Neat Image, 255neck straps, 4

mounting ring, 33–34rings, 45–46

netbook, backing up memory cards on,267–268

Neutral Creative Style, 183–184neutral density filters, 148Newton, Isaac, 218night

Creative Style Night view, 183–184long exposures and, 150–151

Nixon, Richard, 144No Card warning, 10noise, 74, 132–134. See also high ISO

noise; long exposure noiseAdobe Photoshop/Photoshop Elements,

reduction with, 134Noise Ninja, 134, 255noon, color temperature at, 221normal lenses, 200NTSC (National Television Systems

Committee) standard, 93–94

OOn/Off switch, 11–12, 36–37OnTrack, 270overexposures, 109

exposure compensation and, 123histograms of, 135–136

PP (Program) mode, 16

Program Shift feature, 113–114sync speed problems with, 228working with, 120

PAL standard, 93–94panning, SteadyShot and, 211Pec-Pads, 281–282Pelican card safes, 268Personal Storage Devices for memory

cards, 267perspective. See also distortion

cropped sensor cameras and, 191high-speed photography, unseen

perspectives with, 144–145lenses and, 195–197

phase detection, 154–159Photo Rescue 2, 270Photographic Solutions, Inc.

Eclipse solution, 281, 284sensor swabs, 281

Photoshop/Photoshop Elements. SeeAdobe Photoshop/PhotoshopElements

PictBridge-compatible printers. Seeprinting

Picture Motion Browser, 245Import Media Files utility, 252working with, 246–247

pincushion distortion with telephotolenses, 206

pixel mapping, 272pixels

histograms showing, 134hot pixels, 272–273light and, 112noise and, 132

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plastic overlays for LCD, 265Playback button, 24, 44Playback menu, 86–91. See also reviewing

imagesDelete options, 87–88Format option, 14–15, 88Playback display options, 90Protect options, 88–89Slide show options, 90–91

Player, Gary, 215playing back images. See reviewing imagespolarizing filters with wide-angle lenses,

204polycarbonate shields for LCD, 265Portrait Creative Style, 183–184portraits

backgrounds for, 244telephoto lenses, flat faces with, 206

power. See also AC power; batteriesSetup menu power save setting, 93standby mode, 11switch, 36–37tips for saving, 93turning on, 11–12

Pre-Flash TTL, 216Preview button, 31–32

for Intelligent preview, 137–139previewing. See also Intelligent preview

with continuous lighting, 216–217Custom menu options, 81with flash, 216

prime lenses, zoom lenses compared,198–199

printing, 26DPOF setup, Playback menu options for,

89–90focus target, 171–172PTP (Picture Transfer Protocol) setting

for, 98Priority setup option, Recording menu, 73product photography, backgrounds for,

244Program Shift feature, 113–114protecting images, 88–89

Playback menu options, 88–89PTP (Picture Transfer Protocol) setting, 98

Qquartz-halogen/quartz-iodine light, 222Quick Navi screen, 38, 58, 103–106

button options, 84settings on, 104–106

quick shift bounce system, 233

RRAW format. See also Adobe Camera Raw;

Image Data Converter SRbracketing and, 131in continuous shooting mode, 176contrast, adjusting, 137cRAW compared, 64–65D-Range Optimizer with, 181Image Data Lightbox SR with, 248JPEG formats compared, 63–64for Merge to HDR, 130Quick Navi screen settings, 106Recording menu options, 62–65software for working with, 256–260white balance (WB) in, 225

RAW+JPEG formatadvantages of, 64in continuous shooting mode, 176Quick Navi screen settings, 106Recording menu options, 62–65

rear control dial, 40rear-curtain sync. See second-curtain syncrear lens cap, removing, 7–8recalling shooting settings, 77Recording menu, 59–78

AF-A setup options, 71–72AF area option, 72AF illuminator options, 73AF w/shutter option, 73–74Aspect ratio options, 61–62Color space options, 67–69Creative Style options, 66–67Custom button options, 66D-Range Optimizer options, 65–66Exposure step option, 71Flash compensation option, 70, 236Flash control option, 69

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Flash mode option, 69High ISO NR option, 74–75Image size option, 60–61ISO auto range option, 71Long exp. NR option, 74–75Memory options, 75–77Priority setup option, 73Quality options, 62–65Rec mode reset option, 77–78

Recover My Photos, 270recovery

with Adobe Camera Raw plug-in, 259memory cards, photos from, 270–271

rectilinear lenses, 203red-eye reduction

with Adobe Camera Raw plug-in, 258with Adobe Photoshop/Photoshop

Elements, 253reflected light, 111reflectors, 240reformatting, 270registering shooting options, 75–77Release w/o card options, Custom menu,

84remaining shots

Detailed information display, 43, 51determination of, 14Enlarged information display, 44, 51viewfinder information, 53, 55

Rembrandt, 213Remote Camera Control, 245, 249–250

Image Data Lightbox SR with, 248time-lapse photography with, 153

Remote Commander, 24, 152clip, 5remote infrared sensors, 31–32time exposures with, 147

remote control, 152. See also RemoteCommander; wireless flash

port, 35remote infrared sensors, 31–32RescuePro software, 270–271restoring factory settings. See defaults,

restoringretouching with Adobe Camera Raw plug-

in, 258

revealing images with high-speedphotography, 144

reviewing images, 24–26. See alsothumbnails

deleting images, 87–88DISP button for, 52playback display options, 90Playback menu delete options, 87–88protecting images, 88–89

RM-S1AM Remote Commander. SeeRemote Commander

rotating, 39–40with Adobe Camera Raw plug-in, 258information display on LCD, 85playback display, 90

SS (single-shot) AF, 18–19, 161, 166–167S (Shutter Priority) mode, 16–17

camera shake warning in, 55with Intelligent preview, 139ISO adjustments and, 127Program Shift feature, 113–114working with, 122–123

SAL Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 24-70mmf/2.8 zoom lens, 192–193

SAL-35F14G 35mm f/1.4 wide-angle lens,194

SAL-50F14 50mm f/1.4 lens, 192, 196SAL-50M28 50mm f/2.8 macro lens, 196SAL-100M28 100mm f/2.8 macro lens,

196SAL-135F18Z Carl Zeiss Sonnar T*

135mm f/1.8 telephoto lens, 196SAL-135F28 135mm f/2.8 STF lens, 207SAL-2470Z Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 24-

70mm f/2.8 zoom lens, 192–193SAL-2875 28-75mm f/2.8 zoom lens,

193–194SAL-24105 24-105mm f/3.5-4.5 zoom

lens, 192, 193SAL-70200G 70-200mm f/2.8 G-series

telephoto zoom lens, 196SAL-75300 75-300mm f/4.5-5.6 telephoto

zoom lens, 194SAM lenses, 195

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SanDisk’s RescuePro software, 270–271saturation

with Adobe Camera Raw plug-in, 259Creative Style parameter, 186

scrolling through menus, 58second-curtain sync, 226–229

ghost images and, 229–230setting as flash mode, 237

self-timer, 152eyepiece shutter, closing, 24lamp, 31–32using, 23–24

semi-automatic shooting modes. See A(Aperture Priority) mode; M(Manual) mode; P (Program) mode;S (Shutter Priority) mode

sensor cleaning, 271–284air cleaning, 278–280brush cleaning, 278, 280–281liquid cleaning, 278, 281–282magnifier-assisted cleaning, 282–283procedure for, 277–278Setup menu cleaning mode options,

100–101shutter position for, 278–279tape cleaning, 268, 284

sensor focal plane, 45–46sensor swabs/brushes, 280–282SensorKlear loupe/wand, 282–283sensors. See also AF sensors; sensor

cleaningCCD sensors and noise, 132CMOS sensors and noise, 132indium tin oxide (ITO) coating on, 284

Sepia Creative Style, 183, 185Setup menu, 91–103

AF micro adj. option, 101APS-C size capture options, 102–103Audio signals options, 100Cleaning mode options, 100–101Date/Time setup options, 95Delete confirm. options, 100File number options, 96Focusing screen options, 101Folder name options, 97

HDMI output options, 94Info. display options, 92Language options, 95Mass strg. card settings, 98–99Memory card options, 95Menu start options, 99–100Power save setting, 93Reset default options, 103Select folder/new folder options, 97–98USB connection options, 98Video output options, 93–94

shade white balance (WB), 179Shadow (Krause), 215shadows. See also vignetting

with continuous lighting, 218filling in, 107with flash, 218

sharpnessAF (autofocus) and, 154Creative Style parameter, 186lenses and, 196

shooting modes. See also A (AperturePriority) mode; M (Manual) mode;P (Program) mode; S (ShutterPriority) mode

selecting, 15–17shooting options, Recording menu, 75–77short exposures, 142–145shots remaining. See remaining shotsshoulder strap, 4shutter. See also shutter speed

light passed by, 111self-timer, closing eyepiece shutter with,

24for sensor cleaning, 278–279

Shutter release button, 31, 46shutter speed. See also second-curtain

sync; sync speedsSee also first-curtain syncadjusting, 113control dial, Custom menu options for,

83Detailed information display, 43, 50Enlarged information display, 44, 50equivalent exposures, 113

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f/stops and, 112ghost images and, 229high-speed sync, 229with Intelligent preview, 139range of speeds, specifying, 122short exposures, 142–145slow sync, 231viewfinder information, 53–54

Sigma macro lenses, 210silhouette effects, 107

exposure compensation and, 123M (Manual) mode for, 124

single autofocus, 18–19, 161, 166–167Single-shot adv. drive mode, 23–24single-shot exposure bracketing, 129size of lenses, 193slide show, Playback menu options, 90–91slow sync, 231Slow Sync button, 39–40Small image setting, 60–61, 63snoots, 244sodium-vapor light, 224soft boxes, 240, 243softening light, 239–240software, 245–251. See also specific types

application software CD, 5firmware, upgrading, 262–264image editors, 255–256memory cards, recovering images from,

270–271RAW utilities, 256–260

Sony Alpha DSLR-A850back view of, 36–44bottom view of, 48front view of, 31–35left side of, 35top view of, 45–48

Sony Bravia synchronization protocol, 94Sony support site, 263source, light at, 111speed. See also shutter speed; sync speeds

of lenses, 196of prime lenses, 199SteadyShot and, 211of zoom lenses, 199

spherical aberration, 207sports photography

AF (autofocus) modes and, 164continuous shooting for, 174–176cropped sensor cameras and, 191JPEG formats for, 64memory cards for, 266–267telephoto lenses for, 204

Spot AF area, 168Spot button, 39spot focus, 21spot metering, 17–18, 117–118sRGB, 67–69

Adobe RGB compared, 68SSM lenses, 195Standard Creative Style, 183–184standby mode, 11SteadyShot

and lenses, 210–211in M (Manual) mode, 55power saving by turning off, 93in S (Shutter Priority) mode, 55scale in viewfinder, 53, 55switch, 42turning on, 21–22

Stegmeyer, Al, 4stepping back with wide-angle lenses, 200Sto-fen’s Omni Bounce diffuser, 240stopping action. See freezing actionstops, f/stops compared, 116straightening with Adobe Camera Raw

plug-in, 258studio flash, 215–216, 225, 241–242

sync speed problems with, 228–229subjects

macro focusing and, 209–210telephoto lenses, close-ups with, 204wide-angle lenses emphasizing, 201

Sunset Creative Style, 183–184super-telephoto lenses, 200Sylvania color rendering index (CRI), 225

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sync speeds, 226–227. See also first-curtainsync; high-speed sync; second-curtain sync

high-speed sync, 229problems, avoiding, 227–229short exposures and, 143–144slow sync, 231viewfinder information, 53–54

TTamron macro lenses, 210tape cleaning sensors, 268, 284target for focus, 171–172tele-zoom lenses. See telephoto lensesteleconverters for cropped sensor cameras,

191telephoto extenders, 209telephoto lenses, 197, 200, 204–208

bokeh, 207–208lens hoods for, 209macro focusing with, 209–210problems, avoiding, 206–207

television. See also HDMIHDTV, viewing images on, 94Remote Commander with, 152viewing images on, 94

third-party lenses, 187Through-the-Lens (TTL). See TTL

(Through-the-Lens)thumbnails, 26

histogram display in, 137Picture Motion Browser displaying,

246–247TIFF format, Image Data Lightbox SR

with, 248time exposures, 147–148time-lapse photography, 153timed exposures, 146times. See dates and timesT* lenses, 195

SAL Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 24-70mm f/2.8 zoom lens, 192–193

SAL-135F18Z Carl Zeiss Sonnar T*135mm f/1.8 telephoto lens, 196

Tokina macro lenses, 210top view of camera, 45–48transferring images to computer, 26–28,

252–254with card readers, 26–27, 252–254with drag-and-drop, 254formatting memory card by, 13–14with USB cables, 26–28

transmitted light, 111Trash button, 24–25tripod socket, 48troubleshooting, 265–271TTL (Through-the-Lens)

ADI lenses, 195with fill flash, 237–238with HVL-F58AM flash unit, 233Pre-Flash TTL, 216

tungsten light. See incandescent light

Uultimateslr.com/memory-card-recovery-

php, 270ultrawide-angle lenses, 197, 200umbrellas, 2430underexposures, 107–109

histograms of, 135–136unmarking images, 88–89unreal images with high-speed

photography, 144–145upgrading firmware, 262–264UPstrap, 4–5USB cables, 4. See also Remote Camera

ControlSetup menu connection options, 98time-lapse photography with, 153transferring images to computer with,

26–28, 252USB port, 27, 35

Setup menu connection options, 98user manuals, 5, 57UV filters with telephoto lenses, 206

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Vvertically-aligned focus, 156–157vestibule, cleaning, 275–276vibrance with Adobe Camera Raw plug-in,

259video

cables, 5Setup menu output options, 93–94

viewfinderdust on, 272eyepiece, 36–37Eyepiece Correctors for, 8information in, 52–55

vignettingcrop factor and, 189–190with wide-angle lenses, 203

visible light, 111visual noise. See noiseVivid Creative Style, 183–184

Wwaterfalls, blurring, 150–151wedding photography, JPEG formats for,

64white balance (WB). See also AWB

(automatic white balance)adjusting, 21–22, 225with Adobe Camera Raw plug-in,

258–259of continuous lighting, 221Custom white balance, setting, 180–181customizing, 176–181Detailed information display, 43, 52Enlarged information display, 44, 52flash and, 179, 225HVL-F58AM flash unit communicating,

233Intelligent preview, adjusting with,

138–139Quick Navi screen settings, 105setting by color temperature, 180

white balance bracketing, 130drive mode, 24order, changing, 131

White balance button, 46–47, 84Wide AF area, 168wide-angle lenses, 200–204

problems, avoiding, 202–204wide focus point, 20–21wide-zoom lenses. See wide-angle lenseswildlife photography

cropped sensor cameras and, 191SteadyShot for, 210telephoto lenses for, 204

window light, working with, 239Windsor, Duke and Duchess of, 144wireless flash

setting, 237viewfinder information, 53–54

ZZagg plastic overlays, 265Zeiss, Carl, 195Zeiss optics. See also T* lenses

distance scale on, 50zone Creative Style parameter, 186Zoom button, 24–25, 37–38zoom lenses, 194

prime lenses compared, 198–199zoom ring, 49zoom scale, 49zooming in/out

with Adobe Camera Raw plug-in, 258lenses, zoom range of, 192light streaks and, 147on reviewing images, 24–25

David Busch’s Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Guide to Digital Photography314