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Frequently Asked Photo Questions for February

Have a question about digital photography? Don't keep it to yourself. Send it to me [mailto:question@davejoh.com]. I reply to as many as I can--though given the quantity of e-mails that I get, I can't promise a personal reply to every one. I round up the most interesting ones about once a month here in this newsletter.

For more frequently asked questions, read my Digital Focus newsletters from October, November, and January.

What's the Deal With RAW?

Am I correct in assuming that when shooting and saving in my camera's RAW plus JPEG mode, the camera settings for white balance, color, sharpening, and so on are used to process the JPEG file only; the RAW file is not affected and it reflects only what the camera lens sees?
--Flavio Della-Pupa, Miami

You nailed it, Flavio. When you configure your camera to shoot in its native RAW mode, the camera does no processing to the image. White balance, color correction, and sharpening settings are completely ignored. (If you have a filter attached to your lens, of course, that will affect the photo.)

But in JPEG mode, all those settings are applied. And, in the case you're asking about-RAW plus JPEG, where the camera saves one copy in each format every time you take a picture, the same rules apply. That lets you get a JPEG photo that's finished enough to share right away, and an unprocessed RAW image that you can fiddle with in your photo editor.

Preventing a White Sky

Many times I have taken landscape photographs and discover when I get home that the sky is white, not blue. It looks absolutely nothing like what I viewed through the camera when I took the picture. What is going wrong?
--Karen Rowe, Longmont, Colorado

That's a pretty common problem, Karen.

Here's what's going on: a typical outdoor photo has a much, much greater range of brightness than any camera is capable of capturing in a single photo. This was true for film cameras and it remains true for digital. So if you want a colorful blue sky, you'll typically have to accept a dark, underexposed foreground down here on earth. For a well-exposed foreground, the sky gets overexposed, which results in a white, washed-out look.

There are ways to compromise, though, by "splitting the difference" and exposing for a little of both. There are a lot of strategies you can employ. The next time you head out to do some landscape photography, I suggest that you do what you usually do, but use your camera's exposure compensation control to underexpose the photo by one or two stops. For more information, read "Fix Your Exposure Before You Take the Photo" and "More Exposure Tricks."

KB Versus MB

I would like to know which is the better size for printing: A photo that measures 1600 by 1065 pixels (with a file size of 899KB) or a photo that's 1710 by 1188 pixels and 1.06MB.
--Barrie Beauvais, Mercer Island, Washington

That's an interesting question, Barrie. First, let me point out that your two files are almost exactly the same. Their respective dimensions only vary by about 100 pixels, which will have virtually no effect on print quality. Likewise, the file sizes are virtually identical. 900KB = 0.9MB, and the difference between 0.9MB and 1.06MB is essentially too small of a difference to measure in print.

But in general, when printing, bigger is always better. Here is what you need to know: If you have an inkjet printer, take the pixel size of your photo, divide by 200, and that will give you a good estimate of how many inches you can print the photo and have it look reasonably sharp. You can ignore the file size, though. Several factors go into determining the file size of a digital photo file, and they only indirectly affect the print size.

Want to learn a little more? Read "Determining Your Camera's Largest Print Size."

Taking a Multiple Exposure

Is it possible to have a series of pictures on the same image? Could I, for example, focus on a diving board and take a series of pictures as the diver jumps, does maneuvers, and enters the water, with all of the pictures on one photo?
--James Swanson, Iowa City, Iowa

Yes, absolutely! In the old days of film, we would have done that as a multiple exposure-take a picture, don't advance the film, and then take another picture.

These days, there's no film to advance. Some digital cameras have a multiple exposure feature (check your camera's user guide to find out if yours does), but it's quite easy to do this with a photo editing program. Just take a series of images and then load them all into your favorite photo editor. Add each image as a layer to the same project, and adjust their opacity until you can see each image with the desired clarity.

Conveniently, I demonstrated how to do this last week, using Adobe Photoshop Elements.

Hot Pic of the Week

Get published, get famous! Each week, we select our favorite reader-submitted photo based on creativity, originality, and technique. Every month, the best of the weekly winners gets a prize valued at between $15 and $50.

Here's how to enter: Send us your photograph in JPEG format, at a resolution no higher than 640 by 480 pixels. Entries at higher resolutions will be immediately disqualified. If necessary, use an image editing program to reduce the file size of your image before e-mailing it to us. Include the title of your photo along with a short description and how you photographed it. Don't forget to send your name, e-mail address, and postal address. Before entering, please read the full description of the contest rules and regulations.

This week's Hot Pic: "Christmas Angel," by Tom Weber, Wadsworth, Ohio

Tom writes: "I took this photo in a very dark room, with a flashlight positioned directly behind an angel statue that we received for Christmas. I then shot it with a long, 4-second second shutter."

This Week's Runner-Up: "Spirit Interstate on a Full Moon," by Austen Broadbent, Royersford, Pennsylvania

Austen writes: "I took this late at night. The moon was full, and patchy clouds were moving very quickly overhead. I set my Canon Digital Rebel XT's shutter to stay open for about 2 minutes, and used a wide-angle lens."

See all the Hot Pic of the Week photos online.

Have a digital photo question? Send me your comments, questions, and suggestions about the newsletter itself. And be sure to sign up to have the Digital Focus Newsletter e-mailed to you each week.