Photo Review tips section

Making the Most of Standard Zoom Lenses

Most kit lenses are very versatile. At the wide end they’re useful for capturing landscapes, while at the tele position, they become handy portrait lenses. In between, you can use them for group portraits, street photography, tabletop shots and even some close-ups. This article shows you how to make the most of your standard zoom lens.

How to Use White Balance Effectively

The white balance setting is used to make the colours in a digital photograph look natural under different lighting conditions. It works by adjusting the colour balance so that objects which appear white in reality are rendered white in the image. To do this, the camera has to evaluate the ‘colour temperature’ of the light illuminating the subject and correct for its relative warmth or coolness of white light.

Aliasing: should you be concerned about jaggies?

The term ‘aliasing’ is a general term applied to signal processing. It refers to an effect that causes different signals to become indistinguishable (or aliases of one another) when sampled. In imaging, it’s often observed as ‘jaggies’, which appear as steps along what should be a continuous line or edge. These are caused by pixel structure. Aliasing can also produce moire, when fine lines appear to ripple due to the interference.