Image Processing Reference
In-Depth Information
leaders in this area, many of the other brands, like Olympus, Pentax, Leica,
Ricoh, and Sony, offer equally effective products. Some features are better
on some cameras than others. The critical feature we touched on already
is that the camera must have manual shutter, iris, focus, and white balance
options. These options should be available by switching a control on the
camera and not by having to constantly hold down a particular control to
achieve the effect. Another important feature that is not absolutely critical
but a great option for these cameras is the “live-view” mode. This allows you
to hook up your dslr to a computer with stop-motion software and see a live
image from the camera. The ability to compare live and previously captured
frames through live view make this option a real plus. Advanced stop-motion
capture programs like Dragon and Stop Motion Pro pick up live view if your
camera has this feature, which is included in most new cameras. This makes
your life much easier. The only other options are to hook up a small digital
camera to your viewfinder or set up a digital camera that is operated at a
parallax point of view or alongside your dslr.
Fig 5.1 a shot of a video tap
camera looking through the
viewfinder of the dslr.
The reason manual controls are critical is because the images that move in
front of the camera vary in color and light reflectance, depending on how
dominant they are in the frame. An automatic camera is programmed to
constantly adjust and average for the best exposure for each individual
frame. This is very convenient for still photography, where each photograph
exists on its own when it is viewed. In animation, we often look at hundreds
of images together; and if the automatic exposures are changing from
one frame to the next, as the imagery changes in front of the camera, then
there are wild fluctuations in the exposure as a movie plays. This is highly
distracting. Controlling the exposure, white balance, focus, and image
stabilizer and locking them in with a manual setting helps to eliminate this
fluctuation.
Search WWH ::




Custom Search