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Cleaning CCDs

Wednesday, July 18th, 2007 by Alyice

My camera is back from the shop and I couldn’t be happier. The ironic part is the issues with auto focus not registering and the flash going out stem from the fact that the CCD was not clean. There’s a good chance something got on the CCD when it was installed since the problems occurred from the moment I received the camera.

The good news is that I now know what a CCD is. CCD stands for “Charge coupled device”. It basically means the CCD produces signals that tell the camera what to do. And when the CCD is dirty, it cannot transfer the electronic charges needed to “talk” to other parts of the camera. (Of course if you want a more technical term, just type “What is a CCD sensor?” in your Internet search bar and your mind will be flooded with information that will take weeks to comprehend.)

From what I read online, and from what my photography friends have told me, when your images being to look grainy or you start to see dust particles in your images, it’s time to clean you CCD. And of course, as I’ve experienced, if things stop working for no reason, have your CCD checked.

If you don’t have the money to have your CCD cleaned or it isn’t under warranty, these wonderful tutorials can help.

Alyice Edrich, Editor-in-Chief

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What Is White Balance?

Wednesday, February 28th, 2007 by Alyice

The past few weeks, I’ve been trying to understand just how white balance works and why it’s important. While I’ll admit I still have much to learn I think I finally get it.

The camera aperture, shutter speed and ISO setting can be perfect, but if the white balance is off, it can ruin a perfectly good shot by producing a photograph that has a yellow, orange, green, or blue overcast (also known as a tint).

Copyright 2006, Alyice Edrich
The Right Balance Does Matter
Image © Alyice Edrich, 2006

The white balance setting helps your camera choose the appropriate lighting situation so that the sensors in your camera can capture the correct colors.

Digital cameras have the option of using four types of white balance settings:

  • Auto White Balance

    • The camera chooses the correct white balance based on the color temperature of the light.

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  • Preset White Balance

    • The camera has buttons that allow you to pick the white balance based on a set of circumstances, such as: outdoors in the sun, outdoors with partial sun, outdoors with clouds, outdoors with rain, indoors with fluorescent lights, indoors with incandescent lights, and in a dark area where a flash is needed to view the subject being photographed.

  • Custom White Balance

    • The photographer takes a picture of a specific, neutral color (white or grey stock paper) then follows the camera’s instructions to help the camera record the correct white balance when shooting pictures under those conditions. In other words, the camera is literally measuring the color of light hitting the sensor of the camera.

  • Manual White Balance

    • When there is too much contrast between light and colors, shooting in raw and adjusting the white balance manually can produce the best shots.

To learn more about what white balance is and how it affects your photographs, check out these great resources:

Alyice Edrich, Editor-in-Chief

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