What is jpeg and ISO?

[lvn600]

Now that I have a 12x optical zoom camera I have to figure out how to use it since I've never used a digital camera.What is Jpeg? What is iso and how do I know what level to set it at?-thanks.

[walwyn]

Now that I have a 12x optical zoom camera I have to figure out how to use it since I've never used a digital camera.What is Jpeg? What is iso and how do I know what level to set it at?-thanks.
Joint Photographic Experts Group - basically its a file format designed for the high compression of photographic images. The compression is 'lossy' meaning that when uncompressed it won't display exactly the same image as the original. This does not normally matter because the eye cannot see the differences. However, with repeated saving of the image it will degrade. Again you shouldn't be concerned about this unless you are continually editing an image saving it, reading the image back, editing it, saving it, ...

There are also various levels of compression that you can specify with jpeg which trades off image quality against greater compression.


ISO - International Organization for Standardization. In photography this normally refers to the film 'speed' or ASA in Americanese. It relates to the ability of the films sensitivity to light:
http://velatron.com/dca/ISO/

[Hanno]

Hi Ivn600,

May I suggest, with all due respect, that you attend a local photo course, or buy a good book on photography 101? You obviously do not know even the most basic things about photography, and either option will help you come a long way quickly. I am really not trying to slag you off, but you are obviously very new to this.

Regards,

Hanno

[lvn600]

The only camera I've used is a disposable one. I think I'll just take a bunch of pictures first and see how they come out. I did read through the owners manual but I think I need to experience the joy of photography first before I am inspired to read a technical book on phototgraphy.

[ceasar]

Hanno's right. The problem however is in the books and manuals on Digital Photography. They are double deadly dull! It would be nice if someone came out with a readable instructional series like the old Kodak Photography Series.

[Keith Reeder]

Larry,

I would respectfully suggest that nothing is calculated to put you off more quickly than just heading out, pointing the camera and clicking away, before you've a clear understanding of the camera, how it works, and how to get the best out of it.

The results will be poor, and you will be deeply discouraged.

Digital photography needs a commitment from the camera user to learn at least the basics, and as an owner of a Panasonic FZ20 myself (that's your camera too, I believe?) I can give you a hand-on-heart guarantee that it's a camera that needs to be understood.

That said, this isn't rocket science.

Google will tell you all you need to know about basic terminology like jpeg, ISO, aperture, exposure, EV, IS, the relationship of ISO and aperture to shutter speed, and so forth, and the Panasonic manual is pretty good: get them under your belt, then you'll be in a position to start "learning by doing"...

[joannec]

Just go out and do it and have fun!! But write down what you do so you can learn from your mistakes.
Joanne

[iporali]

Here is one starting point to the terminology:
http://www.dcviews.com/tutors.htm

On the right there is a long list of short tutorials and an alphabetical listing of common abbreviations.

Ilkka

[Keith Reeder]

Joanne,

if Larry literally doesn't know what jpg and ISO mean, exactly what should he be writing down that would help him understand why his pictures were coming out badly?

Larry,

do your homework, my friend. Just "going out and doing it" is the road to crushing disappointment.

[lvn600]

I have to go out and give the camera a test try but I will certainly pick up a book as well. In all honesty I knew I would get a rise out of a couple of people by publicly professing my ignorance. I had remembered reading in some of the posts that these cameras take a better picture if you are using a lower iso setting. I wouldn't be discouraged with bad pictures. Bad pictures would make me more determined to take good ones.-anyhow-thanks for the advice.

[christineredgate]

Ivn the ISO is simple.On darkish days you just up the settings.100 is fine for bright sunny days,but if it is somewhat overcast then 200-400 is fine.any higher and your pics will not be very clear.The operative word is "noise".Like yourself,I do not understand camera settings etc,so why not use your cam on the preset Auto settings for starters.IE,Portrait,Landscape etc.The cam sorts itself out ,you do not need to do anything except hold it steady,make sure your subject is in focus and press the button.Read your cam manual,and experiment .It will all come together .Practice on close up subjects.

[bob hastie]

Hi there Ivn600
To put things in a VERY simplified way.
Jpeg is the file format that your pictures will be saved in.
ISO, the higher the number the more grainy the image will be, but it will increase the shutter speed (so you can capture moving objects.)
Go out and take some photos, don't get discouraged when some (or all) of them are rubbish, just go out and take some more with slightly different settings, things will slowly start to make some sense.

[lvn600]

Thank you for answering my question.The few photos I took were actually decent.

[Hanno]

I knew I would get a rise out of a couple of people No, you did not get a rise out of me at all. I just thought some basic understanding might be a good thing before you head out. Personally, I have an aversion to most guides, but surely you must have access to e.g. some sort of "The Idiot's Guide", good camera magazines, or a local camera club. Sure, you can trach yourself, but having gone that way myself (always lived in countries where afore mentioned were not an option), it is a long and ardous way to do things.

[lvn600]

No, you did not get a rise out of me at all. I just thought some basic understanding might be a good thing before you head out. Personally, I have an aversion to most guides, but surely you must have access to e.g. some sort of "The Idiot's Guide", good camera magazines, or a local camera club. Sure, you can trach yourself, but having gone that way myself (always lived in countries where afore mentioned were not an option), it is a long and ardous way to do things. I appreciate your opinion. I actually looked for a book today on the subject but would prefer one that is geared toward outdoor scenery and wildlife photography so I will wait until I find the right book. Incidentally-what makes you think I was referring to you?

[robski]

Larry

We all had to start from the begining. My interest in photography started 30 years ago with a manual SLR film camera. I went on to developing my own black and white prints. I lapsed for about 15 years and took up the hobby again 2 years ago when digital cameras started to compare with film. It's always a learning curve and the day you stop learning your dead.

With fully automatic modes the camera designer is setting the camera up to give the best photo for typical situations. i.e the group family photo, landscapes, action shots and so on. Unfortunately fully automatic can not always get it right or give you the effect you are after. Once you move away from the fully automatic mode to semi-automatic or manual mode you need to understand what effect changing some of the setting will have. The idea of the semi-automatic and manual modes is to let you take control.

As mentioned before there are a number of good tutorials to be found on the web. You will find that camera setting interact with each other and sometimes you have to compromise a to get the results you want.

ISO is about the camera's sensitivity to light. The higher the number the faster the shutter speed you can use to freeze action. However as you increase the sensitivity the noise or grain increases too. In the case of digital cameras this factor is related to the size of the sensor used. If you look at the specs of cameras with small sensors you will often find the ISO is limited to 400. Cameras like the 20D has a much larger sensor and can operate upto 3200. Another factor in this is improved sensor designs.

Jpeg is the commonly the accepted term for a camera picture file. It is not the technical meaning of the word. The Jpeg group were involved in the development compression formats for images.

Compression formats fall into to catagories to reduce file sizes. Lossy and non-lossy.

With non-lossy formats the data is fully restored when uncompressed. Basically it uses a more efficient coding scheme. However, the file size can be bigger than desired. Tiff files normally use this type of compression.

With lossy formats something is thrown away. Therefore it cannot be restored to orginal. The Jpeg compression method takes advantage of weakeness in the human vision sytem. i.e it first throws away information the human does not notice is missing or has changed. The image is split into it's colour and brightness level components. The eye is more sensitive to changes in brightness level than colour. So Jpeg throws away some of the colour information. As you increase the Jpeg compression factor it then starts to reduce the diffinition of the image.

Robert

[GavinM]

Can I recommend John Hedgecoe's books? I'm sure he has a complete guide to digital photography out there and he is 1) readable and 2) shows shots that you can go out and duplicate yourself, often with much better composition. amazon.co.uk if amazon.com don't have them.

Also check out some of the UK mags if you can find them - and in NYC you can, if you find yourself there. They are not at all like the US ones, and have lots of useful articles on getting started.

[Katy Penland]

Larry, jumping in here late, but I'd also like to second the idea of taking a photography lesson or two. Even just the 2-hour "seminars" that a lot of local photography stores offer that are conducted by local pro photographers can be great primers in how to use the camera, with hands-on personal help that is indispensable for the technical questions, and accompanied by (usually) slide/PowerPoint shows to show the differences in how the camera settings affect the outcome of the photo. Many stores will offer seminars like this throughout the year, each one emphasizing a particular type of photography (b&w, scenic, portraiture, etc.), so you can pick and choose areas that are of most interest to you.

You can always just learn by trial and error, but if you don't have a good grounding in the basics of how your camera operates and how it handles light, you won't be able to accurately judge those weird lighting situations that will arise in the field -- not without, as Keith says, a lot of disappointment and a lot of time and energy expended. At least in the digital world, you won't spend a king's ransom in film developing to "learn from your mistakes." ;)

[lvn600]

I just had the library order me a book called outdoor digital photography. At this point especially after looking at the photos of some of the tremendously talented photographers in this forum I would not kid myself into making myself a photographer. My main reason for getting the camera was that there have been a few birds I could not i.d. so now I know if I can get a photo it can be i.d.'d here. Secondly I just want to take some shots just for my own enjoyment. I have already learned quite a lot. I know I am making some fundamental mistakes but that's o.k. In time I think a class would be a good idea.

[compa]

I just had the library order me a book called outdoor digital photography. At this point especially after looking at the photos of some of the tremendously talented photographers in this forum I would not kid myself into making myself a photographer. My main reason for getting the camera was that there have been a few birds I could not i.d. so now I know if I can get a photo it can be i.d.'d here. Secondly I just want to take some shots just for my own enjoyment. I have already learned quite a lot. I know I am making some fundamental mistakes but that's o.k. In time I think a class would be a good idea.


Education is, in large, the key to being a better photographer. Read books - read your camera's manual - read online articles. But don't put yourself down by saying you are not a photographer - we are all photographers - some are novice photographers - some are professional photographers. But we all have the same addiction and take the same drug. Just some of us need more of it in more frequent doses 3:-)