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Compact Camera

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Stock Photos

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These days you only need to own a mobile phone to be the proud owner of a camera. Hence, almost everyone owns a camera. People use phone cameras to capture just about everything, from a close-up document to the most spectacular landscape. Phones have taken over compact digital cameras, while DSLR cost is out of the reach of the typical photo hobbyist.

 

The photographic product of some phones are way out and it is quite obvious these phones will in no way take beautiful vibrant pictures. There are others, especially those with multiple camera lenses, that take beautiful pictures that when viewed on the phone’s display look really good. Not many take the time to closely examine the photos that their phone cameras take at 100% zoom. Are all photos taken with phone cameras as beautiful when closely examined as they are otherwise?

Unlike a dedicated camera, a mobile phone carries one or more small lenses and wide aperture to collect enough light for quality photos at a certain range. Even with mobile phones that have an adjustable aperture, and multiple lenses to improve flexibility, the size is still limited when compared with a DSLR, for example. Also, mobile phones carry smaller sensors, thus small photosites and lesser dynamic range even with the improved technology of those having multiple lenses and adjustable aperture. What is the significance of all this for the production of sharply detailed photographs suitable for occassions such as stock-photography?

Aperture adjustments affect exposure and depth of field. Close-up photos are better taken with a wide aperture which will create the subject with sharp edges and bokeh in the background. Depending on the subject and the aperture setting will determine if the entire subject is captured sharply. For example, a wide aperture setting might capture the head of a cat completely sharp but the animal's body out of focus. Aperture settings are called f-stops and are measured from wide to small. Therefore, a wide aperture is represented by a small f-stop number.

 

Landscape requires a greater depth of field achievable with a smaller aperture. A mobile phone camera does not carry that range of aperture settings that can achieve enough depth to take good quality landscape pictures. Depending on the size cat, it most likely will not capture the entire cat’s image completely sharp.

The small sensor of mobile phones carries small photosites and thus a smaller number of megapixels making the photograph of lesser quality. The small sensor also affects dynamic range negatively with the inclination to produce excess noise, turning out images with blotches, and noise/grains as well as portions without details. This again makes camera phones not suitable for landscape photography or for photographing subjects beyond a certain size.

When taking stock photographs, take into consideration the limitations of your telephone’s camera and select subjects accordingly. Stock photos must be detailed and of good quality. Therefore in addition to choosing a phone that takes beautiful pictures, you also need to select subjects that will fit within the camera’s limitations. When you snap a photo with your phone’s camera, zoom in to inspect the captured image closely. By doing so you are able to see its quality and if your captured image is suitable for licensing. 

Compact Camera

Small compact cameras used for photography are more flexible than phone cameras and take beautiful images. Compact cameras carry more control adjustments that include optical zoom, full auto mode, semi-auto modes and selection for different scenes such as landscape, portrait, food, macro, pets and others. Other adjustments might include high key, low key, monotone, sepia, or soft. Adjustments for flash and exposure are two additional features you will find on a compact camera.

Unlike phones, compact cameras have larger lenses and sensors relative to the camera size, selective focus and optical zoom. Therefore a compact camera will collect more lights, capture sharper detailed images and better quality capture with low light settings. Also, a compact camera carries a range of aperture settings with better depth than that of phones. While there is greater flexibility of depth range, there still might be a challenge taking crisp landscape images with compact cameras. The compact camera lens might range from f/3.5 to 6.5 (printed on the camera lens as 1:3.5-6.5). It means subjects requiring greater depth than f/6.5 will not be completely sharp. Hence while a compact camera will take better quality pictures, it is not suitable for landscape photography.

Despite the quality advantage of compact cameras, you still need to take its limitations for producing sharpness into consideration when taking images for stock photo platforms. As with phone cameras, you also must select subjects that will fall within the depth of the camera potential. Hence, when purchasing a compact camera, consider the aperture range and the other lens information printed on the camera lens. Also, when you snap a photo for stock with your compact camera, zoom in and inspect the image for high quality details.

DSLR Camera

DSLR cameras are more flexible. They carry automatic, semi-automatic and manual settings as well as settings of scenes. With DSLR you can choose your preferred file format. For people capturing subjects for commercial purpose such as stock photography RAW format is better. RAW saves details of your capture and thus turns out better when post processed.

DSLR Cameras use optical lenses, which make them better for details, preservation of zoomed images, and landscapes. While using these cameras you can choose either auto-focus or manual focusing.

Depending on your scenes adjustments of F-stop, shutter speed, white balance, flash, exposure compensation and ISO corrects exposure and depth that will make your image sharp and properly exposed. Each scene or subject requires its own unique adjustments. Even if you are shooting in daylight you still need to make sure the settings of your camera is correct for each shot you’re taking especially since daylight lighting changes with the movements of the sun’s direction and cloud coverage.

Details are important for captures such as stock photographs for printing. For example a night photo with the forefront dark will just be a black area when printed. Adding exposure to bring out details in the forefront will give better printing results. Since night shots needs larger aperture, and higher ISO it is usually at the expense of image quality, shutter speed or both depending on your lens, and depth required. For Night shots mount the camera on a tripod and even better using a remote control to take the shots. High ISO introduces more noise, but once you do not exceed the limit your camera can safely manage, post processing will make corrections. Having correct exposure helps to reduce the amount of noise. Having correct depth and exposure makes your entire frame, or subject sharp.

While daylight and lit indoor captures are easy, the limitations come with limited or no light at all, or high light intensity. With backlighting you can always use exposure and flash compensations, reflector or artificial lighting to add light for the forefront exposure. Flash can be used sometimes as fill lights (The technique need to be learnt and practiced to avoid high light exposure burning in your images). However, shooting directly into high lights such as the sun (which is a dangerous practice), or very bright light on a section of your subject (sunlight on the side of a fruit, or leaf) will cause detail loss.

Also, a tripod is required for night shots and select depth carefully based on what your camera settings can handle without underexposure, too much artifacts, and poor quality capture. Despite these limitations, the right gears and skill knowledge minimize flaws to the point where post-processing corrections produces stunning pictures. Therefore if your aim is to earn from photography, your best choice with the least limitation is, shoot in RAW with a DSLR camera. Even though you get the best quality photos with DSLR cameras, you still need to zoom in to check for quality and do post processing where necessary.

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