Chapter5.The Big Fixx: digital camera image problems

Chapter 5. The Big Fixx: digital camera image problems

Photo by Scott Kelby

Exposure: 1/250

Focal Length: 70mm

Aperture Value: /4.0

Okay, did you catch that reference to the band The Fixx in the title? You did? Great. That means that you're at least in your mid-30s to early 40s. (I myself am only in my mid- to early 20s, but I listen to oldies stations just to keep in touch with baby boomers and other people who at one time or another tried to break-dance.) Well, The Fixx had a big hit in the early '80s (around the time I was born) called "One Thing Leads to Another" and that's a totally appropriate title for this chapter because one thing (using a digital camera) leads to another (having to deal with things like digital noise, color aliasing, and other nasties that pop up when you've finally kicked the film habit and gone totally digital). Admittedly, some of the problems we bring upon ourselves (like leaving the lens cap on; or forgetting to bring our camera to the shoot, where the shoot is, or who hired us; or we immersed our flash into a tub of Jell-O, you knowthe standard stuff). And other things are problems caused by the hardware itself (the slave won't fire when it's submerged in Jell-O, you got some Camembert on the lens, etc.). Whatever the problem, and regardless of whose fault it is, problems are going to happen, and you're going to need to fix them in Elements. Some of the fixes are easy, like running the "Remove Camembert" filter, and then changing the blend mode to Fromage. Others will have you jumping through some major Elements hoops, but fear not, the problems you'll most likely run into are all covered here in a step-by-step format that will have you wiping cold, congealed water off your flash unit faster than you can say, "How can Scott possibly be in his mid-20s?"