

SLR Camera Simulator - johnx123-up
http://camerasim.com/camera-simulator/

======
Tloewald
Is this the same SLR simulator I saw a couple of years back? Can't tell
because it's Flash.

Seems to me like DSLRs don't really need simulators. Pick up a DSLR, dial it
to P or green or whatever, and go. It's simpler and more responsive than a
point and shoot, just bigger and heavier. (My four year olds love using my
smaller DSLR and have less trouble using it than a small P&S.)

Anyone wanting to learn the fine points of photography can learn them at their
leisure once the key point — using a DSLR is EASIER than using a point and
shoot — is absorbed, and simulators that overload the user with information
are probably counter-productive.

~~~
japhyr
I see value in this. I have seen many people frustrated because their camera's
automatic functions did not produce the image they wanted, and they have no
idea how to change the settings to get a better image. It almost always boils
down to an understanding between shutter speed, aperture, and simple settings
such as exposure compensation.

For these people, this kind of simulator could be really helpful. It might be
a little better if there was more explanatory text after you press the
shutter. For example, I saw "overexposed" once; maybe that message could be
more along the lines of "Your image is overexposed. Try decreasing your
aperture, decreasing your shutterspeed, or adjusting exposure compensation."

~~~
Splines
It seems like there's a balance between the different settings on a camera
that can't really be captured well with independent sliders.

I imagine a control that indicates the trade-offs (and when they're ok) as you
tweak it would educate users in a better way than experimentation. Stay
"inside the envelope" and your picture is probably ok. You can get outside it
if you know what you're doing.

~~~
adavies42
i saw a suggestion a few years ago for a mode that would just let you set
depth of field directly, picking an aperture and shutter (and possibly iso and
comp too) appropriately given the lighting. after all, what most people want
most of the time is either a narrow depth to isolate a subject with bokeh or a
wide depth to show something in context.

~~~
Arelius
Isn't that basically what Aperture Priority mode does?

~~~
japhyr
Yes, for people who understand how aperture relates to depth of field. But
there seem to be a good number of people who understand what depth of field
is, without understanding how to control for it using aperture.

~~~
Tloewald
Depth of field is controlled by aperture, focal length, and distance to
subject. The degree to which the subject is actually isolated from the
background is also very important. This simulator manages to bury one aspect
of this information and ignore the rest.

All else being equal, to increase subject isolation:

* Get closer to the subject

* Increase focal length ("zoom in")

* Increase aperture operning (smaller aperture number)

* Increase separation between subject and background

Each of these things is equally important. (But all else is not equal, so if
you're determined to stand in one spot and not change your composition, just
increasing aperture size is your only option.)

~~~
Arelius
Yes, this is indeed the case! I shoot with a prime, so the ability to change
the focal length doesn't really come to me. But I think it's very important
that you brought up specifically the fact that the distance spatially between
the camera, the subject, and the background are very important!

------
lusr
One thing that would be invaluable simulating is a variable aperture lens
rather than this constant f/2.8 simulation.

My girlfriend just got her first DSLR and was struggling with changing the
aperture. While she understood the concepts, she wasn't familiar with working
with a DSLR alone and since I wasn't physically present, it took me a while to
realise over the phone she'd been changing the aperture by changing the focal
length of the lens. (The D5100 has a pretty crappy and unintuitive control
combination for setting aperture.) Had I been able to point her to a
simulation like this it would have been clear to her that she needed a
distinct method of setting aperture.

~~~
chwahoo
You can change the aperture in this simulation. Perhaps it was just grayed out
since you were in shutter-priority mode?

~~~
lusr
No see you're as confused as she was :) Most zoom lenses are variable
aperture, e.g. at 18mm they will open up to f/3.5 but at 55mm they will only
open up to f/5.6. The simulation doesn't address this, and it can be
surprising for a beginner to see the aperture changing as they zoom - they may
become fixated on zooming as a way to control aperture without realising they
are observing a side-effect.

~~~
modoc
Better lenses are fixed aperture though, so I don't think it's unreasonable to
replicate that here. My 24-70 is 2.8 across the board.

~~~
lusr
While I agree with the point on quality, constant aperture zoom lenses tend to
be MUCH more expensive than variable aperture lenses. Your single lens costs
more than twice her entire starting kit :) They also tend to have fairly
specialist zoom ranges. I find it hard to imagine somebody with a constant
aperture zoom lens would find benefit in this camera simulation. The
_majority_ of the kind of people using it will be beginners with kit variable
aperture lenses.

~~~
thingie
The most common advice for them would be to get a prime lens. Especially in
this simulation that offers both distance and focal length setting (which are,
for this scene and 18-55mm focal length, mostly interchangeable), I'd like to
have it. It'd also allow you to go (cheaply) to f/1.8 or f/1.4, which would be
much better to illustrate the effect that aperture has on the depth of field.
With a common f/3.5:5.6 kit lens and APS-C sensor, you won't get a shallow DOF
and nice out-of-focus background easily, and that could be frustrating to a
beginner. Especially when you learn to do it in this simulation.

------
alanfalcon
Likely it's just that I'm pretty dense about certain subjects, but I had a
hard time grasping the basics of photography until I watched this ten minute
video:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-NhJua5NFA>

The relationships between the basic elements of exposure seem so
straightforward now.

------
Bob_Sheep
It needs to give you the ability to use flash lighting. Then you could learn
about how you can use flash to give a scene a completely different look, for
example by using a wide aperture and short exposure to get the girl properly
illuminated but have the background look very dark. This works because the
flash delivers all its light in a very short period of time so it is
completely unaffected by the shutter speed. So once the flash power and
aperture are set to give a proper exposure on the subject the shutter speed
can be adjusted to give different levels of background illumination.

~~~
5h
not what your after, but <http://www.zvork.fr/vls/> is fun if you like playing
with low key / gels etc

------
willyt
Why not show the result in real time as you adjust the sliders? You can still
show the preview off to one side or whatever. It would help develop a tighter
iterative loop for experimenting and save the cognitive overhead of trying to
remember what was wrong with the one before. Have some image 'troughs' which
you can populate with screen grabs including the settings you used to allow
quick reference to settings from previous results. If you did that then there
would be more of an argument for using this rather than just picking up a DSLR
and fiddling with the controls.

~~~
MBCook
I agree, that actually surprised me a bit. With a real SLR, some adjustments
are immediately obvious. When you change the aperture, the view becomes
brighter/dimmer and the depth of field changes.

Some, like shutter speed, don't make a difference until you hit the button,
but it would have been nice to see the DOF changes in real time.

Still, a great little tool. Very handy.

~~~
thingie
On most DSLRs, I believe, you have to press a DOF-preview button (whatever
it's called), instead, it remains wide open making it easier/possible to
accurately focus using the viewfinder. Focus is what I miss most in this
simulator, it leaves out a very important part of taking of the picture…

And of course, there is virtually no way to reflect the ISO or shutter speed
setting, using the optical viewfinder. Not a bad idea to "simulate" here as
well, because it's not funny to shoot in the aperture-first mode and forget to
reset ISO from some ridiculously high value that you had to use yesterday in
the evening.

~~~
MBCook
That's right, I remember that button. Good catch.

~~~
thingie
On the other hand, I _was_ confused and disappointed that the lighting slider
in the simulation doesn't do anything (well, it shows an icon, for a while,
couldn't it just dim/lighten the scene a bit?).

------
japhyr
This is pretty cool, but the swaying girl gets a little creepy after spending
any time on the site. Are there any other scenes available? It would be nice
to have a "Change Scene" button.

------
deepGem
Presume this is a tool for point and shoot guys to figure out what a SLR feels
like. If you can add a shutter half-click simulation - have an out of focus
element and bring that to focus with the shutter half-click, that'll be
awesome.

------
novalis
Congrats on the cool project, I've never seen one done before and I understand
how this would be of value to someone starting out that doesn't have access to
the real deal. I think this must have been fun to develop and it shows. I can
see great value in specific cases, for young kids to get a grasp at the joy of
getting good photo results while experimenting. The experimentation factor is
always a plus for interactivity and you showed good use of the tech to
accomplish that.

------
crazcarl
This is neat. I like the advice that you give when the pictures are bad, but
it took me a little while to get from "this picture is OK, but kind of blurry"
to a good one. I guess I can't expect to pick up a SLR and get a good one on
my first try!

~~~
slantyyz
Yeah, you probably can pick up an SLR and get a decent shot on your first try,
especially if you use the Automatic mode.

------
anjc
Good implementation of a good idea. It'd be extra good if there were various
scenarios to photograph. E.g. a race car in motion, a dark indoor scene.

------
trafficone
This would have been great when I was paying for film in my SLR.

------
jasimq
Being a new DSLR user, I see this as a great learning tool.

