Three Megapixels: a digicam aesthetic AI photoshoot
Three Megapixels is a quiet garden portrait taken on an early CCD compact, with the cool blue cast, muted greens and purple leaf fringing those cameras left behind. In one frame the autofocus lands on the hedge instead of the person, as it often did.
Art direction: Alex But
- Camera
- 3 MP CCD compact
- Lens
- 40 mm equiv.
- Aperture
- f/4
- Shutter
- 1/125 s
- ISO
- 100
- Time
- Midday, open shade
Best for
Six frames from this shoot
Five frames and one detail, made by haloshot from three phone photos of one person.
Frame 1 · Three Megapixels 
Frame 2 · Three Megapixels 
Frame 3 · Three Megapixels 
Frame 4 · Three Megapixels 
Frame 5 · Three Megapixels 
Detail · Three Megapixels
About the early digicam look
Midday open shade under trees gives soft skylight from above, broken by small hard patches of sun on gravel and bench slats. The compact's zoom sits near 40 mm equivalent at f/4, 1/125 s and ISO 100, one to two meters away. A small sensor keeps the background only slightly soft. Auto white balance runs cool, bright sky gaps clip and bloom, and in-camera sharpening draws thin halos on every edge.
Clothes, place and when to pick it
haloshot gives each gender its own outfit here: women wear a crinkled pale-blue cotton dress over a white tee under a cropped sage-green knit vest, men a crinkled pale-blue shirt under the same vest with stone pleated trousers. Canvas sneakers, a silver chain and a steel watch are common to both. Expect a calm profile photo with your face among benches and hedges.
How it works
Add three photos of yourself: face, half turn and full length. haloshot renders a free five-frame preview of Three Megapixels with your face. Pick the frames you like and keep them in 4:5 HD.
How to shoot the CCD digicam look on a real compact
Early CCD compacts leave a recognizable signature: a cool auto white balance, heavy in-camera sharpening and purple fringing where dark branches meet a bright sky.
- Find a working 3-megapixel CCD compact from the early 2000s and charge spare batteries, which drain fast.
- Seat the subject on a bench in open shade under trees at midday, bright sky gaps in the leaves behind.
- Zoom to about 40 mm equivalent from 1 to 2 m and set f/4 in aperture priority at ISO 100, near 1/125 s.
- Leave white balance on auto and the flash off, and keep frames where autofocus locks on the hedge.
Bring an old, small memory card; many of these cameras cannot read modern cards.
Set notes by Alex But, art director · Updated
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Shoot Three Megapixels with your face
Three photos in, five free preview frames out. Keep the best ones in HD.