Photography - How would you get started

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[H]ard|Gawd
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Sep 5, 2001
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Currenty I have a Sony DSC-P72 3.2 mexa pixel camera. A lot of my shots come out blurry and I can't seem to find the right setting, even on auto, to make that stop happening.

I really need a hobby bad!! So any help would be appreciated if that means going out to buy a book, suggest a book or website.
 
What is your shutter setting on most of your pictures?
 
Being honest and stupid saying I don't know. Not sure if there is a way to set that on my camera
 
FlipperBizkut said:
If it is blurry because you are not holding the camera steady, invest in a tripod.
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This is a pretty blanket statement and quite unreasonable :rolleyes:

You will have two values in your viewfinder

  1. Shutter Speed - 30, 60, 90, 125, "1
  2. Aperture - 1.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16

Slower the shutter speed 30 would be 1/30th of a second, and 125 would be 1/125th of a second, so 125 is faster. If the shutter speed is too slow, and you aren't holding the camera properly you can get camera shake. A slow shutter speed is indictive of lower light environments.

Try speeding up the shutter speed, and check to see that you camera is setup properly. A tripod is great for long exposures, and low light poses, but you can't be expected to use one all the time. I also suggest you check out a book on basic photography.

Cheers,
 
In a digital camera. I don't have this

Unless someone else can show me on my camera where it is
 
On this page in the first picture, see the F4.0 and the 40 underneath, that is the Aperture and Shutter Speed.
 
A trick I found that helps steady me steady my A70 is to look through the actual viewfinder and not hold it in front of you like most people do. Its amazing how much more steady you can hold the camera.
 
I have the same camera and have had to adjust to it also. Set it to center AF and metering mode 'spot'. Taht should help. It takes getting used to. It's not a bum camera just needs a little playing around with ti get it right. Don't forget to press the shoot button half way till it focuses then press all the way down to snap. Of course you have to set it to 'program' to do these things.
 
Yea I just noticed that if I hold it down half-way it shows me the apt and shutter speed. I don't know what settings actually change those because nothing says either one.

Also my flash doesn't ever seem to work. I know these are problems this forum cannot fix. I looked on Sony's website and I didn't see a manual to download. I left the manual at my dad's house, which is far away.

Also how far do you think this digital camera can focus. I can't get it to do macro close ups.
 
Eigtball said:
This is a pretty blanket statement and quite unreasonable :rolleyes:
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Well, I for one can say that I know someone that has a slight tremor in her hands. She either has to take a picture with a tripod, holding it steady against something else, or lowering the exposure time considerably (as Eigtball suggested). If auto settings are what you are using and there is still blurriness due to camera shake, what other options do you have? It doesn't seem too unreasonable to me.

The statement was not meant to be a fix for all situations. Obviously you will not be able to use one all the time, but I do use a tripod if I have it with me and have the time to set up my shot. I find I can sometimes get better pictures with one, and I do have pretty steady hands. I didn't invest in a tripod for quite some time after getting my camera, but now that I have, I don't know how I lived without it. I just thought it might be something that could have been overlooked. My apologies if I seemed unreasonable.
 
Seems to be doing better now and NOT after rtfm

Just playing around with it

I lost the TFM
 
FlipperBizkut said:
Well, I for one can say that I know someone that has a slight tremor in her hands. She either has to take a picture with a tripod, holding it steady against something else, or lowering the exposure time considerably (as Eigtball suggested). If auto settings are what you are using and there is still blurriness due to camera shake, what other options do you have? It doesn't seem too unreasonable to me.

The statement was not meant to be a fix for all situations. Obviously you will not be able to use one all the time, but I do use a tripod if I have it with me and have the time to set up my shot. I find I can sometimes get better pictures with one, and I do have pretty steady hands. I didn't invest in a tripod for quite some time after getting my camera, but now that I have, I don't know how I lived without it. I just thought it might be something that could have been overlooked. My apologies if I seemed unreasonable.
Click to expand...

As for your friend, I can understand their situation. It was just that your statement seemed like "get a tripod, because you can't hold it steady", but maybe that was just me. Anyway no problem, thanks for the clarification, and 'hand-holding' can sometimes be tricky for the first little bit.

Happy shooting!

Cheers,
 
I don't think the aperture, shutter speed, or camera shake settings are going to help with this case...look at the camera this person is using...a sony P&S. First off that person can't change most of the settings suggesting on here, and secondly, on auto shoot, that camera ought to act fine without any tweaking. There could be a problem with the sensor. Check the troubleshooter in your manual and see if there is a solution to your problem. However it should work just fine on auto, as I said.

My favorite forums are at www.fredmiranda.com...forums at www.photography-on-the-net.com are also good... there are forums at DPreview.com and Photo.net but they're not that good. I would stick with the first two. To get more interested in photography, I'd start checking out some shots on this site. The best advice I can give you is to just keep looking at good photos so that you can develop a sense of what you view as stylish and what you know is a no-no. There are thousands of photos at photo.net to check out also. However, at fredmiranda and other active forums, there are people to critique photos...they say what they like about the photo and what they dislike, so it can be a very good learning experience. Plus most of the people on those types of forums are what we call "prosumers," people who are technically hobbyists but tend to have the kind of gear that a professional would shoot with. Therefore the quality of the photos tends to be unparalleled to any other site I've found online. Plus you have your crop of professional photographers as well.

Good luck!
 
Try a higher ISO setting. Though even with 400 I sometimes need to use the flash inside. Outdoors its usually bright enough do things nicely with 50 or 100 (maybe 200 if its allready later...).

I shoot prettymuch everything on apeture priority though......auto, whats that?!?
 
Check this site out. Steve does pretty in-depth reviews of almost any digital camera available. He goes into detail about all the functions the camera is capable of too. Almost as good as RTFM.
 
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