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So what did I do wrong here? (Warning, Unresized Pics)

C

croww

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 15, 2002
Messages
134
I was out at the lake yesterday taking a few shots..it was a beautiful day and I don't normally shoot in the daytime so I wanted to see what I could come up with. I wasn't really going for anything compositionally incredible..I just wanted an accurate representation of what I was seeing with my eyes.

Here are the results, and note that in almost none of them can you actually see the SKY..it's all..I don't know, bleached out, washed out..is it overexposed? Everything seems washed out..and what isn't washed out seems grainy. The hills in the distance are really grainy, or is that noise? Should I have gone faster shutter? It was very bright outside and I was using apeture priority. EXIFs should be on all files, I did no conversions.

Thanks :(

croww

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P2222802.JPG


P2222746.JPG


P2222829.JPG
 
your camera considers the darkness of the trees and trys to compensate for that by using a slower shutter speed, which overexposes the sky.
next time, if it looks that bright on your lcd, just switch to manual and increase the shutter speed, so that it becomes representative of what you see.


edit-
reduce your iso to 50 to reduce noise,
and increase your fstop to f/8 to gain clarity
 
issue #1 (grain)

Type of camera? The noise (grain) is likely due to the CCD. This you can't avoid. But I won't know for sure unless you list the kind of camera you are using. It may be that you have it set at a high ISO. But that amount of noise is quite normal for some cameras at their lowest ISO. So I say once again I can't make a judgment on this for sure unless you post your type of camera. Olympus? Fuji? Kodak? Sony?


issue #2 (sky)

This is a limitation of 1) the CCD and 2) digital cameras in general. This is called lack of dynamic range. There are various ways to fix this. One is to do it in software by combining exposures or altering the original images. The second way to fix this is to meter for the sky.

Look at these 2 pictures taken at identical times. One was metered for the sky and was not.

a1.jpg


a2.jpg
 
More or less what I thought. Here are a few other tips that (may) help you:

Does your camera have an AE lock or an equivalent? If so then point it at the sky and lock the exposure there... that will ensure that the sky is properly exposed.

I find that the manual exposure compensation option on the A70 (don't have something to read EXIF's on this computer so I'll just assume that yours has this feature) is really useful in difficult exposures. Just take a picture, check it out in the LCD, and adjust the compensation to suit your preferences then take another picture. This is also an easy way of "bracketing" your picture.

Use a tripod even if it is just a small, table model that you can brace on something. It, along with using f8, will help you to sharpen up your images a bit.
 
Good info guys, thanks alot. agentzero9, the camera is an Olympus C-740UZ. I was set on ISO 100 for all those shots, and most were at f8. I have noticed the grain in other pictures and I'm starting to worry that it may be an issue with the camera, instead of just error on my part. I was using a tripod in most of the pics. As for using the LCD to check pictures and retake them, that's a great idea but I was having some problems seeing what I was getting on the LCD because it was so bright, and the sky didn't look THAT BAD in the preview pics on the LCD..next time though I'll watch closer, I just sort of assumed that what I was seeing of the sky was fine, but having seen these I know that the sky is what I'm really going to have to pay attention to, as it detracted from the pictures immensely. As for the grain..well..there may not be a whole lot I can do about that :( Wish I could go lower than ISO 100 but thats the limit on the C-740.

I will try metering the sky next time and see how that works. I also shot a roll of ISO 100 Kodak in my 35mm SLR and I'll get that back tomorrow and we'll see how that came out.

Really appreciate all the help guys.

croww
 
Originally posted by croww
Good info guys, thanks alot. agentzero9, the camera is an Olympus C-740UZ. I was set on ISO 100 for all those shots, and most were at f8. I have noticed the grain in other pictures and I'm starting to worry that it may be an issue with the camera, instead of just error on my part. I was using a tripod in most of the pics. croww
Click to expand...

Notice how Olympus was my first guess. I used to have an Oly so it looked quite familiar. Yeah that amount of grain is normal for the 740z. It's still not THAT bad for a 10x zoom, you have to remember that sacrifices have to be made for 10x zoom cameras.
 
I have a 750, and i'm sure that I can take it down to 50 ISO, have you tried switching to full manual and trying to lower the ISO?
 
Originally posted by croww
Gondi, the 750 goes down to 50, the 740 is limited at 100. :(
Click to expand...

It's not that big of a difference. The C-750 "needs" ISO 50 more than the C740 because it has a larger pixel density than the C740. The sensor size on each camera is almost identical.
 
one issue with those pictures is that even if he was metering off a neutral subject, he would still be getting extra exposure from the reflections off the water. You'd need to compensate for that at least one and a half stops, maybe two. It's not quite as bad as snow, but almost.
 
I had this problem using a Canon A70, you should look at the book to determine the way to turn the on-cam jpg compression to 'None/SuperFine'

It doesn't come set that way, and if you do a default config on the camera it won't go back to that point, you have to set it yourself.

-PD
 
Great info guys. Thanks alot! Max, I of course never thought of the reflections affecting the exposure..I've never done snow shooting either. I'm going to try to get down to the lake again this weekend and put everything here to use.

Purdue, how does on-cam jpg compression affect the pics, I'm not familiar with that term?

Thanks

Here's one from the lake that didn't come out so bad, not great but passable :

Seagull%20at%20East%20Fork.jpg
 
I own the same camera (C740UZ), and I've found that enabling Noise Reduction does help a fair amount (Menu > Camera > Noise Reduction (it's in the second screen of the Camera menu).

Also, if you look in the Picture menu (second tab), the first option deals with the image quality (HQ, by default). I'd recommend setting that one to SHQ, then selecting the highest resolution (2048x1536) -- this is the next best thing aside from uncompressed TIFF mode that the C740UZ supports (TIFF eats up about 9MB per 3-megapixel image).

One thing I'm curious on, is how do you decide what you're metering on this cam? Do you simply aim the camera so most of the sky is in the center of the frame, press the shutter button down halfway, then frame the shot, or is there another way?

(I'm starting to learn some of the advanced features of this camera, but still could use some help).
 
Hey Guru. I do take everything in SHQ at 2048x1536, then crop later when editing. Noise Reduction is pretty nice on our camera..I'll try it with some daytime shots and see how it does, I normally only use it on the night shots I do.

As for metering, you described it correctly. You point where you want to meter, hold the button halfway down, then frame up your shot. You could do everything completely manually in manual mode of course, and do your own focusing and such while you're at it, but alot of times it's nice to use apeture priority and let the camera handle the rest.

Do you have an online photo album? I'm always looking for more pics taken by C740s :). Mine is at http://croww.blubox.yi.org/pics , check out the Finished Pics directory for some semi-decent shots.

croww
 
Honestly, I haven't really taken many good pics with the C-740UZ (by "good" I mean those that I'd consider worthy for a photo album). I still find it hard to take my camera out at a moment's notice if I see something worth taking a pic of -- especially in public.

I can't believe I ended up telling you about setting compression modes, when it was you that helped me learn a few things with my camera (Remember This Thread?).

Anyways, I guess I should really start bringing my camera with me more often and really focus on getting some really great shots. Only things I have half decent right now are:

http://members.shaw.ca/gurux/photos/scenery1.jpg (I think this one only ended up in HQ mode by accident)
http://members.shaw.ca/gurux/photos/scenery2.jpg

(Just wanted to get an idea of how far a 10x zoom lens really goes). Looks like the sky metered quite well too. :)
 
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