Topic: Bought a new Camera! :woohoo:

[MiniSimp]

Nice!

As a general rule I'll usually have my cam set on AV with the largest f-stop (mine is f2.5) for any shots where I need to just shoot subject only.

Usually set it on Program for general picture taking (family GTG's etc.)

Set it on Manual when I am doing a controlled shot with pleanty of setup time, and it does get tricky indoors.


Manual:



Program:


Aperature Value:

[BigMike [OP]]

Try that same shot for me in AV mode and see what it does.

Ok, here ya go:





Not much of a difference between 80 and Auto, the camera was probably using 80 anyways. Why do you recommend AV mode?

I call "zooming out" as meaning that I view the object at a 1X optical zoom, and I call "zooming in" meaning that I view the object at a (with this camera) 12X optical zoom. Am I using the proper terminology?

[MiniSimp]

So a F-stop of say 20 is "smaller" than a F-stop of 3?

Correct.

So you zoom around a lot then?

When taking shots where you want the background blurry, yes. The more you are zoomed in, the blurrier the background.
Like in the shots above, you probably do not want the cracked asphalt to be the focus of the image, so use a large f-stop (f4.0) and blur it out. It will bring the focus to your subject faster.

[BigMike [OP]]

Ok, AV mode for subjects.

I used to always use the Program mode with my older camera just because it "felt good".

Set it on Manual when I am doing a controlled shot with pleanty of setup time

Check

Aperature Value:

Yeah those chairs are AWESOME. Were you using a wide angle lense? I like the bending effect.

[MiniSimp]

Not much of a difference between 80 and Auto, the camera was probably using 80 anyways. Why do you recommend AV mode?

Yeah, not much difference at all.

I call "zooming out" as meaning that I view the object at a 1X optical zoom, and I call "zooming in" meaning that I view the object at a (with this camera) 12X optical zoom. Am I using the proper terminology?

Correct.

[MiniSimp]

Yeah those chairs are AWESOME. Were you using a wide angle lense? I like the bending effect.

I've got a Sigma (my favorite lens company) 180 degree full frame fisheye. Pricey, but worth every penny and then some.

[BigMike [OP]]

Cool, thanks again for your help Mini

[Cheesemaker]

Your making me jealous!  I want to go take pics really bad now!  I really miss using my old Minolta 35mm slr's.  It was fun to play with all the ISO, F-stop, and exposure settings!  But with the digital age and all the programs out there now days, it takes all the challenge out of it!  But you're not wasting 3 rolls of film to get the one shot! 

Good luck on the new toy BigMike! 

[Cheesemaker]

Especially, since it's been foggy around here in the mornings, and those are some of the best conditions to take pics!

[MiniSimp]

Cool, thanks again for your help Mini

Any time.

[BigMike [OP]]

I have never like this picture of our Total-Spline 2.28:1 23-spline Input gear that I took a couple of years ago:


So I thought I would try again using the better camera, but I can't seem to get a decent picture of the gear. It's really hard because I can't get the right lighting with all of the shadows that the teeth and splines cast upon one another. If I use a flash with the white balance on flash mode, then I get a blue streak down the center of the gear.

Here are a couple of pictures I took with no flash, shutter speed at 1/8, F-stop at my lowest, 8.0, and ISO at 80, in Manual Mode. I have not tried the AV Mode yet.

I even set the custom white balance to the sheet of white paper I have the gear resting atop.

I think its just my lighting setup. I have two lights on each side of the camera, using GE Reveal 100 light bulbs with some white fabric over the front of the light housing to help flood the light. I know its pretty ghetto, but it was all pretty cheap and I've learned to work with it. But these inputs are hard to get right...

[BigMike [OP]]

Ok, here it is in AV Mode with custom white balance. The white looks a bit better here:



I think it's just all in the lighting from this point... There is a strange blue orb or haze that exists at the edges of the subject. Any ideas?

[MiniSimp]

 

[BigMike [OP]]

I changed light bulbs in my photo booth, and things look much better, and it is easier to set the white balance.


I just wanted to comment really quick about Las Vegas! The camera KICKS ASS!!!!!!! But the downside is that I have a HUGE object in my cargo pocket! I could fit my old camera, which wasn't exactly thin, in my jean pockets, but this new camera can barely fit into my cargo pants side pocket.

Of course I was expecting this, knowing it is larger than my older camera, and as stated on a review page,

"The S3 IS simply demands to be held. It's too large for a coat pocket; but that fits, because this is a camera you want focused on the world, ready to go, not tucked in your pocket like an auto club card, there only for emergencies."

So yes I know its large and because of this it takes awesome pictures, but at the same time, it is quite annoying to me to carry it around. But this IS something I am willing to get used to because the camera is Awesome!

At least it's smaller than a SLR and I saw sooooooooooo many people on the strip with SLR cameras! I was pretty shocked! I think I just never noticed it before, but now I am so curious about everyone's camera

Having the 12x zoom is AWESOME. I will post up some more pics on my lunch break or so.. One really dumb thing I did is I went on a trip without brining my telephoto lense converter or the lenses. I also left the tripod at home. I don't know what I was thinking!

I didn't take as many *good* pictures as I would have liked to, rather I spent sooooo much time playing around with the camera settings and learning how to improve my pictures. I did take 2.4 GB of video however

[kneedownnate]

I changed light bulbs in my photo booth, and things look much better, and it is easier to set the white balance.

I'm envisioning somebody knocking on the door, "hurry up and pinch it off mike, taco bell's catching up to me!"

"I'm taking pictures, I swear!"

[kneedownnate]

One side effect I see when you get into the "better" cameras is they seem to make some things too sharp, almost making them look photo shopped. 

Some of your pics will never show up here looking as good as they truly are either, check my hiking thread from last year and you'll see what I mean.  Some of those pics came out so frickin clear, yet when I posted them here they're just kinda blah.

[BigMike [OP]]

That's just because the file size needs to be reduced in order to up load to the forum. This is done in one of two ways: Either reduce the amount of pixles per inch (resolution), or reduce the quality of the image (compression).

If you want your images to appear in their original high quality, then you will need to upload them to some other server and then link to them from here.

BigMike

[kneedownnate]

Ah yes, but if I were to do that then how could I continue to claim to be lazy?  ziiiiiiiiiiiiinngg

[BigMike [OP]]

oh snap!

[kneedownnate]

My camera doesn't take the best close ups though.  First was a few days ago, second this morning and third was my little friend hiding in my corn stalk!

[BigMike [OP]]

Nate, those look great to me! Does your camera have a Macro mode?

Look for this icon:


Mini, I had a question about photo editing. Do you have any tricks for cleaning up a picture taken with a flash to make it look more like the flash was not used? Not the white balance, necessary, but on how brighter items seem to stand out more than darker images when the flash is used. If you had to use the flash when you really didn't want to, maybe it was dusk, or you didn't have a tripod and hence couldn't get a low enough F-stop.....?


Check out the difference between a wide angle lense:


And not:


I still need to get a 3rd or 4th light setup and get a new piece of larger paper that I have been using, and also get a nice white fabric material too-


Mini, I still have not been using the "Super Fine" mode, I am only using Fine. Think it will make a huge difference? I should do some comparative investigation..

[BigMike [OP]]

Check this out,






The lower F-stop seems to make the image look more crisp and sharp. It's a bit darker because I probably should have used a quicker shutter

[MiniSimp]

On shots like that do not use the flash, use the tripod , as much soft lighting as you can, and have it on timer mode. It also helps to not have the light on the subject, but rather shine the light on the white paper to the right or left or above the subject. It will work better for diffusing and give you less shadows, and virtually no reflection. Also make sure there is no light projecting behind you (like a window)

Also where is the white balance?

If you want to adjust the WB in APS go to IMAGE > ADJUSTMENTS > LEVELS then click on the far right water droplet (3 boxes toward the bottom right) and use that to pick what is white in the picture. Or if there is no white in the picture click on the far left droplet and tell the image what is black.

[MiniSimp]

Another thing I've noticed is that the paper you are using is too thin, and on the camera does not project as white, but a dark white.

Go to Tap Plastics or some place like it and get a sheet of really thin white matte finish plastic. They sell them in 2.5x4' i beleive.

[BigMike [OP]]

On shots like that do not use the flash, use the tripod

nononononono, I am using the tripod and am not using the flash. I was referring to another picture I took of Jeff and Angelo inside of the shop, and I didn't like how it looked in the lcd screen. I have not checked it out on the computer yet though

I've seen the LEVELS window before, but I never played with the water dropped / color picker! That's awesome!

[BigMike [OP]]

Another thing I've noticed is that the paper you are using is too thin, and on the camera does not project as white, but a dark white.

Go to Tap Plastics or some place like it and get a sheet of really thin white matte finish plastic. They sell them in 2.5x4' i beleive.

Yeah, the color balance on these pictures did not turn out as I wanted, so I am in the process of taking more shots. Also, I set the white balance, but yet it still didn't look good. I zoomed into the white sheet of paper, and set the balance on it, but the pictures don't look good, so I had used auto-white balance for those pictures.

I will brb

[MiniSimp]

Try the same setup outside in the shade unlit.

[kneedownnate]

Nate, those look great to me! Does your camera have a Macro mode?

  That's the setting they were taken on!  I just took these too.  I was out moving gravel out of my garden bed so I can make it bigger, moved a border rock and was like WTF?!  What the heck lays eggs under a rock.......... oh crap, where's the snake!

[BigMike [OP]]

You've got some crocs near by


Hey Mini, here is a better attempt at the white balance. I set the balance without zooming into the white paper this time:

[MiniSimp]

Perfect!
Ok, for background you want to get something bigger, that you can lay on the floor and blend up to the wall (from horizontal to verticle) that way there is no seperation line.