Hints and Tips

Most folk get hung up on the multiplication or number of times zoom on a lens.The high number of millimetres on a lens is not the most important thing.Go for a bigger diameter as this lets in more light,great for low light pictures and allows you to do things "flash free",that the smaller diameter zoom lenses can't do.

Good Tip TB

I found this on White Balance for you Guys who were asking about it



WS

Thanks WS - I love white balance it's great to change it and see the difference.

Lai

Here's a good tip

Have you ever noticed that your shots sometimes have a cool, clammy feel to them? If so, you're not alone. The default white balance setting for digital cameras is auto, which is fine for most snapshots, but tends to be a bit on the "cool" side.

When shooting outdoor portraits and sunny landscapes, try changing your white balance setting from auto to cloudy. That's right, cloudy. Why? This adjustment is like putting a mild warming filter on your camera. It increases the reds and yellows resulting in richer, warmer pictures.

WS

Good tip WS -

I'm a fiddler anyway so haven't used auto

Lai

WS, I don't have a cloudy one on my camera. I have a High ISO for taking pictures in low light......would that have the same effect as low light is kind of like cloudy. I've never used it before.

littlewid-x-

Not sure LW I think it might do, the best thing to do is try it take one shot on Auto then another with high ISO. and see what difference it makes. It's a tip I found on line after using Easy Search. I said ( EASY SEARCH LAI ). TB might have a better idea
WS

WS

Two useful links Littlewid. I think the youtube clip might help you but I am not sure what camera you have.





http://www.slrphotographyguide.com/camera/settings/iso.shtml

Lai

Thanks for the links Lai, I will have a look at both of them.

I only have a small digi cam, it's a Kodak with 8.2 mega pixels and it says Kodak AF 3 x Optical Aspheric Lens equivalent to 34mm - 102mm, so it's not a very flashy one.

I tried taking pictures in not very good light last night on Auto and then on the High ISO to see the difference. It's the first time I have used it.

Heres the before with Auto



Nero is a bit dark in both of those.....and I nearly chopped his head off in the second one.

Heres the after ones with the High ISO




The pictures are lighter but the focus is rubbish, I needed to zoom in more but Splodge was also going to be on the move so I couldn't get any more.....but I tried.
littlewid-x-

I think you'll find LW, that the high ISO works better outside on daylight rather than inside. Great tip Lai at least its making us look at things on the Web as well
WS

With Easysearch WS

I love the photos anyway Littlewid and Nero and Splodge look so sweet together.

Lai

Just watched the video Lai and looked at the link, very helpful thanks and your right WS High ISo is really for outside.

This is really making me look at my camera. This is a link to the camera I have, I have never really investigated mu camera before so I am really enjoying this and finding out about it.

http://shop.kodak.co.uk/store/ekconseu/en_GB/pd/M863_Digital_Camera/productID.147446900

Usng the High ISO indoors did make the pictures looka bit grainy but they were lovely subjects

littlewid-x-

Glad it helped a bit - and it's great we are all now looking at our cameras and :study:

Lai

Here's a website I've just found - it's got some interesting tutorials and you can just pick and choose to suit your needs.

http://www.geofflawrence.com/photography_tutorials.htm

Lai

Just checked out your Camera on the Link LW, and you've got 20 scene, and 3 colour modes on it which is good. Inside shots always look grainy if there's not enough light, but your right the subjects more than make up for it. Great to see Splodge, and Nero
WS
Going to check yours out tomorrow Lai Thanks

A note to myself that might help others,when speeding up the shutter speed to capture fast moving items(Salmon leaping waterfall),remember to open the aperture to let in more light......doh!

Thanks TB. It's an easy one to forget, in the excitement of getting a shot
WS

good one TB. Sometimes in the excitement everything goes out of the window!

Lai Pai

This thread seems to have been dormant for a little while so I thought I would add a couple of tips that might come in useful.
As it is supposed to be summer, there are always a lot of brightly coloured flowers and plants around waiting to be snapped and one way to add a little sparkle to a photo is to give the subject a helping hand. For a change if I am taking a photo of a flower, I will get an ordinary sprayer, fill it with tap water and then set the nozzle to a fine mist and gently spray the flower. The result is a flower that looks as if it has just been rained on and if you can then take your photo with the sun shining the picture will have an added sparkle. I have posted a couple of pics so that you can see the technique.I know it is cheating but it is also fun!!



Kniphofia Rooperi (red-hot poker)





Crocosmia

Another tip is never be in a hurry to delete a photo you have just taken. Unless the you are certain the photo is a disaster; i.e. you totally missed the subject you were taking, always wait until you can see the pic on a computer screen. You can never be certain that there might be a part of the shot that can be saved or you might have included something you were not aware of at the time. The photo below was taken during a trip to Meru National Park, Kenya. It was early morning, before sunrise and we were actually on our way to find the perfect spot to photo the sunrise (Meru is the best place I know for sunrises and I will post some pics at a later date) when we suddenly saw a porcupine hurrying along at the side of the road. Still half-asleep and still quite dark I tried to take some photos but when I looked at the results I realised the camera still had the settings from the previous day and were and were useless for the early morning light. However I did not delete them and on returning home, looked at them on the computer and with a few tweeks and some judicious cropping obtained the result below which gives a different take on ' a high speed porcupine'. So don't be in a hurry to delete.



A final tip, don't leave all your photos languishing on your computer. Towards the end of the year I choose some of my better pics to make up into a calendar which I then inflict on family and friends as Christmas presents. You can easily do a similar thing for Christmas cards, there are plenty of on-line sites that specialise in printing them for you. And at the end of every trip I always get a photo book made up which I find more fun to browse through rather than looking at a computer screen.

Safariman

I am so pleased you have woken this thread up Safariman, with so many of us taking photo's and some of us needing as many hints as we can get (thats me really ) it's always fantastic to have ideas and tips from each other and I love the tip of spraying the flowers with water, how beautiful those pictures look, it really does make a difference doesn't it. It's funny I brought what I thought was a sprayer the other week for my Bonsai but it turned out to just emit a jet of water so looks like I need to buy another one, for the Bonsai and to go spraying my flowers.
I was tempted to go and take some pictures of my yellow roses but it is so windy here they are blowing all over the place, so sadly that will have to be for another day.
Fantastic picture of the speedy Porcupine......even though he wasn't originally speedy. I see what you mean about not deleting photos until you are sure they can not be fixed, that turned into a great unusual shot.
I am the worlds worst for leaving pictures sitting dormant on the PC so the tip of turning them into calendars and cards is a great one and also making books of them. Personal presents like that are always the best to receive aren't they and I think to turn some of my pics......especially the new ones...... into presents will make me feel like a proper photographer

Thanks a lot for the hints Safariman and if my roses don't get blown to bits in this wind I think I will have a practice with the water tomorrow.

Look forward to your sunrise photo's and also more hints and tips.

littlewid-x-

Good idea re the water Safariman - I must try that. Those Red Hot Pokers and Crocosmia look beautiful.

My biggest hint is what Safariman has just referred to. At the end of the day remember to adjust your settings back otherwise first thing in the morning in haste you will be taking photos on the previous night's settings which may be completely wrong.

We've all done it

Lai

Thanks Safariman, it's about time this thread was kicked off again.
Some really good tips LW. First as I said on your latest photo post, I always put my Camera back to Auto when I've finished taking photos. Never delete anything till you've checked it on a big screen, as Safariman says you never really know what you've got untill you have a really good close look, and its amazing what you can do with a bit of playing around with the photo, using a photo editor. Those flower pics are really good Safariman, I've used that technique that myself, I posted some on here of Lilys, but I used a glass of water, not a sprayer, not as upto date with this modern technology as you . I dont think its cheating, it about composing a picture, there's a difference between taking a photographic record, and creating an artistic picture, and its right you should use everything you can, to achieve what you want to portray. LW you should have taken the shots of your Rose's blowing in the wind, it's always worth trying shots like that to see what they turn out like. Its not like the old days, wasting film just a bit of battery power, and you can come up with some great shots sometimes like Safarimans Porcupine, looking at the photo he'd get a speeding ticket in Wales, great effect, even if unintential.

WS

WS, some really good tips on here and I am paying attention to them all Mmmmm thinking about it I should have taken my roses in the wind to see what the pictures turned out like.....next time I wont put anyting off, always worth a shot.

I remember your Lilys now you mention it, if I recall they looked lovely.

Oh yes, and after messing about the other day with the settings, it is back on Auto

littlewid-x-