Help me take good pictures .. please :P

collisster

collisster

collisster

Soldato
Joined
23 May 2006
Posts
2,590
Location
Blythe
hello, I'm thinking of buying myself a digital camera as the family one is not always to hand and I'll get ******ed if anything ever happens to it and buying my sister a camera is sort of inspiring me to be a good photographer.

here is the standards of pictures I can take I admit I'm appauling but some advice and pointers would be greatly appreciated. What camera should I buy? I like the look of the http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-010-PN

here are pictures I took this year in Austria fuschl am zee

Austria2006112.jpg

Austria2006041.jpg

Austria2006014.jpg

Austria2006106.jpg
 
Well, no else has replied yet .. I think those Panasonics are pretty well rated cameras, probably be a nice camera for you. I'd quite like one.

As a quick critique on the pictures, they seem just like standard snapshots.

1. Should have got closer to the subject cut out the bush on the left and the table chairs in the front would have made a vast improvement.

2. There seems to be no subject, no foreground or context. Squint horizon, and the boat and the tree at each side of the frame are distracting. Some cropping could perhaps improve this.

3. The subject is bang in the centre of the frame, usuallly this is a no-no. The haze at the top I think could have been avoided using a polarized filter or taking the picture at a different angle to the sun? (anyone confirm that?) I also keep wanting to see what is to the left of the frame.

4. Best picture here, but again subject is bang in the centre, and it's 'chopped off' the bottome of the frame.

I think with some more thought into the composition of the shots you could take some really nice pictures. Check out this link for helpful info:

http://photoinf.com/General/KODAK/guidelines_for_better_photographic_composition_introduction.html


I hope you don't think I have been too harsh.
 
thanks white crook,
The photos were taken with a panasonic lumix, its black 5 mp leica lens camera if anyone wanted to know.

Re picture 2 how can I take the sort of picture that captures everything there in focus? I wanted to the see the fog and the lake at the same time.

Re picture 3 I dont know why but I couldn't for the life of me get this boat in focus nice and sharp, the only thing I can think of is that the boat was quite a way out and the digital zoom distorts it.

thanks
 
collisster said:
thanks white crook,
The photos were taken with a panasonic lumix, its black 5 mp leica lens camera if anyone wanted to know.

Re picture 2 how can I take the sort of picture that captures everything there in focus? I wanted to the see the fog and the lake at the same time.
Click to expand...

You'll want to use an arperture of f/8-f/11 ("who care's" arperture), but if you are intending for this you probably should have taken the picture portrait orientation, and obeyed the rule of thirds.

Re picture 3 I dont know why but I couldn't for the life of me get this boat in focus nice and sharp, the only thing I can think of is that the boat was quite a way out and the digital zoom distorts it.

thanks
Click to expand...


Never use digital Zoom. If you find you are taking a lot of pictures where your subject is far away get a camera with a decent optical zoom lens. Digital zoom is exactly the same as taking the picture and then cropping out a portion of it and blowing up the resulting (smaller) picture. This is why it'll always looks fuzzy. http://www.photoxels.com/article-optical-digital-zoom.html


<edit> completely unrelated, are you in Blythe, scottish borders? I just looked it up, it looks like a tiny village in the middle of nowhere?
 
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whitecrook said:
You'll want to use an arperture of f/8-f/11 ("who care's" arperture), but if you are intending for this you probably should have taken the picture portrait orientation, and obeyed the rule of thirds.
Click to expand...

how do I adjust the aperture on my lumix? If I wanted to get a nice wide pic of the lake and clouds how come I should have used portrait?

whitecrook said:
<edit> completely unrelated, are you in Blythe, scottish borders? I just looked it up, it looks like a tiny village in the middle of nowhere?
Click to expand...
nah Blythe Bridge in staffordshire moorlands

I found my dad's old camera
its a pentax Me super I think well thats what it says on the front. the problem is I dont have a clue how to work it
 
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You said you were looking for the clouds and the lake. When I read that I thought hmm, clouds at the top 1/3, lake at the bottom 1/3, I'd go for portrait for starters, giving me more canvas height. The was my initial problem with the picture, there was no subject, by looking at it I didn't know you were trying to guide my (the viewers) eye to the clouds and lake.

Given that you choose landscape you'd have been better served IMO by getting the boat further into the picture -it looks lost out there in the corner, and it distracts my eye..

As for the f stop settings check the manual for your cameraq, but you'll probalby need to enable manual mode.

0.02.
 
whitecrook said:
3. The subject is bang in the centre of the frame, usuallly this is a no-no. The haze at the top I think could have been avoided using a polarized filter or taking the picture at a different angle to the sun? (anyone confirm that?) I also keep wanting to see what is to the left of the frame.

4. Best picture here, but again subject is bang in the centre, and it's 'chopped off' the bottome of the frame.
Click to expand...


I have heard these kinds of comments before, and people quote "the 3rds rule"

my question is :- why? what is wrong with a picture in the centre of the fram

Please dont just say "because thats the rule etc"

can somebody answer why is it.
 
Using The Rule of Thirds places the main subject off centre and away from the centre of the frame. As a result, photos can look more dynamic and interesting.



from the link I posted earlier:

http://photoinf.com/General/KODAK/guidelines_for_better_photographic_composition_rule_of_thirds.html

Look at the bottom picture. (of the ski lift)



More info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thirds

More examples:

http://photospot2004.blogspot.com/2004/07/rule-of-thirds.html

http://www.digital-photography-tips.net/digital-photography-tutor-thirds.html
 
I would recomend the fuji s5600 which is for sale for £112 in a high street shop (cant mention the name because it is a competitor) that sells toys, furnitor electricals etc

I unfortunaly saw the new price on that, just after putting the bid on mine, or I would have spent the extra and got one of those

It is a good in between, with a 10x magnification (not sure what the exact mm is, mine is 38-380 and woudl imagine the s5600 is very similair)

It will have full manual modes or full automatic modes.

some people on here have said that it can suffer a bit in high iso low light conditions, but that can be got around.

Basically a very good step up from a standard point and click digi camera, with out the expense of a full DSLR


or of course if you dont mind a second hand cam, take a look on the popular internet auction site, you will find something.

I did 10x as my search critera, and told it to look in cameras.

I got a list, of a lot of fuji's (the s5600s were selling higher than you can get them new in the above shop) and mine olympus c740, which cost me £50 in the end. and came with a couple of extra lens adapter things, that dont seem to fit, and i think they just got left in the box lol.
 
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