Learning to use my camera

Spider

Spider

Spider

Associate
Joined
28 Nov 2002
Posts
766
Location
Down the road
I'm off on Holiday soon and going on a cruise liner. Want some nice shots but want to learn to use my camera correctly because at the moment 90% of shots come out blurred! Those that come out are absolutely stunning, but if the camera is not held perfectly still, I get a lot of blurring.

It’s an 8MP Nikon Coolpix P1, and just wanted some basic pointers on what modes to use, what resolution/quality settings and some other basic pointers on a newbie wanting to get some decent pics out of a camera.

Before anyone gives me RTFM, it doesn’t really cater for using the camera, just describes what each mode does (of which there are dozens!) IIRC

Thanks
 
emailiscrap said:
There is a photography section further down the index page. ;)
Click to expand...
ROFL! I can honestly say, i have *never* seen that forum down there - didn't even know it existed. lol!

Apologies!
 
Welcome then to the photography section :D

I think everyone here will tell you to shoot your photos on the highest possible resolution and quality. If you want prints or enlargements after the event the quality needs to be good.

Blurred shots normally come from the shutter speed being too low. If you're shooting in low light try and put the camera on a flat, stable surface and use the self timer function to take the photo. Hey presto no camera shake :)

How technical do you want this to get? If we start describing some of the different modes you can use, how they work and what they do it could get a bit "in depth" to say the least!
 
Good point Rich - don't want to swamp the OP with technical detail.

Spider - perhaps you could tell us what kind of situations you'll be photographing whilst on holiday, so that we can make suggestions on techniques/settings.

For example, on a cruise liner, I guess that you may be taking pictures of friends/family out on deck in bright sunlight. In this situation, the scene is going to be generally quite bright, hence a fast shutter speed, and therefore hopefully no motion blur/camera shake.

However, you will find that if you are taking pictures of folks with the sun behind them or to their side, they will have harsh shadows on their faces, which aren't flattering. So in this case, you would be advised to use some 'fill-flash', which is forcing the camera's flash to fire (it wouldn't do in automatic as the scene is bright) and setting the flash power at a low-ish setting. This extra light from your camera will then help to eliminate the shadowed faces.
 
When holding the camera, try to hold your elbows down by your sides, rather than spreading them out. This will enable you to hold the camera much more steady when you take the shot.
 
Also, make sure you half-press the shutter button to enable the camera to focus, before pressing it all the way down to take the picture.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom