Good Camera help

[CosbyArt]

Alright good, and please show some new photos when you try it tomorrow (it will help to see what changes you are getting).

I know what you mean about me speaking "French". I have several photographer friends from college that can get me completely lost talking about more advanced topics. If you don't understand something just say so and I'll try to make it simpler.

Photo noise (also called grain, artifacts, static, etc) are random pixels in photos, that should not be there as they do not exist in real life. It is produced when the camera sensor fails to capture the real color due to limitations or errors in the camera. In other words all those random dots/blocks found in photos.

I took two pictures (just changing my ISO for each) and cropped them to the led light of my camera's battery charger in the pictures to show the noise, and zoomed in 500%. Besides seeing the noise you can also tell that most of the detail is lost due to noise on the right (the hole bevel, led edge, highlight sharpness, etc).

 

[Bill Myers]

Hey, CosbyArt, on Amazon.com, I just saw this really nice 16-LED ring for macro photography:

http://www.amazon.com/Polaroid-PL-MRL16-Digital-Olympus-Cameras/dp/B005FRI3IE

I'm thinking about giving it a whirl, as I'm sure it beats my styrofoam cup I use to bounce the flash when doing macro.

What do you think?

Cheers

 

[CosbyArt]

Hey, CosbyArt, on Amazon.com, I just saw this really nice 16-LED ring for macro photography:

http://www.amazon.com/Polaroid-PL-MRL16-Digital-Olympus-Cameras/dp/B005FRI3IE

I'm gonna' give it a whirl, as I'm sure it beats my styrofoam cup I use to bounce the flash when doing macro.

Cheers

I got my eye on a ringlight as well; however, with that many models to choose from I'm still shopping though. As there are so many other things on my list too, I'm not in a rush yet. Seeing as you experiment with stuff to get your photos as well, you should check out the camera equipment section on BugGuide.net - it has lots of various rigs/ideas for photographing insects.

Let us know how your ringlight works out for you in the Photography Equipment section of this forum.

 

[dmina]

Portrait ...



Micro Live...



I took this pic of one of my thin winged mantis..

On auto

 

[dmina]

OK... understanding... Got some pics... taken... learner class... like the books... lol "basic camera for dummies"... hehe

Settings ... Live ..



..Auto ..



...Manual...

 

[dmina]

some how the post mixed up... so I did the baskets first then the mantis...

 

[CosbyArt]

OK... understanding... Got some pics... taken... learner class... like the books... lol "basic camera for dummies"... hehe

No problem with that, everyone has to start somewhere (I have a whole collection of photography books myself, and at least one actually is a dummies book - I reference them quite frequently as needed).

Definite progress there Denise. The first shot of the whole mantis has detail and is just a touch out of focus - nearly got it. Well it seems your camera has no problem with larger objects as most are nicely in focus. So some practice working on technique and you should be good.

Two things that cause problems with taking photos of mantises are - the camera's auto focus has problems with such a small subject/object, and 2nd being zoomed in/focused on such a small subject any movement will cause bigger issues in the photo of unfocused or blurred results. That's why I always use a tripod and a shutter release as well.

At this point not sure where to direct you besides saying practice, as practice makes perfect. I'd say keep the basic settings, auto I think it, and keep at it until your comfortable moving to another camera mode.

Although if you have any other questions or need help with something else let me know - after all I am cheating a bit as I have a PowerShot as well (just a different model SX30 IS) so most of the things I've learned on my new camera apply to yours.

 

[dmina]

Thank you... for the first time I am understanding some of the words... and what they do... Reading, I used to love reading, but now at my age... reading glasses ... I end up with a headache and not remembering what I read... cuz I am just trying to make it to the end. I guess I was spoiled all my life with good eye sight.. I never learned to compensate ... I get annoyed and get angry.. which don't help anything.

Thanks again for your time and help...I'm going to keep practicing.. My son ... first thing out of his mouth... "ma, you need a better camera"

I am going to have to practice ... and when I get good enough... that I can't do, what I want with this camera... then I will look into a new one.

I need to spend some time with that manual on line... I guess I can make those pages big enough to read at my leisure .

hugz

 

[CosbyArt]

Thank you... for the first time I am understanding some of the words... and what they do... Reading, I used to love reading, but now at my age... reading glasses ... I end up with a headache and not remembering what I read... cuz I am just trying to make it to the end. I guess I was spoiled all my life with good eye sight.. I never learned to compensate ... I get annoyed and get angry.. which don't help anything.

Thanks again for your time and help...I'm going to keep practicing.. My son ... first thing out of his mouth... "ma, you need a better camera"

I am going to have to practice ... and when I get good enough... that I can't do, what I want with this camera... then I will look into a new one.

I need to spend some time with that manual on line... I guess I can make those pages big enough to read at my leisure .

hugz

Your more than welcome Denise, and if you need any more help (or have questions) just send me a PM as I'm usually around.

You'll be surprised what that camera of yours can actually photograph. Your camera actually is a better model mega-pixel wise (and 2 years newer) than mine - mine is only a 14.1 MP while yours is 16.0 - so in reality you should get better quality images than I can.

I've been playing with mine a bit and put some photos of Susanna on the forum a minute ago, have a look at my Canon PowerShot photos.

 

[dmina]

Great pics... I'll keep practicing.... Thanks again...