Photography Tips

I`m still trying to get the best out of my camera but a problem i`m having over and over is that my pics always look dull despite the fact that they can be taken on a gloriously sunny day.

I`ve fiddled with all the settings ie. landscape, high ISO etc and occasionally one will turn out nice but I`m not sure what I`m doing wrong.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated

[DarrenSV650S]

Stick it on auto. Perfect results every time

[the_lone_wolf]

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

What camera are you using?

You want to use the lowest ISO setting you can without having too slow a shutter speed

A small aperture will give you a longer depth of field, meaning things close to the lens and far away will both be in focus, but will need a longer shutter time to expose the photo correctly

[embee]

What camera is it? Some makes tend towards "brighter" colours than others, often the really bright ones are artificially overdone, it looks impressive at first sight but is OTT.

See if there is a review of your particular camera on http://www.dpreview.com/ or http://www.steves-digicams.com/ and whether they commented on it.

Use as low an ISO as possible at all times. In the manual there will be info on adjustment of "exp" which may give you what you want. If you're using it in a manual mode, make sure you have the appropriate "white balance" selected (daylight/cloud/incandescent etc). Check for any "effect" settings.

(Edit - obviously writing as Lone Wolf posted, same points covered)

Originally Posted by the_lone_wolf

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

What camera are you using?

You want to use the lowest ISO setting you can without having too slow a shutter speed

A small aperture will give you a longer depth of field, meaning things close to the lens and far away will both be in focus, but will need a longer shutter time to expose the photo correctly

It`s a Kodak and it says on the front AF 3x optical aspheric lens 10.3 mega pixel, High Definition stills, face detection and blur reduction M1063

Not sure how i adjust the ISO setting (can`t find it on the menu!) but I`m off to a barbeque so will have a fiddle. Many thanks.

Many thanks embee.. i`ll dig it out and take the manual with me and see if i can find anything

[the_lone_wolf]

Originally Posted by Speedy Claire

It`s a Kodak and it says on the front AF 3x optical aspheric lens 10.3 mega pixel, High Definition stills, face detection and blur reduction M1063

M1063 is the model name, only thing I;d say is that 10.3 megapixels crammed into a compact camera's small sensor will result in a lot of noise in the photos if you're using higher ISO settings. Your model can use ISO 50, 100, 200, 400, and 1000, for better shots see if you can manually set it to remain on 50, 100 or 200 depending on how much ambient light you're shooting in - anything more will produce noise in the photos i'd suspect

[embee]

There's a brief review of the M1033 and M1093 (I assume similar to M1063) on http://www.steves-digicams.com/hardware_reviews.html the and in the summary they recommend using the "smart" mode for most circumstances, does yours have this? The sample photos look brighter in smart mode than in the other settings.

I don`t think mine has a "smart" mode... I took some tonight on auto and they were a lot better, maybe I`ve just been trying to fiddle around too much?

LW... what do you mean by "noise" in the photo? I`ll dig out the manual if I can find and see how to change the ISO setting. Many thanks again guys

[the_lone_wolf]

Originally Posted by Speedy Claire

LW... what do you mean by "noise" in the photo? I`ll dig out the manual if I can find and see how to change the ISO setting. Many thanks again guys

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