Let me try again

bpk

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Hello All,

I recently purchased an S5200 and have been enjoying taking casual photos of varying sorts. I have just begun familiarizing myself with a few of the features of the camera but have done very little in the way of using any manual settings. I wanted to post a couple of photos that I took with auto settings. I was wondering if those of you who know what you are doing with a cam and the results a discriminating eye would look for might comment on how the photos look. More specifically, what might one do with manual settings that would make the photos better. I hope this is not to broad a question, I'm just trying to get a basic idea of what might be good and bad about some typical photos taken in the full auto mode might be. Thanks for any input.

2006_0924Fall060087-1.jpg
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2006_0924Fall060081.jpg
'] http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k288/BPK_01/2006_0924Fall060081.jpg[/IMG] [/URL]

Sorry if this doesn't work!
 
Here are complete instructions for posting. Just ignore the parts that you already know about:

First, you have to join or get access to a site such as pbase (see my link below). Some of these sites are free, some have a trial period and some you have to pay for. Generally no advertising to sift through on the paid sites. Instruction for getting your shots onto site such as pbase are on each site. Once you have pictures on site like pbase, select the size you want your shot to appear on STF. Keep size to max 800 x 600 so that they don't take too long for people to download. You also may want to downsize to 800 x 600 before you upload (download) to pbase or whatever site you choose. Once you have selected the picture you want to download to STF, right click on it and select "properties". Highlight the URL, it should start with http and end with jpg. If there is anything else at the end of the URL, do not include it. Copy (paste) the highlighted URL into your new thread or into a reply. Now this is important, before you press post (as in post the message), hit the preview button, the image should show in your message. If the only thing that shows is a URL link, then something did not work and you will have to try again.
I hope this works for you and hope you find it helpful.

Bill

--
http://www.pbase.com/willvan
H1/F30
 
Thank you Bill. I will tackle this thing tomorrow! I very much appreciate your help, unfortunately I generally count myself lucky if I can remember hoe to turn my computer on!
 
bpk, willvan has already covered what went wrong with your direct posting of the images, so I won't comment on that.

I'm glad you are enjoying your S5200, it's a great camera which is seriously undervalued by those that don't share the experience of using one.

Your photos turned out very well indeed, and the AUTO setting works very well for static subjects & nice even lighting conditions. Using different settings probably wouldn't have improved them at all.

However, in other situations, it can be very worthwhile to switch it from AUTO to one of the other exposure modes. I'll give you 2 simple examples:

If you are shooting a fast action subject - say a sports event or motor racing, then it would be an advantage to select the S setting (Shutter Priority mode). This allows you to set a nice fast shutter speed of 1/500 or 1/1000 in order for the camera to be able to "freeze" the action without blurring. The camera automatically selects the required aperture (lens opening) required for the correct exposure. This mode is also useful when you zoom right in to the subject (at maximum zoom it is equivalent to 380mm in 35mm film camera terms). In this case you need to be able to select a nice fast shutter speed in order to avoid blurring caused by the camera moving as you take the shot.

In a different situation you may be taking a landscape where you want both the foreground & background to be in sharp focus (ie. a broad depth of field). In this case the A (Aperture Priority mode) is useful, because it allows you to manually choose a small aperture (bigger f number) which gives you the broad depth of field you are after. In this case, the camera then automatically selects the shutter speed to give the correct exposure. You just need to make sure that you are able to use a fast enough shutter speed to eliminate blurr from camera movement. The rule here is that you should use a shutter speed that is at least the inverse of the 35mm equivalent lens length. For example if you were about half way through the zoom range on the S5600, you would be taking a photo of the equivalent of about 200mm on a 35mm film camera (roughly half way between the wide angle end of 38mm & the telephoto end of 380mm). In this case you need to be using a shutter speed of at least 1/200 (1/500 even better) in order to help eliminate blurr.

The other worthwhile setting to try is the P (Program mode). In this mode, the camera suggests a range of combinations of shutter speed & aperture that will give you correct exposure, and you can scroll up & down to select the best combination for your type of photo. This is in some ways a better "automatic" setting than using AUTO because it allows you to manually set the other exposure variable, that is the ISO setting. Low ISO (light sensitivity) settings like 64, 80 or 100 give you the best quality images. However, when the lighting isn't very good, you may need to choose a higher ISO setting of say 400 or 800. However the downside of the higher ISO settings (particulary 1600) is that the image quality isn't as good. You get "noise" in the image - a grainy unsharp, flat looking image.

One other point is what image quality setting are you using. I think the 5MP Normal JPEG mode is the default setting on the S5600. You will find that you get better quality images using the 5MP Fine JPEG mode (although you will only fit half the number of images on your memory card).

Two final points - 1. Get out & take lots of photos & work out what you like, and what can go wrong using different settings, and 2. Keep reading the manual a bit at a time - it will explain the settings & how to change them.

Have fun!
 
Thank you ManFromOz.

That was a great explanation of exactly the kind of info I was looking for. I really appreciate the time you took to respond to my post.
I'm glad you guys helped me out.

I'm just starting out in this and have roamed these forums for awhile (a lot of the stuff is WAY over my head, but I love checking out the posts anyway). I probably will never achieve the knowledge or skill of most here, but I would like to improve!
Thanks again to both of you.
 
My pleasure.

By the way, I forgot to mention that I find ISO 200 to be a good compromise setting on the S5200/S5600, particularly if quite a lot of your photos are taken more at the telephoto end in good light rather than the wide angle end. I then move higher (400 or 800) when I need to if the light is bad, or lower (to 64) when the lighting is pretty good & I'm shooting something with a lot of saturated colours, and I want absolute best image quality.
 
To embed a photo:
1. You right-click on the pic and choose "properties"

2. Next to where it says "Address" you will find the adress for the photo. It should read something like "



"

3. Copy address (ctrl+ C) and paste it(ctrl+V) in to your post. It's as simple as this...





--
-Gee,Brain.What do you wanna do tonight?
-The same thing we do every night,Pinky.Try to compare cameras!
 

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