bought the 510-some quick advice?

Yup,

I bought locally, so did not get the lowest $, but still got the two lens kit, plus fl36, card, tripod, etc, for under $1000, and didn't have to wait or pay shipping. I'm happy-and I can talk to real people if I need to. Seems like an awesome piece of equipment so far.

I posted earlier about shooting real estate in the open talk forum, and I know I will want a wider lens some time. But I'm thinking I want to use this camera now for a property I need to shoot on Saturday, and I'm stuck at a seminar all week. Practicing in the hotel room and around the hotel lobby, halls etc, after hours, and nervous about doing a high-end home. Some observations and questions, please for someone that is a rookie with this. (used to do P & S) And I know I need to work on this for many hours in the future-but I need a quick fix. I have been up every night this week shooting and looking at the shots on my laptop. I'm pretty sure I will stick with jpeg for now, as I am used to it, and it is easy with my software, irfanview. I know, pretty basic, but it is user-friendly, and I love it. I may explore any suggestions, but I am busy, and need to do the batch file conversion thing, and get going. Can't spend hours with PP.

I will be doing mostly indoor shots during the day. I have noticed the built-in

flash is not too different from fl36 results. FL36 manual suggests using P mode on camera and TTL for starters. Any suggestions?

Any suggestions for the settings on the mode dial-keep it at auto?

I get the idea of noise filter set to low or off & adjust down the sharpness. This
produces nice results. What about noise reduction- on or off?

With good luck and a lot of light, I may be able to go without a flash for the indoor shots-do you think I should use flash to play it safe? I have almost universally used flash with my OLY p & s up to now-seems like it produced more uniform results, especially when shooting at a well-lit window.

Leave the IS to the on position? Seems like a logical choice. I will be installing the shots into our web interface at probably 800 x 600, and must be 100kb file max.

My biggest concern with this house is the fact that it has a northern exposure at the front of the home. Any suggestions with this camera for getting at least some decent exposure of the house without getting too washed out in the background? I have sun, clouds, and snow all around this house, with light in my face, leaving the home dark. The sides and rear and back yard will be easy.

Any other pointers are really appreciated-I really want to get going with the 510 now with this beautiful home, but I am used to p & s (except for my old film Konica SLR- I know some camera basics) so I could really use some quickie pointers. A little nervous, as you may be able to tell. The camera seems really forgiving, and I think I can make it work. As of right now, I am glad I did not continue with the p & s route, this seems like a lot more fun.

Thanks in advance!!
--
Frank

Well, when I first got my E-510, I started charging the batteries. While the batteries were charging, I started reading the manual and looking on-line for advice. The noise filter was set off. I can't remember what I did with noise reduction. At first the menu was difficult to understand, because I didn't realize that you could scroll down so far.

After that, it's just playing around with the settings a lot...the exposure, the ISO, WB, and the autofocus etc. (set to single AF, at first). Sometimes, I'd set the ISO high like ISO800 or ISO1600 in bright light, and I'd get a real high shutter speed. I started mostly using aperture priority in the beginning.

Have fun with your new toy! I'm sure that you'll get lots of people that would help you. Mostly, just try different things and have patience as you learn more about it.

Previous poster's advice tracks with what I did, too - I read the manual while charging the battery.

I look at real estate a lot online, and I really appreciate good photos. Bad ones make me click on by. Good ones make me stop and look. If you are shooting real estate, I think you need to be sure to get the color right, which means learning how to control WB. You will face all kinds of lighting, even in the same house. For example, my kitchen has compact flourescents, my living room has incandescents, and during the day, I may have clear sunlight or a cloudy day. All these require different WB settings to make the room look correct. Therefore, my suggestion to you is that you harness the power of live view and adjust WB while viewing the results live on the screen. It is a great tool - it saves a ton of time since it saves you having to pick a setting, take a test shot, view the results, and try another iteration. You might also learn to use the grid overlay options in live view to be sure you have a level picture. Since you have a tripod to take well controlled shots, I would also take a look at using the mirror lock up to help ensure zero camera shake during the exposure.

You've already diagnosed the need for a wider lens than the kit options.

Good luck!

-Brandon
--
TinCanSailor
Digital: E-510 w/ 14-42 & 40-150, FL-36; A-640 w/ 1.7xTC
Film: Pentax SF-1 & K1000

An excellent bit of reading and great, sound advice for customizing the settings of the E-510 is here:

http://wrotniak.net/photo/oly-e/e500-sett.html#PREFS
--
Milt

Author of 'Brain Surgery - Self Taught'
http://picasaweb.google.com/okreb1

One additional comment to the excellent advice already given ... if you are using a tripod, go ahead and turn the IS off.

Start with P mode, not Auto. Leave IS on unless you're using a tripod. Read and use Wrotniak's settings suggestions, linked above by Milt.

And also take a look at English Bob's suggestions for using your FL36. He addresses questions like what to do when you are shooting indoors with multiple different kinds of light sources:

http://www .fourthirdsphoto.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=1322
(remove the space after http://www )

Lots of learning ahead of you, but these should get you past the weekend.

Noise reduction (as opposed to noise filter) takes a second "dark frame" on long exposures and then subtracts this to reduce noise on the final photo. It only kicks in on exposures of 2 seconds and over, so you can set it to "on" and then forget about it as it won't affect your bright light / short exposure photography
--
Mark.
May your shutter always trip but never fall.

where to start........you have had comment on many things already so I'll stick to your point about flash....

the key things to use flash for in the environment you are in

1. balancing the light - internal to external - is important
2. flooding the room to remove shadows etc from other light sources
3. colour control - using flash to overpower other, different tempo, sources

for most of the above you are going to have to get comfortable with the various controls on both the flash and camera. Personally I would use the camera in M and the flash in ttl Auto. The camera settings will control the underlying background exposure and the flash EV settings the overall exposure.

re the north facing wall / viewpoint - early morning / late evening and a fill in flash. The 36 may struggle a bit but put the camera on the tripod and set up to expose for the background and try. evening light can fall of quickly so start early and use trial and error to find the right balance between the available light and the flash output. If it's a really big house you may have to use hdr or similar techniques

--

• enjoy your camera equipment -

Frank in the Falls said:

My biggest concern with this house is the fact that it has a northern
exposure at the front of the home. Any suggestions with this camera
for getting at least some decent exposure of the house without
getting too washed out in the background? I have sun, clouds, and
snow all around this house, with light in my face, leaving the home
dark. The sides and rear and back yard will be easy.
Thanks in advance!!
--
Frank

Click to expand...

Your FL-36 is not going to provide adequate fill for an entire house face during high noon (or pretty much any time during the day). I doubt the big ol' FL-50 would either. For this shot you're going to have to learn:

AE bracketing
RAW development
Masking and layering in PP

I hate to be a downer, but it is true. While your other orientations will look great (actually the south face might look a bit flat from direct lighting), the house and background will be mostly the same exposure. For the north face shot (a backlit shot), you will likely end up with what you fear if you take just one exposure:

1.) A washed out background and house exposed properly
2.) Background exposure ok, but house horribly underexposed

The process is basically:

1.) Take 1 exposure for the house.
2.) Take 1 exposure for the background

3.) Combine the parts of the two shots in post processing using something like Photoshop

--
Good shooting.

• Adam

Equipment in plan

As you say, the front of the house will present the biggest problem in trying to get a good balance of exposure, as well as getting the Colour Temperature right.

Although you prefer to use JPG and limit any PP, this is where use of RAW would really come into its own. I would be inclined to take RAW + JPG and download the LightZone trial. Then process the RAW in LZ, and use either Zone Mapper on your selected areas to lighten or darken or (perhaps try the Relight tool).

http://www.lightcrafts.com/products/

Adjust your colour temp etc and you should be there very quickly. Once you've mastered the method then future similar house shoots should be a breeze!

Good luck.

Frank in the Falls said:

My biggest concern with this house is the fact that it has a northern
exposure at the front of the home. Any suggestions with this camera
for getting at least some decent exposure of the house without
getting too washed out in the background? I have sun, clouds, and
snow all around this house, with light in my face, leaving the home
dark. The sides and rear and back yard will be easy.

--
Frank

Click to expand...

--
Regards,
Rich Simpson

I had the priveledge of shooting some real estate photographs with my 510 this week. Good idea getting a tripod.

I would do the following, use tripod, turn on anti-shake (mirror lockup) for say 4 seconds, set the camera on manual, use live view. Adjust your exposure take a shot, see how it turns out. Shutter speeds don't matter when shooting inanimate objects with a tripod. Play around.

As for your lighting conditions,lucky you have a tripod, but I would suggest you pick your time of day carefully, try to get the interior and exterior light to be as equal as possible, maybe letting in a bit more from the outside. I took pictures at 9:30pm, since that's when I was avalible after work. It worked out GREAT, exterior shots at around 20second shots, made the sky somewhat colored and bright, while the lighting from street lights and house lights made for some lovely images. Live view allowed me to manually focus very easly on house details.

Also if you don't mind, shoot RAW, even if 90% of the time it's just opening and saving, those 10% when you need to do a bit more playing with white blaance/exposure will be worth it.

Have fun!
--
Cloverdale, B.C., Canada
Olympus e-510
http://joesiv.smugmug.com

Many thanks to those that responded. I have learned much from the advice and from just shooting and looking. This will be a fun adventure.
--
Frank

Frank - we all look forward to at least one interior and that North facade getting posted here!

--

• enjoy your camera equipment -

Still have a lot to learn:











--
Frank

You probably don't wanna spend any more cash but a good investment might be a slave flash. I got one (Bower by name but I see the same unit under different names) from ebay that cost $43.00, it's no FL36 but it's fired by your on-board/other flash and can be placed wherever you want. Might be handy for real estate work.
Eddy

--
My motto: Photographers should be seen and not heard.
E-510, FZ50, UZI, B-300

Okreb said:

An excellent bit of reading and great, sound advice for customizing
the settings of the E-510 is here:

http://wrotniak.net/photo/oly-e/e500-sett.html#PREFS
--
Milt

Click to expand...

That link is for the e500. Try
http://www.wrotniak.net/photo/43/e510-sett.html
--
Regards
Mike

Eddie,
Thanks for the thought. This can really come in handy, and I never
gave it much thought. I had some dinette photos recently that had
a lot of direct light from the windows, and the adjacent walls were
dark. A slave could help that situation.

--
Frank

Nice house and pictures. It would sell me. The 11-22mm is the lens I used to take listing pictures of my house. It is wide with low distortion. Good luck with the house.

--

Jon
Stony Plain Alberta