Crash course!

[Ioan]

Hello!

I just got a new C4000 and...I'm a bit depressed.

Sure, I've been using my SLR for 4 years now and had a 28-300mm range (I'll buy a telephoto and wide for my C4000 if you think they are worth it)

But after a few days playing with it...my pictures suck..badly.

I'm going on holiday this friday..

Can anyone tell me what kind of settings should I be putting on my camera?

I'll be in snowy Quebec City and the sky may be dull...

I see very beautyfull, color-rich, contrasty and very detailed pics here... do you get those off the bat from your camera's or is it after a bit of tampering in Photoshop etc?

Basically, I know nothing of digital photography... so any quick tip will be so apreaciated...

thanks a lot!

oh... see a few of my pics if you care.

http://homepage.mac.com/isaid/PhotoAlbum24.html
(NOT done with my c4000)

 

[Jackeroo]

Sorry I cant help you with any tips, I dont have that camera and I'm only new myself, but I had a peep at your photos, very nice, thank you.
Cheers,
jack

 

[Inigo Montoya]

We prefer the term "post-processing" over "tampering" w/respect to Photoshop.

The Oly line in general produces a more "natural", less vibrant color compared to most digicams (e.g. Sony). Also, some shooting conditions can tend to produce a more "flat" low contrast "grayish" image. A very simply levels adjustment in Photoshop, or another editor is usually all that's needed.

Can you post some examples of your pictures that suck badly?
It's hard to say what the problem might be w/out seeing.

Hello!

I just got a new C4000 and...I'm a bit depressed.

Sure, I've been using my SLR for 4 years now and had a 28-300mm
range (I'll buy a telephoto and wide for my C4000 if you think they
are worth it)

But after a few days playing with it...my pictures suck..badly.

I'm going on holiday this friday..

Can anyone tell me what kind of settings should I be putting on my
camera?

I'll be in snowy Quebec City and the sky may be dull...

I see very beautyfull, color-rich, contrasty and very detailed pics
here... do you get those off the bat from your camera's or is it
after a bit of tampering in Photoshop etc?

Basically, I know nothing of digital photography... so any quick
tip will be so apreaciated...

thanks a lot!

oh... see a few of my pics if you care.

http://homepage.mac.com/isaid/PhotoAlbum24.html
(NOT done with my c4000)

 

[Juli Valley]

Shoot most of your photos at ISO 100. The higher ISOs bring noise. Inigo is correct. Most of us do some post processing: cropping, levels or curves adjustments, saturation if you want more vivid colors, and unsharp mask which actually sharpens the image. PhotoShop Elements 2 is a good program if you can't afford the expensive PS7. Check CompUSA and Amazon for good prices and perhaps rebates that bring the price down a lot.

For good depth of field shoot at 5.6 or 8 for landscapes. For less DOF and more background blur, shoot at 1.8, 2.8 particularly for portraits. Zooming to 3x will also help blur the background some.

Experiment with using Aperture priority and Speed priority and Manual settings. Don't rely on Program mode altogether.

Do a check of the information on this site for good basic information on composition and fundamentals of photography.
http://www.kodak.com/US/en/nav/takingPics.shtml

 

[Jackeroo]

Do a check of the information on this site for good basic
information on composition and fundamentals of photography.
http://www.kodak.com/US/en/nav/takingPics.shtml

Thanks for that link Juli, its just what I need too.
Cheers,
jack

 

[Michael Meissner]

Hello!

I just got a new C4000 and...I'm a bit depressed.

Sure, I've been using my SLR for 4 years now and had a 28-300mm
range (I'll buy a telephoto and wide for my C4000 if you think they
are worth it)

But after a few days playing with it...my pictures suck..badly.

I don't own a C-4000Z, so I can't help with specifics of that camera.

With my camera (C-2100UZ, which was designed maybe 2 years earlier), I tend to have to play around with the white balance setting. This is similar to the film world where you have different types of film for different shooting conditions, and modify it with warming and cooling filters. You might try making a set of pictures of typical scenes with different WB settings (auto, sunny, cloudy, etc.). I find for flash pictures, the cloudy setting brings out the best colors. Flash pictures at dusk are probably the worst, where I need to use both a cloudy WB and a warming filter.

The second thing to look at is the exposure compensation. Many Oly users use -0.3/-0.7, particularly for outdoor pictures. Again, taking a set of pictures with different compensation factors will help in giving you an idea of what setting to use in what circumstance. Your camera probably has an auto bracket function to aid in doing this.

In terms of composition, remember that the viewfinder for your camera does not go through the camera lens, and can suffer from parallex. For best results, you might want to use the LCD to frame the picture.

 

[ShudderBug]

I just got mine a couple weeks ago and have the saturation set to +2 and contrast -2. I'm liking my pictures a little better that way. I like them as good as I can get them right out of the camera and not have to clean them up later.

I posted one of mine on the thread titled "Show a pic that represents your country".

Your photos are gorgeous. You are used to more saturation and color depth. They say that a good photographer can get good pictures out of almost any camera. La maison du parc is just gorgeous. I think you can get just as nice pictures as that out of your C4000, at least for that size on the web.

What specific problems are you having? I have some shots that I really, really like out of mine, but I do have some shots that are pretty glum for one reason or another. The ones on cloudy days are not anything I would want to put on the web. Wel one I did and I don't think anyone liked it .

Some of my pictures I think I ruined because I don't know how to use the menu proficiently yet. I think I had exposure compensation set at something other than zero where it should be most of the time. Also I went back and restored all the settings to default except the two mentioned above and have the camera set to "remember" those. You have to find the "reset" option and turn it off if you want the camera to remember your previous settings when you turn it back on.

There are so many things I still need to learn. I tried to do macro last night and they are a mess, all blurry so I need to figure out what I'm doing wrong there. Got some really nice shots though, considering I never attempted to do them before.

 

[Ioan]

Thanks for the nice comment!


As for more color saturation, well... I used Agfa films because of that since I'm colorblind (detail) and need quite a bit of saturation and contrast to find pics interesting.

I guess I better start doing soome serious shooting fast before I go on holiday..

I guess I'll get used to a setting as I got used to a few specific films. (I hope!!)

Wish me luck!!

(P.S: I actually took this camera for all the oprions..but now I'm finding there are more than I wanted.)
:S

I just got mine a couple weeks ago and have the saturation set to
+2 and contrast -2. I'm liking my pictures a little better that
way. I like them as good as I can get them right out of the camera
and not have to clean them up later.

I posted one of mine on the thread titled "Show a pic that
represents your country".

Your photos are gorgeous. You are used to more saturation and
color depth. They say that a good photographer can get good
pictures out of almost any camera. La maison du parc is just
gorgeous. I think you can get just as nice pictures as that out of
your C4000, at least for that size on the web.

What specific problems are you having? I have some shots that I
really, really like out of mine, but I do have some shots that are
pretty glum for one reason or another. The ones on cloudy days are
not anything I would want to put on the web. Wel one I did and I
don't think anyone liked it .

Some of my pictures I think I ruined because I don't know how to
use the menu proficiently yet. I think I had exposure compensation
set at something other than zero where it should be most of the
time. Also I went back and restored all the settings to default
except the two mentioned above and have the camera set to
"remember" those. You have to find the "reset" option and turn it
off if you want the camera to remember your previous settings when
you turn it back on.

There are so many things I still need to learn. I tried to do
macro last night and they are a mess, all blurry so I need to
figure out what I'm doing wrong there. Got some really nice shots
though, considering I never attempted to do them before.

 

[ShudderBug]

I do wish you luck. I agree with you about color saturation; that's what I like about my 35mm photos and film processing. I am acquiring a taste for this more natural color if it doesn't get too washed-out looking.

In time I want a more expensive camera but I couldn't make up my mind so settled for this one.

Please share some of your pictures when you get back and have a nice trip.