[Jakevol2]

Man, I’m getting absolutely hosed this week…

Right there with you man. I thought my idea was pretty original and it just didn’t play. Other themes I thought I had crap and I get the most votes I have ever recieved.

[Jakevol2]

Hmmm I missed Curious’s note about your manual mode not being fully manual–saw the reference to manual mode and thought it was fully manual. Looks like you have Exposure Compensation ability under it–it won’t let you change shutter speed or aperture directly, but you should be able to tell it to brighten or darken the exposure as needed for the scene you’re wanting to capture (like brightening for snow, darkening for your dark bar scene). See what your manual says about how to go about changing it. If/When you get the Rebel, you’ll have more control over your exposure and depth of field because you’l be able to directly set your shutter speed and aperture as desired.

Yeah I actually took the exposure down while taking these photos, it gave it the warm caramel colors in the pics. I actually played with a lot of the settings taking the photos. I put it on some settings that were intentionally wrong, some came out horrible same came out interesting. The ones I posted here if I remember right I had set on “foliage” with an exposure of -1, macro, vivid color setting and tungsten lighting. I think those setting worked best. Caradoc mentioned I might be pushing my camera to do what it is not capable of doing. I had even considered that, it was something that came to mind during the “Bug” theme last week whe nmy photos were very disapointing. That is when I started thinking about buying a Rebel.

For now though my little PowerShot is what I have to use. It’s frustrating when you have ideas for your camera and it can’t perform. Again that is blaming my equipment and not myself.

I am just now getting into all of this so it is going to take time to get all the equipment I ultimately will need, and classes in basic digital photography will definitely help me with my skill level.

[Jakevol2]

Elsinore…maybe I just dont recognize the icon for apeture on my camera but I cant find anything about it in the menu for my camera either so I dont know what I am looking for. I find “Exposure” and “Long Shutter” but I dont think that is what you are talking about…or is it? My “Long Shutter goes up to 15” but it just washes everything out at that setting.

[Jakevol2]

Sorry I haven’t weighed in before now, and I’ve skimmed what the others have said and don’t think this has been suggested, but you might try getting some more light in your scene. Autofocus is going to struggle a bit more in dim lighting, so your focus could be thrown off. Double check your metering mode. If you’re in partial or spot metering (don’t *think* the A560 has spot, but it might have partial), you might switch to evaluative or center weighted average metering. In evaluative metering, the camera looks at the entire scene and determines proper exposure, while in center weighted average, it looks at the entire scene, but gives more weight to the center of your frame. If the center of your frame is quite dark, it’s going to suggest a longer shutter speed or wider aperture, while if the center is lighter, the opposite will be true. I have the most luck with center weighted average metering, except in cases of seriously high contrast where I need to expose for a small portion of my image to make sure that’s exposed correctly.

Keep in mind that your meter wants to make everything middle gray. This works for most scenes, but for night shots, it would be overexposing. So for images where you want them darker, you may need to override your camera’s suggested exposure values and underexpose. In bright situations the reverse happens–snow for example. Your meter would want to make all that bright white into middle gray, but that woudln’t be correct for the scene, so you’d need to basically ignore the meter and overexpose a bit to get the snow brighter.

Also use a tripod if you aren’t already. Generally speaking, it’s difficult to handhold when shutter speeds drop below 1/50th, though that’s partly dependent on your focal length, size of camera, etc. I can get reasonably clear shots down to 1/30 or 1/4, but it sometimes takes a few tries. Your PowerShot probably gives you a shake warning when you drop below 1/50th or 1/40th, so if it’s doing that, try using tripod or resting the camera on a solid surface.

If you want to get that shallow depth of field look where part of your image is in focus, but the focus falls away to blur, use your macro mode. Macro mode may also work a bit better for focusing in dim lighting–I’ve sometimes found that to be true with my Canon A620. If you’re having a tough time getting your camera to lock focus, regardless of mode, pay attention to where the focusing point is and whether there’s some obvious contrast in your subject matter at that point. Autofocus systems determine focus by locking into areas of contrast–lines/patterns. So if what you’re trying to focus on doesn’t have a pattern, is smooth/blank, etc, your camera’s AF might not function well. You could try manual focusing, though it’s hard with a point and shoot, or you could add something to your scene at the same point, lock your autofocus, remove the test object and shoot your picture.

Hopefully some of this will help you in a more general way. The last set of pictures you posted seemed under exposed, so I would work on your exposure some. I like the concept, though.

Thanks Elsinore.

1. I was only working from the living room lamp. I know the pics apear to be underexposed…you should have seen the ones I discarded. That said I was aiming for a dark and smoky bar feel with these pics. On some level I think I succeded with that. Until I can afford some lamps I have to shoot with the light that I have and not with the one that I need.

2. The A560 has spot but I was shooting with evaluate. I might try the centered weight or spot metering next time.

3.Yep I have a tripod and I did used it. I love my new tri-pod 😀

4.

1/50th, though that’s partly dependent on your focal length, size of camera, etc. I can get reasonably clear shots down to 1/30 or 1/4,

Um, n00b no understand, n00b feel stupid.

5.

Macro mode may also work a bit better for focusing in dim lighting

Yup shot in macro too.

Again thank you and curious and caradoc for your imput. I will talke all you have advised and try to put practice to it. I feel a bit bruised and battered after all of that but I think it will help. Don’t forget though I am still very green to all of this. So I hope you do take that into account with my skill level.

I still have to say for being new to this I thought they were pretty good shots for what it’s worth. And I know there is room for improvement.

[Jakevol2]

Oh I am not upset with your criticism at all. I asked and am happy to get it. I also like the advice you guys are giving me. But sometimes you talk a little above my understanding, I am still learning remember, and when I say I dont get it, I, in the most literal sense, don’t get it. So bear with me.

I am planning to upgrade to Pro in the next few weeks, I am hoping it will be a b-day present. And as I have said I already have my eye on a Canon Digital Rebel or something with 10mp. But I think for now with me just learning digital photography…hell photography in general, my little PowerShot A560 is a good learning tool mithinks.

[Jakevol2]

Well, the resolution is better… but the focus is just a touch soft. Unless that, too, is an artifact of the resizing?

I really wouldn’t know why. Honestly I thought it was in focus judging on the lettering on the shot glass.

[Jakevol2]

I went an rereated the shoot. This time I came up with only two shots I really liked. Curious and cardoc….what do you think this time around?

[Jakevol2]

ok. you see what i was talking about with the right side? between all the space and the light it tends to draw you up and out.

I see, yeah, but I like the way the light brings out the texture of the posterboard. One of the reasons I wanted to put Irish Linen and matte coat the finished product if I had had it printed.

[Jakevol2]

set your camera to the largest image size it has. set the quality to the finest setting it has. i.e. extra fine, super fine, etc. all will still be .jpg and easily manipulated later.

I wouldn’t bet on that.

The A560 has a nasty reputation for optical fringing and artifacting in compression according to the reading I was doing earlier (trying to help him out, here.)

Given what I’ve just finished reading about the camera, I wouldn’t put any bets on scaling to print higher than 8″x10″ on a full-sized image, let alone a crop.

that would a be a darned shame for a 7MP camera.

Jakevol12 i downloaded your first image and cropped it 2:3 in PS and you can get most of what you want it the finished result/print ok. the right side tends to dominate however. so when you re shoot you might want to leave more room to the left.

Cool, can you post it so I can see what it looks like?

[Jakevol2]

but according to the chart you provided I could get a decent 16×20 with my camera. So what should I do to get that?

[Jakevol2]

cropping to 16×16 makes the picture work better

Take it from me, the lab I work in charges extra for mount special trim. If I can get it in 16×20 I’ll take it and spend the money I would have spent on the mount special trim and use it on print finishing.

Oh and it’s not like I can’t set up the shot again tonight and use Large format. I didn’t drink all the tequila. 😈

[Jakevol2]

Yep. Live and learn. I decided back in December that I hated losing good composition to low resolution, and now I shoot everything in Nikon’s RAW format – it gives me the most flexibility in saving an image that had poor lighting. It also eats about 8-9MB per image.

Fortunately, 2GB SD cards are pretty cheap these days (I’ve looked at 4GB cards, and the price/speed break isn’t quite there yet.) I can stuff 160-180 images on a 2GB card before I have to swap, and they still take up a crapload less space than the 8-10 rolls of film I used to carry in the bag.

Yeah I need to go out and get a 1 or 2 gig SD card…it is on the list of toys.

I am already looking to buy a Canon Digital Rebel if you can believe that 😯

[Jakevol2]

OK… I did some research. According to the specs, the A560 is capable of 7.1 megapixels, which would be scalable to the 16″x20″ image you want.

However, you have to shoot in “high” resolution to get there. The image that you’ve got on Flickr isn’t going to print at all well if you try to scale it that high.

I am still learning the ins and outs of my camera…I just found out what macro was last weekend 😳

I am learning though…I think.

[Jakevol2]

yup I’m a moron. I had the camera set on “Small”….oh well live and learn.

[Jakevol2]

It’s a Canon Powershot A560

7.1 MP

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