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04/28/2002 07:33:32 PM · #1 |
ok, this kinda goes a long with what i3ullseye's hole thread was about, and the same question is thrown out. is my camera restricting me. ( cannon powershot A10) and this is comming from someone who could barely afford a 200$ camera. and since i've been using it for the past 2 challenges, i've grown to like it. but does this mean i need to take out a loan and buy a 700$ camera?
* This message has been edited by the author on 4/28/2002 7:35:40 PM. |
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04/28/2002 07:56:19 PM · #2 |
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04/28/2002 08:45:24 PM · #3 |
Well Chrommonky...I don't think anyone but you can say if your camera is limiting you.
I learned to shoot with a Kodak in black and white in 9th grade. Was I limited? Yes. Did it keep me from producing interesting photos? Not in my eyes..the only eyes that counted.
Lets use your photo of the Karate lesson. A very good subject choice because you have lots of interesting things to make it a good photo.
Why did it not score higher? I think that there are lots of good photos taken by lots of people that simply need some better editing tools and on site choices to save them.
Crop the picture tight on the subjects. Action photography is all about the action subject. Eliminate as much unneeded information in a shot as possible. Light better or edit in a photo editing program like photoshop to adjust for bad lighting. I downloaded the picture, ran it through my photoshop workflow and really opened the picture up.
This shot is a bit out of focus. This can come from handshake as much as from poor stop action photography. Harsh flashes are not the answer to save indoor photography. Fill lighting yes. Sole source lighting..not a good idea.
I know what your thinking, why worry about handshake on an action shot? Did you know that handshake on a zoomed subject can require 2 steps of a faster shutter/stop/film speed or more to eliminate just the handshake? Hard to do in low lighting where you are already maxed out on your speed. Why do you see boxing photographers bracing on the ring floor? Or basketball photographers bracing themselves?
You also backlit your subjects..a no-no in photography..especially in low light, indoor instances.
So..you see..I just mentioned three things you could do without spending anymore money on a camera to help with your photography :-)
Can better equipment help? Evaluate your pictures and once you can honestly say that you have stretched the limits of your equipment to its maximum potential then it's time for new stuff.
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04/28/2002 11:53:18 PM · #4 |
I just did a quick search on Digital Picture Review and compared your camera against mine and a DC215 that I've seenunder somone elses name. I only chose those because Im familiar with them.
Your A10 is only slightly less capable than my DC265, and thats at less than half the cost. Admitedly mine was discontinued a while back.
The things that are below are things Ive learned from trial and error. Dont take it personal. Pictures will improve with prcatice ;)
When your taking your pictures make sure you have the image quality set to the highest quality and resolution. That will give you a 1280x960 image which is 200% larger than the largest submission size of 640x480. This gives you flexability in how to crop. The closer you can get to the subjects the better. that way you can resize down rather than cropping with in a good photo-prgram will smooth some lines.
Try to get up as close as you can. Definatly look at getting a tripod or something to brace against. Remember with the telephoto mode in use that small shakes will seem worse, because of the zoom factor.
Another idea is to try and rotate the camera to portrait. If you do that make sure the built in flash is above the lens when you hold the camera. Since your subject area was more tall than wide you would have had more of them in the frame. It might have helped on cropping/resizing too.
I noticed that one of the comments said the file was 30K. If you were making lots of edits and saving in jpeg mode that will very rapidly strip out quality from the image. This is because Jpeg is lossy compression. There is more oan this alover the internet. |
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04/29/2002 06:32:15 AM · #5 |
All of these people are right - good photography begins in the mind and the eye, not in the camera model.
In a nutshell, the number one thing a lot of people starting out could do to improve their photos are the following 2 things:
a) get as close to the subject as possible - fill the frame with your subject. If possible put it slightly offcenter (see the rule of thirds on photographytips.com).
b) throw light at the subject. don't ever be content with ambient room lighting. you will be amazed at how much just pointing a desk lamp at something can make it more interesting in terms of shadows and highlights.
i think, just for fun (why do anything for any other reason? :) ), I'm going to use my wife's A10 for this next challenge ...
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04/29/2002 07:13:37 AM · #6 |
To re-inforce this, the 4th placed picture in the transition challenge was taken with a FujiFilm FinePix 2600Z. Costs about $250 and has very similar specs to an A10... The third placed shot in the water challenge was also taken with this camera.
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04/29/2002 07:34:19 AM · #7 |
Originally posted by GordonMcGregor:
To re-inforce this, the 4th placed picture in the transition challenge was taken with a FujiFilm FinePix 2600Z. Costs about $250 and has very similar specs to an A10... The third placed shot in the water challenge was also taken with this camera.
Not just the same camera the same photographer as well ;)
Which just goes to show that the photographer makes the difference and not the camera, although I guess having a top of the range camera sure helps.
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04/29/2002 08:26:07 AM · #8 |
Originally posted by magnetic9999:
In a nutshell, the number one thing a lot of people starting out could do to improve their photos are the following 2 things:
After seeing one too many blown out skies I'd like to add this one: When taking pictures in sunlight, meter your exposure to midtones and don't take noon sun shots if the contast range is too great for your camera to handle (unless you can add a neutral density filter)
Cameras can only handle a 5 stop range of contrast (think of each stop as 10% of a scale from black to white.) If you've got a bright sky and a dark foreground, the contrast range is too dynamic to be captured. Either take the picture during dawn or dusk when the sky is not as bright, or use a neutral denstiy filter. |
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