The SZ Photography thread

[MoFiya]

To digital photography in general.
I do not own a DSLR but a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TC10. While this is of course no professional camera I am still trying to get out of it what's possible and as I trust the person who made me the gift that he didn't select a bad camera at all...
It is kind of hard to articulate what I am looking for, I know. It's just about technical basics, e.g. how to adjust exposure and whatever the possibilities are to the motive and what I have to care about when taking photos.
While I always enjoyed photography, I did never get further than a subjective aesthetical approach which is - of course - rather implicit. Problem is I cannot tell what characterizes a 'good photo' and thus cannot change settings or whatever purposeful when having a certain motive in mind.

Sorry for the bad english, I hope that makes things a bit clearer

[525252]

I learnt a great deal off wikipedia actually...especially technical basics

[lowrey]

It's just about technical basics, e.g. how to adjust exposure and whatever the possibilities are to the motive and what I have to care about when taking photos.

ok, for this, I'd reccomend reading the following:

http://www.digitalslrphoto.com/dslrbasics/

from here: ISO, shutter speed, aperture, white balance. these are the most important settings and even though the tutorials are intended for DSLR's, the settings are pretty universal and sohuld be found on most point and shoot cameras with manual settings. unfortunately their sample pictures seem broken at the moment.

http://www.geofflawrence.com/photography_tutorials.htm

this site has info on both the theoretical (composition, cropping, lighting) as well as the technical side of taking photos.

here is one decent writeup of manual settings on a DSLR: http://lifehacker.com/328488/master-...-mode-and-more


also, from the Cameras thread, this is for a Canon, but should apply to most cameras with manual settings:

crash course on the different modes:

auto
full auto, will use flash if necessary

P
as syed described, semi-automatic, flash can be selected manually. you can choose the following (by pressing FUNC.SET):

ISO = light sensitivity, roughly put ISO100 for daylight, 400 for well lit inside, 800 and upwards for dim lighting (1600 is already quite grainy)
white balance = auto works in daylight, but in dim lighting tungsten (light bulb) is good (otherwise the image is yellow/orange)

M
full manual, in addition to the above, you can most importantly control aperture and shutter speed.

aperture: controlled by ring around lens by default, changes how much light is let through the lens. lower F number = more light coming in, shorter range of focus. in low light conditions you'd want to use the lowest aperture, if you focus on something close by, the background will be blurred. high F number = wider range of focus.

shutter speed: controlled by the small ring dial next to the screen. slow shutter will let more light in, but anything under 1/20 can be difficult to shoot by hand (shaking blurs image). use lower speed for dim light, higher when there is more light as well as capturing moving objects.



Av

lets you choose aperture, and will adjust shutter automatically. useful if you specifically want short focus range (background blur) etc.


Tv

opposite as AV - lets you choose the shutter speed, and adjusts aperture accordingly. useful if you need a specific shutter speed, for example higher to capture moving objects. personally, I use Av much more often.



there are of course other features, but these are the most essential ones needed for every shot.

[MoFiya]

Thank you very much

[lost53]

Do not adjust your screen

please resize and use the "sz bulletin board" thread to post photos

[Fade to Black]

you need to resize your images, those are too big.

[shah]

a few shots from my humble collection -- always a learning process!
shot with iso400 film on either the minolta 7s, olympus om-1(n), or kiev 88cm (which i believe might be 400 for bw positives but 100 for color positives)
except the rain droplets and the through-viewfinder on my blackberry

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the second and third last shots, and the first are really good

[shah]

thanks ! i get better results with a tripod and when not shooting while walking in over-crowded city at night

[lost53]

Here is one image from a series I shot last week.
There is no photoshop, this is "as shot".

[IMG][/IMG]

[lowrey]

something that doesn't significantly mess up the forum layout, around 650-700 pixels wide max.

also, this thread is more about photography discussion, the "SZ bulletin board" serves as a photo post.

[lost53]

this thread is for showcasing photographs taken by you, whether its film, digital or polaroid. topic is free but lets stick to the so called art of photography as we have other threads for randomness and funny pics etc..

er discussion?
Perhaps I missed the point but you say quite clearly this is
"or showcasing photographs taken by you"

[lowrey]

that was the initial point, but it got turned down as the bulletin board already excisted. but yea, the original post is obviously confusing, I should probably edit it.

[lost53]

Ok, thanks for the clarification.
I do think it is a strong idea (the original thread), why not do a discussion thread separate.
As an image should (if executed well) speak for its self.

[Fade to Black]

am getting frustrated with the film printing process...no matter what can't seem to completely get a clean print with no dust marks on it. any suggestions for film cleaning to get an immaculate print?

i can't even find a spot pen in this town....