Luke122
01-04-2008, 11:53 AM
I'd like to start with offering 5 quick tips for taking better pictures of mods and hardware.
1. Use a tripod. If you *MUST* shoot holding the camera in your hands, make sure the shutter speed is above 1/80. (Some people say 1/60, YMMV)
2. Use the 2 second self timer.. pressing a shutter button can cause enough shake to blur a photo. (which means shooting handheld wont really benefit from this one anyways... use the tripod.)
3. Dont use the onboard flash, have decent lighting or be prepared to use a long exposure time (another reason to follow #'s 1 and 2)
If the photo is really dark, you can try to increase the ISO setting (light sensitivity). Most cameras do this automatically when shooting in auto (suprise), but some can be manually set to a specific number. Most point and shoot cameras will start to get "grainy" or "noisy" above 200 ISO, but I've seen pics from higher end digi-SLR's that were taking at 1600ISO that look great.
If your pictures are grainy, you need more light or a lower shutter speed.
4. Lower fstop numbers (f1-4) can give a bit of a lighting boost, but limit depth of field greatly. What does that mean? If you are taking a picture of the inside of a computer and focus on the motherboard, the cards will be out of focus because of the depth of field being very narrow.
Too low of an fstop can even make things like capacitors and chips blurry, but the motherboard itself sharp. A good choice for a number is 5-8, unless you want less sharpness on specific areas.
A higher fstop (6+) will give you maximum depth of field, meaning more of the image will be in focus, but the tradeoff is a longer exposure time. Again, see numbers 1 and 2.
5. TAKE LOTS OF PICTURES. If you take 1 picture and it's garbage, that was a waste. If you take 100 pictures, and 1 is good, that's good. It doesnt cost more to take lots of digital pictures, so why not take a bunch?
Shoot a few frames first on the auto setting, and see what numbers is uses. Then try the AV mode, and start playing with the settings and see what you get. If the aperature, shutter speed, iso, etc all make sense, jump into the manual mode and see how that goes.
When I started shooting manual, I would shoot 400-600 pictures PER DAY, and would keep maybe 10-20 of them. (sometimes less)
6. (did I say 5 tips?) Dont trust the screen on the camera to judge a photo. Put it onto the computer, and view it larger.. the lcd on the camera doesnt give an accurate representation of the focus/quality of an image, only the lighting/exposure. Check it on a monitor to decide if it's good or not.
Here's a collection of great sites that I've found very valuable information on, in regards to photography of all styles.
http://www.venhaus1.com/tips.html
http://www.photo.net
1. Use a tripod. If you *MUST* shoot holding the camera in your hands, make sure the shutter speed is above 1/80. (Some people say 1/60, YMMV)
2. Use the 2 second self timer.. pressing a shutter button can cause enough shake to blur a photo. (which means shooting handheld wont really benefit from this one anyways... use the tripod.)
3. Dont use the onboard flash, have decent lighting or be prepared to use a long exposure time (another reason to follow #'s 1 and 2)
If the photo is really dark, you can try to increase the ISO setting (light sensitivity). Most cameras do this automatically when shooting in auto (suprise), but some can be manually set to a specific number. Most point and shoot cameras will start to get "grainy" or "noisy" above 200 ISO, but I've seen pics from higher end digi-SLR's that were taking at 1600ISO that look great.
If your pictures are grainy, you need more light or a lower shutter speed.
4. Lower fstop numbers (f1-4) can give a bit of a lighting boost, but limit depth of field greatly. What does that mean? If you are taking a picture of the inside of a computer and focus on the motherboard, the cards will be out of focus because of the depth of field being very narrow.
Too low of an fstop can even make things like capacitors and chips blurry, but the motherboard itself sharp. A good choice for a number is 5-8, unless you want less sharpness on specific areas.
A higher fstop (6+) will give you maximum depth of field, meaning more of the image will be in focus, but the tradeoff is a longer exposure time. Again, see numbers 1 and 2.
5. TAKE LOTS OF PICTURES. If you take 1 picture and it's garbage, that was a waste. If you take 100 pictures, and 1 is good, that's good. It doesnt cost more to take lots of digital pictures, so why not take a bunch?
Shoot a few frames first on the auto setting, and see what numbers is uses. Then try the AV mode, and start playing with the settings and see what you get. If the aperature, shutter speed, iso, etc all make sense, jump into the manual mode and see how that goes.
When I started shooting manual, I would shoot 400-600 pictures PER DAY, and would keep maybe 10-20 of them. (sometimes less)
6. (did I say 5 tips?) Dont trust the screen on the camera to judge a photo. Put it onto the computer, and view it larger.. the lcd on the camera doesnt give an accurate representation of the focus/quality of an image, only the lighting/exposure. Check it on a monitor to decide if it's good or not.
Here's a collection of great sites that I've found very valuable information on, in regards to photography of all styles.
http://www.venhaus1.com/tips.html
http://www.photo.net