HI Guys. I made this thread on another forum over 2 years ago, but I think it has some valuable information on it, and hopefully will help you take a better picture!
Feel free to ask any questions, and I will do my best to answer.
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So you're sitting there with this cheap old hp(no offense..they just tend to be the cheaper of the cameras...) camera that says it gets 4.1 megapixels but it takes images with as much detail as a 5th grade essay: Meaning the pictures suck. They're blurry, out of focus, and washed out.
But behold! I have solutions!
Alright well I have, for the past few years, gotten into photography and it is true that the more expensive cameras are, the better they'll be. But all you really need is a digital camera, and if you have a
macro mode it's even better.
Okay first off I'll get this macro thing squared away. What it means is that it tells your camera that you are trying to focus on something really close. If you've ever tried taking a picture of your RC car, or really anything where you were less than 10 inches from the subject, you probably got a picture like this.
Or this
http://www.geocities.com/photomooshu/washoutNSX.jpg
Now, the flash probably went off too, like in this picture.
The key things in contributing to a bad picture are these:
1. Low Lighting
2. Camera Shake
3. Flash Overexposure
To fix these things, all you need to do is add more light. It's as simple as that. Here's the scoop: You're camera is not stupid. What it is doing is trying to find out the correct exposure and whether or not to use the flash, the Fstops and iso sensitivity as well as trying to figure out what to focus on, etc.
The problem with low light conditions is that the camera cannot really tell what to focus on, and since it will want to use flash, the subject will probably be overexposed. But if you give it enough light, the camera will readily identify the subject, and know exactly what shutter speed (which will be faster since there is more light) so there is no camera shake.
Now, as I add more light, the camera will not want to use the flash and that's good since cars that are very light colored tend to reflect alot of light back at the camera. So you can actually get detailed shots of very white and clean things.
That's pretty much it for solving the bad picture problem. Again, I stress more lamp light or something.
Now I'll get onto my techniques for taking a good picture.
Using Macro mode you'll be able to get up really close to the car and have it bee in focus. By getting really close though, you lower your depth of field. That means the things that are in focus might be the things only 2 inches away from the camera. Everything else will be blurry. As you get closer to the subject, the range in which things will be in focus will lower. And vice versa, the further away you are, the range of focus will get larger.
But I use this to my advantage--by first finding the spot on the car I want to be in focus, I hold the shutter button halfway down while putting the thing I want in focus in the middle of the frame. On the LCD the camera probably will put a little box around the thing you're focusing on, either that or you will see yourself what is in focus. Now leave that button halfway pressed down, and frame the shot like you would have before.
I did this for the same shot only I focused on two different areas. Can you guess which places are in focus? It shouldn't be hard...
And...
The first picture was focused around the back, slightly front of the rear wheel well, as you cans see the wing is slightly out of focus.
The second picture is focused on the front, you can see the back of the car rather out of focus. I personally find these this teqnigue adds to the picture and forces you to look at what I am focusing on.
Then you can take shots like
This:
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Okay a small note about exposure stuff. I know I said that flash is bad. Recall the picture above with the Hummer and how the chrome is washed out. It really depends, but you'd be better off using natural and constant light so you know exactly what you're taking a picture of. There is no way to know whether the surface will be washed out since the light is bouncing back at the camera.
This picture, although not taken with a flash, shows my point.
See how there is a ton of detail in the NSX, but the eclipse is sort of bland and the lines on the car are not really there? That is because the white reflects the light so much more and there isn't really any contrast in there.
If the following picture was taken with flash, you wouldn't see the detail on the chrome. I'll put a side by side.
Hmm it's late and I seem to be losing my train of thought and structure. But I pretty much said all I needed to say, and if you guys have any questions about pictures I'd be happy to help out and give more suggestions. There is no way I answered every question in what i've said already.
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