Need tips for taking good photo's

[Bones]

Hey all,

I've been trying to take some decent pics with my new (used) digital camera - I was wonderin' if anyone has any tips to help me out???

All the pictures I take seem to have really crap colour, and you cant make things out as well as i would like - I've tried taking them under the sodium and in natural light too with no good results

I find all the menu's on the camera a bit daunting, and I don't know what kind of exposure settings etc. would work best!!

Any tips would be much appreciated

Thanks

Bones

 

[Chiefsmokingbud]

What brand camera?

 

[mybeans420]

Hey all,

I've been trying to take some decent pics with my new (used) digital camera - I was wonderin' if anyone has any tips to help me out???

All the pictures I take seem to have really crap colour, and you cant make things out as well as i would like - I've tried taking them under the sodium and in natural light too with no good results

I find all the menu's on the camera a bit daunting, and I don't know what kind of exposure settings etc. would work best!!

Any tips would be much appreciated

Thanks

Bones

A general rule for exposure is if your pics are coming out too dark then you want to increase the exposure.

Too light and washed out,... decrease it.

Taking pics under sodium light just sucks. Though you can adjust settings (white balance I think ) to make them come out better, thats one I havent figured out myself yet.

 

[Guest]

yes those menus can be crazy. something u can try is use the flash in the dark period, those pics seem to come out allright.

 

[Bones]

thanks mybeans - i'll try a bit of fiddling with the exposure setting, i've found a setting for different types of light which has made it a bit better, I suppose there's no substitute for practice. I'll get better i guess with some messing around

Chief smoking bud - It's a Nikon Coolpix 2100 (nuthin great but on a tight budget!!!)

Sbageis - Thanks, i'll give it a try when the lights go off tonight

Thanks

Bones

 

[mybeans420]

thanks mybeans - i'll try a bit of fiddling with the exposure setting, i've found a setting for different types of light which has made it a bit better, I suppose there's no substitute for practice. I'll get better i guess with some messing around

Chief smoking bud - It's a Nikon Coolpix 2100 (nuthin great but on a tight budget!!!)

Sbageis - Thanks, i'll give it a try when the lights go off tonight

Thanks

Bones

My pleasure

You may want to try PMing Abby Normal as well. Our resident photography guru.

Maybe even look through his/her (not sure) threads to see if you can find anything useful there.
http://www.icmag.com/ic/private.php?do=newpm&userid=2590

 

[Elevator Man]

The white balance is the one you need - not sure how it will set it, but there should be a 'calibrate' mode. You should photograph a white card under the lighting you want and it will set the camera to match. My old Nikon compact uses this method.
On 'close-up' mode it uses an auto-white balance which can't be overridden, but the colors are so spectacular, I never want to. But it can't cope with sodium lighting at all, and I usually pull them out of the growroom to photograph them.

 

[Guest]

Hey Bones, First you may want to move the plant before taking the picture. maybe next time you water or something. put it in front of a wall or something with a solid color. look for a macro mode or maybe the icon that looks like a flower or a plant. try to use the fill flash (if you have to use one) the icon looks different on most cams.


if/when i take pics under my HPS, i adjust my white balance to get rid of the orange "warmth" that shows up in the pics as well as underexpose to like -.7 -1.

under my MH the spectrum is more in the blue spectrum which shows up as just bright. for this i would just underexpose.

I try not to use a flash at all ESPECIALLY when your plants are in the dark period. I'm sure doing this a couple times is fine, it would just hurt my soul without saying this. i just imagine a bright ass flash would wake them up. what the hell do i know

hope this helps. PM me if you need more help

 

[Bones]

Cheers guys, sorry bout the slow reply but i've been off the net for a couple of days!!

I'm pretty sure with all this info and a bit of practice i'll be able to take some decent pics come flowering time!

Thanks for all your help,

Bones

 

[Flowerman]

My camera is a few years old, and only 2 or 3 mp. I find lighting to be the issue. But most digital cameras come with a ISO function. My camera absolutely sucks taking pictures indoors, so I use this function on low(50 ISO) while using the flash and it seems to work pretty well. If you're shooting under a light like an HPS, most digital cameras come with a fuction to adjust the light(AWB), and some even have a function that will allow you to evaluate the lighting and hit set. I find the best way, is just to read the manual your camera came with, and play around with it in different light.
As for using the flash, I agree, not in the dark period, but the flash will really bring out the trichomes. I usually stand a few feet back, then zoom in a little, and presto. Unless I want a really close macro, then I'll use the ISO feature, and change my lens, and get as close as I can, but most cameras come with a macro function now-a-days, mine doesn't.
I was thinking about getting a new camera, but why fix something this isn't broke, ya know, it still produces good enough pics, even though I still have to do more work to get it to come out, but I like the raw image, so I like to get it right the first time, and that's when I click the shutter button.
But I still would love to get this camera, Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ50, the older model would still make me happy as well, the FZ30.