Just got back.. my pictures suck

[PlaneJane]

I have so much noise in my pictures it is driving me nuts.. I was using priority mode for my Nikon which looked like it was giving excellent pictures while it was on the small screen but I blow them up to full size on my computer and it looks horrible. I thought that the camera would pick the best settings and it didn't look like it did. Was it the ISO 1600? Edit: Sorry a little distressed I have put a couple more in the set. http://www.flickr.com/photos/80720623@N08/sets/72157631589950427/

 

[Allen C]

I was looking at the EXIF data from your flickr image and I noticed a few things.

Your exposure mode setting was not "Priority" but "Program AE" - the P on the exposure mode dial. The letters can be confusing sometimes: M - Manual, A - Aperture Priority, S - Shutter Priority, and P - Program AE.

You do have your ISO set pretty high for daytime shots - ISO 1600. You will get some grain. For most outdoor daytime shots I usually set the ISO to 100 - 200.

In most daylight shooting situations I usually have my camera on Aperture priority and at ISO 100 - 200. I just play around with the Aperture setting depending on the depth-of-field that I want in the shot.

 

[PlaneJane]

I thought that it would adjust for stupidity on my part I remember bumping the ISO to 1600 about a month before to play around with the manual settings

 

[ddbowdoin]

I thought that it would adjust for stupidity on my part I remember bumping the ISO to 1600 about a month before to play around with the manual settings

I know the feeling man...

I picked up a film medium format rig right before I left, when it came to shooting long exposures I learned my lesson with not preparing before hand. To keep the story short, Mamiyas have a weird setting called "T" for time. It's not like digital cameras where you can just release the shutter, count, then plunge your cable release to close the shutter. I had waited until the last night to shoot illuminations, I got ONE picture that came out nice... the rest were awful because I had no idea how to close the shutter.

PS, the images aren't horrible man... just some grain. Do some research, you can invest in a post product tool that removes grain, unsure of the name... it's escaping my memory. Just keep practicing, this gives you another excuse to hit the world up!

 

[PlaneJane]

I know the feeling man...

I picked up a film medium format rig right before I left, when it came to shooting long exposures I learned my lesson with not preparing before hand. To keep the story short, Mamiyas have a weird setting called "T" for time. It's not like digital cameras where you can just release the shutter, count, then plunge your cable release to close the shutter. I had waited until the last night to shoot illuminations, I got ONE picture that came out nice... the rest were awful because I had no idea how to close the shutter.

PS, the images aren't horrible man... just some grain. Do some research, you can invest in a post product tool that removes grain, unsure of the name... it's escaping my memory. Just keep practicing, this gives you another excuse to hit the world up!

I took about 500 pictures I am weeding through them hopefully I can use some. I am using Lightroom right now which is super basic, but it does help a little.. I don't get to go to WDW very much, maximum of about 2 times a year which is why I am so upset add in all the effort to get there and back 9 hours straight in a car. This is just the beginning though !

 

[ddbowdoin]

I took about 500 pictures I am weeding through them hopefully I can use some. I am using Lightroom right now which is super basic, but it does help a little.. I don't get to go to WDW very much, maximum of about 2 times a year which is why I am so upset add in all the effort to get there and back 9 hours straight in a car. This is just the beginning though !

just a quick tip: looking at your EXIF I notice you shot this @ 18mm at f/18

here is the problem with using any of the modes, you want the camera thinking as less as possible.. mainly because it really doesn't know what it has strapped to it. Meaning, you could have the basic 18-55 (which I'm assuming you used) or 85 f1.4 cream machine and the camera will treat it as a lens.

The basic jist of shooting at f/18 was to get as much focus in infinity as possible, issue is that lenses lose sharpness from "defraction", especially on lower end lenses. So you lost sharpness and clarity.

f8 is great, an old motto a lot of people go by. Typically f8 or f11 are what people describe as sweet spots on most DSLR lenses. This figure increases with larger formats.

 

[PhilharMagician]

The pics are grainy and like you already know, it is because of the high ISO setting. I can see using 1600 indoors like a dark ride, but not for any sort of large format shot in bright light.

If you are going to shoot manual, here are my minimum recommendations:

• keep the shutter speed no slower than 1/60. Faster is better, but faster lets less light in and the picture is darker.
• the aperature at it's lowest setting (not sure how fast a lens you have, either 3.5 or maybe 2.8. The lower the number the more light can get in)
• ISO at it's lowest to capture the shot. (100 during outside bright daylight with 1600 or 3200 for dark situations
• Always shoot @ the highest resolution the you camera can do. This may not be possible if you do not have enough storage for your pics during your vacation.

Keep playing with the settings to get a better understanding. Shooting in a aperature priority or a shutter priority will allow you to manually adjust only one parameter and the rest will be automatically adjusted.

 

[ddbowdoin]

The pics are grainy and like you already know, it is because of the high ISO setting. I can see using 1600 indoors like a dark ride, but not for any sort of large format shot in bright light.

If you are going to shoot manual, here are my minimum recommendations:

• keep the shutter speed no slower than 1/60. Faster is better, but faster lets less light in and the picture is darker.
• the aperature at it's lowest setting (not sure how fast a lens you have, either 3.5 or maybe 2.8. The lower the number the more light can get in)
• ISO at it's lowest to capture the shot. (100 during outside bright daylight with 1600 or 3200 for dark situations
• Always shoot @ the highest resolution the you camera can do. This may not be possible if you do not have enough storage for your pics during your vacation.

Keep playing with the settings to get a better understanding. Shooting in a aperature priority or a shutter priority will allow you to manually adjust only one parameter and the rest will be automatically adjusted.

disagree...

Very dependent on what you're shooting, keeping a lens stuck on 1.8 or 2.8 creates a nice depth of field... but sometimes this isn't needed. In general shooting, such as the image above having the lens set to 2.8 would create too small of a focal plane. Bokeh is really only needed when shooting something very specific, such as a detail on a statue, a balloon, or a headshot.

 

[PlaneJane]

Ok I know you guys are going rag me for this one but I found a couple with some lower ISO settings that were taken at the beginning of the trip (I hadn't rotated the dial to a manual setting yet) http://www.flickr.com/photos/80720623@N08/sets/72157631591413383/

 

[ddbowdoin]

Ok I know you guys are going rag me for this one but I found a couple with some lower ISO settings that were taken at the beginning of the trip (I hadn't rotated the dial to a manual setting yet) http://www.flickr.com/photos/80720623@N08/sets/72157631591413383/

again man, they don't suck from a technical perspective...

there are two mountains we climb as photographers.

1.) you buy your camera, it looks like it comes from an alien planet
2.) you start to learn and master the camera, settings, etc etc etc ... the nuts and bolts of actually shooting

now the challenge...

3.) forgetting all the technical garbage and learning how to properly compose and take a GOOD image.

number 3 isn't easy, it's how you see the world... a camera will change how you see everything after some time

 

[CP_alum08]

They aren't as bad as you're making them out to be, just be patient and learn to use the camera better. I used to sell cameras and I got people back in all the time saying "I spent $X on this camera and it takes crappy pictures", when 99.9% of the time it was user error.

For me, a typical day at WDW means I leave the camera in the Aperture priority mode almost all day. I'm normally at ISO 200 for outdoor shots and 600/800 for indoor. If I know I'm somewhere that shutter speed is essential (parades, safari, etc.) I'll switch to that and night shooting is always full manual but the majority of my day is spent in AP.

If you have photoshop Topaz DeNoise is a great noise reducing plug-in. I've heard Noise Ninja is great too but I've never used it.

 

[PlaneJane]

They aren't as bad as you're making them out to be, just be patient and learn to use the camera better. I used to sell cameras and I got people back in all the time saying "I spent $X on this camera and it takes crappy pictures", when 99.9% of the time it was user error.

For me, a typical day at WDW means I leave the camera in the Aperture priority mode almost all day. I'm normally at ISO 200 for outdoor shots and 600/800 for indoor. If I know I'm somewhere that shutter speed is essential (parades, safari, etc.) I'll switch to that and night shooting is always full manual but the majority of my day is spent in AP.

If you have photoshop Topaz DeNoise is a great noise reducing plug-in. I've heard Noise Ninja is great too but I've never used it.

Yea no way am I blaming it on the camera. This camera is 1000x better than the point and shoot that I owned before. This is 100% my fault and ultimately paid for my stupidity with some less than desirable pictures. I am going to try taking some local pictures of similar material to try and learn and focus (lol made a camera joke) my skills before I head anywhere important. Also remember to reset the camera settings after I experiment.

I do have Photoshop it is an older version.. the version after 7 is that CS ?

 

[ddbowdoin]

Yea no way am I blaming it on the camera. This camera is 1000x better than the point and shoot that I owned before. This is 100% my fault and ultimately paid for my stupidity with some less than desirable pictures. I am going to try taking some local pictures of similar material to try and learn and focus (lol made a camera joke) my skills before I head anywhere important. Also remember to reset the camera settings after I experiment.

I do have Photoshop it is an older version.. the version after 7 is that CS ?

sounds like you have "elements" ... trust me, get's the job done.