[Uncle Peter]

Originally Posted by Barewolf

Hi Guys.

Ok Today I have been out with my Samsung S700. I took on board what people have been saying and I am still learning, however if it hadnt have been for andy pointing out apperture, focal length, ISO etc then I would have had it set on Auto all the time which would have been useless today.

Today was sunny, not the brightest day weve had but it was bright outside.

I took some pictures WITH and WITHOUT auto function. I was suprised at the difference it made.

I set the Manual mode to 1/60th Shutter Speed. Most were taken 1/90th Though. The decent one below is 1/90th. The gloomy dark one is AUTO. And the 3rd one Is one i took which is how i want it all the time really, if possible to make it better then wicked. This was Manual 1/90th.

The Focus was 7.1 But i did zoom in and out on some pictures and the Focus changed obviously. I dont understand what reducing the focus does, it allows me to change between two. If i am not zoomed in and its set Focus 7.1 and Shutter Speed is 1/90th I can change the Focus to 2.1 or back to 7.1. When I zoom this changes different values.

I have options to change from AWB / Sunny / Cloudy. Theres other modes but they are for indoors. When I choose cloudy i get more vivid colour, Sunny makes it darker. And most inc the ones i added were done using AWB. No idea what that means lol.

ISO Was set to Auto as well on the pictures even though it was in Manual mode for some shots, I dont know if that is a wise idea or not?

As you can see in picture one. Its like what i started with my old camera. The background is dark, no detail in the trees, gloomy looking. This is why i got the Samsung Camera. Using Manual the Second picture is far better, no detail in the sky though like picture one but you can pick the detail up better, looks like a decent pic to me, Novice with no idea what he is doing lol.

So definately helps knowing about these focal lengths and Shutter speeds. Focal length still confusing me

The third picture seemed to come out great, cant remember if i used Macro mode in Manual for this shot or not. Or if i should have done that.

I found though even in Manual mode "Some" pictures came out a little dark while others were nice and bright. Does this have something to do with where the sun is shining? Ie if its behind me do i use more shutter speed?, If its in front of me I use less? Or is that all wrong lol. Sorry if it is.

Anyway heres the pics. Any advice would be helpfull. I didnt mess with the apparture with these pics or the ISO. Only the Shutter speed and AWB for manual mode and gloomy pic is Auto mode.

Looking at your 3 sample pics #1 is actually the most workable because there's detail there that's lost in the second and third because they are over-exposed, washed and look like they've been killed with camera shake (were you shooting handheld or with a tripod)?. This is undoubtedly because you have used a pretty long exposure time in bright conditions - as a very simple rule of thumb try using a higher shutter speed for a sharper image. I tend to stay above 1/250th for outdoor shooting.

If you over-expose your digital shots a-la 2 and 3 then you will start losing detail as jpg compression will strip large areas of white pixels. A slightly under exposed image will always be of more use than an over exposed one (you can photoshop it later) but it is of course best practice to achieve the correct exposure

It can be challenging to achieve the correct exposure settings when you have contrasting light sources in the shot - in the context of your sample pictures: a bright sky and darker surface features. In these conditions your camera's light metering can actually mislead you depending on how the metering mode is configured and what you actually point the camera at. It also doesn't help that many internal light meters are easy to fool (even using evaluative metering) and don't always provide an accurate reading at the best of times. An decent quality external light meter is a good investment.

Photoshop can be extremely useful (if you have it) and there are many ways in which you can further enhance your images or even transform a marginally acceptable image into an acceptable one. The link below is an excellent resource:

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tu...hotoshop.shtml

Anyway stick at it and enjoy learning photography, it's a fantastically rewarding hobby, hell it's kept me occupied for the past 25 years and I get bored very easily!