great place, nice scenery... lousy photos!

[erictjh]

went to Koh Samui recently for a short trip
brought my new Lumix FZ5 along hoping to take some nice photos
sad to say, many of the photos didn't turn out as I expected them to...
i'm still rather new to photography, but minus that fact... the photos taken were below my expectations... particularly those taken at the beach... others were ok

here are some of the photos... feel free to comment i'd appreciate that

one of the worse exposures i've seen

very dark... weather was rather cloudy... but this bad?

one of the slightly better ones

another slightly better one

i know this has something to do with the camera seeing grey shades bla bla... about increasing exposure by 1/2 or 1 step... but i'm not very clear about it... would really like to get some advice on this. don't want to go for another trip to the beach and come back with photos like these... (p.s. the photos seemed ok on the camera LCD)

 

[litefoot]

Are you using auto WB? The brollies looked a little blue in the last pix.

 

[arttl]

Hi,

Technically (Camera):
1. U'll need to understand what your camera can/cannot deliver. Not that a P&S cannot produce good landscape photos.
2. Maximizing the capabilities of the cam.

Technically (Yourself)
1. Improve on the composition. Not just point and shoot. But frame in your mind what kind photographs you want. Be a hunter!
2. Most people like to see saturated landscape photos. Try working on that.

Keep improving by learning what other good landscape photographers have taken. From there, develop your own style in shooting landscapes.

That's abt it I can offer now.

Cheers,
Jon

 

[Snowcrash]

The camera settings part:-

1) play with the white balance. get the effect you want/like
2) some filters like ND will help

The improvement on photography part:- let other experts to advise....

 

[erictjh]

Are you using auto WB? The brollies looked a little blue in the last pix.

eheh yeah... i used auto WB... i only found out NOT to use auto WB after I came back from the trip... that was probably what caused my photos to look duller than it was supposed to? still lots to learn about photography and my camera, as arttl pointed out. thanks to arttl for the pointers! but at the same time, i'd also like to have some specific pointers how to take photos with a large portion of water/sky/snow, such as beach photos and the likes of that so as to not make the photos underexposed, blue-ish etc... (e.g. turning up the exposure, spot AF the area of which is my main subject, etc) i am told that beach photos and photos with snow need 'special' adjustments?

 

[jbma]

it does look dull and under to me. Like mentioned by the rest know the capability of your camera and exploit it's strong points. Keep on shooting.

 

[tucker]

hello, I don't think there's any wdire problem like camera setting.
how bout a little cropping and touching up, e contrast and colours ie.

have fun

 

[zcf]

my shot sometime ended up like that also.

But you still can save them by using photoshop or some photo software which can adjust the "level" on ouy computer, they will turn out better.

 

[nightwolf75]

eheh yeah... i used auto WB... i only found out NOT to use auto WB after I came back from the trip... that was probably what caused my photos to look duller than it was supposed to? still lots to learn about photography and my camera, as arttl pointed out. thanks to arttl for the pointers! but at the same time, i'd also like to have some specific pointers how to take photos with a large portion of water/sky/snow, such as beach photos and the likes of that so as to not make the photos underexposed, blue-ish etc... (e.g. turning up the exposure, spot AF the area of which is my main subject, etc) i am told that beach photos and photos with snow need 'special' adjustments?

well, most of the time AWB in most PnS works pretty well. after all, PnS cameras are designed to give the 'best' (subjectively speaking, of course) quality pics right out of cam so dat u can print them immediately.

dat said, in ur case, due to the wide contrast in lighting (ie sky vs beach vs water), the AWB in ur FZ5 was trying to meter it according to 18% grey. how and why it works, u have to google for it (can find ans in http://www.luminous-landscape.com). dats why, i suspect, ur pics come out a little dull in colours. happens for PnS or DSLRs, for dat matter.

read ur manual and see if there are options for 'Manual' settings - ie. u decide the aperature, shutter speed, exposure compensation etc... as to how to meter for snow or sand (which is highly reflective), can try reading here (http://www.mikemacdonald.com/article-snow-exposure.shtml).

 

[Astin]

Do u guys know is there any program that can convert the White Balance on JPEG files?

 

[litefoot]

eheh yeah... i used auto WB... i only found out NOT to use auto WB after I came back from the trip... that was probably what caused my photos to look duller than it was supposed to? still lots to learn about photography and my camera, as arttl pointed out. thanks to arttl for the pointers! but at the same time, i'd also like to have some specific pointers how to take photos with a large portion of water/sky/snow, such as beach photos and the likes of that so as to not make the photos underexposed, blue-ish etc... (e.g. turning up the exposure, spot AF the area of which is my main subject, etc) i am told that beach photos and photos with snow need 'special' adjustments?

Sand, snow etc taking up large part of your photo composition will "fool" the AWB most of the time. I even find it happens to DSLR. I would suggest it to be set to daylight. Some even go to the extend to recalibrate the WB in the custom option which I believe only available to higher end digitals. It applies to the camera metering too as it "sees" the scenary 18% grey scale, thus the white sand would be "seen" as a "duller" grey instead of a "brighter" white, and if it takes up large part of the pix, it will be under exposed overall.

You have to get the basics right first, the bluish cast is caused by WB and under exposure by the metering.

 

[erictjh]

dat said, in ur case, due to the wide contrast in lighting (ie sky vs beach vs water), the AWB in ur FZ5 was trying to meter it according to 18% grey. how and why it works, u have to google for it (can find ans in http://www.luminous-landscape.com). dats why, i suspect, ur pics come out a little dull in colours. happens for PnS or DSLRs, for dat matter.

read ur manual and see if there are options for 'Manual' settings - ie. u decide the aperature, shutter speed, exposure compensation etc... as to how to meter for snow or sand (which is highly reflective), can try reading here (http://www.mikemacdonald.com/article-snow-exposure.shtml).

thanks nightwolf75! i check out the site... basically, I should have let in more light.. right?
also, i can control exposure on my camera.... pushing my exposure up manually by 1/2 to 1 stop would help as well? so that's for the metering part...

and as for WB.. thanks again litefoot for pointing my mistake out daylight setting eh? i'll use it the next time i take beach photos!

on the whole... i think i'll have to RE-read my manual... more thoroughly this time heh

in the mean time, any more opinions/pointers appreciated...

p.s. i've only joined clubsnap for a day... and I love it here!

 

[nightwolf75]

thanks nightwolf75! i check out the site... basically, I should have let in more light.. right?
also, i can control exposure on my camera.... pushing my exposure up manually by 1/2 to 1 stop would help as well? so that's for the metering part...

depends. remember - the site gave suggestions on how to shoot snow. bottom line is to bracket - ie. to put it simply is to shoot 1 pic slightly underexposed, 1 slightly over and the last one shld be some where in between. if u let in too much light, ur sand will loose its 'yellowish' colour and texture. wat u'll see is just a plain whitish-yellowish patch.

i might be wrong here - when i was in tioman in mar, wat i did was to use spot meter on my canon S1 IS to meter the sand. lock in the exposure readings by adjusting the aperature and shutter speed. then i recompose the scene. most of the time, i got the pic i wanted except on one occasion when i was trying to shoot in the afternoon sun on the day of departure. i had to play ard with the EV settings (have to -2EV, IIRC) to avoid blowing the sand.

so, feel free to go experiment, once u get the basics from the site.

 

[dominator]

i got a FZ5 as well and most of the time I am using awb without problem. but the main thing with your photos is they are all like under expose to me.

from your exif data i got...your metering mode "CenterWeightedAverage", this is one which i never use during landscape shooting. maybe this is the problem?
why not try taking pictures with, example: spot and centerweight then compare the photos? to me spot always give me what i want.

don't rely on ccd to view your pictures...they are not accurate. and normally the well expose pictures shown on ccd will be the underexpose! read more on histogram better. for me i reduce my ccd light to min.

if you need more help directly about your FZ5 only please join over at panasonic forum. you may get more ideas and helps specifically on your camera

 

[erictjh]

i got a FZ5 as well and most of the time I am using awb without problem. but the main thing with your photos is they are all like under expose to me.

from your exif data i got...your metering mode "CenterWeightedAverage", this is one which i never use during landscape shooting. maybe this is the problem?
why not try taking pictures with, example: spot and centerweight then compare the photos? to me spot always give me what i want.

don't rely on ccd to view your pictures...they are not accurate. and normally the well expose pictures shown on ccd will be the underexpose! read more on histogram better. for me i reduce my ccd light to min.

if you need more help directly about your FZ5 only please join over at panasonic forum. you may get more ideas and helps specifically on your camera

use spot metering and AF on the main subject eh? will do

as for the CCD part... you reduce the CCD light to minimum... something to consider... do you leave it at min settings all the time?

Panasonic forum joined!

 

[clicknick]

Hi,
sorry, I took the liberty to try editing your pic without seeking your permission first. Will delete away later.

As zcf mention, a little photoshop editing will save your pictures.

Here's one example. Is this the kind of colours you are looking for?

**Photo Removed and Deleted**

Like u, I use to think how crappy my P&S pics colours are, until I learn how to use PS