Photos badly taken...

[etman]

I just took some photos at my friend's wedding dinner.
You know those where you go to each table to take the guests and the newly-wed couple?
There were a few other photographers with me and we took turns to take the photos.

Well, half of the photos turned out blur.
Also of those that were not blur, some were under-exposed.

I was using auto mode. Apparently at this setting, the camera couldn't focus properly and detected the wrong exposure. Or could be my wrong technique.

Can any expert here enlighten me on how to improve?

 

[djchris]

Hope you're not the main photographer..
I think the camera may have given you the best setting it could give, but was insufficient..

Regards,
Christopher.

Originally posted by etman
I just took some photos at my friend's wedding dinner.
You know those where you go to each table to take the guests and the newly-wed couple?

Well, half of the photos turned out blur.
Also of those that were not blur, some were under-exposed.

I was using auto mode. Apparently at this setting, the camera couldn't focus properly and detected the wrong exposure. Or could be my wrong technique.

Can any expert here enlighten me on how to improve?

 

[etman]

Good thing I wasn't the main one, too lousy.:embrass:

 

[the_tick]

How was the lighting? Was it dimly lit? Did you use a tripod? Flash?

If the camera can't focus, then more lighting is required.

If it was dimly lit and you didn't use a tripod then the camera probably chose a shutter speed > 1/40. Any shaking of the camera could result in blurry photos. I'm just speculating right now. :dunno:

 

[etman]

An underexposed picture...

A blur one...

My guess is that my camera was focusing on the white dinner table , which is brighter than the subjects. This could have caused a wrong focusing distance to be set. And the camera thought it was bright because of the white table cloth.

I used flash for all the shots and waited for my turn to shoot after the other photographers.

 

[Zookeeper]

Yah the blurness doesn't look like itz from handshake, it's truly out of focus...funny leh...why har...

The underexposed pix - looks like it can still be salvaged with Photoshop leh...wanna try? What ISO setting did you use? Using higher ISO settings in such conditions may help. (at least 200, or even 400, a bit grainy never mind, can't really tell in a 4R print)

 

[teerex]

Apart from the CP5700 which I use more often now, occassionally I still use my Minolta S304 (same as yours, etman).

I did not at any point in time had such problems as you experienced. The S304 is a relatively good camera.

In the first pic, obviously the built in flash did not fire at all. Thus causing the underexposure. Perhaps you did not pay attention to check if the flash was ready before you shot the pic.

The second pic is completly out of focus. The S304 takes a little longer to focus at night indoors than in daylight outdoors. You could have press the shutter completely at one go to shoot without half-pressing it for the camera to focus before shooting. Focusing is not on the white tablecloth as you mentioned, because no portion of the tablecloth is in focus. In fact there is no one point which is in focus in the pic. Possible reason could be what I have mentioned above.

The camera has a aperture priority overide. For group photos try to use this and set to the minimum aperture (largest f number you see in the lcd display panel). This gives a better depth of field (dof) so that you can get everybody, in front and behind sharp.

Too bad the S304 does not have a hot shoe slot provided, else you can use an external flash for such occasions. But nonetheless, it's a good handy camera. Good for macros too.
How long have you had this camera?

I'm not good either, but I like to keep trying and learn from the more experienced here.

teerex

 

[patch17]

Hi etman.

i tend to agree with teerex. In the first pic, it appears that the flash did not fire at all. Did you check the flash setting of your camera? It may have been set to no flash instead of red eye (i do that sometimes).

in the second photo, nothing appears to be in focus. So i don't think the camera focused on anything in particular. As teerex mentioned, your camera's AF could have still been hunting while you depressed the shutter button all the way. From what i know using digital cams, you need to depress shutter button half-way and watch till subject comes in focus, then press all the way. Works the same with AF lenses on film cameras, which is why i'd rather focus manually.

 

[the_tick]

Yeah, looking at the picture, it's out of focus and not camera shaking. It always helps when the photo in question can be seen .

 

[xdivider]

Originally posted by etman
An underexposed picture...

A blur one...

My guess is that my camera was focusing on the white dinner table , which is brighter than the subjects. This could have caused a wrong focusing distance to be set. And the camera thought it was bright because of the white table cloth.

I used flash for all the shots and waited for my turn to shoot after the other photographers.

Tried curves and autolevels on the 1st. Its salvagable. I would suggest u to try using a more powerful external slave flash and shutter priority to fix at 1/30 or 60s if available.

 

[etman]

Thanks everyone for the tips.

Next time I'll take my time to focus properly and set the aperture priority to higher f/stop.

 

[teerex]

Visited your photo gallery etman.
Most of the scenery shots are hazy, this could be due to the environment in thest parts of Asia.
A good time to shoot sceneries is after a heavy rain. The air will be cleared of dust particles after the rain thus making the sky clearer.

teerex

 

[Catalyst]

Hi,

You may want to try DCEnhancer software from Mediachance..I did some editing with the pics (1st pics), but I am not able to post it. Anyway, I saw someone I know in the pic after editing.