Sunday 23 March 2014

Improving on improvement..

The other day I was faffing with the camera and although I did actually improve the lighting, I was still in the 'dummy' camp and still having problems.  I wasn't totally satisfied with the 'fuzzy' looking edges on my beads, I wanted clean, sharp images and that wasn't happening.


This is one of the photos from the other day, lighting not bad but its just fuzzy.  After several hours of fiddling with buttons and referring back and forth from internet to camera manual, the battery of the camera died, which wasn't a bad thing, so I had to take a break.  I only have the one battery, at the moment.

I got the camera out, yesterday, to take photos of my bead soup from my Bead Soup Blog Party partner Janet of Anvil Artifacts and had another fiddle with the camera, and would you believe it I stumbled across yet another web page but this one was so much help: just click the link.

When I posted the last blog post on my camera exploits I did find another dial on the camera, I knew it was there but I didn't know what it did so I ignored it.  Its the ISO controller.  This dial allows you to control the shutter speed and therefore the max light coming in.  I investigated further and found that the 'noise' which is the correct term for the 'fuzzy' image I was getting was probably due to my manual setting of the ISO number being at HI-Max, which I incorrectly assumed was the best setting for my picture taking of beads.  It isn't.  The higher that number the more noise you get.  So I have figured out noise reduction, shutter speed and how to control the ISO manually whilst taking the photograph as well as having it set in the programme.

I'm getting there!


So this picture is the original setting, programmed on Hi-Max ISO and also on the dial command button at the highest number 1/4000, which is the shutter speed, so 1 4000th of a second and therefore limited light coming into the camera, but lots of noise...I think I have that right, its confusing but I do know more or less what I am doing now.


I reduced the command dial ISO to the lowest number 1/40, too much light means over exposed.


After having a fiddle a bit more, I reduced the programmed ISO to 400 and the command dial to 1/200, so allowing the slower shutter speed and max light before noise.

The image is sharper and the background is lighter. 
The other day's photo


today's result

I re-took this photo of this particular bead, I struggled the other day, it was seriously noisy and I wasn't happy, hence thinking maybe I ought not to make encased beads ever again as I couldn't photograph the buggers, but...ta dah....clear, sharp and lighter background.  I will figure out the white background but I think that is probably a computer programme and I don't want to run before I can walk!

You might have noticed I have removed the mirror under the bead and photographed on white paper, I am now not sure which I prefer.....decisions decisions!
 

5 comments:

  1. Oh, I need my camera to just produce for me on the click. I don't have the patience for "faffing".

    Love that word. Is it a real word or your word?

    Beautiful beads.

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  2. Hi, faffing is a great word, I have no idea where is comes from, I have always used it, I believe its an 'olde' English word coming from the verb Faff meaning to dither, its been a word in the UK since around the 19th Century, I have just come across this great website http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/faff-about.html which says the word comes from the 16th Century. I have a lot of 'olde' words in my volcabulary I love to read and was encouraged to read the 'classics' when I was younger. I love words! Maybe that's another blog post!! Thanks for the lovely comment on my beads :)

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  3. What outstanding photos! And I hear you on trying to get those sharp pictures! My sister is the photographer.... I have much to learn! A job well done friend and I like them both above as your bead is gorgeous!!! Nicole xo

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  4. Precioso tu arte, me encanta!
    Saludos desde Chile
    Eugenia Maru

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  5. well sort of - ISO is what would have been ther film speed in the good old days of film - it is a measure of sensitivity of the film to light - the lower the number the 'less' sensitive - so it needs more light / longer exposure to get a good picture type of thing - also therefore relates to the 'graininess' of the image - the higher the number the more grainy it is so the target is to use as low an ISO as you can with a f stop that gives you the depth of focus you need and a shutter speed that does not cause blur - get those three right and the point of focus right and the camera steady enough thats where tripods and bean bags come in - and you gte a good photo - all of the above works and gives an average exposure over the whole picture so too much dark or too much light gives a bad exposure for one or the other - thats where the spot metering comes in - sorry - difficult to seperate any single part out as they all work together - Your last photo is very good and pretty much there so you are gettiing it - very well done

    As I said happy to host you here for a day to go over all of this in a simple way with examples etc if you like, Yoke says come on down :-)

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