I just got this camera beginning of october'03 and I'm just starting to learn the apertures and shutter speed stuff. I know what the values mean for each but I'm still learning on what settings to use for each situation. ALl i know is that whenever I take pictures, the colors always seem washed out. The sky was blue that day and the colors were great (to my eyes).
Karen, I meant Photo Shop Elements 2.0, this is the 'consumer version' of Photoshop. It is certainly not 'elementary' as the name suggests, it contains really *a lot* of features, don't feel overwhelmed by it! The 'real' Photoshop has a few extra features that are only needed by the professional, it also has a professional price :) If you have further questions, feel free to mail me at hermen_pen@yahoo.com
Karen - I'm glad my comments here and else where have been helpful to you. You picked the right photography site when you came to Usefilm.com. Some of the other popular sites have good articles, but the forums tend to degrade into old arguments about this camera or that brand. Usefilm.com is much more centered on photography and images, not just equipment, and the people are very helpful.
I to still have a lot to learn, and am blown away by the creativity and vision I see in so many images at this site.
Feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions about any of my photos or about the basics of photography (while I can't claim to be as advanced as many on this site, I do have a decent grasp of the basics): daniel_l_taylor@taylor-design.com.
It is nice to meet you. Glad you have joined this site. I think you will find it most helpful. I still have A LOT to learn but love photography. I am alot like you in that I dont have as much time as I would like to devote to photography.
One very important thing I learned very early on is that there is no film that can record what our eyes can see. The most film can record is about 5 stops of exposure. So if you are shooting a contrasty scene ( some very dark areas and some very bright areas). One or the other is going to suffer. Either your highlights will be washed out like what you have in this picture or your dark areas are going to be too dark or even black ( like sillouettes ) In some instances this is great, such as sillouette images. It took me a LONG time to get this. I wasted rolls upon rolls of film trying to get wonderful sunset images and have the foreground visible ( not black ) too. There are ways to do this but not in the camera.
People had made some very good feedback here. I will add my thoughts. Polarizer filter is worth getting. Takes away glare and makes everything a bit darker, like when you wear sunglasses. Basically it is a sunglass for your lens.
Second, you should avoid (when possible ) shooting in the middle of the day. Early morning and late afternoon / evening, the quality of light is greater. It is a softer light and you generally do not have glare of objects. Leaves with a shiny sheen will give glare and not look as vibrant and colorful as you can see with your eyes. The light and the circular polarizing filter will help this dramatically.
If you get a polarizer, do some tests by taking same image one - using the filter and another not using the filter. You will be very pleased with the results.
Third, I will reiterate what others have said, dont use off brands. Use fuji or kodak. Slide film is great. The colors you will get from fuji are simply incredible but you will have to send your slide film off to be processed, you will need a loupe and light box and if you want a print made it is much more involved. Also, there is no room for errors with exposure which is a great learning tool. You will definitely know if your exposure is right. But if you tell your lab to run the film as is and not make any adjustments, you will also know if your exposure is off. Dont get me wrong, I like slide film and it is a great learning tool. Just make sure that is the road you want to take. It may very well be worth you getting a couple of rolls and giving it a try.
I have the feeling that your pics being washed out is probably caused by the wrong time of day.
Hope this helps some. Dont want to overwhelm you. Thanks for commenting on my Honor in the Knight II. You asked me some questions about another image I took - Prom Night, I would love to answer your question and any other questions you may have, why dont you email me at ksiebert@gmtp.net Would love to be of whatever help possible. I know what it is like to be starting.
Karen - definetly stay away from no-name or "store brand" films. That's probably the primary reason the photo didn't come out the way you were expecting, and may be the reason why all your photos appear washed out. Places like www.bhphoto.com sell pro film cheaper than your local store sells consumer and no-name film, so you can save money and have good film. (I can't stress this point enough: choose your film carefully!)
My recommendation if you are just starting out is to get a light table, loupe, and some slide film, and start practicing with the slide film. When I look back on my first year of photography, my best photos were all shot on slide film, most using a tripod. If I could go back, I would have shot nothing but slides for the first year. You learn so much more and gain more confidence.
Because slides are not printed, you see exactly what you shot. If your exposure was off, you know. If your exposure was dead on, you see brilliant color and detail. If you do want a winner printed, even places like Walmart and Costco can do it now because they're moving to all digital printing systems with film scanners. (And if they screw up the print, you have an easy to see slide and can say "It should look like this!")
Choose one slide film and stick with it until you know it pretty well. I would recommend Fuji Provia F 100. Nothing against other slide films, but you want to simplify things when you're learning, so don't try a half dozen different slide films to start out with. If you order from B&H, order the cheaper imported version. ALL Fuji film is imported whether it says USA on the box or not, so you might as well get the cheaper rolls that B&H picks up directly in Japan. (For Kodak film always buy USAW, which is made in the U.S. for world distribution. Kodak charges the rest of the world less than they charge the U.S.)
I would love to see you go back to this exact same scene in the early morning/late afternoon and shoot it again with Provia and a tripod. I bet you'll be thrilled with the results.
Finally, I also recommend the Kodak Pocket Guide to 35mm Photography. Get it and keep it in your camera bag. It's sort of like a FAQ for photography, and explains a lot in a small space.
THANK YOU ALL FOR THE HELPFUL COMMENTS. I THINK I'VE LEARNED AS MUCH AS I CAN WITH THIS PHOTO. I WILL TRY TO REMEMBER ALL YOUR SUGGESTIONS. I'M REALLY ENJOYING THIS WEBSITE, IT'S ADDICTING! JUST TO MAKE SOME ACKNOWLEGEMENTS AND ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS: Hermen: Thanks for your wonderful answers and suggestions. I will probably visit those sites to try the PS. I know I should't rely on them though if I want to improve on my photography skill. I hope!...:) Daniel: Thank you for your suggestions. Yes, this was taken just around 3pm. Film I used was just a regular 400ISO, it's not FUJI or KODAK, just says BLACKS. It was developed commercially and photo was scanned for this posting. METERING is something I still yet have to learn. BTW, thanks for enhancing the photo for me, you've captured exactly what I saw that day. Megan: I Went to your website, it was helpful as well. You've taken some great pics!! I've written down some pointers as well.
not to be too harsh, but these images are pretty much seen everywhere. also, it could be my monitor but it looks slightly blurry and as you said, the colors aren't as rich as rich as they could be. perhaps your lens maybe? and im not too keen on film cameras, but check to see that you are using a decent brand and type of film. i do know that fuji is better for cooler colors and kodak is better for warm colors and skin tones, so possibly check the film you are using.
In addition to Daniel L. Taylor's comment: if you used negative film then it may be worthwile to have a look at them. If they are all very dark it may be a good idea to check the light meter, as Daniel suggested. If the negative shows good detail in the washed out part of this image, this may be a clue for a bad print.
Thanks for visiting my Hungerford Bridge shot. With regards to your question asked there, I've written up some stuff which may help you and placed it here: http://forbesweb.typepad.com/poetryinmotion/2003/10/light_and_your_.html (a little long for an answer here). If you hover your mouse over the photo's there you will see a description of how I took them.
With regards to your shot above, it seems you've already had some pretty good answers here. One thing you might consider is a slower film for such conditions - 400 was probably a little fast. As the others have said, the camera probably metered for the conditions under the trees, while the sky and sun ahead was too bright for that. I would recommend putting a lot of time into feeling comfortable with playing with aperture and shutter speed as you have said you are - this will certainly be far more rewarding than if you allowed the camera to just assume what you want. HTH :)
As several people have pointed out, it looks as though there's too much contrast between foreground and background (sky) to record both adequately. Always remember when shooting that your eye can see detail across a much wider brightness range than film or digital. Beyond that, however, I have to wonder if there's another problem because the colors in the foreground just aren't good. Some questions:
* What kind of film did you use? There's a dramatic difference between films. I personally can't stand most consumer neg films, and generally only shoot slide film (Fuji Provia or Velvia; Fuji Sensia in a pinch) or Fuji Superia Reala. Slide film is great for a beginner because you see what you shot. When printing neg films, the local lab makes adjustments which can override what you captured on film so that the print doesn't look like the film.
* If this was neg film, did you scan the film or the print for posting? What's on your film may in fact look much better than this. One of my first thoughts was that this might be a bad print.
* What time of day was this shot taken? It looks like mid afternoon? If so that's usually the time when there's too much contrast between sky and surface for a good shot like this. This shot might work much better just before/after sunrise/sunset.
* How did you meter the scene, and are you sure your camera's meter is working properly? If all your photos are washed out, your camera's meter could be off and overexposing scenes. If you have a friend with an SLR, both of you meter the same scene and see what aperture/shutter speeds your cameras suggest. If yours suggests a much slower speed than his, that could be the problem. Also, have you set your camera for the proper film speed? (If your camera does this automatically then it's probably not the problem.
It definetly looks like this was the wrong time of day for this shot, but your comment that all your photos are washed out has me thinking something else might be the problem. If you have any friends knowledgeable about photography, you might want to have them check your process and your camera.
Attached is your photo with a little photoshop work.
Hi Karen, to answer your questions: no I did not manipulate the 'Green Barren II' image (it is a tighter crop of 'Green Barren' that I posted earlier). I think the blue sky was reproduced well here because the contrast was not too high - the land was steeped in light, I had the sun behind me (as you can see from the shadow) and it was stil pretty low, the shot was taken about 10 o'clock in the morning. Photoshop (Elements) is an image processing program, it is not free, but you can download a free 30 day evaluation version from http://www.adobe.com/ . Currently I am evaluating PS Elements and Photoimpact 8 (you can get the trial version at http://www.ulead.com/)
In this image the contrast between the darker and lighter parts is just too large to get good lighting on both. I encounter the same problem, especially when photographing in forests. When the sky is very bright, I often try to compose images that incorporate no (or very little) sky. As Becky said, it is a good idea to use the morning for photographing (or also late afternoon), when the sun is lower and the sky is not so bright. You can have a look at my portfolio for examples, if you like. Good luck!
One more thing I forgot - time of day can also determine how much blue you get in the sky. First thing in the morning is a great time to try. Skies in the middle of the day (approx. 11 am - 3 pm, summertime in the northern hemisphere) can get hazy if you live in a big city.
The best thing to do is to experiment and keep experimenting, although the addition of a polarizer can certainly help.
Thank you Becky for the feedback. I sure can use a lot of them. I'll come and check yours too and hopefully learn a bit more. Hopefully you put the shutter speed and f stop values that you used. If not, that's okay.
Washed out colour has always plagued my photos, and there are a lot of reasons why it happens. I think the main reason why the sky is washed out here is because you've got a dark foreground (in the shade) and a bright background (in the sun). You exposed for the shade, which will mean anything brighter than the shade will be overexposed and blown out.
Some ways to avoid this are recomposing to make sure your background is darker than your foreground, making sure the sun is behind you, or at least at your shoulder, or by using a polarizing or a neutral density filter.
Getting good film can help with colour. What kind of film were you using here? I'm not a film expert, so hopefully someone more knowledgeable will weigh in on the subject, but if you want a good, inexpensive print film, I find Fuji Superia handles colour fairly well. Also, try to keep your film cool. Some people refridgerate theirs. I don't, but I'm certainly not leaving it in cars on hot days anymore. Excessive heat can wash out or overexpose your film.
If you don't mind taking more photos than you need, take three photos of every scene you shoot, using different shutter speeds and f-stops. Write them down as you're taking them. Once your photos are developed, see which combination worked best for you.
0 
