jack.39 said:
Far out! Much more confusing than mine. But I will say, I wish I could take good close-ups like your pic, just excellent! Is there a secret? jack
No secret, Jack, unless you don't know it, I guess. ; )
This is what I do;
1. Set the autofocus to the center of the screen.
You may have to go through the menus to find this function, but unless the camera is very basic, it will have that option.
If you don't do this, the camera will pick a random point from anywhere between five and twenty five preset points. The one your camera pics may be two feet away, when you want to get something two inches away. Setting the autofocus to the center of the screen will make it focus on what you have in the center of your picture.
Most cameras will show a small square in the part of the screen that will show the focus area you have selected. I leave this function set to "center" on my camera at all times.
2. Set the camera to the "macro" function. This is right on the back of most cameras, and has a symbol of a flower to indicate it.
3. WAIT for the camera to focus, and shows that it is in focus. Usually indicated by a colored (often green) light on the screen or in the viewfinder. Sometimes it's a dot by a letter "F" or some similar thing.
Find out whatever it is on your camera that indicates the camera is in focus, and use it.
Pointing the camera at something and just pressing the shutter release without waiting for focus will make the camera pick the first thing it can focus on, and take a picture. It may not be what you wanted to be in focus.
Autofocus cameras have a two step shutter release. Press about half way down, and you will feel a little resistance before it travels the rest of the way to release the shutter. The first step in that button is the autofocus pre focus function, and will allow you to check that the camera is focusing on the thing you expect. Push down a little, wait just a sec, and it will give you the signal that it is ready. You can often set that signal to be an audio indication, so the camera will beep when it is focused.
4. Set the camera's white balance to match the lighting in your shop. This will stop weird colors showing up in your pictures, like the greenish or tan (warm) hues you sometimes see.
If you have incandescents, set it to that. For florescents set it to that, etc.
If you have odd lighting, like window light and lamp light combined, or two different types of lamps in the shop, use the "custom white balance" function. Sometimes it is in the menus, sometimes a single button on the camera somewhere.
To set a custom white balance, find the custom balance function, activate it, put a white piece of paper on your bench, point the camera at it, filling the whole frame with the sheet of paper, and hit the shutter button, or whatever other button is required to enable the function. This tells the camera to adjust the colors it "sees" to a true white reference. It helps all the colors to come out a more natural hue.
When you take the camera out of the shop, set it back to the "normal" or "automatic white balance" function so your best beloved's face doesn't come out a strange color when you take a picture of her outside your shop.
5. Don't use flash. Especially the on camera flash. Unless it's absolutely necessary, this is one of the worst ways to take a nice picture. It makes terrible shadows, almost always blows out the light objects, while often under exposing dark items. The problem is often magnified on close-ups. If you know how to use the flash properly, great. Otherwise, leave it (force it) off.
6. Check your picture right after you take it! If it's not what you want, do it again.
7. It's nice if you size your pictures so others don't have to scroll around the page to see them, or click open a new window, (please). Sometimes that part is an unknown, because you don't know the size of monitor others are using.
The camera used for all my color shots on this forum is a seven year old Canon A70 3 mp job. Ancient by digital standards.
You just have to make it do what you want, no matter what kind of camera you have. Sometimes I forget to set the white balance, which shows up now and then, but for the most part, it's good for what goes up on the interwebs.
black85vette said:
That is the most messed up markings I have ever seen!
ksouers said:
Dean,
That's positively disgusting! I've never seen markings so messed up!
Yes, it is very crummy. You know where it was made. Some things, they do well. Some... not.
Dean
