# Adjustments



## DozerMite (Jan 2, 2010)

I watched a video and messed with the settings on our camera. This is closer to the actual color of the pen, at least on my monitor. I know it's all fingerprinted up, but I was just trying to take a good pic for once.
Any suggestions are welcome.













Thanks for looking...


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## khogan16 (Jan 6, 2010)

Dozer , it looks pretty good for the color, but appears like it is a little blown out. The detail in the highlights are barley there. Did you make the highlights so bright  with the settings on the camera or did you use software? 

If you used the camera on auto, try to get it to do a bracket. One right on and the one under and one over. Check your camera to see if it has an auto bracketing setting. It will usually take a series of three exposures.


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## jttheclockman (Jan 6, 2010)

The photo actually looks fake. It looks like a print. I am not a camera guy at all and in fact I use a point and shoot and what ever gets shot gets shown.  I think you are trying too hard. Take a phot outside in daylight and use that to compare you photos. You will never get any better realism or photo of actual colors than to use mother nature.


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## jleiwig (Jan 6, 2010)

It looks to me like there wasn't enough light and you had to compensate for that by increasing the brightness/contrast ratio.


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## TomW (Jan 6, 2010)

The background is distracting.  Also, I prefer to see the clip in a photo, cause that's all that someone will see when it is in a pocket.

Tom


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## bitshird (Jan 6, 2010)

Hey it's better than my pictures.


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## DozerMite (Jan 6, 2010)

jttheclockman said:


> The photo actually looks fake. It looks like a print. I am not a camera guy at all and in fact I use a point and shoot and what ever gets shot gets shown.  I think you are trying too hard. Take a phot outside in daylight and use that to compare you photos. You will never get any better realism or photo of actual colors than to use mother nature.


 
I know how to take pics in the sun, that is the way I prefer to do it.
However, the sun doesn't always cooperate and having a camera that's capable of taking good pics, I want to learn to use it.

The auto function NEVER works inside without sunlight. It ALWAYS comes out dark or the colors are way off.

This was taken in the manual mode and tried to set it to the video I watched, but still doesn't look to good.

No software was used to enhance the photo, only to resize it. This is how it came off the camera.

Thanks for the replies, someday, I will learn to use a camera. In fact, it's part of my class curriculum when I get started and get to that class.


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## khogan16 (Jan 6, 2010)

Dozer what kind of camera do you have?
 can you control the Aperture and shutter speeds?
if you have it on manual in bright sun light I would try to set my ISO at 80 to 100
set your Aperture around f8 and shutter speed at 1/60 of a second as a starting point. 
then set your shutter speed to 125 and 1/30th for the three picture bracket. see which one comes out better.  Again this is just a starting point. keep a log and see how they come out. That is the luxury with digital you can shoot  a lot and you have instant results.


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## DozerMite (Jan 6, 2010)

I'm not taking pics in the sun. If I were, they come out just fine. It's taking pics inside on a cloudy night with rain and no moon.


The more I mess with it, the worse it gets. I got a couple pics that looked good as far as color, but it was all pixelated. I couldn't enlarge the pic.
There are too many things that can be adjusted to correct the same problem. For example, if the pic is dark, it says to adjust ISO, but in another part of the book, it says to adjust the aperture.

I guess I'll do like some have mentioned and just take the pic and it comes out how it comes out. Just not worth the aggrivation.


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## DozerMite (Jan 6, 2010)

This is how it comes out on auto in the kitchen with the flourescent light on. Just point and shoot. Better than anything in the manual mode.


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## jttheclockman (Jan 6, 2010)

That is the way to do it. Now lose the fingers and place on a grey board and you will get the best photo yet. The auto function will tweak the color. You may have to take a couple photos for this to happen  as it adjusts for color correction. On this site that is good enough. If you want proffesional photos for a website that is a different story and can't help there either.


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## khogan16 (Jan 7, 2010)

*try it again*



DozerMite said:


> I'm not taking pics in the sun. If I were, they come out just fine. It's taking pics inside on a cloudy night with rain and no moon.
> 
> LOL, ok take a deep breath and walk away from the camera... LOL.
> 1st what make and model is your camera?
> ...




Dont give up yet.


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## TellicoTurning (Jan 8, 2010)

I'd tell you how I take my pictures, but then I'd have to kill you.:biggrin:.. you'd be laughing at me and making fun of me..

Actually, I put a white cloth over the computer monitor (a flat screen) and spread it in front of the monitor relatively flat, then lay the pens on the cloth.  I'm no photographer, but this seems to work for me.

My lighting is a florescent tube under the cabinet over my desk and the flash on the camera... the light is about 18 inches above the desk.
I set the ISO at 200 I think, set the white balance for florescent, put the camera on a tripod so I'm not touching it, set the macro on and shoot from about 18-24 inches back...  
I'm trying for a pure white background with the pen appearing to just float in the what background...
 I get about 90% of what I want... my camera is a Fuji Finepix S5200,
a cast off from my step son from when he upgraded to his Nikon series...

I have a full light tent, but seem to get better pictures using the desk...


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## gketell (Jan 8, 2010)

The pen looks pretty nice.  The problem I have is the BRIGHT white background makes my eyes water.  

Try reshooting it on grey background and see how you like it.

GK


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