Woolly's guide to better Point and Shoot photography

[Woolly Bugger]

Woolly what setting do you have set on that camera to get such clear vibrant pics?

Point and shoots are pretty bad for a number of reasons, one they try and cram too many piexels on a tiny chip, two they (at least my experience) tend to overexpose resulting in blown out highlights, three they have a lot of digital noise and they higher ISO (film speed) settings and four they have a limited amount of user control (no aperture priority, shutter priority or manual modes) Despite these short comings they can take a pretty good pictures (for the web anyway).

I use the settings on my Olympus 1030 SW (discontinued) camera to my best advantage.

Here is my technique

1. I set the exposure to -1/3 or -2/3 stop this ensures that the highlights will contain detail (check your histogram to make sure you're getting a good exposure)

2. I use the lowest ISO of 80 for the best quality image (however slow shutter speeds sometimes cause problems)

3. Get close to the subject. I use the macro (close focus) and super macro modes for all of the fish pictures. This mode helps create depth of field effects and sharp focus of my subject.

4. If I have to I'll use the flash in the FILL FLASH setting.

So far anybody can do this but the results from this create average looking photos that may appear a little underexposed. So on to the next steps, the post processing. I use to use Photoshop CS4 and open the photos in the RAW interface. Even thought they are jpgs Adobe Raw allows you to make adjustments using this interface. Now I'm using Adobe Lightroom (MSRP: $299) for the same reasons.  I'll outline the steps -- results may vary...

1. Adjust Color temperature (I thinks the auto white balance gives me cool results so I warm it up a bit) +3 to +7

2. Adjust Exposure (sometimes none but usually I brighten up the image to get good highlights but not blown out)

3. Adjust Fill Light amount. I use this rarely, but comes in handy in backlight situations (This opens up the midtones)

4. Adjust Black Level (P&S's don't have good deep blacks, so this adjustment it critical in getting a good histogram or full color range)

5. Adjust contrast ( makes the pictures snap) +10 to +40

6. Adjust clarity (similar to sharpening) +50 to +70

7. Adjust saturation (usually just a couple of points) +2


That's about it, my 10 11 step process to getting great photos from a crappy point and shoot digital camera...

LOOK FOR A UNIQUE ANGEL, DON'T TAKE THE SAME OLD HOLD THE FISH OUT AND SHOOT DOWN ANGLE. TRY SOMETHING UNIQUE!

additionally I've been cropping the photos into a 16:9 fromat (all the kids are doing it)

lightroom also has a nifty graduated exposure mask that really helps with photos that have fill flash, which often results in over exposed foreground.

Lightroom also has an export mode that sizes the pic and adds the white border 


Easy? 

Well I enjoy my photography almost as much as fishing 

Aren't you glad you asked? 

My usual adjustments in BOLD


got iPhoto? look at this http://www.applematters.com/article/making-adjustments-in-iphoto-09/

[Flatlander]

How do you like Lightroom vs CS4?  I'm still using CS2, which doesn't support the D300, so I've got to either upgrade to CS5 or look elsewhere. 

[Woolly Bugger]

I love Lightroom! I not only is a great organizer of photos but allow non-destructive adjustments / cropping / and effects.
You can always select and image or images for editing in photoshop from lightroom.

Very easy to use / faster than using bridge and photoshop. I love the catalog structure. Version 3 is coming out soon. I just saw version 2 on ebay for $99 buy it now.

I'm still learning about all of the features.

[Flatlander]

The thing I hate about Adobe is the sidecar files.  I have been converting all my files to .dngs before processing, but I'm not sure I like that route either.  Tempted to look at Capture NX2, but hear it's slow.

[Trout Maharishi]

"I use to use Photoshop CS4 and open the photos in the RAW interface|. How you do dat?

I have CS3 and have looked briefly on a way to open the photos in the RAW interface, can you point me in the right directions as to how I might do this?

i.e. click on this, then click on that etc?

[Woolly Bugger]

"I use to use Photoshop CS4 and open the photos in the RAW interface|. How you do dat?

I have CS3 and have looked briefly on a way to open the photos in the RAW interface, can you point me in the right directions as to how I might do this?

i.e. click on this, then click on that etc?

File -> Open As -> Camera RAW   

while you're at it you might want to check and make sure you have the latest version of Adobe RAW .

Help -> Updates




If you work from Bridge (File-> Browse In Bridge) you can work on multiple files and if they are similar you can sync the settings from one to the rest by using the synchronize command

[jwgnc]

 

We are all glad you do enjoy photography that much.  The rest of us will just have to keep sending in our snapshots.

[Woolly Bugger]

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]
before -- straight out of the camera, just resized

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]
after -- adjustment as listed above 

[WRector]

That's some good stuff!  Thanks for the info 

[rbphoto]

Some excellent info in that post, there!

BTW, Lightroom is essentially Adobe Camera Raw with a few tweaks here & there as well as some other goodies.  It's a phenomenal editing program that specializes in speeding up the workflow when dealing with large quantities of photographs.

However, it works great for folks who want to do some fine tuning, like WB.

I would classify it as companion/complementary software to Photoshop, and if you like CS4, try CS5 on for size!!!

[dnakamoto]

Thanks Woolly!  You may have just single-handedly improved the quality of pics on the forum! 

[Trout Maharishi]

Thanks, my mac version didn't work quite like that, but close enough. I notice I have a camera raw, and a photoshop raw. Any advice on which I should use? I have had Photoshop for about 6 months now, but have continued to use the editing software that came with the camera, boy have I been missing out. I think you should do a tip of the week every week on using it

[Woolly Bugger]

here's a link to the full size image

http://www.dpreview.com/galleries/2338473242/photos/330957/p5270768

 

[Transylwader]

Woowee, how much per hour for you to play fotog in dem hills? Nobody on my inlaws side has a steady hand (the drunken muppets!) and all on my side are back "hame" in UK...

[Woolly Bugger]

i would catch twice as many fish if i didn't stop to take pictures..