Woolly's guide to better Point and Shoot photography

Started by Woolly Bugger, June 01, 2010, 08:03:47 AM

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The Dude

As someone who has a complete dearth of photography knowledge,can you steer me towards a good photo editing program?  Let me lay the groundwork:  My photographic skills go no further than a point-and-click camera in the "auto" setting, with occasional use of the macro mode.  I can follow your first 4 steps below as far as taking your word for it and making the adjustments to the camera's settings without really knowing how each setting really affects the shot.  Then, when I saw your next 7 steps, I kind of got a bit in over my head.  My photo editing consists of using Picasa's "I Feel Lucky" button and the crop command.  Would it be worth it to upgrade to a more robust editing program or would I essentially be paying money for something that I wouldn't know how to use and just be wasting my money?  In other words: P&S is to DSLR as Picasa is to Lightroom.  If I don't know enough about photography to bother getting a DSLR, then I don't know enough to bother getting Lightroom?
I was born by the river in a little tent, And just like the river I've been running ever since, It's been a long, long time coming, But I know change is gonna come.

Woolly Bugger

#16
a lot of peeps are using Photoshop Elements
This program is bundled with a lot of scanners and other devices

on sale now through 1/5/11 http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshopel/


you can't get the best result's by using AUTO controls / adjustments, including the I'm feeling lucky...
try the tools on Picasa's 'Tuning" tab...  look at the histogram

You have to use the tools individually to achieve the best results


oh, and there is also GIMP, the free photoshop, but there is a steep leaving curve, or so I'm told

http://www.gimp.org/


ex - I'm not going to live with you through one more fishing season!
me -There's a season?

Pastor explains icons to my son: you know like the fish symbol on the back of cars.
My son: My dad has two fish on his car and they're both trout!

rjs123

I really like Lightroom too!  Ive only got CS2 and really like the adjustments that can be made with lightroom.  What camera are you using these days on your fishing pics Keith?

Now..... When you gonna post  "Wooly's Guide To Catching Bigger Trout" ?

Woolly Bugger

Still using the Olympus Stylus 1030 SW

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shoot the D200 on rare occasions too.

just bought they wifey a canon G12, and that thing rocks...
ex - I'm not going to live with you through one more fishing season!
me -There's a season?

Pastor explains icons to my son: you know like the fish symbol on the back of cars.
My son: My dad has two fish on his car and they're both trout!

Big J

Ran into this thread and glad I did.  I have the Pentax W90 and have been so disappointed with the dullness in the images, but I think it has helped fix it.  Will know for sure when I hit some water soon! Thanks!  bd;0

lostnwilderness

Holly Trout Terd Batman, what a thread.  Think I'm gonna have to transfer this to Word, print it out and study it.  I'll let you know when I'm ready for the take home test.

Seriously though, thanks for the wealth of information! bd;0
"I read The Bible once. You know God and Jesus and all them apostles? They were all fishermen, just like me. Yeah, straight to heaven for Mick Dundee. Yep, me and God... We'd be mates."

Woolly Bugger

[attach=1]


Currently shooting with an Olympus TG-3 (TG-4 is now the current model and has RAW capture)

My current rig includes the CLA-T01 Conversion Lens Adapter Ring (http://www.amazon.com/Olympus-CLA-T01-Conversion-Lens-Adapter/dp/B00821BLX4) and a Polarizing filter, and a lens hood! Unfortunately the lens hood causes vignetting unless I zoom in just a tad.

My current TG setting

Natural Color (other settings are Vivid and Muted)
Flash OFF
-.07 Exposure Compensation
ISO 100
Single Shot
16Mb
16:9

Compression Fine
Shadow Adjust Auto
AF Mode Spot
Image Stabilizer OFF ( my understanding is that IS can actually degrade performance / image quality, might need to investigate  this more...)

Post...

I'm using Adobe Lightroom CC 2015 now as my organizer/editor...

"Shoot for the highlights, develop for the shadows...." that's what I learned in photography class and the reason I set the exp. comp to -.7 (2/3 of a f/stop)

Here's my current process with lightroom

1. Adjust exposure if necessary
2. Bump the contrast; +10 or so
3. Adjust Shadows ( depends on the image... )
4. Adjust Clarity (+ 10 ~ 20)
5. Adjust Black level ( - 2 ~ 5) really depends on the image..
6. Kick up the Vibrance about + 8 ~ 12
7. Crop if necessary...
8. Export for the web....

 

ex - I'm not going to live with you through one more fishing season!
me -There's a season?

Pastor explains icons to my son: you know like the fish symbol on the back of cars.
My son: My dad has two fish on his car and they're both trout!

Dougfish

Google killing off Picasa is official.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/3033156/photography/google-kills-off-picasa-to-focus-its-efforts-on-google-photos.html

It's been fucked for months. I think they started killing it in September.
What's the best free alternatives? I'm cheap.
"Why don't you knock it off with them negative waves? Why don't you dig how beautiful it is out here?
 Why don't you say something righteous and hopeful for a change? "
Kelly's Heroes,1970

"I don't wanna go to hell,
But if I do,
It'll be 'cause of you..."
Strange Desire, The Black Keys, 2006

Woolly Bugger

So the program will still work, it just won't be updated anymore, and the web storage will no longer be available

Are you looking for free web storage that can by posted in a bbs? I'm thinking photophucket or igmur for that!??
ex - I'm not going to live with you through one more fishing season!
me -There's a season?

Pastor explains icons to my son: you know like the fish symbol on the back of cars.
My son: My dad has two fish on his car and they're both trout!

Dougfish

"Why don't you knock it off with them negative waves? Why don't you dig how beautiful it is out here?
 Why don't you say something righteous and hopeful for a change? "
Kelly's Heroes,1970

"I don't wanna go to hell,
But if I do,
It'll be 'cause of you..."
Strange Desire, The Black Keys, 2006

Onslow

Doug, edit/finish on desktop, then store on imgur or Pbucket.  Editing on Pbucket has unpredictable outcomes, and more oft than not, the photos will be worse than the original. 

Thus far, Imgur has served me well.  Just not sure about overall capacity per user.


Woolly Bugger

ex - I'm not going to live with you through one more fishing season!
me -There's a season?

Pastor explains icons to my son: you know like the fish symbol on the back of cars.
My son: My dad has two fish on his car and they're both trout!

NCsporksman


troutfanatic

Photobucket sucks roasted goat balls.

I edit with MS Office Photo Manager for quick stuff and I have the apple app on the iPad.

A couple of free downloads I have played around with are:


Dreamlight magic photo editor.

Photo Pos Pro.

You can download them free from CNET.