\"Grainy\" pics - help please?

[Hinton]

It seems that no matter what I do, my pictures are coming out \"blurry\" or \"grainy\" (choose your term). I\'m looking at getting a new camera, but after reading all of the threads and articles, I\'m more confused than before.

So, until I figure what I may buy for a new camera, I\'m stuck with this one. Here\'s some technical specs of the camera and what I\'m doing:

Olympus D-580 4.0 MP
Aperture Range: f3.1 – f5.2 (automatic; no manual adjustment)
Shutter Speeds: 1/1000 sec. – 1/2 sec. (up to 2 sec. in Night Scene mode) (automatic; no manual adjustment)
ISO: Auto, 50 – 400 (equivalent) (automatic; no manual adjustment)

Camera settings for my pictures:
Macro (not the \"super macro\" setting)
WB: tungsten
Timer
Super-high quality
10 - 11 inches away from the mini
Zoom: doesn\'t really matter; always turns out grainy

So, what am I doing wrong here? I know I should be able to get a halfway decent picture, but it\'s just not working.

I use GIMP for photo processing, so my newer pics are an improvement over the older ones, but there\'s only so much it can do with a bad picture.

If anyone can provide any help with this, I\'d really appreciate it. Thanks.

 

[Sand Rat]

Are you free handing the camera or shooting from a tripod? If you are free handing the camera are you using a fast shutter speed (over 1/60)?

What ISO speed are you using for the shots?

Does your camera have a Macro Setting? If so are you using it?

 

[Hinton]

The camera sits on the table since it doesn\'t have a tripod and I use the timer. I have no idea what the shutter speed is since there doesn\'t seem to be a way to set it manually or even find out what it is.

What ISO speed are you using for the shots?

I have no idea; it\'s done automatically and there isn\'t a way to set it manually.

Does your camera have a Macro Setting? If so are you using it?

Yes and yes.

I guess I should have been a little more clear in my first post.

These are the settings that I am using on the camera that I can actually adjust manually:

Macro is on (not the \"super macro\" setting)
WB is set to tungsten (all other WB settings make the pic look even worse)
Timer is on
Super-high quality resolution is used
10 - 11 inches away from the mini (per the instructions)
Optical zoom (not digital): doesn\'t really matter; always turns out grainy

Everything else is automatic without a way to set them manually. So, things like ISO and aperture are completely out of my control.

 

[Sand Rat]

No problem -

Give me a bit to do some research on the camera and I can see what I can come up with -

 

[Hinton]

I think I might have figured it out.

It\'s not the camera; it\'s the lighting set-up. For some reason, I had it in my head that the lights needed to be behind the camera, not right next to the mini. I moved the lights closer and took some test shots. They\'re turning out a lot better now. Still messing with the distance from the mini to get the best shot, but at least it doesn\'t look like it\'s covered with sand anymore.

Thanks.

 

[Sand Rat]

I did find a PDF manual online - it may be more indepth than the quickstart guide you got with the camera and may explain how to change settings and such.

Unfortunately due to connectivity issues, I couldn\'t get it to download here.

 

[Stupidcow]

I am no expert in this field but 10-11 inches seems like a pretty far distant to shoot a mini in marco mode. I photo mine like half that distant from the lens.

Maybe the camera itself ain\'t designed to shoot at such a close range.

 

[Hinton]

Originally posted by Stupidcow
I am no expert in this field but 10-11 inches seems like a pretty far distant to shoot a mini in marco mode.

So it seems. I tried moving the camera closer to the mini and the pics are coming out even better.

Now, if I put on the SMacro setting, then I have to be about 12 inches away just to get the all of the mini in the shot. Still trying to get a handle on everything, but I think I\'ll eventually get to the point where the pics are coming out halfway decent.

I\'ll just keep experimenting.

 

[Legacy Account]

If you take the pics from miles away, then crop and enlarge, you are basically interpolating the image - trying to add more resolution. It just leads to blurry and noisy images. It\'s exactly the same as trying to blow up a 35mm negative to A1 - you will get a humungous amount of grain!

Get your subject framed as large as possible! And go easy on the compression when saving.

 

[Hinton]

Originally posted by Spacemunkie
If you take the pics from miles away, then crop and enlarge, you are basically interpolating the image - trying to add more resolution. It just leads to blurry and noisy images. It\'s exactly the same as trying to blow up a 35mm negative to A1 - you will get a humungous amount of grain!

Get your subject framed as large as possible! And go easy on the compression when saving.

Thanks! I think I understand what you\'re saying here: I should try to get much of the mini in the picture as possible, right? A lot of the time when I take the picture, I have to crop out quite a bit because it\'s just background, even when getting shots that are pretty close.

Also, any ideas on compression? I\'m using Gimp (since it\'s free and I can\'t afford Photoshop), but I\'m still trying to learn how to use it. Is there some way to adjust the compression in there? And how exactly should it be compressed?

Thanks!

 

[Ritual]

I\'m not familiar with Gimp, and my PS was also free :innocent: :yes:, but the compression should be an option when you save as JPG. Also check if the Gimp software has a \"Save to web\" function like PS do. It will compress in an optimal way to maintain highest possible on-screen picture quality.

 

[Legacy Account]

Gimp doesn\'t have Save For Web or similar. There are apparently ways to use Photoshop plugins with Gimp, but it\'d be far easier to acquire a copy of P-Shop (Elements) or PaintShop Pro...