Improving pics? Help wanted

[GreenOne]

Hi y\'all, photo pros of Cmon.

Besides improving my painting skills, I\'m also need to improve my picture taking and editing.
I\'ve been checking out the articles and forums, but I think direct comments would help a lot more, hence the topic...
I might have done something similar a while ago, but anyway...

So here\'s a photo of my wip vampire lord, taken to the best of my abilities:
I use a Canon PowerShot S2 IS, I think it\'s a decent camera ( Not mine but my GF\'s) and settings be ISO 200, exp+0, white balance for incandescent light, Macro setting, no flash...
Unedited:

Edited with gimp ( Adjusted Levels, contrast, and sharpened a bit.)

And here my makeshift setup as it is now, I ordered a light cube and I plan on buying a tripod shortly, along with better bulbs.

I think they\'re okay, but know they probably could be much better, so I\'m hoping for some tips on how to do so.
I\'m slowly getting familiar with the photograph glossary so don\'t fear being a bit technical, I\'ll try to keep up

Thanks for looking

 

[Avelorn]

How far from the model? Try using the ISO 50 setting that you should have on the camera, there are some noise. Higher ISO means more noise.

 

[GreenOne]

About 7\"-8\" from the mini.
Really, I thought the highter the Iso the better the pics...
I\'ll give it a try but it may be too dark, cause I don\'t have optimal lighting...

 

[Legacy Account]

The higher the ISO, the more noise you introduce into the pics.

If the camera is on a tripod you should be able to adjust shutter speed (or aperture at a push). Those lights should pack more than enough punch. In fact you should probably diffuse them with something - that might help as well.

 

[GreenOne]

Thanks spacemunkie. I ordered a lightcube for difusing, should be there in a couple days.

Heres a pic taken with ISO50, true it\'s less noisy, but I\'ll need to brighten it up more in gimp. Guess it\'s a good base to work on though

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by GreenOne
Edited with gimp ( Adjusted Levels, contrast, and sharpened a bit.)

The highlights are overblown. The balance is actually better in the original!

Originally posted by GreenOne
Heres a pic taken with ISO50, true it\'s less noisy, but I\'ll need to brighten it up more in gimp.

Only touch the midtones; highlights are fine.

Einion

 

[Beelzebrush]

Originally posted by Einion

Originally posted by GreenOne
Edited with gimp ( Adjusted Levels, contrast, and sharpened a bit.)

The highlights are overblown. The balance is actually better in the original!

Originally posted by GreenOne
Heres a pic taken with ISO50, true it\'s less noisy, but I\'ll need to brighten it up more in gimp.

Only touch the midtones; highlights are fine.

Einion

I agree...

 

[airhead]

you are having a bit of depth of field issues (how far from the point of focus that stays in focus): The rear foot of the horse is just slightly out of focus.

If you can set the shutter speed, set it for about 1 second. That will increase the f-stop (smaller aperature) and increase the depth of field.

 

[GreenOne]

Thank all for replying

@Airhead: You\'re right. I\'ll try to find this setting on my camera. Basically, longer shutter speed means deeper field right ?
Should I be in aperture priority of shutter priority mode for that ???

Edited my last pic with gimp... really more softly this time; still think it\'s a bit dark but fiddling with midtones give me a washed out effect.
Would that be good for a final picture?
Just adjusted levels to the last value in both dark and light and adjusted contrast to +10

Thanks again for your time...

 

[squidders]

wide aperture = shallow depth of field

eg: f/2.8 is shallow/wide and f/16 is deep/closed

try setting yours to f/11 of higher in aperture priority, your camera will then increase the shutter time accordingly.

 

[airhead]

squidders, I agree, but with my camera, I can set f-11 (highest number on the camera) an it shoots about 1/30 second.

I can set the shutter prioity to between 1/2 or 1 second and get a much cleaner pic. I\'m not sure if it is actually going for a smaller aperature than f-11 or changing the ISO number internally. But it works.

 

[GreenOne]

Aperture only ranges from F2.7 to F8, But I can set the shutter up to 15\".

 

[squidders]

airhead if your camera is set to manual and you go for max aperture and longest time your camera may indeed be reducing the iso to low levels... which is nice.

Ideally you want the lowest possble iso, largest aperture number and whatever time the camera wants to make a balanced photo out of them.

in aperture priority, your camera should take care of everything else so I would try to manually set the iso to 50 or 100, set the aperture to as closed as it will go... f/8 or f/11 and see what your camera wants for the exposure.

also, if you have a setting for long exposure noise reduction, I would play with turning it on and off to see how it works in this specific situation.

 

[airhead]

I just have to remember to reset it when I take it out wildlife hunting.
lol

Nothing like a hand-held 1 second shot of moving birds from a moving vehicle.

 

[squidders]

yeah... I got a little notepad I started writing down settings that worked for various scenarios. That is helping me remember things much more given my much less than expert ability.

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by GreenOne
Edited my last pic with gimp... really more softly this time; still think it\'s a bit dark but fiddling with midtones give me a washed out effect.
Would that be good for a final picture?
Just adjusted levels to the last value in both dark and light and adjusted contrast to +10

There\'s a certain amount of taste involved in adjustment - part science, part art - but with the mini as it currently is, with areas of bare white, it\'s very difficult to get a good overall exposure without sacrificing something in the white. Overall I agree with you that it\'s a bit dark still but in addition to blowing out the highlights a touch the +10 Contrast darkened the 3/4 tones and below.

Things will get easier once the mini is more fully painted.

Bear in mind that once saved as a JPEG and you\'re looking at your image in a browser window it can often look different to how it did within the image-editing software, especially if the surrounding colour on the webpage (like a typical page on CMON) is light. If you get this you might want to deliberately over-lighten an image just a little for this purpose.

Einion

 

[Dragonsreach]

Originally posted by Einion
Bear in mind that once saved as a JPEG and you\'re looking at your image in a browser window it can often look different to how it did within the image-editing software, especially if the surrounding colour on the webpage (like a typical page on CMON) is light. If you get this you might want to deliberately over-lighten an image just a little for this purpose.

Einion

Also remember that there is a often serious variation between CRT and TFT monitors for colour reproduction, for example the current HP TFT\'s we are receiving at work have a tendancy towards being \"warmer\" in colour tones than the older versions.

Oh and if you want to print the pictures, remember that paper, being a reflective surface as opposed to a transmissive screen, will need the brightness boosting by a minimum of 25% to come close to what you see on the screen.

 

[GreenOne]

...So complicated :wow:

Anyway, thanks for the help so far, just this will surely improve my future pics by 1000%

Can\'t wait to get this light tent

 

[GreenOne]

Took this one today... set to F8.0, maximum setting on my camera.
The rear leg is no longer out of focus, but it\'s all a bit blurry...
Why ???

Also, if I set the shutter speed manually, over 1/4 sec, it becomes flooded with light...

 

[Dragonsreach]

Ok bit complicated explanation coming up....

Your true Point of Focus is at 1/3 of the Depth of Field (of apparent focus) so that the rear 2/3 is also in focus but fades out of focus the further away from the True Point of Focus.

On macro or close up work the depth of field of your lens/aperture is very shallow, therefore your True Point of Focus needs to be very critically placed.

Think of it like this (rough) diagram.

Depth of field:

...:::I::::::......

Where I is the true point of focus.

Now the trick is to get your camera to focus at the right point to maximise the Depth of Field of Apparent Focus to make the mini appear it\'s best.
Hope that helps a bit and doesn\'t confuse too much.