Featherstone Quiltworks

When I looked up “faux pas” to check the spelling and see what the plural would be (the same), I was reminded that faux pas is a social blunder; it doesn’t really fit.  Still, I like the alliterative sound of it, so I’ll keep it for today.  (Shoot, now I have another word to look up.)

The other day, Robin asked me if I had a picture of this whole quilt: 

Well, today’s lesson is that not all pictures turn out to be the beautiful photo you see in your mind.  There was so much glare on the glass at the State Fair, this was the best I could do of the whole quilt. 

My solution was to get the camera lens close to the glass and take a photo of just part of the quilt (which is the first picture above).

That made me think about all my not-so-good pictures that I usually delete right away, and I certainly don’t post them!  Well, lucky, lucky you — I found some pretty funny examples  of “mistake” pictures to share with you today.  Whoops, just a little head movement here…

Don’t look down your nose at me!  I’m just trying to take your portrait!

Since I was shooting through the blinds, I was getting some terrible white glare on the window.  I knew if I raised the blinds, this house finch would be gone in a flash, but I couldn’t resist another shot of these tufts of feathers.

You know how much I love the hummingbirds.  I managed to catch the most awkward looking position for this little one.   It looks like she impaled herself on a twig, but she was just turning around.

Is she gone yet?

Here is an example of my automatic focus catching the wrong thing to focus on — in this case, the leaves.  I hate it when that happens!

This picture came out all right, but before this one I had a terrible time getting the camera to focus on the bird.  I think there was too much light on the irridized feathers, and the focusing beam was getting all messed up.  My solution was to focus on the base of the twig she was sitting on, keeping the button pressed half-way down, then move the camera up to the bird.

And I can’t begin to tell you how many hummingbird photos I have that look like this

And sadly, the hummers are gone.  I haven’t seen them for about three days, so they are on their way south.

–Sue

We are back from Vegas, safe and sound, and our flight was less than an hour late.  We had a bit of a bumpy ride getting into Minneapolis, and one of our group did mention the possibility of kissing the ground upon arrival.  Here is a view of Caesar’s Palace, which gets bigger and bigger every time we visit. 

These hotels/casinos are so humongous, it is hard to judge the distance.  You want to think twice before deciding to just “walk over there”…it could be a mile!  (Our highs were around 105 degrees, so you definitely don’t want to take any big hikes.)

Although Paris, France, is officially the City of Lights, I think Las Vegas must be a close second.  It is an interesting city in the daytime, but it is a dazzling display of excess at night.  Ruby asked if I would share how I take pictures at night.  Vegas at night is pretty easy because it is such a brightly lit scene.  When I snapped the first picture, though, the flash went off, and for a scenery picture, I knew that was the kiss of death.  I suppressed the flash and took a second picture — MUCH BETTER!  Here are my first and second pictures:

By the way, the “Eiffel Tower” is in front of the Paris Hotel & Casino, which is where we stayed.  Pat and I went down to get coffees (and an OJ for our non-coffee drinker) to a little French pastry shop.  Oh, my, how tempting their pastries were!  We were good, though, and just came back with the beverages.  (And look at those prices!!!  They are a little hard to read but $5+ per pastry.)

So my recommendations for pictures at night:  make sure you suppress the flash, unless you are taking a picture at night of something only a very few feet away that you want illuminated.  There was so much light in Vegas, the shutter speed was pretty fast.  For most night shots, though, you might need a tripod, or at the very least rest the camera on something solid.  The shutter will stay open longer when there’s less light, and you will need to keep the camera very steady.  If you take a picture and the lights look smeary, you know your camera wasn’t steady enough.  Even resting your elbows on a railing is a big help in the steadiness department.

AND — guess who was out my window this morning?  MR. HUMMER!!!  I’ve only had Ms. Hummer this summer, so that flash of red on his throat was quite a thrill. 

And Mr. Hummer was followed by a black-capped chickadee and a goldfinch.

–Sue

For today’s photo tip, I thought I would do a little summary list of previous Photo Fridays that might be helpful:

1. Pre-Focusing & Close-Up Mode (the tulip icon)
2. Flash & Zoom
3. Continuous Shooting & Auto-focus Assist
4. Timer
5. Exposure Compensation / Auto-Bracketing
6. Memory, Batteries & Printing
7. More About Zoom
8. Scene Modes 

If you’re ever looking for a previous Photo Friday tip, they are categorized under “Photo Fridays” on the right-hand side of this page.  And, please, if you think of something you’d like to know more about, let me know.  If I don’t know, I’ll research it and cover it.  Then I learn something new too!

I realized this week that I’ve pretty much run out of photo tips!  So, here’s my plan.  Friday’s post will be pretty much another ”whatever” day, but when I come across a camera feature or a photography tip that I want to chat about, I will do it on a Friday.

My biggest tips — take LOTS of pictures, way more than you think you should take (I probably delete 90% of my bird pictures after I get them on the computer).  If you don’t have a big enough memory card to do that, get a new big one.  They are pretty cheap now. 

Learn to pre-focus on the subject of your picture.

If you’re shooting through glass, get really close to the glass and pay attention to any glare; change the camera’s angle to the glass if that helps.

Try to only use your optical zoom.  Your picture will suffer if you zoom past the camera’s optical zoom (and go into digital zoom).  You can tell you are changing zoom modes because the zoom will stop between modes, and you have to zoom a second time.  You can do it, but your picture will not be as high a quality.

And speaking of zoom, any time you’re zoomed in, you need to hold the camera STEADY.  A tripod, of course, is best, but I don’t haul mine out as often as I should.  If you can’t steady yourself (or your elbows) against something (a railing, the side of a building), at least tuck your elbows in close to your sides and hold as steady as you possibly can.  This is true even with IS (Image Stabilization) built into your camera.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with your settings, and read your manual. 

I didn’t talk about editing software because the options are so vast and varied.  Whatever software came with your camera (or you purchased separately) can be a big asset to you.  Learn to crop pictures, and play around with the features to see what else you have available.

Have fun!!!

–Sue

SCENES

Between the two cameras I use, the scene modes are so different, I’m going to assume you will need to get out your camera and possibly your manual and do a little exploring.  For example, on my Panasonic, I just turn a dial; on my Canon, I need to go into a menu.  Check yours out, if for no other reason than to get familiar with what scene modes you have available. 

Scene modes can be very helpful in shooting photos in difficult situations.  The modes are basically some preset settings for specific conditions.  Some examples are Portrait, Night, Indoor, Sunset, Beach, Snow, Fireworks.  If you have your manual, you should be able to read a little bit about what that specific setting does. 

For example, on my Canon using the Portrait setting, it says, “Produces a soft effect when shooting people.”  You may or may not want this specific effect, depending upon the person you are photographing.  You might want a nice, crisp shot instead.  If you’re shooting me, or the bride, or your grandma, however, you might want to go for the softer effect!  Then again, there are some wonderfully interesting photos of older people where the lines in their faces really tell the story of where they’ve been in life.  Your decision…

And I have to tell you about a big, big boo-boo I made once when I had a new camera, a little Nikon.  Nice little camera, I just didn’t understand what all the settings meant.  We were out of town at a nephew’s wedding, and all my DH’s brothers were there (there are five of them total) and his two sisters as well.  Photo opportunities galore.  We were in a hall with low ceilings and lots and lots of rope lighting.  Now that I’ve set the scene for you,

on to the boo-boo.  I knew my brand-new camera had these “scene” settings.  I chose ”Party”.  After all, it was indoors, some weird lighting, lots of people.  The display screen on that camera was very small, and I couldn’t tell for sure, but it didn’t look like the pictures were right.  I tried again and again.  Hmmm, surely they were coming out better than they appeared.

No, they weren’t.  “Party” meant the camera would keep the shutter open longer and blur all those little bitty lights in those light ropes into wild streaks.  “Party”, as in, “Where’s the party, Dude?”  Couldn’t salvage anything.

So my lesson for today:  the scene settings can be extremely helpful, but take the time to learn what they actually do by reading your manual or experimenting with them before using them in an important setting.

Bonus lesson:  Don’t buy a new camera and think you’re going to take fabulous pictures right of the box.  Allow some experimenting time before that big vacation or your nephew’s wedding when all the family is together at last.

And have fun!

Sue

I have long observed that when you’re using zoom, objects in the background can look much closer to your subject than they really are.  A couple of months ago, my DH Jim was reading in the sun room.  He looked so comfy and natural, I didn’t wanted to disturb him while taking a picture.  I used quite a bit of zoom and basically took the picture of him from two rooms away.  I was surprised — no, shocked – when I got the photo on my computer, because I know we don’t have a neighbor that close in the back!  It looks like I could just run over and borrow a cup of sugar fat quarter, doesn’t it?

Take a look at a picture of the same house taken out of the same window but I’m standing close to the window and didn’t use any zoom (the house shown in the picture above is outlined here in red):

Weird, huh?  Well, when I took the picture of Jim, the camera zoomed everything in, including what was in the background, and made it appear that there is less distance between the subject and the background than there really was; things look compressed.

Why would you do this on purpose?  One reason would be if you’re on vacation taking a photo of your family in front of a landmark or something of interest.  If you back up from the people and then zoom in on them, still including the landmark in the background, what’s in the background is going to look larger and more prominent and make for a more interesting picture (rather than standing close to the people and including the background behind them).

Another reason would be fairly similar to the picture I took of Jim.  Let’s say it’s a cluttery background that we want to minimize (like my sewing room!), and we don’t want to have the background detract attention away from the subject of the photo.  You would do the same thing I did:  back away from the subject and use your zoom.   Because it’s “enlarged”, there will be fewer items appearing in your background, and it will be less distracting.

And remember, for the best quality photos, only use your optical zoom.  Your picture quality will degrade once you get into the digital zoom range.   (I do occasionally use my digital zoom, but I do lose quality when I do.)

“Depth of field” is a term used to describe the how much of the photo is in focus, depthwise.  Zoom can affect your depth of field, as shown in a lot of my bird photos.  Here I was using quite a bit of zoom and had my focus directly on the Cedar Waxwing.  That accounts for the soft focus of the branches at different distances than the bird, as well as our neighbor’s house.

Compare it with this photo taken out the same window this spring, but no zoom involved.  Much more of the picture is in focus — greater “depth of field”:

Don’t wait until a big occasion to try some of these techniques.  Practice and play around with it.  Then when the need arises, you will have a better idea of what you’re going to get, because it can be difficult to see just what’s in focus on your display.

Also, depending upon the amount of zoom your camera has and how much of it you are using, you will have more or less of the compression effect or change in depth of field.  Just play and have some fun!

Also, feel free to upload pictures to the PhotoFridays album on Flickr.

My usual disclaimer:  I am a layperson when it comes to cameras and photography.  I just happen to like taking pictures and trying to figure out how to take better pictures and to understand my camera better.  Hope this has been of interest to you!

–Sue

No, my calendar didn’t stop — I’m just late!!!  I’ve been enjoying some out-of-town company and then we were out of town for a weekend family reunion.  What fun!  And I’m so tired!  This Photo Friday post will be short and easy.  I’m going to talk about a couple of purchases you may want to make for your camera.

First off, the memory card digital cameras come with holds very few pictures (as I’m sure you know).  The first purchase to make (and you’ve probably done it already) is to get an additional memory card so you can take a decent number of photos before running out of space and having to download them. 

The second point I wanted to make is you may want to get an extra card beyond that.  If you haven’t priced memory cards lately, the prices have come waaaaay down in the past couple of years.  I hate being in a bind where I’m looking for pictures that I can delete on the camera so I can take a few more pictures!  Now that never happens to me. 

The second item you may want to consider is an extra battery for your camera.  I have two batteries for my Lumix, and that is really wonderful for vacations and days you are taking a ton of pictures.  I don’t have an extra for my Canon, but I consider that camera more of an in-my-purse camera.  If you find that a fully recharged battery doesn’t last as long as you’d like, check Amazon or other sites/stores to see what an additional battery would set you back.

(A note about batteries.  A quick check on Amazon.com, I found there’s a replacement battery for my Powershot for about $15 that does not say “Canon” on it.  For myself, I would spring for the $35 or so battery that does say “Canon” on it.  It’s up to you.  It may be that a battery is a battery, but I love my cameras, so I’ll get the original.)

While I was writing about the memory cards, it made me wonder if you know that you can take your memory card right out of your camera and take it into a Target, Walgreens, Wal-Mart, etc., and choose which photos to print and then print them yourself on the spot at those little individual monitors they have. 

I used to do that a lot.  I have a Super Target about a mile from my house, and now I go through the Target site to send my pictures to the store.  They send me an e-mail back when they are ready, and I go pick them up.  Oh, excuse me.  To be totally honest, I usually send DH to pick them up!

You can also send them to a Target (or other store) close to, say, your mom’s house, if you have pictures you want her to have.  Then let her know when she can go to that store and pick up the pictures.

–Sue

Welcome to Photo Friday.  If you want to look at some previous “lessons”, (and I use the term loosely), you can scroll down and on the right-hand side under Categories, and click on Photo Friday.  We are going through features that are on most digital cameras so we can become better acquainted with our own camera’s capabilities.  It is helpful if you can put your hands on the manual for your camera, as they are all a little different in their dials and buttons.  And again, I’m not an expert; I just like taking pictures, experimenting with the camera’s settings, and I’m not afraid to try something different if my pictures aren’t working out. 

Exposure Compensation.  So have you ever wondered what the “+/-” selection does?  That is exposure compensation.  On my Lumix, it is on the selector dial and it’s very easy to get into.  On my Canon PowerShot SD1100, it takes one or two extra steps.  This is another feature you may not need very often, but it is very, very useful in certain circumstances and you will be glad you know how to use it!

First of all, what does this feature do?  Most, if not all, of the time I am shooting in automatic mode.  The camera meters how much light is out there and adjusts the exposure accordingly.  Sometimes it is just wrong for the picture I’m trying to get. 

When would you adjust the exposure compensation?  Sometimes when you are shooting against a bright background (like at the beach, against bright snow), your subject in the foreground looks too dark.  The reverse can also be true, where you are shooting against a dark background and your subject looks too light (like shooting a white bird — there sometimes is no detail or individual feathers, just a blob of white).   All the photos in the post were taken using the exposure compensation feature.  A whooping crane, and a bunch of pelicans:

(Other solutions could be using fill flash, depending upon how close you are to your subject and if you even want to use the flash.  You can also check your scene modes and see if one is suitable for backlit photos, beach, nighttime, etc.  Try out the exposure compensation though.  It’s an important tool on your camera and it isn’t hard to use.)

Note:  On both of my cameras, the change in compensation is “remembered” by the camera, even when it is turned off.  After you are done with this feature, you will need to change the setting back to zero manually (and change your camera back to “auto” if you changed that setting also).  Don’t let that scare you off; it’s easy to do.

It will probably be best if you have your manual out at this point, although you can likely figure it out on your own.  On my Panasonic Lumix, I just press the dial upwards on the “+/-”  icon and it brings up the exposure compensation settings that looks something like this:

                                                      -2 . . 1 . . (0) . . 1 . . 2+

On my Powershot, I need to press the Function Set button, change from Auto to Manual, then on the same screen I can arrow down to +-0 (the plus is above the minus).  Select that option, and you will get the same/similar screen:

                                                     -2 . . 1 . . (0) . . 1 . . 2+

There should be an arrow or other indicator at zero.  That is the normal setting.  Try scrolling right and left between the -2 and +2 slowly, watching your image change darker to lighter in your view finder/display.  You would basically select the amount of compensation that looks best on the display and take your picture(s)!  (At the very end of this post, I will cover Auto Bracketing, which is a related feature that your camera may have.)

Water particularly causes problems for me, and I seem to take a lot of pictures against water.  Here are some more pictures where I changed the exposure and/or used auto bracketing.  A roseate spoonbill “fishing”, and a tri-colored heron:

Can you see why I LOVE going to Port Aransas, TX?

Auto Bracketing:  This is where the camera gives you a little more help.  Let’s say that I haven’t changed the exposure compensation — it is still set at zero.  I select Auto Bracketing (on my Lumix, I press the +- exposure compensation button up, then push it again to enable auto bracketing.  When I press the shutter button, it will shoot off three pictures (in the case of my Lumix; this is not available on my Canon).  I will get one picture exposed at -1, one at zero, and one at +1. 

This helps if you aren’t sure how well your photo is exposed based on what you see on your display (a bright day, it can be hard to see your display).  Additionally, if you set the automatic exposure at -1, then do auto bracketing, you will get three shots at -2, -1, and zero (one shot on each side of where the exposure is set), etc.

As always, let me know by way of a comment or by e-mail using the “Contact Me” button at the top of this page if you have any questions.  I’m also open to comments for any area you might particularly like covered on a future Friday.  AND, feel free to upload your photos to our Friday Photos album on Flikr, plus be sure to check out other people’s photos.

Obviously brevity isn’t my strong suit — you could get a much shorter explanation in your camera manual — but I’m hoping you will get a better understanding of why you would want to use some of these features!

Thanks for stopping by.

Sue

Another button that’s on most cameras, whether digital or film, is a self-timer.  This feature is easy to use, and it’s a way to put yourself into the picture. 

Find the icon on your camera that looks somewhat like a clock — it’s a circle with one “hand” on it.  Each camera model is going to be a little different, so go ahead and experiment with your camera.  On my Canon, when I press that button, I get a choice of a 10-second timer, a 2-second timer or “custom”, where I can choose the number of seconds.  Cameras will typically beep during that ten seconds (or whatever time you choose for the timer), and will beep faster as it gets closer to taking the picture.

You may not use this feature often, but if you play around with it and get more comfortable with it, you will be ready to use it when the occasion arises.  If you have a tripod, this is a great time to pull out the tripod, securely attach your camera to it, and practice setting the timer and taking a picture of yourself. 

You don’t need a tripod, however; try setting the camera on the shelf of a bookcase or some other safe, level surface that is about face height.  Another option is to sit in a chair for your photo, then the camera can be stationed perhaps on a countertop.  If you are using flash, be sure to allow maybe 5-6 feet between you and the camera so the camera doesn’t wash out your skin color.

Take a little time to take a few pictures of yourself (alone or with someone).  Pay attention to how the beeps sound so you are relaxed, ready, and smiling for your protrait! 

With family reunion season approaching, this can be a great feature to use.  Line everybody up, save a spot for yourself, and you can all be in the picture together. 

Feel free to add photos to our Photo Friday album.  Good luck, and if you have any problems or questions, send me a message through the “contact me” button at the top of this page.

Sue

I’d like to start out by giving a big THANK YOU to Vicki at Field Trips in Fiber for the nice comments she made about my blog and bird photos on the MQResource site this week in the first edition of her Whistlestop Web Tour articles.  In addition to being a quilter/stitcher, sewer, she also dyes fabric (which is gorgeous), has some great photos of birds, does some beautiful color studies, and posts a list every week of interesting things she finds on the web.  AND she has a day job!  I always look forward to reading her blog.

So today I thought I would talk a bit about how I take my bird pictures.  As I have said before, I am the world’s laziest photographer.  I don’t usually leave my house for bird pictures, and sometimes I don’t leave my chair. My Lumix DMC-FZ20 does a better job than my Canon PowerShot 1100, partly because of the zoom (up to 48 times) and partly because it has a better lens. I have been pleasantly surprised, though, by some of the photos I’ve taken with the Canon, and I think the colors tend to come out better with the Canon.

Shooting Through Glass: The key to my picture-taking is I happen to have a great crab apple tree right outside my kitchen window, and the birds like to stop by from time to time.  We’ve also enticed them with a couple of feeders.  It’s about six feet from my kitchen chair.  A lot of times, I shoot between the blinds, but sometimes I get a little foggy-looking glare if I’m not careful about the angle of the camera in relation to the window.  (Click here for yesterday’s picture and you will see the white-ish fog in the upper right-hand corner.  Rats!  But I like the picture anyway.)  I also have trouble keeping horizons straight, but that’s for another Friday!

Auto-Focus Beam: Birds tend to get spooked by the focusing beam, and I get a lot of bird pictures that look like this:

And this is probably a good point to mention that I take a LOT of pictures.  Hey, it’s not film.  I pick out what I want, and then delete, delete, delete.  When I go to the birding center in Port Aransas, TX, I will take 250 to 300 pictures in a very short time.  Go back to the condo, delete…, and maybe end up with 25 worth keeping.  Don’t be afraid to shoot a lot of pictures.

If I can (especially with the hummingbirds), I will do my half-squeeze pre-focusing on the top of the feeder, or anything that is very close to the same distance as the bird is from me.  Then, holding the shutter button still half-way down, I lower the camera so the bird is in the picture and finish squeezing the shutter button to take the picture.  (When you do this pre-focusing half-squeeze, you can move the camera to change what’s in your field of vision – up, down, right, left — but don’t change the distance between you and your subject.)

On some cameras, you can turn off the focusing beam (look for “AF Assist” in your camera menu, then turn it off); your picture may not be as spot-on in focus, but if you’re having trouble by chasing the birds away, it’s worth trying.

Burst Mode:  This is a feature my Panasonic has/Canon doesn’t. It will be worth your while to figure out if you have this feature.  The symbol is three rectangles overlapping each other, and you may have to check the dreaded manual to see if you have this.  On the Panasonic, it’s a little button by the shutter.

What it does is I can hold down the shutter button and it will fire off up to four photos, boom-boom-boom-boom, depending on how long I hold the button down.  I LOVE this feature for fast action shots, kids, and especially for birds. I’m sure you’ve noticed the delay between pressing the shutter button all the way down and the camera taking the picture.  If you wait for that little bird to have the perfect pose, it will probably have flown away by the time you and the camera react and the picture gets taken.  (It may be called something else on your camera. I would look up “continuous” and “multiple” as well.)  Here is a composite showing four photos taken in the ”burst” mode: 

That gives you a couple more settings to look for and get acquainted with this week.  If you can’t find these settings on your camera (and all cameras won’t have them), then your assignment is to explore the modes available on your camera. My Panasonic has a dial to access them; the Canon 1100 has a “Func Set” button.  That is where you will find different settings such as portrait, beach, sunset, etc.  Check those out! 

One more comment:  If you have a rainy or cloudy day, don’t think that it’s not a good day for pictures.  Sometimes pictures taken on sunny days are disappointing because there’s so much reflection, you don’t get the rich colors you think you should have gotten.  Try taking some pictures on a cloudy day, or especially after a rain. 

Feel free to post your pictures on Flickr!  Show us the good, the bad, and the ugly.  And if you have a problem, feel free to e-mail me through the “Contact Me” button at the top of my site.  I may not know the answer, but I’m good at looking things up!  We’ll work through it together.

Good Luck!

Sue

PS:  If you’re new this week and would like to check out the previous posts on cameras/photography, go to “Categories” on the right side of this page and select “Photography”.

If you were here last Friday, you know that I’m doing mini learning-about-your-camera posts on Fridays for a while, and this is Week # 2.  (If you ever want to go back to previous camera posts, scroll down and on the right side, click on “Photography”.  I’m not an expert on photography, but I can help you get to know your camera better; get  to know your camera better, and you will be taking better pictures!  Okay, get your camera out (and if possible your user guide) and let’s have some fun!  Sorry, lots of words today.

A note for today:  On digital cameras, you can choose how much information is displayed on your little screen.  Look for a “Display” or “Disp” button, and you can go through your camera’s options for display settings.  I like one that shows a little more information, and it will be helpful for you as well, now that you are learning what some of these symbols mean!  You will be able to see on the display if close focus is selected (there will be a tulip), flash settings, how many photos you have left, etc.

On my Canon SD1100 IS, if I press the flash icon, two icons appear on the screen, and I can toggle between them.  One is the flash icon with an “A” (for automatic), the other is the flash icon with a line drawn through it.  Pretty self-explanatory:  automatically determines if you need flash or not, or you can choose no flash.  Why would you want no flash?

I’ve been in museums, quilt shows, weddings, etc., where I’ve wanted to take a picture and either no flash photography was allowed or it would be a distraction.  Also, if you’re shooting through glass (through a window in your house or on a bus, etc.), you don’t want to use your flash because of the glare you’d be sure to get.

A note on taking pictures with the flash suppressed:  You might not have quite enough light, but the camera will compensate by making the exposure a little longer to gather in more light.  The longer the exposure is, the more important it is to keep your camera still or you will get a blurry picture. 

If I’m not using a tripod (and if you’re reading this post I am reasonably sure you probably don’t have a tripod, although you might want to consider one), I steady myself as best I can.  For quilt pictures, I will rest my hands on the top of the high back of one of our dining-room chairs.  For window shots, I will steady my hand and arm against the window frame.  Even with Image Stabilization (that’s what the “IS” is for on some cameras), you still have to be VERY STEADY and use the half-squeeze to focus, then squeeze the shutter button down the rest of the way to take your picture.

Every digital camera I’ve seen has a little lightning bolt on the back or top of the camera.  This will bring up some flash settings.  On my Canon, it’s pretty simple — flash or no flash.  However, if I press the “menu” button and select “flash settings”, I have a couple more options:  Red-Eye Correction (on or off) and Red-Eye Lamp (on or off). 

If you take a lot of people pictures, you may want your red-eye correction on.  That is when you have that double burst of flash that people don’t like so much, but it does get reduce red-eye in photos.  (The first flash constricts your pupils, the second flash  is when the picture is taken.)

My Lumix settings are different, and yours are likely to a little different from either of mine.  I am going through the settings on both of my cameras in the hope that something is similar to yours, however, if you can put your hands on your manual (keep it in the camera bag), take a look at the “Flash” page for your specific info.

On the Lumix, I have a flash that manually pops up, and pressing the flash icon doesn’t do anything until I pop up the flash.  Then instead of giving me choices to toggle through, it changes the flash settings every time I push the flash lightning bolt button.  The four main options are lightning bolt alone (forced flash — it WILL flash), lightning bolt with an “A” (the camera will determine if there’s sufficient light or if it needs to flash), one of the previous options with the eye icon means the addition of the red-eye reduction extra flash, adding an S with the lightning bolt and the eye icon means “slow sync”.  You would use this setting when taking pictures of people in front of a dark background or in the shade outdoors.  On a lot of cameras this is referred to a “fill flash”.  Wouldn’t that be a great name of a photographer super hero?  Phil Phlash.

And a little bit on zoom.  There are two ways your camera zooms in on an object:  optical zoom and digital zoom.  Optical zoom is zooming that is achieved by the elements of the lenses and is your best quality zoom; digital zooming ends up being the same as if you cropped a picture and lose some definition that way. 

For example, on my Canon I have a total of 12 times zoom — 3 times optical, 4 times digital = 12 times.  The Lumix DMC FZ20 has 48 times zoom — 12 times optical, 4 times digital (secret to good bird pictures is a lot of zoom and a steady hand, and patience).

Have you noticed when you’re zooming in, it zooms part way, then stops, and you can then zoom all the way?  On my cameras, it stops when at the point between optical and digital.  If photo quality is really important to you, that is a good place to stop and take the picture.  If getting in closer to your subject (like a bird) is most important, go ahead and zoom as much as you need to; just know that you will lose picture quality past the optical stopping point.  That was probably clear as mud.

One more note on zoom, and maybe I mentioned this last week, but just be aware that zooming reduces the amount of light available for your image.  On a bright day, it won’t matter; under other circumstances, you might notice a difference.

There’s still more to talk about on zoom, so we will cover that another Friday!

This week: 

• Check out the flash options on your camera.  If you have a fill flash option, try taking a picture of someone in the shade using your fill flash.
• Take some pictures using the suppressed flash selection, maybe through a window (shoot at an angle to eliminate glare).  Or a photo of a quilt where you don’t want flash.  Or inside — pretend you’re in a museum!
• Take a photo of someone using the red-eye reduction feature.  Not too close — you don’t want to blind them and wash out the picture.  Not too far away — flash only reaches so far.  I remember reading somewhere, if your subject stretches an arm out to you and you stretch your arm out to your subject so your fingertips touch, that is a pretty good distance.  Adjust for children!
• Practice your zoom — check on what you have for optical versus digital zoom.  Take some zoom photos for fun and play around with it.  Become a tripod yourself — hold your elbows against your body to hold the camera more steady.
• It’s the weekend — take some fun photos and post them to our Flickr album; if you’re new this week, Flickr will prompt you to set up a free account; then I will approve you and you will be able to upload photos.

Have Fun!!!  If you have any questions or need clarification on anything, feel free to e-mail me via the “Contact Me” button at the top of this blog.

Sue