I also could have titled this post "I've been too busy grading papers to sew anything". ;)
Side note - please teach your children how to write sentences with a subject and a predicate. And tell them not to start sentences in formal research papers with "So, apparently..." and finish them with "I guess". This does not imbue the reader with a sense that the author knows what they are talking about.
Trust me, their college professors will appreciate your efforts. ;)
ANYWHO...
I've been playing around with my (and by "my", I mean Bryan's) camera. Over the weekend I took these pictures of Q in the backyard. On the left is what came out of the camera. On the right, my edited version. Obviously the originals are super washed out.
What's a girl gotta do to keep her photos from being super washed out? Is it too much light (ISO, right?)? Or is it a shutter speed issue? Someday I'll get around to taking a class on the subject, but right now, I hope you'll share your expertise. :)
HELP!
What's a girl gotta do to keep her photos from being super washed out? Is it too much light (ISO, right?)? Or is it a shutter speed issue? Someday I'll get around to taking a class on the subject, but right now, I hope you'll share your expertise. :)
HELP!
not an expert in any way, shape, or form but from looking at your exif data. . . maybe it's that you have your exposure bias set at +1. I have a Canon so I'm not sure if that works the same on your Nikon. That or your ISO is a bit high. This might explain what I'm trying to get at a bit better:
ReplyDeletehttp://thepioneerwoman.com/photography/2010/06/exposure-compensation-has-changed-my-life/
I have no clue about pictures. I have a nikon D3100 and to be honest not really sure how it works....ISn't that horrible?!?!?
ReplyDeleteBut I think your shots were cute!
Oh, and can I add that parents - feel free to correct your child and help teach them correct grammar. You know, if they are feeling extra ambitious. :)
Every evening I escape the uninspiring task of grading essays to indulge in some crafty blog reading. Imagine my dismay when I eagerly open the latest tbt blog post to discover discussion of essays. Ack! I feel your pain, and now I reluctantly turn my own attentions back to poor freshman attempts to compare the merits of assorted armchair historians. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what kind of camera you have but you should have a 'white balance' setting. Most the time it defaults to "auto" but if you can find where it is on your camera (I have a Canon Rebel XSi and it's above the d-pad to the left and says "WB") you can change it to 'full sun,' 'cloudy,' ect. and that might help. I always shoot with my ISO at 100 so that I get the highest quality photos and change my shutter speed and Av settings to get the light right. A lot of times community colleges or even universities will offer like non-credit photography courses, I took some at a university near me and they were AMAZING. But if you don't have time for that you can always google it! There's lots of tutorials for camera settings out there :)
ReplyDeleteThat essay comment made me laugh! I recently became an advisor at my local university for my sorority and I am SHOCKED when I listened to the young ladies speak; they insert the word "like" after almost every word! It was almost impossible to understand what they were talking about. I am hoping they can write better than they speak, but I have my doubts!
ReplyDeleteOh, goodness, the AWFUL essays I used to get from my freshman writing students when I was in grad school! Irresponsible semi-colon use drove me particularly batty. If you can't tell me what it's for, you shouldn't be using it in your essay :-)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, it looks to me like your photos are over-exposed. You can compensate in a couple different ways. First, you can just dial down the exposure a couple ticks using the exposure compensation setting, as someone else already said. To get the hang of what changing that setting does, I just made my boyfriend sit and let me take the same photo of him at each setting so I could easily compare.
You could also try a faster shutter speed, which would let less light in to the lens and maybe help the problem. I'm not sure what mode you're shooting in, but for portraits, I usually just set my camera in the Av mode (aperture priority). I dial the aperture down to a low # , which gives you that nice blurred background that's great for portraits (the lower the #, the more blurred the background will be) and then my camera automatically sets the best shutter speed. That might give you better results than if you're just shooting in full auto, although sometimes I still need to mess with exposure a bit here.
Anyway, I find that full auto mode on my DSLR just doesn't take great photos -- my old point-and-shoot was better for full auto!
I know nothing about cameras. But my goodness, I haven't marked a decent paper this year. All of mine use demographic 'data' from estate agent (I think you call them realtors) websites instead of the census or anything sensible.
ReplyDeleteI swear, some of them can't even spell their names correctly.
TAKE OFF THE +1EV....set your exposure compensation to 0;
ReplyDeleteyour photos are over exposed slightly and therefore washed out.
ALSO, watch where your light source (sun) is in relation to your subject. He is in the "shadow" or backlit or away from the light ---which is MUCH better than direct sun---BUT there may not be optimal light on his face so it looks kind of grey and "flat"...this plus the EV set to +1 gives you that soft washed out look....and there could be a slight bit of movement in your subject at times....because boys, um, move:)
If the above sentence structure doesn't make you cringe too much, I swear there is some great info!!!
be well, heatherskye.com
Who needs subjects and predicates when you can text with abbreviated words and acronyms?! Loved the pictures!
ReplyDeleteISO should always ideally be at 100 :) That is supposed to be the very least pixelated/grainy and the most natural. Every step up from that loses some information, makes your pictures not as crisp looking and makes your pictures harder to edit if they need lots of adjustments. Try everything else before your ISO.
ReplyDelete1/125 for shutter speed freezes motion. You won't get much blur with it if you're taking pictures of someone on a swing, for instance. I thought I had read a post where you had asked about that before... If your images are blurry and you're not getting enough light anyhow, make sure your shutter is 125, then widen your aperture. So, go from like 11 to an 8 or something.
If your pictures are too light, then you're overexposing and need to close your aperture more (i.e., go from 8 to 11) or get a faster shutter speed.
If all else fails, *then* change your ISO. But change it one stop and then try to fiddle with your shutter and aperture again to see if you've got enough light then. Keep all the information you can by keeping the lowest ISO that you can. :)
(White Balance is just the overall color cast to the picture. It won't change your exposure but it's good to keep it in mind because if you need to adjust it in editing later, you'll want the best exposure to begin with so that you have the more information and get the best results.)
I have a photographer friend who shoots with Nikon (www.squeekphoto.com). She also uses a Nikon and is always commenting about how the colors in the photos are never as bright as how they appear in real life. I think part of your problem lies with the fact you are using a Nikon.
ReplyDeleteI checked your EXIF data and since you are already in Av setting, you might try using the lowest f stop available for your lens. Which after double checking your lens, you probably did. Also setting your ISO to 100 will help reduce the light allowed into the exposure.
If you have any other questions. I would be happy to try and answer them. My email is: anna [at] 64colorbox [dot] com
I think they are slightly overexposed. I think most of the problem is the backlit lighting. Whenever I have the sun behind the subject it tends to get that washed out appearance with not a lot of color. Try having the sun behind you. I think I can see why you had it overexposed since his face would've been in shadows when he is backlit. There's not a whole lot you can do other than editing after the fact. In your camera settings somewhere you should be able to adjust the contrast. That should give you a slightly better picture in this scenario but will mess up pictures in other scenarios.
ReplyDeleteI'd say they look great after editing them, but I understand wanting the best possible image right out of the camera. I'm still learning some tricks myself.
Thank you for asking this...this is a huge problem for me since I am VERY new to trying to take decent pics. Time to take the camera off of auto, I guess.
ReplyDelete