CAPX28:
well here are some of the first pics i took with my new Cannon S70. I followed the good of advice of the pople on this board and i am messing around with it on land first.
Soon i will be getting the housing for it and heading to the beach, but untilo then i ma staying dry
anyways i have been messing around with it (mostly on full auto) and was wondering what advice you guys had to improve on the pics. I havn't photoshopped them except to resize them ( and i cropped the grass hopper) Any suggestions on how to improve the quality of the image or the composition????
I couldn't post pics in the thread but they are in my Gallery
ALL suggestions and comments welcome!!
First, you are taking the correct steps by playing with the camera on land and asking questions.
I my first advice, just pretend there is no such thing as Photo Shop or any other photo enhancing software. And your only tool is your skill in delivering an image to the S70s CDD sensor, thats is EVENLY and PROPERLY exposed, the SHARPEST focus you could possibly achieve with your camera and a pleasing composition with the rule of thirds in mind. And as much as possible CROP in the camera by move in closer, cropping later and blowing up degrades the image.
The grasshopper as an example, a side view shot is good to have (reference books need them) but a head-on frontal face shot with both of the creatures eyes staring at you gives the picture a bigger PUNCH! The rule on this type of shot is that everything else could be out of focus but the eyes must be RAZOR sharp.
The back of the hopper is over exposed and the bottom half is under exposed, how are you going to fix that? Since the sun (your source of light) is coming from a top, back to front direction (with respect to the lens), maybe we should bounce the light back to the under exposed portion of the creatures body by taping a white piece of cardboard in a 45 degree angle just below the lens. U/W, a strobe will take care of this. Also try APERTURE Priority, where you pick the aperture opening and the camera helps pick out the shutter speed.
Remember the cameras main job is to RECORD and image, its entirely up to you to see if it does the job correctly.
This guy is one of the best, no U/W stuff, but his books on photography will take you from the everyday snap shooter to the pros.
http://www.johnshawphoto.com/equipment.htm
And rules to live by:
http://www.betterphoto.com/exploring/tips/thirds.asp
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/8275/47995
http://www.plantea.com/garden-photos-thirds.htm
The hardcore TTL folks will really love this rule of thirds stuff.
Dive Safe
how do the dog and the cat get along?
