I'm crap at photos.

[Mr E]

OK. Some of you may have seen this thread.

www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=100474&f=23&h=0

Basically, I've purchased an Olympus mju:300 digi camera. I chose that model for several reasons, all of which will make the serious photographers wince.

It was a decent price.
It *felt* nice to hold and to use.
It's pretty much totally automatic (point and click)
It fits in my pocket quite nicely....

(I know, I know).

Now, there's not much I can change technically on the device (it's got a night mode, and a portrait mode and all sorts. I just leave the thing on auto). What I am interested in is actually how to set up and compose a decent photo. Snapshots are fun, but sometimes it would be nice to get one *great* picture.

Any hints and tips?
Any books or websites have an idiots guide to getting a photo right?

Advice, comments, abuse much appreciated.

[nighthawk]

The car looks great.

There is alot to be said for a point and shoot digicam.

i'm about to buy the wife an IXUS 500 for her to take on a girls week away........not that i'll pilther it back again after

I use a DSLR set up, and believe me, it may give the vesitility to get the best shoots of a given situation, but portable and descrete it isn't

[simpo two]

Mr E said:

Basically, I've purchased an Olympus mju:300 digi camera. I chose that model for several reasons, all of which will make the serious photographers wince. It was a decent price. It *felt* nice to hold and to use. It's pretty much totally automatic (point and click) It fits in my pocket quite nicely.... Now, there's not much I can change technically on the device (it's got a night mode, and a portrait mode and all sorts. I just leave the thing on auto). What I am interested in is actually how to set up and compose a decent photo. Snapshots are fun, but sometimes it would be nice to get one *great* picture. Any hints and tips? Any books or websites have an idiots guide to getting a photo right?

Fear not Mr E, I have exactly the same camera. I was toying with the idea of getting a digital compact but couldn't decide where to draw the line on expense vs quality. Then a friend of a friend produced a Mju300 and suddenly the dilemma was resolved. When it gets it right it's fantastic, but it's a bit finnicky on focus and exposure, and the flash can be a bit fierce.

As for control, forget it. There are lots of silly modes invented by a marketing dept and the video is crap. So just point and shoot - but you can improve things a bit by aiming at the most important area of the screen and half-depressing the shutter, which locks focus and exposure.

'Getting a photo right'. Hmm. I guess there are two scientific things and one artistic thing. The first two are focus and exposure, but the hard part to define is the artistic thing and that's Composition. I can't give you a magic answer, but a place to start might be to think about balance, eg from top to bottom, left to right and front to back. And then of course you can break all the rules and it still works.

Secondary things to use are focal length (wide-angle/telephoto) and depth of field, both of which have big effects on the resultant image.

[Mr E]

Thanks for the tips. I was aware that a half push locks the focus (handy trick that). Technically, theres not much I can do with a point and shoot.

Artistically, well, that's in the eye of the beholder I think. I was thinking more of where the light should be, and how far I should be from the subject, use of zoom, that sort of thing.....

Never had a camera with a zoom lens before (OK, 3X isn't particually zoomy, but still).

[simpo two]

Mr E said:

I was thinking more of where the light should be, and how far I should be from the subject, use of zoom, that sort of thing.....

Conventionally the light should be roughly behind you somewhere, so that it illuminates the subject. However, you can also shoot against the light which can give some nice effects. This may give you lens flare (line of coloured splodges) - some people like it; others don't - you can reduce this with a lens hood. Using fill-in flash means you can get the nice backlit effect and still see detail in the subject - if you're not too far away of course.

I found with the Mju300 that the flash output is very influenced by where the centre of the pic is. So always check the picture after taking, and if it's too bright or too dark, try again but point the camera slghtly differently.

Distance from subject/zoom kinda go together. Zooms are very handy for accurate framing, but distance from subject also controls perspective. Hence, a subject photographed from close-by with a wide-angle looks completely different (actually distorted) from the same subject taken from further away with a telephoto. The framing is the same, but the appearnce is very different. Hence you can decide which to use to get the effect you like most. You can also use telephotos to chop out a section of what you see - aided by the fact that the longer the focal length, the less the depth of field.

HTH?