Amateur Question??

[smokey2326]

Hi, been out at a car show taking pictures today and realised i'm quite crap at it.

Is there any tips for a total beginner? I just want to get a bit more 'feeling' to the pics, at the minute they look like quick snaps taken on a disposable cam.

One specific thing i'd like to do is take pics where the main target in the foreground is clear but the ones in the backgrond are blurred. Any ideas on how to achive this ?

If it's any help i've only got a Canon PowerShot s5 1s (or is it s5 1s??).

Thanks, any help much appreciated.

[flat-planedCrank]

smokey2326 said:

Hi, been out at a car show taking pictures today and realised i'm quite crap at it.

Is there any tips for a total beginner? I just want to get a bit more 'feeling' to the pics, at the minute they look like quick snaps taken on a disposable cam.

One specific thing i'd like to do is take pics where the main target in the foreground is clear but the ones in the backgrond are blurred. Any ideas on how to achive this ?

If it's any help i've only got a Canon PowerShot s5 1s (or is it s5 1s??).

Thanks, any help much appreciated.

Maybe post some examples of shots you aren't happy with and people can comment?

On the 'background blurred' topic, I'm presuming you're meaning with static shots?
If so, this is known as 'depth of field' - basically the area of the photo (measured from the camera) that is in-focus, or 'sharp'

Lots of detail (some of it complex) on DOF on wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depth_of_field

Many different factors effect DOF - if you want to lessen the DOF then try:
-Using the widest aperture your camera has (low f-number)
-Focusing as near to the camera as possible (get close to the vehicle)

If you are trying to emulate narrow DOF on objects reasonably far away (such as the pictures in this Prescott Hill Climb photo thread) then unfortunately you will find this difficult, if not impossible Other factors such as the size of the camera's sensor (DSLRs tend to have larger sensors than point'n'shoot cameras) and maximum lens aperture (£££!) have a large effect.


Hope this helps

[LongQ]

What FPC said but bear in mind that camera like the S5 IS (I have an S3 IS btw so some idea about yours) have sensors of a small physical size and that tends to mean that the Depth of Field is almost always quite deep, relatively speaking. Also the lens is not espacially 'fast' and any zoom length (i.e. focal length). 'Fast means that is opens 'wide' and 'wide' means a shallower Depth of Field. Note that all of these things are relative and for a given goup of settings may not provide the isolation of subject from background that you seek.

In the old days most lenses had a rough DoF guide engraved on them so that you could get some idea of what result you were likely to get. These days you just have to look at the results and interpret them on the small screen. However you can get comprehensive DoF calculators for on-line or download use including for smart phones. DOFmaster is one example. www.dofmaster.com

If the location allows you to stand back and zoom in you may find a way to get closer to the effect you want but although there is some potential in doing that the S5 IS lens has a smaller aperture (Larger f number) as it zooms so some of the potential effect is lost - the DoF calculator software will provide an indication of what might be possible.

Ultimately the best option may be to go as far as you can in camera and then use an editor to selectively sharpen th intended subject and 'soften' (carefully using mild blurring) the background with some selective editing. Just don't overdo it.

So, if you use DOFmaster for the S5 IS with no Zoom (6mm end if the range) wide open Aperture (say f2.8) and 4 metres from the focus point on the subject everything from about half way between you and the focus point and infinity will be in the 'appears sharp' range.

ON the other hand if you zoom into the subject from, say, 10 metres away, at f4 and 72mm zoom (i.e. wide open at the maximum zoom level) the DoF is only .77 metre with .37 metre in front of the focus point and .4 behind. However somewhere around those valuse you may get to a point where you are quite happy with the overall focus on the subject, even if not completely sharp all over, and the background is acceptably blurred.

The problem (for your needs presented in the original question) with the smaller sensors is that the fall-off for sharpness is never as steep as can be achieved with a larger sensor - you always get a perception of greater Depth of Field compared to the same equivalent settings on a camera with a physically larger sensor. However it circumstances allow you to choose your position for the shot you can probably compensate in compostion quite well in many cases.

[smokey2326]

Thanks for the answers guys, lots to take in there.

I did try to upload a photo but the file size is to big and i've no idea how i change it.

After reading and re-reading the last post i've come to the conclusion that i know even less than i thought i did . I didn't realise there was so much to it TBH, i thought because i could take a decent pic on Gran Turismo i could do it in real life.

Is there any good online sources for a total novice that anyone would recommend? I'm pretty much at the 'point and shoot' skill level right now...?

[Gemm]

Try this one....

http://digital-photography-school.com/digital-phot...

and this forum is a great source for tips and there are lots of helpful people here.

[Martyn-123]

Just discovered tilt shift app on the ipad, unusual shots of cars with the background blurred....

[blugnu]

In addition to the comments on aperture, I'd add that you need to get lower - most car pictures are taken from standing height. Get down to car seat or headlight height and they always look better.

There tends to be a huge dynamic range on cars - tyres and the shadows in the wheel arches to shiny chrome. If you can maintain detail in all these areas your pictures already look better I think.

If you can shoot RAW files I'd do that, and then process them in something like Darktable (free for Linux or mac - darktable.org) or RawTherappee (free for Linux, Mac and Windows - rawtherapee.com)

The RAW file maintains all the detail so you can usually get a bit more out of them in processing. You can also darken the highlights and brighten the shadows.

I'd also think about getting a polarising filter if you do this a lot- it helps manage reflections.

(Sample image is a snapshot from on the way home, but with highlights/shadwows tweaked in darktable - maybe a bit too much for some tastes, but you get the idea)

[smokey2326]

Gemm said:

Try this one....

http://digital-photography-school.com/digital-phot...

and this forum is a great source for tips and there are lots of helpful people here.

Thanks, that's a great site. It explains everything in really simple way and doesn't expect you to already know all the terminology.

Just managed to take a pic with the effect i was looking for

[flat-planedCrank]

smokey2326 said:

i thought because i could take a decent pic on Gran Turismo i could do it in real life.

Actually GT does a pretty good camera mode - stuff like aperture and shutter speed works like real life.


I'd take a look at how people take car show shots that you like, it may be that they are using narrow DOF to 'separate' the car from it's background - a technique that can be used when you don't have control over the car's location

smokey2326 said:

I did try to upload a photo but the file size is to big and i've no idea how i change it.

Some folks on here use Flickr for image uploads, it'll do the resizing and even give you a small bit of code to paste directly into PH.

Though it's probably worth learning about editing your images, even if it's just resizing, cropping, compressing, etc.. Some free software such as GIMP can do this sorta stuff.

If you get more serious about editing your images then you may want to look at packages like Adobe Lightroom (basic editing and cataloguing - about £100) or even the cheaper version of Adobe Photoshop - Photoshop Elements ( £57.44 on Amazon)