How does everybody get their Sony W1 shots to be so clear. I see pictures hear of very good pictures, thogh my own are horrible in comparrison. You can see my gallery at http://www.vpsecure.org

I use the M mode and the best picture I have taken is below. Everything else is horrible.

any help would be apricieted

More light ... or Photoshop!

so the pics I am seeing are altered, not the real thing

No, not necessarily...skill and intimate knowledge of using your tool (the camera) makes all the difference in the world. An understanding of lighting, f-stop, shutter speed, etc. is almost mandatory to take excellent photos outright.

What I did with PS was no more than what your digital camera would do if you left it in "auto" mode. In fact, all digital cameras adjust the photo to meet someone's (the design team's at least) idea of a picture and compression ... the possible exception is shooting in RAW, but then you yourself must do all the adjustments by post processing.

Your photo is real, nothing doctored or changed. Only the lighting values and contrast were touched, and it was compressed a bit to fit this sites attachment requirements.

If you know your camera thoroughly, what it can and cannot do, understand lighting, and have an eye for composition you can achieve the same without "tweaking". Nonetheless, even with film, much of the photo was completed in the darkroom. Just read up on Ansel Adems, the "zone system", etc.

PhotoShop just allows you to do the same as what is or can be accomplished in the darkroom, and far more if you wish, to your digital images on your computer.

Whether or not you go from exposed negative ordigital imageto a viewable print, something happens in between ... no matter what (with the possible exception of Polaroids). Soooo ...

... IMHO, your statement "altered ... not the real thing" is simply incorrect.



On edit: After looking at your other photos, most are simply poorly exposed. Perhaps you should use "auto" mode (the green camera icon)instead of M when taking important photos for now. Practice with exposure settings and manual mode on non-important subjects until you get the hang of it. Some settings, such as the subway, are very hard to expose correctly for the dark tunnel as well as the lighted platform. Others, like the over-exposed all white planetarium would probably work best if you can point expose on, say, Saturn. Or just set to auto mode. Hope this infohelps.

Thanks for the help, I thoght the Auto Mode on the W1 was supposed to be Terrible

I think "terrible" is a matter of opinion. To those who seek theoretical perfection, it probably is. To the vast majority of point-and-shooters, it is probably quite good and eminently acceptable in most situations. Obviously there are settings where you must be the judge of how to set the camera. For example in back lit situations, you might turn the flash on ... and the exposure turns out well. But the built-in computer simply is not programmed for all settings.

With my cameras, film and digital,I use a variety of manual, programmed, and even auto settings depending on the situation. But then I have been "snappin' pitchers" for almost 50 years and some things have become almost intuitive (and digital sure is nice) ... now, if only the old eyes will hold out for a bit longer, or at least my arms GET longer ... !

Hi,

See my post below (Post your W1 pics here).

I always shoot in P mode, sharpness +1, contrast -1, ISO set to 100.

Never had a bum shot yet :?

yes but with those setting, it takes for ever for the camera to take the picture, my hands shake and ruins the pictures. How do you make it take the shots faster,

One other thing I didn't mention.

Set your focus to centre focus. I found on a few occasions that the multi focus didn't focus correctly and the centre focus is much more reliable.

The camera focuses very quickly, so perhaps if your cameradoesn't that indicates a fault?

I may be repeating what was said earlier but a small tripod might be the answer. You can buy portable tripods in the UK quite cheaply. Not the most practical solution, but will help your indoor shots.

Vinny77's photographs on his site appear to be good, but often underexposed. Since he states it takes for ever for the camera to take the picture, my hands shake and ruins the pictures, I bet the shutter is being set to slow. Remember, handholding for many people without shake at speeds less than 1/60 or 1/30 is difficult ... and that is at wide/normal lens ... at telephoto, holding steady is even more difficult.

Vinny, try taking a bunch with full auto settings and see how they come out.

Remember, in lower light situations, your shutter speed will be slower and shake will happen. If the pictures turn out well (and I bet they will since most of your outdoor shots in sunlight, albeit winter sun, look good), I would suggest you reset your camera to ensure factory default settings. Then do like v8griff suggests.

However, since many of your shots appear to be indoors (which is, in general,lower-light) I would NOT set ISO at 100 ... I would leave it to automatically set.

Vinny, without accessory lighting (flash for example), indoor shots often come off poorly. If you are shooting at anything much over 2-3 meters indoors, built-in flash falloff is significant and will not provide the lighting you need. If I could read the EXIF info off your posted shots, that would help as it would tell me all the settings you are using under a variety of settings. -- hope this helps a bit and that I do not sound presumptious; photography is a wonderfully creative hobby for a lot of people, as well as a good income source for many and it is, perhaps, my first love!