Images of Wisconsin (Birch: vs., dog, young)

[gallon]

Originally Posted by Hntr

Thanks, Gallon!

I would have never found those settings on my camera. I really appreciate you taking the time to help me and offering some excellent pointers.

Maybe you can give us a little critique, what we are doing wrong, how to change it, anything that will help us improve our photography skills.

Thanks,
Hntr

You are welcome. If I would have anything to offer by way of critiquing, it is only because I have already made a zillion mistakes, and have learned to fix one or two of them.

Regarding your foggy morning series, there are two things that kind of leap out.

One is the white balance. In this series, there is an overall blue cast. This is typically seen when the camera white balance is set to sunshine, but the actual scene isn't sunlit. The correction is to preset the white balance to cloudy, or shady. Your camera is an Olympus with some unusual settings, so we are not sure how exactly to set it up. So some experimenting might be in order. Pick one scene, and step through the various camera WB settings and see what worked. On my Nikons, the choices are marked as sunshine, flourescent, incandescent, flash, cloudy, and more.

Advanced. These WB settings are approximations. On the higher end cameras you can actually set accurate color temperature. The WB settings are useful points along the color temperature scale.

Trivia. Blue is the hottest color. Blue is the closest visible color to ultraviolet, which we know is high energy light, capable of damaging skin and materials. Red is the coolest visible color, being next to infrared. Not at all intuitive, but thats how it works.

Two is the picture leveling. Looks like your camera has a built in tilt. (smiley)
The correction is just to be aware of the horizon line when composing a shot.

It looks as though you have a great location there for photography. Keep it up, looking good!

[Hntr]

Originally Posted by gallon

You are welcome. If I would have anything to offer by way of critiquing, it is only because I have already made a zillion mistakes, and have learned to fix one or two of them.

Regarding your foggy morning series, there are two things that kind of leap out.

One is the white balance. In this series, there is an overall blue cast. This is typically seen when the camera white balance is set to sunshine, but the actual scene isn't sunlit. The correction is to preset the white balance to cloudy, or shady. Your camera is an Olympus with some unusual settings, so we are not sure how exactly to set it up. So some experimenting might be in order. Pick one scene, and step through the various camera WB settings and see what worked. On my Nikons, the choices are marked as sunshine, flourescent, incandescent, flash, cloudy, and more.

Advanced. These WB settings are approximations. On the higher end cameras you can actually set accurate color temperature. The WB settings are useful points along the color temperature scale.

Trivia. Blue is the hottest color. Blue is the closest visible color to ultraviolet, which we know is high energy light, capable of damaging skin and materials. Red is the coolest visible color, being next to infrared. Not at all intuitive, but thats how it works.

Two is the picture leveling. Looks like your camera has a built in tilt. (smiley)
The correction is just to be aware of the horizon line when composing a shot.

It looks as though you have a great location there for photography. Keep it up, looking good!

LOL, on the built in tilt! Some I took standing almost on top of my truck, but I went back and look at the rest of them and that camera sure does have a tilt to it. I might call the factory and complain they sold me a faulty camera.

On the WB settings, if I have time I try to take a shot with the manual settings at a -3, 0, and a +3. I went into the menu and found a WB setting in preset 1 for sunshine, cloudy, sunset, and the other one show a little house icon with shadow. In preset 2 it has four square sunshine icons numbered from one to four. I have no clue what that means. I do have my book so I will check it out on there.

[Hntr]

I couldn't find any explanation in the manual about the different WB settings.

This is about all it shows on WB settings.

[Hntr]

This are three pictures I took at three different setting. I didn't post them because I didn't like the composition, they just didn't grab me.

I suppose I should keep a log so I know which settings I used on each picture.


Color wise, I like the last one better than the other two, but the fog didn't seem to show up as much as in the other two. And what I want to catch was a finger of fog that came down that low spot a little right of center. It was very distinct, stood out very obvious, but it didn't show up at all in the pictures.

[gallon]

Originally Posted by Hntr

This are three pictures I took at three different setting. I didn't post them because I didn't like the composition, they just didn't grab me.

I suppose I should keep a log so I know which settings I used on each picture.

Color wise, I like the last one better than the other two, but the fog didn't seem to show up as much as in the other two. And what I want to catch was a finger of fog that came down that low spot a little right of center. It was very distinct, stood out very obvious, but it didn't show up at all in the pictures.

No problem on the compositions. Those are test shots. No film was wasted.

I read your WB settings across line 22 as shady, cloudy, bright sunny, sunset, flourescent, flourescent, incandescent, custom 1 to 4, unknown. Dunno what the 2 different flourescents are doing. 1 small flourescent versus 4 industrial tubes? Dunno. Thats an Olympus thing. The unknown could be flash.

Line 23 is also about white balance, looks like you can shift both Red and Blue around a little bit. I would think Green would be in there too, but they don't list it on line 23.

Line 24, saturation simply means you can adjust the intensity of each separate color, R G and B.

What would a professional do with your morning scene? A professional would use an 18% gray card, set it up in your lighting, and then take a calibration shot and get accurate white balance from that. On your C5060WZ this is accomplished via the "one touch" quick reference feature. Point the camera at the gray card in the lighting you want, do the one touch process, and after that the camera correct shots such that the gray card would show as neutral. An 18% gray card is a couple of dollars at your photo shop or at Amazon.

On your three test shots. Difficult to say. The first shot shows the whitest fog, but I see what you mean about the grass dropping out. Maybe a setting between your first and second shots would do it?

Warning. The more you know about cameras, the more maddening they become. They always see things their way, and they never compromise. In the end, the computers and machines take over.

I am heading over to Google Image to search for fog shots, just to see what's there.

[everwinter]

Ice Age Trail in Kettle Moraine State Park North unit by West Bend.

[JoshB]

Great pictures everwinter!

[gallon]

Originally Posted by everwinter

Ice Age Trail in Kettle Moraine State Park North unit by West Bend.

Did you see any morels out there?

[Hntr]

The snapping turtles were out laying eggs last night and this morning.

[Hntr]