New Yorker

You guys with Black (and Black Cherry Mica) cars, you'll get a better pic if you manually adjust the exposure setting on your cameras (rather than using the normal "auto" setting). Go to manual mode and reduce the exposure by 1/3 to 2/3:

+ • • • 0 • • • —
(Try setting exposure to the first or second or even third 'dot' towards "minus")

Do this and your car will come out with a deep, rich black, like it looks in real life. (Leaving your camera on "auto" tends to make the black not dark enough. That's why pix of your car always look a bit washed out.)

MOD: Should this be in "Multimedia/Photo Gallery" instead?

warmongoose

LIke this ? this were in manual mode, 2048 Fine, twilight, iso 200, white bal out door, what do you think is it good?

staticlag

Meter off green grass or concrete for 18% grey, that will give you a neutral color balance.

Or if you want to get it really correct pick up one of these:



So, basically, you want to put your camera in manual mode, point it at green grass or concrete so it fills the whole frame, then adjust the aperature and speed so the camera says that it will give a picture (usually your camera has little digital bars that line up around a center point in the display). Then keep those settings and photograph whatever you want.

warmongoose

WOW that looks like a realy expensive piece there. I think I will go with the grass, lol, what do you think about the settings above discribe , you think I am in the ball park, by no means I am a PRO, I just like to take pictures in special my BB 8

New Yorker

I think you're right about there. In pic #1 the blacks could maybe could be a tad darker/richer, #2 and 3 are great, IMHO.

NgoRX8

iTrader: (1)

thanks for the info.

staticlag

exposure -1/3 of a stop is a pretty common trick used by photogs. It will work, but the reason why I mention the grass or concrete trick is because the -1/3 is trial and error. If you can afford to play around with settings it really doesn't matter which technique you use, but when you need the shot to be correct the grass metering will work better.

If theres no grass or concrete you can meter off the palm of your hand(just make sure your hand fills the entire frame before you adjust your readings), or clear blue sky 90degrees from the sun.

Your pics look pretty good, they have detail and they are sharp, and thats what matters. Any color or brightness/contrast adjustments can be done to perfection in the printing or in photoshop if you scan them(but these are aleady digital so its kind of a moot point).

All that being said, a common trick used by photogs for just regular photos is to set their camera +1/3 for all normal pics, makes colors brighter and more contrast. I have my camera religiously on +1/3 unless I'm doing something special.

Just a few low res samples of my pj work(all images copyrighted, most are published so don't steal.), just so you guys can judge whether I know what I'm talking about or not







18 seconds at f/10 I believe:

warmongoose

Thanks for the info and the advice I will try it next time I take more pictures, like real soon after my 8's next bath.

Tirminyl

For those posting sample pictures, may also want to mention their camera specs as well to fully determine picture quality.

NgoRX8

iTrader: (1)

wow, i just tried taking a pic with -0.3 exposure. really helps. thanks for the tip New Yorker!

XDEEDUBBX

wow, cool tips..

Jedi54

iTrader: (7)

now if only I didn't have a piece of crap for a camera...

Sweet tips N.Y.