Just bought a cam. Am I frying images too much? What can I improve in?
Thanks :)
Never meant intensifies
When people mention never meant, I immediately get the guitar riff stuck in my head.
CANT WE JUST FORGET
Hello!
I just have a few things to share that was advice given to me early on. Take some, none, or all.
Invest in a tripod or monopod. If you’re doing low-light shooting at all, it will help. It will also open up some other things you can shoot (light-trails, crisper HDRs, etc). When I first started off, I got a lightweight tripod and put it in my bag. I had it always on me. I got used to setting it up in weird positions too. Now, of course, there are times we just don’t have tripods. So, find places to set the camera down. We want the camera to be able to get the light it needs to help with the image. This will reduce noise, distortions, and give some depth and definition when shooting low light.
I think the images you shot are interesting. One thing that is important, is to shoot a little wider than what you’re wanting to show in the photo, then crop to show what you want to show. For example, on the image of the people walking on the sidewalk and cars coming, I might have decided to crop the fence out on the right, a little tighter of a crop to show the light on the ground, and give it a little bit of a different vibe. Be open to playing with cropping to get the mood and vibe you’re trying to show.
Most importantly - keep shooting. Get out there and take photos. Get to know your camera. And continue to play with the images. Sometimes an edit or shot doesn’t work. But, it still provides a learning opportunity. Maybe it doesn’t work for this exact image, but it might work somewhere else. Just keep playing with it.
Overall, I enjoyed the images. Keep getting out there. Watch/read tutorials about things you enjoy with photography, then go out and do them with your own creative style.
Cheers!
Thank you very much for the advice! So many people recommended that I should buy a mono- or tripod so I'll definitely give it a shot :)
Funny you mention this. Yesterday I packed my tripod and set it up in a parking lot, it felt kind of strange, wondering if anyone was watching me. Another thing to consider is a spot meter, using that and exposing for the highlights called for a shutter speed of ½ a second. There's no way I could have done this handheld. Will have to develop to see how it came out.
Sorry piggy backing this comment to ask you, do you know what it's called when it's like a mini tripod that you can just set up on a table? Not like a full size adult height one lol, but something small and you can take traveling, put it on a flat surface somewhere to get relatively stable shots?
I like the moody low light style, don't let the others deter you. If you don't want bright sharp images, but soft low light then go for it, they look great to me.
Thanks!
I like the American Football reference, nice shot
Thanks :)
I especially like 2, 3, and 4. I think the editing looks nice. Looks like a great start.
Thanks :)
I really like those pics, composition is perfect and the contrast is lovely. But in my opinion the first has too much noise (maybe ISO set too high)
Are you frying the SD cards, Prints or doing some other transfer to a USB before frying? regardless I feel like keeping photos off the stovetop is probably better for your health in the long run.
I love number 2! I think they should be up to your preference and as long as you’re happy with the images then it’s great. Finding your own personal editing style takes time and practice so nothing is too much in my opinion. Prioritizing yourself in your work is more important than if others like it, especially at first while you develop more. I used to feel like I over edited a ton but looking back I’m happy with the photos but would do something different next time. It’s all about practice and learning and you’ll never feel like it’s right if you’re in it for the artistry. Good luck!
Thanks, you too
Start by giving your camera LIGHT.
It's clear these are all shot in low light conditions. Cameras like light. They need light. Stop starving the camera of what it needs to perform best, and you'll see improvements.
I have RX100 m2. I use max possible aperture and not so fast shutter speed. Do I have to buy another cam?)
Or how can I add more light? More ISO? Then the photos will be more grainy
You have get more light. How you do it, is up to you.
Easiest thing would be to shoot in the day time. For what you're doing, get a tripod and use long shutter speeds so you can keep the ISO low.
The tripod is not very practical to use in everyday life, but I'll try. Thanks
Agree with this comments. Your putting too much work on that sensor, but something as a tripod or anything that can hold the camera still will do.
Even if you spend thousands of dollars on a new camera, you need a tripod, every professional that shoots on this light conditions will use them.
Seriously, you can get the smallest, cheapest tripod and you will be surprised on how well your images will get.
Thanks for advice :)
Bag of beans. Place in a steady surface, use with (???) "that configuration thing that makes a delay" so the camera is steady when the shutter opens.
Regarding noise, you are starting? So, why not accept it while practicing? (I don't mind noise when there isn't another option, better than shaking).
I've got a tripod I can ball into my pocket. There's a lot of tripod options out there. Just make sure they support your systems weight. The RX you mention is TINY. You can get an equally tiny tripod for it. Google tiny tripod and go from there.
A monopod would give you some stability and is more convenient than a tripod.
If you want more light you should set to longer shutter speed. The aperture is not really for extra light but to control the depth of field.
Not super expert but one thing I found out when I had camera, super large aperture makes the low depth of field which means some parts of the image will be out of focus.
Yeah, I watched some video tutorials that say the same thing
Super wide aperture also reduces the sharpness in general. IIRC sharpness is best around f/5.6 or so.
I think it technically is respective to the maximum aperture of the lens, there is a helpful chart on this page. F5.6 is the sharpest on a F1.8 lens, but on a lens whose maximum sharpness is between F2-4, sharpest lives around F8
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/photography/features/lens-sharpest-aperture-sweet-spot
I have a full frame camera (canon rp) with a 1.8 aperture lens and it's great in low light. You can't expect miracles from any camera though. Tripods are needed for good night photography.
Crazy idea, but ... take some photos during daytime?
What if I don't want to
Anyway it's winter so there's not a lot of light in any sense
Don’t let people chase you off of low light photos. Just use some best practices when taking them.
Use a tripod or other means of letting the camera sit and avoid movement.
Shoot at a low ISO when you can. I do a ton of late night photography at 100 ISO, I just know it’s not going to work as well with subjects that move at all.
Yeah, I'll surely try. Thanks!
What camera and lens do you have, depending on what you want to take photos of you might need either tripod or lens with wider aperture or both.
I use a Sony RX100 m2. A lot of people suggested that I should own a tripod, so I'll try
Your camera has zoom lens that should have the widest aperature when you’re not zoomed in, the more you zoom in the smaller widest aperature will be. You can check by going aperture priority and zooming in and watch the number change to know how much you can zoom in to lose as little light as possible. The smaller the number the wider the aperture, bigger the number the smaller the aperture.
For people, you don’t want to use longer shutter speed unless you are going for blurry efect. If you are planning to shoot portraits, people look better when you are farther from them and use longer focal lengths, in your case zoom in. If you are shooting in the dark you will have to balance how much can you zoom and keep aperture open as wide as possible.
Keep in mind that by opening aperture you are blurring more foreground and background. If you want more things in focus from foreground to background you will need to close aperture or raise the number but you will be reducing the amount of light.
If you plan shooting non moving subjects and can put a camera on something you can put shutter speed as long as you get to iso you are comfortable with, you can keep iso at auto and when it will be under 1600 or 800 you can stop increasing shutter speed unless you want to go lower. Depends how much grain camera creates. Take test photos and decide for yourself.
I don’t think you need a new camera and lens tripod will help a lot. But if you do decide to buy something to shoot in low light get lenses with aperture f2 or lower like 1.8 or 1.4 but the wider the lens the more expensive it is and for less noise the size of sensor will matter, the bigger the better.
Thanks! Yeah, I noticed that the more I zoom, the less aperture settings are available. Guess I'll try different techniques then
Weird suggestion. There are plenty of ways to make stunning night shots.
Sure. But if you're a beginner starting out (with an RX100 point and shoot, no less), maybe it's a little less intimidating to start out with basic situations and work your way up to night shots.
Okay, sure, that makes sense. Surely saying what you just said would have been exponentially more helpful than your first comment, no?
You’ve got some great advice here. What camera model are you using?? What about the lens?
I suspect you’re both shooting with pretty high ISO and then increasing the exposure when editing. The higher the iso, the more noise you have. Noise is the weird dots you see when you zoom in on your first image, these dots become bigger and more visible when you crop your image, zoom, or bring exposure up too much on an image that was made with high iso.
Older cameras and smaller sensor cameras have a hard time processing images on really low light and combined with outdated ISO technology creates images that will not look sharp or low quality.
There are a few things you can do if you’re wanting to take nighttime photographs and get usable images. The first one could be get a better camera or a prime lens, I have found that my Fuji xt-3 deals with noise significantly better than my canon 6d (they’re both old cameras) and it creates noise that looks like grain did on film.
Using a tripod as other people said sshould be considered. Some of your photos are of urban landscapes so this is where the tripod becomes a must. There are some small portable tripods, or even some of those spider looking ones you can get for cheap and keep in your backpack. Your subject isn’t moving so you have time to set up the photo. You can add a strap and walk around with a tripod on your back took, you’d look a little silly but the images are worth it. Plus, us photographers already look quite silly out in the wild.
The last advice would be to lower ISO, decrease the shutter speed, try to anchor to something and create lots of points of contact. If I need to take slow shutter speed photos I will lean against a wall or lamp post, so now I’m grounded… I push the viewfinder against my face hold the lens as I’d do normally but I would press my triceps against my chest/ribcage creating as many points of contact as I can. Hands usually shake when carrying some weight so what you’re doing is you’re distributing the weight of the camera to your whole body and the wall. I breathe in, hold it and take the photo; sometimes I have it on a 2 second timer so the pressing of the shutter won’t move the camera.
Sorry for the wall of text. Hope this helps a bit.
Thanks for the advice! I use a small Sony RX100 m2 and, yeah, without the tri- or monopod I try to keep the shutter speed around 1/100 to keep my image not blurry and with maximum possible light coming to my lens)
But I'll try using it for sure. Hope I won't look too weird)
You won’t I promise. You’ll look like someone who knows what he’s doing with the correct equipment. Try taking images at 1/60 with the technique I described above, if there are no walls just press your elbows against your body and hold your breath. Usually you don’t want to go under 1/60th but I can go to 1/15 doing that and leaning against a wall and take decently sharp pictures without any type of image stabilization on my gear.
Then it's time to stretch a little, I guess
"frying"?
Over-editing
These don't look over edited to me.
Good then. Thanks!
What do you use for your editing?
Snapseed on phone
Thanks, nice filters.
I like them a lot too! Any online gallery you have to follow?
Sorry, I didn't understand the question. Is there any online gallery that I follow?
I think they were asking if you have an online portfolio for them to follow because they like your work
Aah, maybe. No, I bought the cam not so long ago so I haven't made a lot of photos yet. But I do have an insta page: https://www.instagram.com/verxsen
If your interest is low light.
- Get a tripod and lower the SS to keep your ISO down
- Invest in a fast aperture lens shooting at 1.4 vs 4.5 is an insane difference
- Learn to use Lightrooms denoise tools effectively or invest in something like TopazAI
- If you have tons of cash buy a camera that kicks ass at lowlight, I've heard the A7iv has amazing performance lowlight but haven't tried it
Nah, I'm on a budget, but thanks for the advice)
Yeah I later saw your other posts that said youre on a fixed lens cam. So tripod will be the biggest gamechanger
You have a very distinct style of photography, the 5th is my favourite out of these but the rest of them are also great! I’m not sure what you mean by frying? You have a great eye
Thanks for the kind words :) By "frying" I mean over-editing and oversaturating the image
Ah right, I don’t think they are over saturated but you could experiment with lowering the brightness or heightening the contrast to see what that looks like
I love them walking down the street. I don’t think your style suits the other images, but that one is insanely nostalgic
This could be just reddit compression acting up, but to me these colors seem flat. Are you shooting raw or jpeg? I shoot a lot of nightime photos (like probably 80% of my photos are after sunset) and you have to shoot raw to get enough color depth in the photos, you can get rid of grainyness in editing easier than you can bring back colors
I use raw+jpeg, but edit raw images. Maybe it's my editing – it's kinda limited, cause it's on phone in Snapseed rn
But Reddit compresses images as well, yeah
Snapseed should be able to edit raws without problems, maybe also try Lightroom mobile (it's free for the basic features).
Also something to note, most phones boost the colors, so you may need to "over edit" the pictures so they don't look flat after exporting.
Thanks, never thought about phone color boost, I'll experiment with it
Unless you click on them, you might be viewing the thumbnail
At least on my device if you look the 2nd, 3rd and 5th photos, they are completely missing black. (I have an oled screen so it's very easy to tell it's missing). I also did click on them. The 5th photo in fact seems to be missing color contrast overall.
I'm also on an oled screen and they all look pretty normal, maybe not as saturated as they could be, but definitely not flat.
love your style! and the american football reference. keep shooting dude!
Not sure what you mean by frying, do you mean over editing? I would say no, to me the easy identifiers of over editing and novice editing is over saturated, crazy high contrast, over sharpening or overdoing the clarity and structure sliders, and pumping the shadows up too high. That being said. There is nothing wrong with starting out that way. Regardless of your medium pretty much everyone goes through this, audio engineers, video editors, painters, etc. I think it can be one of the most important stages of learning. Go crazy, make absolute shit work. You will learn so much more from the failures you have than the successes. If you’re afraid of failing you’ll never take the risks that lead to important experimenting and growth. I’m 6 years in and work full time as a photographer (mostly commercial assisting). The longer you go the more scared you are to fail and look stupid, but you’ll never not fail, and if your afraid to try something because it might not work and you might look dumb… you’ll only hinder your own growth.
Once you get the editing down, these are not bad. Cinematic almost movie poster vibes.
1, 2 are good.
P.S. Are you from Ukraine?
Thanks. Yeah, I'm from Ukraine
I hope you will win and become a European country. I feel constant pain for what my country does with you.
Thanks for the kind words. Hope you're safe as well
Пожелай мне чтобы режим в РФ упал. Так задрала вся эта кровавая муть…
У меня двух подруг в Украине убили и одного друга, судя по всему. А пару знакомых в РФ репрессировали.
Это время не щадит никого
Second one is brilliant
I like image two a lot.
I came across this this morning and thought it might be of interest.
Oh, that will be helpful. Thanks!
I love these images, and their style is amazing. I don't know why they're saying get more light the point of this style is low light lol. I don't think they're over edited either.