About photography Number 3

[Grandad]

Just to touch on a subject that we have mentioned in the past, 'vignetting'.

This picture shows the effect in the top corners and it was caused by a polariser attached on top of a uv filter with the zoom at its shortest 18mm.



With a new lens that has a very short focal length at the low end, it might be worth investing in a step up ring, in my case 52 up to 58 (I wish I had thought ahead), then use 58mm filters on that lens to overcome the problem. Alternatively if you have more than one lens then step up to the largest thread size so that you only need one set of filters.

[Mimimay]

Well I'm afraid I can't understand any of the talk on this thread now I wish I could.
I've always had a bit of a thing about cameras and remember having my first camera when I was five years old for my birthday and still have one or two photos taken with it (black and white was all it would take)
I had a new camera for my birthday and although I quite fancied something fancy and complicated with a lens and stuff I ended up getting a point and shoot.
It's a panasonic TZ 8 and I keep having a little play around with it but I've decided that I must be thicker than I gave myself credit for The 'destructions' don't really seem to tell me very much and I keep finding new strange things on the camera when I twiddle it
Where would I find anything to help me on 't'internet' maybe ?Anyone have one of these cameras who can advice please ?

[Horus]

Mimimay, I have had a good look to see if I can get you any help info off t’internet, but no joy at the present time. There are lots of reviews and I have pasted in a couple of links that may give you an idea of what your camera will do. There are manuals available online but you need to buy them and I doubt if it will tell you a lot more than what you already know.

http://www.pocket-lint.com/review/4664/ ... tz8-camera

This link will tell you what features your camera has on it, OK it wont tell you how to use them, but why not just play around with a few settings and have a look at the available screen menus, thet are usually fairly intuitive to use. So if you were to set it for say a ‘scene’ mode, you would get a list of different occasions such as ‘Sunset’ ‘Snow’ ‘Sport’ ‘Night’ that indicate the type of picture you may be trying to take.

http://www.shetalacamera.com/productdet ... rodid=1004

Your camera seems to have all the features you should need to take general pictures (Auto Setting), very close up pictures (Macro or even Super Macro) and it has a good zoom range and it will also shoot video with sound. My advice is to have a play about with it and see what each thing can do, you can’t really break anything.
Then when you have some specific question, put it on here in a way that we can understand what your question is and I am sure that between us all we can answer your questions. No need to be technical, we all have to start somewhere, so start taking your pictures then start asking questions.

[LovelyLadyLux]

Mimimay you are suffering from the same thing as ME! I have a camera but I don't speak "techiecameratalkwithbuzzwordsonlyatruecameraafficianodounderstands" BUT pleaseeeeee if you just go out and start shooting photos which was the absolutely 100% BEST advice I got from these posters here it DOES all start to come clear.

When this thread started a few months back I'd hardly really used the camera cause I was trying to figure out something without actually using it. I had no "hands on" experience really BUT the encouragement and enthusiasm I got (and shared) on this thread spurred me on to a passion I'd had and now am just having the MOST FUN with I've ever had!

Take your camera outside and just start snapping away. Fiddle with it 'til the cows come home. There IS a DELETE button and doesn't matter if you delete ALL your first photos. You will honestly only get better and learning about these darn new fangled things takes time. I thought I was mired down (and I was at first) but the fog lifts and soon as you take a KEEPER you'll be hooked! Horus, Grandad, Ashtree, Kiya and the others are GREAT on here. Horus and Grandad are excellent at explaining (and I'm guilty of some pretty dumb questions too)!

GOOD LUCK and DO JOIN US HERE!!! (I still can hardly figure out how to get a photo on here and without Grandad and Horus and others I wouldn't!) Past posts really have good info too. I'm making a book out of Horus' info! ;);)

[Grandad]

Mimimay, yes your camera is a compact but NO it is not 'point and shoot'

In fact I think the TZ8 ranks among the best compacts around. With that massive zoom and definition plus full manual control it has more than many DSLR's.

I agree with Horus and LLL that you can do no harm by twiddling the knob and pushing the buttons but to get more from your camera in certain situations it will help to start to understand some of the techie stuff.....don't worry, it's not rocket science

Further back in this thread Michael the Mentor was mentioned and if you follow his short tutorials you will soon get a basic understanding of what the various terms all mean.....a lot of it is simple logic and not difficult once you start to get your head round it.

Have a look and see if it starts to make sense.....Good Luck

http://www.michaelthementor.com/index.html

[Mimimay]

Thank you so much you guys are great
The zoom was one of the reasons I got this camera because I'm going to Kenya soon and thought it would be good for that.
I do keep trying to have a play with it and actually had a little look at Michael the Mentor but thought it would be for more complicated cameras
Can't believe I said 'more complicated cameras' just after I admitted I was stumped with it

[Grandad]

Mimimay, just start by looking at 4 of Michael the Mentors tutorials:

What is ISO
What is Aperture
What is Shutter speed
What is DOF (depth of field)

Get a hold of them and what effect they have on the picture and that is it There is nothing more to photography than those 4 functions for making good photos

Just a little tweaking and refining but leave all that for now....

And you have the controls on your camera to adjust them all as necessary.

But don't try all these on important holiday shots unless you are confident.....practice these at home and if in doubt for that important shot of the elephant crossing your path, or the Gazelle leaping high, in Kenya...just switch to auto or the appropriate 'Scene' on the dial....

[Grandad]

I found this picture on Flickr and as I was at Dungeness on Monday I thought I would post the link.


Very strong image with, I guess, a short focus lens and very strong polariser, probably a filter factor of about 4 stops. Makes for a dramatic picture but note the effect of the extreme darkening of the sky towards the outer edges, which is more pronounced with short focal lengths.

[Horus]

I would second Grandads post Mimimay and for sure if you are not that much of an expert before you go, stick with 'Auto' for your general daytime pictures and before you go take some practice pictures using your Scene settings, in particular 'Night' and 'Sunset' settings. I would doubt if you will need any more options and remember that nearly every photo can be tweaked by using computer software, so you can often make crucial changes to make it look better.
Although all the clever stuff is important, the real thing with any picture is to get something that makes you or others think 'Wow' that is good!.

Todays Tip:
A good tip with animal photography is to know that they will always do something unexpected just as you are taking the picture. The Elephant for example will toss its head or the lion will suddenly bare its teeth.

So with that in mind, have a look at your camera and try to see if it has a setting that will allow you to take several pictures in a sequence (the button often has a little stack of pictures for the icon). This setting is often called 'Continuous'
If so, it will probably have several options, but only after you press it and of course you will need to have your viewing screen on your camera set to 'on' as opposed to having it switched 'off' and just looking through the viewfinder to take your picture. (this is only so that you can see and read the screen menus)

The options you usually get are:
'Top 3' (The actual number may vary) As it says, three pictures will be taken in quick sucession so long as you hold the shutter button down, good for catching those quick movements. All three pictures are saved to your camera memory card.

'Final 3' (The actual number may vary) Again it is fairly obvious, in this mode you just keep your finger pressed down on the button and it keeps taking pictures, but as you relaes your finger, only the last three are saved to your camera. Great for those tracking shots of animals in the bush when it just might appear from a thicket, or maybe a charging Rhino

'Long Period' In this mode the camera will continue taking pictures for as long as you hold the button down and all of them will be saved to your camera. The drawback of this mode are several, it will quickly fill up your memory card unless you carefully delete the unwanted pictures (not a good idea when actually out taking pictures, better done when your mind is seriously on the job at hand). It will hammer your batteries and it is usually a lot slower sequence of taking the pictures.

Finally, all of the above info is only a broad idea of how it works, the actual wording and numbers of pictures involved will depend upon your own camera. It is not as difficult to use as it may first appear to be, just look for the setting and browse through the menu, then try each option to see what happens.

[Mimimay]

Ooh plenty to look at there. It's a shame to have all these things on the camera and not make the most of them so I shall keep at it and check out this Mentor Man Thankyou X

[Bearded Brian]

Mimimay - most of your animal pictures will be taken either end of the day - that's not to say that the animals go into hiding at lunchtime but most safaris are timed early or late as that is when you may see some action. So, although the light is different in Kenya, I would go out here at dawn/dusk and see how the reduced / low lying light affects your pictures. Another tip - check the start up time for your camera from off and from stand by - if it's very quick you don't need to worry but if there is a delay try to keep the camera on as much as possible - you may have to change the power saving settings ie when the camera turns itself off when you haven't used it for say 2 minutes -but check you start with a fully charged battery.


Brian

[Mimimay]

That so sounds like very good advice too Brian Thankyou
Do cameras have the same 'symbols' on the dials meaning the same things You know on the dial at the top Because I can't work out what any of them mean
I told you I was having problems

[Grandad]

Mimimay, some use pictorial illustrations to show their function. For instance, a simple running figure would indicate sport and at that setting the camera would select a faster shutter to freeze the action.

Your camera dial has got the usual Auto, P for program, A for aperture priority, S for shutter priority, and M for full manual control.

The other symbols and letters are specific to the TZ8 and you need to refer to the manual to determine what each neans.

I note that there is one setting marked 'Cust' and I expect that at this setting and pressing the menu button you will have a wide range of options come up on screen from Sport, Portrait, Landscape etc to choose from. Again, you need to check it out in the manual.

But remember what Horus and I have said.....if in doubt switch to auto until you get familiar with the settings.....Whatever, don't miss the shot.

[Horus]

Hi Mimimay, I found this link that will give you all the technical specifications on your camera, it is quite impressive.

http://www.photographyblog.com/reviews/ ... fications/

For now concentrate upon the top button , it is the Mode Dial / Mode Button Intelligent Auto, P, A, S, M, Custom, My SCN, SCN, Motion Picture, Clipboard.

The P.A.S. & M symbols will be the same on most cameras and they mean the following:

P = This will be an automatic mode, used to specify some setting except for the ‘Shutter Speed’ and the ‘Aperture’ setting. For taking general pictures and letting you twiddle with a few settings.

A = ‘Aperture Priority’ Used to set the Aperture setting, with this you can change what is in or out of focus to the main subject.

S = ‘Shutter Priority’ Used to set the shutter speed, use to catch fast moving objects like running water using a ‘fast’ speed or convey movement with a ‘slow’ shutter speed.

M = ‘Manual’ This setting allows you to adjust both the ‘Aperture & the Shutter’ settings

I suspect that the red ‘A’ is your fully Auto mode, just point and shoot on this setting.

The ‘MS’ (My Scene) is for setting up a customised ‘Scene’ mode, so I would guess that say if you enjoyed taking Portrait pictures of the children, you could customise this symbol to keep the same settings.

The ‘Cust’ symbol, Mmm, not really sure about that, probably some sort of customisation setting.

The other two symbols look like a ‘Timer’ and the ‘Video’ symbols but not sure.

Your SCN button is almost certainly your Still Image ‘Scene Mode’
‘Scene Mode’ will give you settings for taking pictures in the following categories:
Portrait, Soft Skin, Transform, Self-Portrait, Scenery, Panorama Assist, Sports, Night Portrait, Night Scenery, Food, Party, Candle Light, / Baby1, Baby2, Pet, Sunset, High sensitivity, Hi-Speed Burst, Flash Burst, Starry Sky, Fireworks, Beach, Snow, Aerial photo, Pinhole, Film Grain, High Dynamic(Standard, Art, B&W), Photo Frame, Underwater
(a very impressive list)

Which means that the camera will try to give you the best picture under the chosen condition, so ‘Sunset’ will be the best setting for taking a picture of the sun setting over the Nile, whereas ‘Night Scenery’ would be best for say an evening garden photograph. As always it is best just to try them for yourself and see the difference it can make, but always remember ………….. you are not compelled to use these ‘Scene Modes’ the choice is yours, you could just as well set your camera on ‘Auto’ and still get a good picture.

This should keep you busy for a while.

Edit: wrote this as Grandad was posting so some info is duplicated.

[LivinginLuxor]

The TZ8 is fairly new, and doesn't have a full review on my favourite site DPREVIEW.COM

However, it features in their superzoom group test, so you might find this page helpful

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/Q210gro ... /page9.asp

[Mimimay]

Thankyou, Thankyou, Thankyou all so much
I shall take time out this evening when the children are asleep to really get to grips with this camera and we're off to Luxor soon so I can practice there I'll be driving the family nuts taking their photos as they don't really like it

[LivinginLuxor]

There are far better things here to photograph than families!

[Mimimay]

Yes there are Stan but when our family see the camera they get quite nervous and start hiding their faces

[bigken]

Hi Mimimay, i to like dpreview site and they have a forum that covers most makes of cameras, heres a link for the panasonic talk

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forum=1033

and on the dial you should have a setting IA "Intelligent Auto Mode" more or less covers you for most photos, but i've got a feeling that when on this setting you will lose your digital zoom, check this site out

http://www.panasonic.co.uk/html/en_GB/P ... index.html

i've also read that it has af tracking focus(should be good for wildlife)

Last link, is this the spec for your camera

http://www.panasonic.co.uk/html/en_GB/P ... kInfo=true

[Grandad]

A few weeks ago I said this when we were joking about LLL's 1800 shots in a week:

Unlike LLL, I have found how to SWITCH OFF the movie mode and take one frame at a time

Like Kiya and Mimimay I am also learning all the buttons etc on a new camera. The Nikon D5000 is always ready for movie, no need to make a particular selection, just push the OK button and movie starts immediately.....very convenient I think.