Bridge Cameras

[Ash007ks]

Hello all, so having found out my phone isnt going to be covered on warranty even though it is the manufacturers fault, and not wanting to pay over the £100 that they want to fix my phone i decided i would get a Decent ish camera instead :) so much trawling through various websites and generally having a mind fcuking time i came across http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/cameras/digital-cameras/bridge-cameras/fujifilm-finepix-s9400w-bridge-camera-22034166-pdt.html#cat-0     now with £50 off it seemed like a bargain :)

 

The days went by and the camera finally arrived :0 woohoo , however it was short lived as the lens had arrived damaged, so i had to sort out an exchange and got the replacement item. now im new to the whole DSLR and Bridge camera seen, so basically i was wondering does anyone have one or can give a crash course on how to use it ? i know the lower the ISO the better it is if its light etc but just wondering the best all round settings to achieve a good overall picture :)

 

cheers all :)

[ven]

Program mode instead of manual settings is a good start to learn,using dedicated flash gun for example.

 

F stop-depth of field,for example f5.6/f8 much brighter pic than f16 or f22

This also co-insides with your shutter speeds,so a 2nd example would be 1/60th of a sec at F8 would give a darker pic than 1/60th at F11. But all this amounts to desired pic you want as your F stops effect depth of field and subject your shooting.

 

Lower F stop=more light letting in

Higher F stop=less light letting in

 

Shutter speeds,slower allows more light,faster allows less light in..........

 

Of course faster moving(subaru) would require a faster shutter speed............

iso-lower iso better quality the pic

 

Or use auto mode

Dull to medium pic use f8 at 1/60th sec iso 100 would give a great pic :)

Bright sunshine ideal f11-f16 depending on how sunny,1/125th sec shutter iso 100

I always shoot on iso 100 for best quality :)

 

Cheers ven :)

[ven]

Endless examples,if you give me a specific picture,i will try and advise roughly the settings.

 

My advice is play about,experiment,anything bellow 1/60th sec shutter requires a tripod for stability.

 

Play with F stops,play with shutter speeds.

 

Now for example taking a pic at night,you want a sloooooooow shutter speed to allow as much light in as possible. This would req a tripod(can pick one up for £20) or will be blurred..........

 

Now your a pro tog :P .............i look forward to your pics

 

The above is very basic and a start,there is too much info/guides to fill up books tbh...........but its a start ;)

[Ash007ks]

cheers matey this is what i needed a few people that i know are on photography courses and my aunty is a bit of a pro but they use these big canon beasts lol as such a few features are missing from my camera, im hoping that this weekend will be fine so i can mess about with taking pictures of the car as there is only so much in a house you can take pictures of haha.

[ven]

Look forward to the pics then,yes the boss has all the gear. Had studio so all the lighting to cameras etc. What she does not know is not worth knowing.(working with pro togs for almost 20yrs) I have a 550d with grip to play with that she gave me as not good enough for her. She had a d300 and 18-200vr ,but stolen! but once back from Nikon ,she will have a d3x which is a big beast .

Trouble is I find the big cameras get left at home due to size etc . Luckily mobile cameras are not too bad these days and always with us,so very convenient.

I usually have a "glove box camera" for ease and little holidays . Last one I bought was the canon power shot sx220hs which takes good pics.(few years back now) Also good for hd vids too,shame Battery lasts 15mins of recording ......(I have 5 spare batteries )

Yes practice is key ,down side is crap weather forecast so far over bank holiday.......so good luck finding a gap in the weather.

Cheers Ven

[Ash007ks]

well ive had a quick mess around today, also had a go at using light room as well :) let me know what you think or what i can improve on

 

[ven]

Cracking pics :) all very good B)

 

 

Say for example the 1st rock pic(as rock closer up),say someone was sat on it,you could lower the F stop(lower F stop-lower depth of field)and compensate by increasing shutter speed to blur the background from subject.

 

So your subject in focus,back ground out of.........

 

Cheers ven

[Ash007ks]

Ive posted a few more in my build thread of when i went to castleton the other day :) got a tripod now as well so hopefully will start getting the better pictures.

[ven]

Nice one,certainly makes a huge difference when using slow shutter speeds. I dusted this off from the boss(she gave it me)

 

 

Pre-dusting

 

With say 10 sec or even up to 30 second shutter speeds(dependent on subject) you can get amazing effects,certainly with waves for one example

 

Get a mist from the waves

 

 

 

[Ash007ks]

ahhh :) awesome shots, my main one that i want to do next is stars :)

[Gambit]

Some good pictures there. I'd like a good camera but it just be another toy I hardly use I think :( 

[ven]

I have many toys i hardly use tbh,but maybe a man thing,better to have and not need(use much) than to need and not have :)

 

From torches,cameras,ecig mods etc etc ...........more batteries and chargers.............well i could power a village 

 

 

But when the zombie apocalypse happens   i have enough lights,fuel,ecig juice to last me a long time............can take pics of the zombies , whilst vaping and using 6400 lumens of mtg2 neutral tint to see them :P 

 

Need to focus on the wrx a little this year,in other words,need to stop buying stuff i dont really need

[Dogconker]

I do a lot of photography, mainly wildlife and nature, but occasionally landscapes. Im no professional but I have had some images used by BBC and Welsh Tourist Board.

 

What I would say is . . . . slippy slope  :P

 

I started with a bridge camera and got better at photography, then realised about a year later that the camera was limiting me, so bought a nikon D40 with a 200mm lens, after about another year or so I realised that again the camera was limiting me so bought a Canon 60D and a Canon 400mm zoom. after another year i upgraded my camera to a 70D but kept the same lens as it was a good lens. so in about 5 years I went from bridge like you have to some serious kit. I even bought a carbon fibre tripod because it was "carbon fibre" and as a bloke we love carbon fibre.

 

Better have deep pockets if you plan on getting the bug. That said, you can, and indeed (from looking at your photos) will get some really nice photos from your bridge as its a decent one not a cheap version. you'll be your own worst enemy to be honest, trouble with photography is you always look for the best shot you can get, and whilst that doesn't mean you need the best kit every time, there are some things where the best kit is essential, wildlife is one of those because everything is so far away most of the time.

 

Now photography as I'm sure Ven will agree is subjective, not only in what you photograph but how you do it. I pretty much only use aperture priority, because that's the most effective method to set the camera up for wildlife, as its quick to make adjustments to shutter speed and exposure compensation when you're on the hoof as you get limited time with wildlife, especially birds which is what I specialise in. however for portraits you have all the time in the world so a more detailed set up is possible and preferable.

 

If you're photographing cars, I'd use aperture priority with the lowest ISO you can whilst maintaining a high enough shutter speed, but not too high as you want a motion blurred background. if you can adjust the aperture in priority mode then a fairly low aperture such as 7.1 or thereabouts will give you enough focal depth for the car but help blur the background.

 

I have done some photographs of stars but sadly the never really come out as good as they look in real life. I did however mange to get the space station one day when it flew over, this was hand held with my lens on full zoom and then seriously cropped in on Lightroom.

Ive put the link below to the photo

 

https://flic.kr/p/k4a8vi

 

Feel free to have a nose around my flickr site, hope you enjoy your photography, look forward to seeing some more of you pictures, you've certainly got an eye for a landscape.

[Ash007ks]

ahhhh may have to try that then with the aperture :) I have sometimes however i think im just flukey haha, my main issue at the minute is getting my head around ISO's. Car parks are a real killer with their yellow lights haha.

 

i do think i will progress as my aunty does it for a living and as such has a ridiculously expensive canon, i would say to beginners reading this as i still am, you want something mid range and do your research.

 

I was in the moors trying to get a good shot of some birds ( flying kind not females haha) and they would not come close, but with the zoom they looked erm horrendous. but like you said its not really built for that, ive put up a few from the meet at the weekend, a few have slight noise to them due to being in manual mode all night, however i shall try what you have suggested.

 

Stand by for more :)

[Dogconker]

You should have an option in your camera to pick white balance, there is an option in there to select the lighting where you are shooting, usually you can select sodium lighting which might help you.

As for ISO it's pretty easy, use the lowest you can without having a too slow a shutter speed. Main thing is to remember though. It's better to use a higher ISO and have it a bit grainy rather than have a blurred picture.

Set to aperture priority, use the ISO to adjust the shutter speed to something quick enough. Make sure the meter through the lens is centred and you'll have perfect exposure every time.

This doesn't work for everything, but it's what most wildlife photographers use.

Sent from my iphone using Tapatalk

[Ash007ks]

[Ash007ks]

Shooting star on this one.

 

 

 

 

and this one

 

and this one

[Dogconker]

These look good for a first attempt, well done on the shooting stars.

 

what you can do to help improve things is watch the settings. astrophotography (as that is what you're doing) is about exposure. it looks like you've used a high ISO which has made the pictures a little grainy.

 

I'd suggest not going above 400ISO, set the camera to an exposure of about 5-8 seconds so that the tracking of the stars doesn't show. manually focus on infinity if you can or on a bright star and then try to set the aperture to 7.1 or slightly higher, this will improve your chances of a crisp shot. in lightroom which i recall you said you had. remove much of the colour saturation, this will reduce the amber flare from streetlights. slide the shadows slider to the right and highlights slider to the left this will show more stars and with a little playing you'll get more defined shooting stars. if you can set the camera on a timer or use a remote so you don't have to touch it that would help too as even on a tripod it'll move which will soften the stars.

 

as for the moon shot, it looks like you've over exposed this as you can see the dark side of the moon, what you want to get is the light visible with features and the dark side just black. id set your camera up as you would for stars but use a much faster shutter speed, you'll have to play about with it to get it right, also you can use the lowest ISO as the moon is a bright light source. then as before, you can use Lightroom to bring out the definition and remove the sodium light glare. I'd use the moon as your training target as this is the easiest subject in the sky to photograph.

 

these are good photos and you've picked one of the hardest subjects to photograph because they're so far away. Lightroom will save you a lot of effort and its worth using it on astrophotograhs, might be worth trying another process of your shooting stars pics to see if you can brighten the shooting star trail, as that would be good.

 

Also you can photograph the ISS as it passes over, even with a bridge camera, if you download a free programme called Stellarium it will tell you what is where in the night sky and also when and where satellites including the ISS are passing over, if its passing over just after dark its clearly visible and you can get a slow shutter pic of its track (like your shooting star pick. if you look on flickr you'll see a lot of people do this, its a very rewarding subject to get and relatively easy once you lens to set up your camera.

 

If i can help let me know, I've done some astro photography in the past though I'm many a wildlife man.