Newbie with a new A640....can I get some feedback?

[jeb4]

Hi everyone, this is my first post on these boards....and hopefully not my last!

I recently bought a new A640 and have recently started "tinkering" with it. This is my first decent camera that I bought to take pictures of my daughter (soon to arrive) but has also piqued my interest in photography. :)

I took this shot this afternoon, but to me it doesn't look as crisp or vibrant as it should. Can anyone make some suggestions as to what I may be doing wrong?

Thanks!

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f336/jeb4/Photography/IMG_0064.jpg

[SaNdMaN82]

hi there, welcome here ;) , and congratulations for your new purchase...

the picture to me, seems very busy... i mean, there is no fore or background, it's all packed together.

but i agree, there's something "funny" about the picture...

we need some more information, such as... what program were you using while taking the photo... was it auto mode?.

there are 2 modes, called macro and super macro... macro shots are taken when the camera is close to the subject... enabling the macro mode, enables the camera to make focus on very close objects...

my s3 without that mode, needs about 1 meter or so to make focus... with macro mode, from 10 to 50 cms... and then, super macro mode, in the 0 - 10 cms range...

if i'm not mistaken, your camera has macro mode as it follows: "Macro: 0.39 in.-1.5 ft./1-45cm (WIDE), 9.8 in.-1.5 ft./25-45cm (TELE)"

So, if those plants you showed us before, where that close to the camera, maybe the camera was not able to focus on the properly because of the distances involved. But then again, the picture is pretty busy.

If you had the camera close to the plants, try activating the macro mode, and try again ;)

[jeb4]

I was standing up when I took the shot so I did not have the camera in macro. I had the camera in "landscape" mode with the flash at about 1/3 of its potential intensity. Is there any other information that would help?

Thanks a million for the help!

[Jon]

Shutter speed, aperture, any parameters like color effect you may have set. But at a first guess, you may not have needed the flash for that.

[jeb4]

Thanks for the posts! Jon, after reading your post, I hit the owners manual again to see what aperture was and how I could adjust it. Also, I had been wondering about the relationship between different shutter speeds and the clarity of the photo. Here are my results:

For all three or these shots I switched to the Av (aperture value) mode with manual focus. Additionally, for all three I had it set on the "standard" vivid mode.....I now see that there is a "vivid red" mode. oopps, I'll have to give that a go on my next try.

Shot #1 was taken with the flash at 1/2 of its potential intensity:

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f336/jeb4/Photography/IMG_0095.jpg

Shot #2 was taken with the flash at 1/3 of its potential intensity

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f336/jeb4/Photography/IMG_0096.jpg

Shot #3 was taken with no flash

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f336/jeb4/Photography/IMG_0097.jpg


It's windy today so I was having a hard time getting things to focus, but to me the color looks better. There still is no fore or background however (I need to figure out how to do that). Comments?

Thanks again, seems like a good group of people here!

[BBoi]

P&S camera's aren't anywhere near as good as DSLR's for DOF, but there are things you can do with a little practice. Welcome to the board btw :)