what am i doing wrong?

[zombie2473]

hi, i just got my G5 the other day, i'm very new to all types of photography. i've been testing the camera at the park across the street from me and it seems like i cant get good pictures of anything thats more than a foot away from me, all the landscape pictures are not very sharp at all. all the photos have the picture data, so if anyone knowledgable could check them out and maybe give me a few tips, thanks. http://zombie2473.smugmug.com/gallery/122610

[mttmrphy]

One tip is to never use the digital zoom. Anything past the range of the optical zoom loses quality.

[zombie2473]

One tip is to never use the digital zoom. Anything past the range of the optical zoom loses quality.


yeah, but even the pictures that i didnt use the digital zoom on are still not very sharp and pixelated looking.

[dn7elson]

yeah, but even the pictures that i didnt use the digital zoom on are still not very sharp and pixelated looking.

Your Big Gulp picture appears to be well focused and without the pixelation. Make sure that you shoot Large images with Fine (minimal) JPG compression for the best output. RAW will be better under various circumstances (see 6,000 other threads on RAW vs. JPG :D ) and lets you do more post processing.

[SoCal69]

Is it possible that you accidentally set the camera for macro?

[zombie2473]

Is it possible that you accidentally set the camera for macro?


nope, i just checked the settings, its not in macro.

[zombie2473]

yeah, but even the pictures that i didnt use the digital zoom on are still not very sharp and pixelated looking.

Your Big Gulp picture appears to be well focused and without the pixelation. Make sure that you shoot Large images with Fine (minimal) JPG compression for the best output. RAW will be better under various circumstances (see 6,000 other threads on RAW vs. JPG :D ) and lets you do more post processing.


ive been shooting large and superfine. is it at all possible that the camera could be defective? the big gulp picture was taken about a foot away from the object, anything distant seems to suck even in optical zoom

[RichardtheSane]

How do they look if you shoot RAW?

[dn7elson]

ive been shooting large and superfine. is it at all possible that the camera could be defective? the big gulp picture was taken about a foot away from the object, anything distant seems to suck even in optical zoom

You might want to check the EXIF data for clues. You should be able to find the shutter speed, aperture, focal distance, focus mode, macro mode, flash, etc. Check against what you thought you were doing.

[PhotosGuy]

I just looked at the one with the 5 geese. Nothing was sharp in it. A clue might be f-4.5 @ 1/800 sec. You should have been able to shoot at 1/200 @ f-9 which would give you more DOF. Are you sure that you were in Afocus? And, are you sure that it’s working?

[John_T]

Don't know if it is correct, but the "details", or Exif data on your gallery indicate White Balance (WB) is set to manual.

On the multi control on the back of the camera is a big WB. Press that and change WB to Auto. See what that does for you.

Your pix look muddy more than anything else. Unless you were shooting on an ultra super muddy gray day, it is probably due to WB.

I would suggest exploring the camera more before deciding something might be wrong with it.

Put the camera on full Auto, take each shot very slowly pressing the shutter button half way down til you get the green square and beep, push very slowly the rest of the way down til the shutter goes off almost unexpectedly. Take every shot very slowly, paying attention to every technical detail, first several shots of appropriate subjects on Auto, then Portrait, Landscape, etc. til you have tried them all. Check all these shots on your computer and try to remember what you did on each. Look at the Exif data for each shot and note the relationship between what you see in the image and the settings on the camera. When you feel like you've got that down, move on to P, Tv & Av.

Then come back here and we'll see how it's going.

[John_T]

Think what you are calling pixelation is noise and then digital zoom added to it. Some of your photos are out of focus, or camera shake. Others are fine, just the colors are off due to gray day/white balance.

Set ISO to 50. Auto ISO is probably why you are getting such a mixture of high shutter speeds at low f stops, noise in some, good in others.

Digital zoom is tourist funk gadget stuff. turn it off.

Set WB to AWB. The camera usually does a better job on selecting the right WB.

That goose in the water lives dangerously. Never seen that much broken glass in one place outside a recycling yard.

[PhotosGuy]

Set WB to AWB. The camera usually does a better job on selecting the right WB.
Well, Lets agree to disagree on that! My early experience with AWB was that I always use custom now. Even with RAW.

[John_T]

Ok, figured as starters AWB was better. I do find outdoors, daylight, AWB does a good job. Haven't noticed any improvement switching to cloudy, etc. Indoors, yes you can switch to the appropriate setting, however usually you will find the light is mixed, so none are quite right. Ultimately, yes, shot RAW and do it yourself.