English country walk

[Speedie]

Hi,
3 pics from a country walk in Surrey, UK last weekend. Comments appreciated.

http://www.downlineplus.com/dn/leith-hill/resized005.jpg
http://www.downlineplus.com/dn/leith-hill/resized006.jpg
http://www.downlineplus.com/dn/leith-hill/resized007.jpg

[jgbeam]

Thanks for the walk. A nice change from our dreary winter day.

Jim

[stoneylonesome]

Very nicely done. composition is very good, they do seem to be a little soft. but not bad. I can't believe you've flowers. all we have is snow and frozen ground. By the way I love the second one. very very nice

[Speedie]

Thanks for the comments. They're taken with a tiny pocket Canon (Ixus) in auto mode. It has a manual mode but I haven't ventured there yet! Any ideas what kind of settings to experiment with first? How could I reduce the softness and make the subjects more striking?

[stoneylonesome]

Thanks for the comments. They're taken with a tiny pocket Canon (Ixus) in auto mode. It has a manual mode but I haven't ventured there yet! Any ideas what kind of settings to experiment with first? How could I reduce the softness and make the subjects more striking?

I think the only one that is really soft is the last one. I usually tweak my photos in Paint Shop Pro or if you have Adobe elements you can usually brighten them up and the last thing you do after resizing is to add a little USM the problem is not everyones moniter is going to regester them the same. that's why if you punch them up with the Unsharp Mask (USM) function it helps. I'm not that familier with that camera but the first thing I'd do is take it off AUTO and go to at least P (program) it will at least remember your settings that you set. if you can manually adust white balance set it for the light conditions that you are under ie. daylight if shooting outside (sunny) or overcast things like that.

[JX]

Using some of stoneylonesome suggestions. This is what I came up with.