Photo quality

[foulrift]

I hope someone can help me with this- when I take pictures then look great in the camera viewer but when I upload them to my computer and to Photobucket they are grainy and not very sharp.I am using a normal setting on the camera.This has been an ongoing problem. I even contacted the manufacture who had me try a few things but nothing really changed. Does anyone have a clue as to why this might be happening? Thanks for any help-Bob

[Charlie B]

Dear Bob
Can you provide more information, like camera type and photo size setting. The number one thing is to be sure your camera is set to take the picture in the largest and best setting. You can always go smaller, but it doesn't work the other way. If you want you can pm me and I'll be glad to help what I can. Then after we figure it out we can post for others. Software also has a lot to do with the photos. I have some programs that make a picture look better then others (just to display them, no editing involved.) You have to be careful what software you use for editing too because some of them just save a photo at a lower quality then the camera takes.
Charlie

[foulrift]

Thanks for the reply Charlie. The camera is a re-conditioned Kodak Easy Share model 753 ,7.0 mega pixels. The picture size varies because I usually crop the unnecessary stuff out of the picture.The original software that came with the camera has been updated a few times with new versions. I sent Kodak support an e-mail about the problem. Bob

[Charlie B]

Dear Bob
That camera should take awesome photos. I would bet that you are using Kodak's software to download them. If you have WinXP try using the camera-scanner wizard to download the pictures. It does make a difference. If you can email me a full size high resolution photo I'll see what I can do. (just out of the camera) use this address:
charlie at kiskijunction dot com. Don't do any editing so I can look at everything.
Charlie

[foulrift]

Thanks Charlie-You are correct,I am using the camera software.BTW and I hope this helps,I also upgraded the camera firmware.I'll send you a picture as soon as I can.I will also add the my layout is in my bedroom and the light in there is not always the best,but it's the only place that I had room for it. Bob

[Freelancer]

Bob, are you shooting in the auto mode or are you using any of the manual capabilities? Since you are shooting in low light conditions, I am betting that your camera is using a high ISO setting, the higher the ISO the grainier the image will be, if you are using the auto mode, the camera is probably using either 800 or 1600 ISO which will deffinately create some grain. You will want to use as low of a setting as you can, granted that cannot always be possible as the lower settings require more light. In this case you will want to increase the amount of light coming into the room, open some blinds if there are windows, use a flash, or use a tripod and have longer shutter speeds.

Keep us updated and be sure to post some pics for our viewing pleasure!

Freelancer

[Dan85]

If you have WinXP try using the camera-scanner wizard to download the pictures.

My preferred method also, once you hook the cable/card into the reader it should pop up with a list of options and the wizard should be on there.

Great advice and I can't expand much upon it other than "neat Image" is a program that helps eliminate/reduce noise in photos as a last resort.

- Dan

[Fluesheet]

Bob, are you shooting in the auto mode or are you using any of the manual capabilities? Since you are shooting in low light conditions, I am betting that your camera is using a high ISO setting, the higher the ISO the grainier the image will be, if you are using the auto mode, the camera is probably using either 800 or 1600 ISO which will deffinately create some grain. You will want to use as low of a setting as you can, granted that cannot always be possible as the lower settings require more light. In this case you will want to increase the amount of light coming into the room, open some blinds if there are windows, use a flash, or use a tripod and have longer shutter speeds.

Keep us updated and be sure to post some pics for our viewing pleasure!

Freelancer

This is good advice - I'd second that lighting is most likely the issue. Try hanging a couple trouble lights around your photo subject, or take it outside on a bright day (doesn't have to be sunny) and see if you have the same graininess problems. If the issue goes away, you know the root cause.

Assuming you cannot make lighting changes in the area that you're trying to take photos, the only thing I'd add to Freelancer's advice is to invest in a tripod. Assuming you can make manual adjustments to your camera, set the ISO to 800 max and turn the flash off. Your camera *should* adjust by leaving the shutter open longer, which will give the camera's sensor and it's software with more light to work with, leaving fewer artifacts (grain).

Because the light is low, your camera will probably also set as wide an aperture as possible; your next conundrum will be how to get a good focal depth of field... (I'll try to post an example)

Matt

[Fluesheet]

Your next conundrum will be how to get a good focal depth of field... (I'll try to post an example)

This is a VERY exaggerated example of deep and shallow depth of field. The first photo has almost everything in focus from a few inches into the photo to the back of the room. The second picture, on the other hand has a focal window about 8" deep.

Depth of field is controlled by your aperture - the smaller it is, the greater the depth of field. The first picture is taken at f16 with a shutter speed of 1.3 seconds. The second was f1.4 (wide open!) @ 1/160th of a second. Big apertures are great for action shots or low light, but don't help in making model trains look "real"

Isn't this neat? (obviously, I'm still learning!)

Matt

[tomustang]

Can you post some pictures in this thread to see the actual grainy look?

[foulrift]

Tom-look in the HO thread,page2 near bottom.
I have been experimenting with camera settings as Charlie B had suggested.Here are the latest that I took.They were taken at night so the only light was what is in the room. The camera was set for back light and the flash was set for fill.They are a big improvement over what I had been getting.




Please let me know of any other suggestions you might have,they will be appreciated. Bob

[tomustang]

Wow that is grainy, first thing I thought was to format the camera if you haven't done so already, so it goes back to all it's original settings.

[foulrift]

If updating the firmware is the same as formatting then yes I have.But there was an improvement when I changed the settings as indicated in above post.Bob

[tomustang]

By the look at all the reviews online ti appears that camera does have a grainy problem with pics. This post here has something you can try <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071111214914AAWeh1u">http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index ... 914AAWeh1u</a><!-- m -->

[conrailmike]

The answer most certainly lies in your settings. If you shoot in automatic mode then your camera determined it's ISO setting for the amount of light that was in the room. By looking at the pics, I would say that it was somewhere around 400 - 800. A lot of p&s cameras are very grainy (noisy) when you have to use a higher ISO setting which is due to the sensors in p&s cameras being so small, they just can't handle all the light coming in. DSLR's don't have this problem due to the size of the sensor. Even if you are just shooting model railroad pics, it really helps to learn how to use your camera in manual mode. The problem with that is, if your camera has the really bad noise at high ISO's, even in manual mode they will still be noisy (grainy). You could use a lower ISO in manual mode and use a slower shutter speed, but then again you have all that light hitting the sensor resulting in the noise.

The key lies in your lighting of the scene, if the scene is properly lit then you can use the lower ISO setting resulting in less noise. A cheap lighting solution might be the shop lights you can get at Home Depot. The only problem with these is that there is no way to control the light and they are very hot. If you can spend some money, I would recommend something like these: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/48833-REG/Smith_Victor_401488_K61_Thrifty_Quartz_Tungsten.html">http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/4 ... gsten.html</a><!-- m --> These have barndoors on them so you can control the light a little better, however they still get pretty hot as they are tungsten. I use something like these for doing portraits until I can buy a set of studio flashes.