Why did my pictures look like this?

RKW3

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Hey guys, I just went to an Angels MLB game, and I brought my small 5.0 megapixel, 5x zoom, casio exilim pro camera with me.

Shooting at a high shutter speed of around 1/640, I was taking multiple shots of the game. But my pictures turned out all grainy. The other modes I tried came out grainy too.

Was it the zoom that caused this? The shutter speed?

What can I do to prevent graininess the next game I go to? Thanks!
 
Well 5 megapixel is a pretty low resolution especially for the small lens on your camera. One thing you might check is if your camera is set on fine sometimes people set a lower setting to get more pictures on a card but this lowers the resolution of your image.
 
Your camera has automatically selected a high iso.

Digital cameras have "colour noise" at high iso settings.

If you have good software such as Photoshop you could experiment with the noise reducing filters which will help, but don´t over-do the effect.

The only ways around this is 1) try to keep the shutter speeds down a bit, say to 1/250, or 2) with more expensive cameras!
 
Okay, thanks. Yeah my camera aint special, it's just one to get me started out.

I will try some photoshop, thanks for the advice.



EDIT: 1 more question. I found something on my camera that lets me turn off auto ISO and instead I can manually put it on 50, 100, 200, or 400. Should I experiment with this? If so what ISO's should I do it on? Thanks guys, you are really helpful.


Also, I think there's something that says picture quality. Should I choose Fine, Normal, or Economy. What are the differences?? Thanks for answering my newbie questions.
 
Lower iso settings will give you better quality images, but when you are working with lower light levels you have to use shutter speeds that may be too slow.
This means that hand-holding the camera could be a problem (the "shake" effect)
or
the subject moves too fast and you get blur.

So, the trick is to find the right compromise...somewhere in the middle. I depends how much light you have and how much movement you have to deal with.
In theory, if you can see it, you can photograph it...but you may have to live with grainy (film) or noisy (digital) results!

Experiment!
 
Okay, thanks. Yeah my camera aint special, it's just one to get me started out.

I will try some photoshop, thanks for the advice.



EDIT: 1 more question. I found something on my camera that lets me turn off auto ISO and instead I can manually put it on 50, 100, 200, or 400. Should I experiment with this? If so what ISO's should I do it on? Thanks guys, you are really helpful.

The ISO should be set determined by what you are doing. You want to keep your ISO as low as possible why still allowing you to have a fast shutter speed. The higher the ISO, the faster the shutter speed, but also worse image quality. It all depends on availible light. I'd keep it on 50/100 if possible and boost it up moderately if necessary. What kind of camera is this?

RKW3 said:
Also, I think there's something that says picture quality. Should I choose Fine, Normal, or Economy. What are the differences?? Thanks for answering my newbie questions.

Try to keep it on "Fine." That's talking about how much compression the files will take. Economy undergoes the most compression (worse quality), Normal undergoes medium compression, and Fine undergoes the least compression (best quality).

I have another idea as to what may be contributing to poor image quality although I'm certain ISO is probably the culprit: if you have digital zoom your quality will suffer as the camera digitally zooms in. However, ISO is mostly likely the issue here.
 
Jestev raised a good point there...

NEVER use digital zoom.

All this does is zoom in on the digital image...cropping, and thereby just magnifying the pixels (and noise)!
 
The main problem is the small sensor your compact camera uses. Compacts use sensors only a few mm in size and are very prone to high ISO noise. When shooting in low light you have no choice but to use a higher ISO. THis will be the same for all compacts.

Even when using a dSLR although the sensors are much larger you have to be pretty spot on with exposures to keep noise down at high ISOs. All cameras have this issue. With film fater films show grain>
 
Your fine, medium or economy question...

ALWAYS use fine

You can modify the size later.
 
:thumbup: :thumbup: Two thumbs up!

Thanks guys, this info will REALLY help me. Awesome stuff.

And no, I wasn't using digital zoom. But I will keep in mind that I shouldn't use it.

Hmm, I guess I have to experiment getting a compromise between ISO's and shutter speed. (thought to myself: "great, another thing to remember..") :lol:
 

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