My new camera.

[Boutte]

Just bought my first dSLR. It's a Canon D500 with the 18-55 kit lens.

I spent a lot of time as kid with a 35mm in one hand and a light meter in the other so I have a decent grasp of the basics of photography. Digital is a whole new world for me though. Not quite two years ago I bought my first digital camera. It was a little Kodak Easy Share. Nothing special but it opened up the door to digital editing and the ability to see the real detail in my photographs.

I spent this weekend trying out my new toy and have some questions I'm hoping some of you might be able to help me with. Here is a photo I took and then edited using Gimp. I know it's not a great shot but it suits the purpose of this post well.

Now here is a detail of the unedited pic.

My first question is with regards to the color depth. Is it normal for the colors to look so washed out? Is it because it's a jpeg or is it because of the lens? Maybe I did something wrong?

My second question is about the detail/clarity. The camera was handheld on a bright sunny day so I would think the shutter speed would be high. (Unfortunately I didn't check.) This is a pretty extreme crop but I expected better detail in the leaves and moss. The lens has image stabilization and I thought I held the camera pretty steady. Am I expecting too much. Did I do something wrong? Is it the lens.

 

[Samanax]

There is a filter in front of the image sensor that purposely blurs the incoming image before it hits the image sensor (it's an anti-aliasing filter to reduce moire patterning). To bring back details you have to sharpen your image in a photo editor. Some DSLRs have a stronger anti-aliasing filter than others so the images straight-out-of-camera can look kinda soft.

The quality of the lens will have an impact on the color, saturation and contrast of your images. The kit lens that came with your T1i is a fairly cheap lens and won't give you the color, saturation and contrast you would get from Canon "L" lenses. Upgrading the kit lens to something better is one of the first things you'll want to do.

 

[MattxMosh]

Too me it looks overexposed.

I have the same lens and it is decent for what it is. Its not fantastic though.

What mode did you shoot in? (Also what did you metering mode and what did you meter off of)

I see it was shot at f5.6,1/60th seems like a lot of light for a bright sunny day.

 

[Boutte]

Too me it looks overexposed.

I have the same lens and it is decent for what it is. Its not fantastic though.

What mode did you shoot in? (Also what did you metering mode and what did you meter off of)

I see it was shot at f5.6,1/60th seems like a lot of light for a bright sunny day.

How do you find that information? Like I said I'm new to all this. I used auto metering. (I know, I know, but I just got the thing.) I tried to get a reading off of the darker part of the image. I tried to use bracketing but it's hard to shoot with the camera in one hand and the manual in the other. I did notice the lack of color depth in all of the photos I took though. i read that this Camera has a tendency to overexpose somewhat.

 

[MattxMosh]

Too me it looks overexposed.

I have the same lens and it is decent for what it is. Its not fantastic though.

What mode did you shoot in? (Also what did you metering mode and what did you meter off of)

I see it was shot at f5.6,1/60th seems like a lot of light for a bright sunny day.

How do you find that information? Like I said I'm new to all this. I used auto metering. (I know, I know, but I just got the thing.) I tried to get a reading off of the darker part of the image. I tried to use bracketing but it's hard to shoot with the camera in one hand and the manual in the other. I did notice the lack of color depth in all of the photos I took though. i read that this Camera has a tendency to overexpose somewhat.

If you have Vista/Windows 7 you can right click the picture and check the properties, it has some info.

Or you can download a program like EXIF-O-Matic. I also believe you can check it in GIMP, but I'm not 100% on that.

Read the manual back to front a few times to get used to where/how to find all the functions and dump those auto modes. You'll see better color. Once you get used to it, you'll really be itching for a lens upgrade. The 18-55 kit lens isn't bad to work with for starting out in the dslr world.

 

[dak1b]

#1 isnt too bad...#2 however is overexposed

 

[Boutte]

#1 isnt too bad...#2 however is overexposed

Number 2 is an unedited portion of #1. I reduced the size of 1 to 25% and adjusted the levels and color saturation. 2 is just a portion the pic the way it came out of the camera.

 

[UUilliam]

1. image is over exposed so this will cause problems
2. Yes, your expecting studio Quality straight from the camera...

Studio images are usually resized, Unsharp masked and then level adjustments etc...
that is why they get such a crisp clear image

Try balancing your exposure better

 

[MattxMosh]

1. image is over exposed so this will cause problems
2. Yes, your expecting studio Quality straight from the camera...

Studio images are usually resized, Unsharp masked and then level adjustments etc...
that is why they get such a crisp clear image

Try balancing your exposure better

Not every image that comes from a "studio" has a million photoshop adjustments thrown at it.

There is so much more to "crisp clear" images from a digital camera than photoshop.

#1 isnt too bad...#2 however is overexposed

Number 2 is an unedited portion of #1. I reduced the size of 1 to 25% and adjusted the levels and color saturation. 2 is just a portion the pic the way it came out of the camera.

There is also something that can be tough about the digital world as opposed to film.

Looking at an image at 100% on your monitor is not how it is going to look printed at 4x6, 8x10 etc, depending on image size. Most will be much sharper looking when printed.

 

[Boutte]

1. image is over exposed so this will cause problems
2. Yes, your expecting studio Quality straight from the camera...

Studio images are usually resized, Unsharp masked and then level adjustments etc...
that is why they get such a crisp clear image

Try balancing your exposure better

Not every image that comes from a "studio" has a million photoshop adjustments thrown at it.

There is so much more to "crisp clear" images from a digital camera than photoshop.

#1 isnt too bad...#2 however is overexposed

Number 2 is an unedited portion of #1. I reduced the size of 1 to 25% and adjusted the levels and color saturation. 2 is just a portion the pic the way it came out of the camera.

There is also something that can be tough about the digital world as opposed to film.

Looking at an image at 100% on your monitor is not how it is going to look printed at 4x6, 8x10 etc, depending on image size. Most will be much sharper looking when printed.

How large can I make print (15mp 4752x3168) and be able to expect it to look good? Assuming of course that it's a decent shot.

 

[Boutte]

Too me it looks overexposed.

I have the same lens and it is decent for what it is. Its not fantastic though.

What mode did you shoot in? (Also what did you metering mode and what did you meter off of)

I see it was shot at f5.6,1/60th seems like a lot of light for a bright sunny day.

How do you find that information? Like I said I'm new to all this. I used auto metering. (I know, I know, but I just got the thing.) I tried to get a reading off of the darker part of the image. I tried to use bracketing but it's hard to shoot with the camera in one hand and the manual in the other. I did notice the lack of color depth in all of the photos I took though. i read that this Camera has a tendency to overexpose somewhat.

If you have Vista/Windows 7 you can right click the picture and check the properties, it has some info.

Or you can download a program like EXIF-O-Matic. I also believe you can check it in GIMP, but I'm not 100% on that.

Read the manual back to front a few times to get used to where/how to find all the functions and dump those auto modes. You'll see better color. Once you get used to it, you'll really be itching for a lens upgrade. The 18-55 kit lens isn't bad to work with for starting out in the dslr world.

EXIF-O-Matic seems to be having difficulties. Every site I go says the link is broken. I just realized though that Picassa does the same thing.

I've been looking at telephoto lenses and it looks like it's going to be a while before I buy one. I could get a cheap one now but I think I'll wait till I can get a higher quality lens.

 

[Markw]

Im not good with the photoshop stuff, but how would an UN-sharp mask make for crisp images? Ive never used one, and dont know what it is, but to UN-sharpen sounds like the same thing as blurring to me..

Mark

 

[musicaleCA]

The term unsharp mask refers to the process involved. It was used on film as well. You take a copy of the image, blur it, and then mask it over the original image to increase local contrast. The end result is something we perceive to be sharper.

 

[Markw]

Is there a thread somewhere with an example?

Mark

 

[HeY iTs ScOTtY]

picture info for everyone:

Make - Canon
Model - Canon EOS REBEL T1i
Orientation - Top left
YResolution - 72
ResolutionUnit - Inch
DateTime - 2009:07:18 21:54:16
Artist -
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ExposureTime - 1/60 seconds
FNumber - 5.60
ExposureProgram - Normal program
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DateTimeOriginal - 2009:07:18 05:04:39
DateTimeDigitized - 2009:07:18 05:04:39
ComponentsConfiguration - YCbCr
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Flash - Flash not fired, compulsory flash mode
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UserComment -
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White Balance - Auto
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GPS information: -
GPSVersionID - 2.2.0.0
Maker Note (Vendor): -
Macro mode - Normal
Self timer - Off
Quality - Fine
Flash mode - Not fired
Sequence mode - Single or Timer
Focus mode - AI Focus
Image size - Large
Easy shooting mode - Full Auto
Digital zoom - None
Contrast - Normal
Saturation - Normal
Sharpness - Low , -32769
ISO Value - Auto
Metering mode - Evaluative
Focus type - Auto
AF point selected -
Exposure mode - Easy shooting
Focal length - 18 - 55 mm (1 mm)
Flash activity - Not fired
Flash details -
Focus mode 2 - 65535
White Balance - Auto
Sequence number - 0
Flash bias - 0 EV
Subject Distance - 0
Image Type - Canon EOS REBEL T1i
Firmware Version - Firmware Version 1.0.9
Owner Name -
Camera Serial Number - 570126632 (21FB28968)
Sharpness (0D) - 52236
File number - 000 - 0000
Sharpness (A0) - 3
Thumbnail: -
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