Whenever I finish a project I take pictures for posterity and for possible advertizing use.
Today I thought to bring a couple of cameras for comparison. I brought my Nikon P7000 point and shoot and my trusty old Sony F 717 (I don't own any fancy camera's yet)
Here are a few pics with the Nikon;
-Jim
To know and to serve God, of course, is why we're here, a clear truth, that, like the nose on your face, is near at hand and easily discernible but can make you dizzy if you try to focus on it hard. But a little faith will see you through.
Garrison Keillor
Here are the same pics taken with the Sony;
-Jim
To know and to serve God, of course, is why we're here, a clear truth, that, like the nose on your face, is near at hand and easily discernible but can make you dizzy if you try to focus on it hard. But a little faith will see you through.
Garrison Keillor
As ancient as the Sony is and only 5M, the pics appear to be better than the Nikon pics. The Nikon seems to meter the light a little on the dark side as well.
So I'm curious as to whether this is due to the Sony having a much larger lens?
Would I get much better results with an interchangeable lens camera?
Just thinking out loud.
-Jim
To know and to serve God, of course, is why we're here, a clear truth, that, like the nose on your face, is near at hand and easily discernible but can make you dizzy if you try to focus on it hard. But a little faith will see you through.
Garrison Keillor
Jim,
The last picture of each series I see why the Nikon image looks darker;
If you look at the window area you'll see more detail outside - the trees are very visible.
If you look at the same image taken with the Sony, you'll see that the outside of the window is washed out (overexposed).
I'm not familar with either camera, but I'm willing to guess that the metering is different. Camera meters see the world as 18% grey, they think that everything you point your camera at is that tone. Even if you're shooting a scene light by bright sunlight on a snow covered ski slope - it thinks that everything is grey (which is why we all have seen pictures where the snow looks dirty - even if it really is clean and bright.
I'd guess that the Nikon is using matrix metering - reading the entire scene and averaging based on the brightest and the darkest area's. The camera computer is smart enough to know that area's of bright light can be compensated for by using a smaller aperture or a shorter shutter speed, while the shadow area's will just appear darker.
If you have the option to change the metering pattern of the camera it will help.
You could use "spot metering". The trick is finding something in your frame that you want to record as that 18% grey tone. (These require you to shoot your camera using the manual setting.) You could carry along a "grey card". Kodak makes them, all you'd need to do is take a meter reading from the grey card and use those settings on your camera. The other option (which is much handier) is to take a meter reading from your palm (caucasan skin on the palm of your hand is really close to 18% grey in tone) and then transfer those settings to your camera.
You could dial in some exposure compensation on the camera. This would allow you to take into account the fact that there is a bright window area. You'd need to remember to remove the compensation after the shot... unless you find that your camera is constantly overexposing - in which case you could leave it in place.
Your third option would be to use some "fill flash" to lighten the areas that are too dark. The built in flash on your camera will work for this depending on how far away you are from your subject. (Most built in camera flashes only have a maximum working range of about 12 ft.)
I hope this helps,if you have additional questions feel free to contact me.
Jon
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Thanks Jon. I'll be back over there in the morning, I'll bring the Nikon and give it another go.
I think I'm seeing what you see with the window providing too much light in the scene. My realtor always turns on all of the lights when he takes pictures. I'll try working on settings and see what I can come up with.
-Jim
To know and to serve God, of course, is why we're here, a clear truth, that, like the nose on your face, is near at hand and easily discernible but can make you dizzy if you try to focus on it hard. But a little faith will see you through.
Garrison Keillor
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