digital-photography on S Anand

Default camera ISO setting

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 12:00:00 +0000

In those early days, when all I had was an analog SLR, I had to make choices up-front. Do I buy an ISO 100 film for daytime shooting? (It’s cheaper, besides.) Do I go in for the expensive ISO 1600 film for my fancy night shots? Do I lug around the tripod? Do I use the flash? Do I even bother taking indoor shots? etc.

With my new digital camera, at least the ISO choice vanishes. The ISO range varies from 64 to 1600. And so, I don’t need flash or a tripod most of the time.

But once in a while, I get into a tricky situation.

Having a digital camera lets me take pictures a lot faster. Suppose I spot a boat speeding by when strolling along the Thames. The time it takes from the instant I see it to the instant I click the shutter is about 5 seconds. 2 seconds to pull out the camera, 1.5 seconds for the camera to start up, and about 1.5 seconds for me to aim and shoot.

I love being able to do this kind of a thing.

Except, it’s still a bit tricky managing the ISO. It takes me about 10 seconds to change the ISO settings. No, not because the menus are complex… that accounts for only about 3 seconds or so. The bulk of it is because I have to think about what ISO setting to use – especially given that I like to overexpose digital camera images a bit.

So, when I’m going indoors, I have to remember to set the ISO to something like 400 or 800, and back again when I get out. It may sound like I’m going a too far, but the thing is, since I don’t keep my tripod always attached, and don’t ever turn on the flash, I’ve spoiled a fair number of impulsive indoor and night shots because I’ve had the wrong ISO setting at the wrong time.

Being digital images, many of these problems can be fixed.

If I use a high ISO setting (say ISO 800), I get a fair bit of digital noise. But NeatImage does a decent job of reducing noise (thanks, Dhar!), so the result is not too bad.

If I use a low ISO setting (say ISO 100), I get clean images in bright light, but blurred images in low light (no tripod, no flash, you see). I haven’t found anything that can recover from a blurred image.

I decided, on the balance, to have a slightly higher ISO setting by default. I get slightly noisier images, but that’s less of a worry.

So I leave the camera in ISO 400. I can quickly shoot indoors. If I have the time and need, I shift to ISO 100, or use a tripod if required. Then I set it back to ISO 400 when done.

Comments

Sumit Dhar 18 Jul 2007 12:00 pm: Anand,
I believe you too have a Fuji FinePix S5600. I have realized Fuji has a lot of noise problems. At the same ISO setting, I have seen Canon / Nikon produce crystal clear images.
I have stopped going beyond ISO 200. Further more, if you shoot in Raw mode, you can often correct underexposed images.
But you are right. Overall, in Fuji, it is a big pain to change the settings. For instance, in the manual mode, changing the aperture setting is sheer torture. Given this state, I am now seriously thinking of investing in Canon EOS 350D. :))
Cheers,
Dhar
Veerasundar 18 Jul 2007 12:00 pm: Do you have a photo blog !?
Sai 18 Jul 2007 12:00 pm: Anand, Sent you a message on gmail. Not sure if you’’ve seen it yet. Would love to hear your opinions on the questions asked. Many Thanks!
Ravi 18 Jul 2007 12:00 pm: Is it subject motion or camera motion you’’re trying to recover from? If the latter you should be able to use a deconvolution filter. The former’’s tricky of course.
Shree 18 Jul 2007 12:00 pm: IFF problem is camera shake and not subject motion a simple solution is to use the timer.. Assuming your digicam allows you to setup a timer in a couple of secs…. Setup camera, get into a comfortable pose/ support from a fixed object under your hand/ elbow (eg railings, postbox), setup timer (say 3 secs), breathe in, click, breathe out a bit and hold till the snap is taken… Much faster than setting up a tripod.. Helps if you have steady hands….
Adam Parker 6 Dec 2008 7:08 pm: Here are a few thoughts. Keep your camera on ISO 400, that’s a good middle-ground ISO that is the most flexible ISO. The sensor is key for getting good shots at those higher ISO values, with better sensors, you can keep it on ISO 800 or up and still be happy with your shots.

One thing that may help is shooting in RAW mode if you are ever able. One of the big flexibilities RAW allows is exposure compensation after the shot. That helps you shoot at a lower ISO and lighten the shot greatly after the fact without the additional noise. More on that here:
http://blogs.adamparkerphotography.com/blog/Make-your-pictures-happy-shoot-in-RAW/18/

I posted some more ISO information here:
http://blogs.adamparkerphotography.com/blog/What-does-the-ISO-setting-on-my-camera-do/16/

My Fuji Finepix S5600

Wed, 29 Nov 2006 12:00:00 +0000

My digital camera conked off. The cover that holds the battery fell off, and I can’t use it any more.

I went back to my buying principles, and prepared an Excel sheet to choose my next camera. Here’s what I was looking for:

Low-light photography. Flashes are lousy. This effectively means I need ISO control.
Shutter speed control. I sometimes take really long exposure (3-10s) snaps, and sometimes can’t afford the blur (1/250s).
Long battery life. My current camera consumed batteries like crazy.
Fast start-up. By the time I got my earlier camera out and it started, it was too late.
RAW mode. Gives me more control in Photoshop.

I didn’t care about:

megapixels. 2 megapixels (1600x1200) is more than enough, even for my printouts. Takes too much space besides.
zoom. I need wide-angle more than zoom, really.
removeable lens. I’m not going to carry around multiple lenses.

After scouting around on Amazon for many months, I found the Fuji Finepix S5600. Not an SLR, but had all the features that I wanted, and at a pretty reasonable price.

Here’s a shot I took from my drawing room. This is a 3-second exposure on ISO 100 at F 3.2. The streaks on the road are car headlights.

As a bonus, it had a pretty good (10X) zoom too. See the brightly lit buildings towards the top-left? That’s Canary Wharf. Below is a blow-up of those buildings from the same spot I took the above photo from.

Comments

Anand Srinivasan 29 Nov 2006 11:06 pm: I recently bought a camera too in the DSLR category without as much analysis as you have done. That is attributable to my reliance on informed reviews at sites such as CNET and DP Review. I did pay for features that i don’t care about or do not know how to use or what they mean. With a view to learning photography i bought it. i have been using a digital camera for five years mostly using the preset modes which have served me well. I want to be able to take pictures in a natural setting. One setting in which i repeatedly fail is low light. The blur gets the better of me. I don’t want a tripod. How do you manage to be steady for about 10 seconds ? I am curious whether you have a preference for a brand. Having used a Fuji earlier did you have a bias ? I like Canon and Sony not because i can articulate their strengths over those of other brands. Any suggestions on where i could get material on digital photography for basic concepts like metering,ISO speed,aperture and so on ?
S Anand 30 Nov 2006 12:22 pm: Anand, I’d suggest Wikipedia. They have pretty good articles on each of these. The articles tend to get a bit technical after a while, but I think it’s worth going in to that depth – especially if you have a DSLR!
S Anand 30 Nov 2006 12:23 pm: PS: I did have a Fuji earlier, but I don’t have a bias there. If anything, I’d prefer a Canon – their lenses are supposed to be good. I keep picking Fuji simply because it’s the cheapest that meets all my criteria.
Dhar 30 Nov 2006 12:25 pm: I too have a FinePix S5600 and am very happy with it.

Anand, you are gonna have a small problem if you try using RAF files (RAW mode files from FinePix) in Photoshop. Fuji’s format is proprietary and not supported by Photoshop. Instead try Adobe Lightroom or S7Raw. Both applications support RAF format.

To answer Srinivasan’s question, it is impossible to hold the camera steady for a shutter speed more than 1/15th of a second. Ideally use a tripod or place it on some table with timer mechanism. Another thing you can do is increase the ISO (but that comes with a noise overhead)

To deal with noise, try Neat Image or Noise Ninja.
Dhar 30 Nov 2006 12:28 pm: NeatImage in Action:
Noisy Image Neat Image
S Anand 30 Nov 2006 7:09 pm: Thanks for the Neat Image tip! Regarding RAF, I managed to download the Adobe DNG converter which converts RAF to DNG that Photoshop reads. Worked OK, so I heaved a sigh of relief!
Swapnaa 30 Nov 2006 9:09 pm: Dhar - The noisy/neat images were awesome. I always thought one could never get “lost” data from blur, but maybe the data wasn’t lost afterall! Bal - Did your camera come with a power charger? Thats pretty much the best way to battle short battery lives. Nice pictures, BTW! :)
S Anand 30 Nov 2006 9:39 pm: No power charger I’m afraid :-( But rechargeable batteries are next on my purchase list.
Dhar 1 Dec 2006 1:59 am: Oh, cool. Did not know about the DNG converter. Will check that out. Anand, if you have a decently powerful machine at home, do check out Adobe’s Lightroom. It is currently in Beta and available as a free download. Excellent workflow application for dealing with Raw images.
Dhar 1 Dec 2006 2:00 am: Swapnaa / Anand, I have been using NiMH rechargeable batteries (Sony with power rating of 2300 mAh and Sanyo with power rating of 2100 mAh) and am pretty happy with them.

If you want to get maximum bang for your battery life, avoid using the LCD screen as it drains power. Further in your Fuji FinePix settings ensure that it remembers last zoom position. Every time you switch it on and use the zoom motor, means you consume addition energy.
Dhar 1 Dec 2006 9:14 am: DNG converter is not working for me. It tells me that the images are in a format that it is not supported. Looks like I am doing something wrong.
S Anand 1 Dec 2006 11:37 am: I had the same problem initially. I have Photoshop CS, not CS2. I had to download the DNG converter for CS2 (latest version) but use the plugin from version 2.x – whatever the latest version for CS was.
Dhar 5 Dec 2006 8:54 am: Three interesting links and writeups:
Grey Cards
Photographic Triangle
DOF
Cheers, D.
Dhar 5 Dec 2006 9:43 am: Another neat application: http://www.imagenomic.com/pt.aspx Cheers, D.
siddharth 29 Nov 2006 12:00 pm: hi, This is siddharth from india i have a finepix S5600 i would like to know what are the goodes u get
Anant 11 Sep 2008 11:48 am: I was presented with a S5600 which I think conked off. The Cam is not turning on even with a power adapter & freshly charged NiMH batts. Can you suggest a remedy, please.
S Anand 12 Sep 2008 1:16 am: Weirdly, mine conked off a few months ago as well. Looks like the same problem. I’ve just junked it and bought a Canon. Maybe it’s a problem with the model?
Lecinza 11 Jan 2009 4:13 pm: I have the same camera.
http://microcutz.deviantart.com

It serves me just as well as a true professional camera.
And I only brought it for NZ$400.00.
Ricardo Verdi 18 May 2011 12:09 am: I have Fuji s5600 too, bought amazon.co.uk December 2006 for £120 (about). Has been excellent, but occasionally won’t switch on. Now more often won’t switch on, or switches on & then goes off. I hope there’s a simple solution. A professional repair would probably cost more than it’s worth.

Photography Howto

Mon, 04 Sep 2006 12:00:00 +0000

Digital photography how-to.

Comments

Dhar 8 Sep 2006 6:09 am: In addition to the link you have given, do check out Photonhead for tips, tricks and tutorials on Digital Photography. Incidentally, I have recently started shooting again and a few of the shots I have taken are available here.

10 ways to add variety to your digital photographs

Tue, 09 May 2006 12:00:00 +0000

10 ways to add variety to your digital photographs. Exposure bracketing sounds especially interesting.

Comments

Dhar 10 May 2006 7:29 pm: Err, this seems a sure shot way of never learning to photograph properly. The problem with this approach is that people just take shots and pray that things will turn out correct (spray and pray). It would be better to make LOTS of mistakes early on and get a correct idea of things like exposure and composition and then use Exposure bracketing. “when it comes to shooting lots of images - take note of what you%u2019re doing.” From personal experience, this is crazy. With film SLRs (at least the model I had), note taking was often required because info about shutter speed, aperture, focal length was not available otherwise. But come on, with digital cameras this is easily available in the EXIF data. And how many times would you interrupt your photography session to note down these details. I personally feel, the better idea is to MAKE mistakes. Dont bother with exposure bracketing, multiple shots with different focal lengths and the like. If your snaps dont come out right, analysis and comments from people who know photographic techniques will tell you what is to be done the next time and then your snaps will be correct. Sorry for the long comment, but felt it worthwhile to point out a different opinion. Cheers, D.

Picasa

Tue, 20 Jul 2004 12:00:00 +0000

Picasa is good. I incorporated all my photos in it, and I can now search for photos of people by name. (I have catalogued my photos’ file names with peoples’ names.) Now, with Google taking over Picasa, we will soon be able to store/share photos on Google, and search across others’ shared photos, using Google’s image search!

Software to caption digital images

Thu, 08 Apr 2004 12:00:00 +0000

Smart way of captioning digital pictures.

16 megapixel camera

Sun, 20 Oct 2002 12:00:00 +0000

Digital photography comes of age. Kodak’s 16 mega-pixel digital camera is a dream. Upto 16 bits per colour (we at best have 8), ISO 100-400 (ISO 400 is very sensitive film, suited to night photography), 1.6 seconds reload time, … via Nilesh

Scantips

Wed, 13 Feb 2002 12:00:00 +0000

Scantips. Ways to improve your scanning.

Courses on digital photography

Sun, 02 Dec 2001 12:00:00 +0000

Several useful courses on digital photography.

4 megapixel cameras

Sun, 25 Nov 2001 12:00:00 +0000

The 4.1 mega pixel cameras have come in: Olympus’ C4040, Toshiba’s PDR M81, Casio’s QV4000, Sony’s DSC S85 and Canon’s G2. All priced at around $700. (Of course, 5.2 megapixel cameras exist too…)