27 August 2018

Sharp flowers

It all started when the days started getting shorter. The sun rises later. Last week I went out for a walk with the dog and took my camera with me. I got too many blurry photos. There wasn't enough daylight.





Walt said I should take my photos in shutter-priority mode and see if that worked better. Until now, I've used the camera in more or less automatic mode, letting the camera itself choose the shutter speed and the F-stop. So I tried shutter priority, where you set the camera's shutter speed (it's a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ18/ZS8) to take pictures at 1/60th or 1/100th of a second, for example, and let it automatically choose the F-stop (aperture). I got better results.



Then I thought, what about the newest camera I have, the one I never use? I tried taking pictures with it in shutter-priority mode. I got much better results. Then I did some reading on a couple of internet forums where people discuss issues with that camera. Like me, a lot of other people were having trouble getting good sharp photos out of it.



One contributor to that forum said to try the camera (it's a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ60/ZS40) in aperture-priority mode (mode priorité ouverture in French). He said the results might be surprising. Well, at this point I think he was right. That's how I took these images of flowers — wisteria, hortensia, and marigold — around our house.

11 comments:

  1. These photos are stunining! So your reading was profitable. As we say in French, si vous ne savez pas comment ça marche, essayez de lire le mode d'emploi!

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    1. In my Silicon Valley days, when somebody said he or she couldn't figure out how the software worked, we'd day R.T.F.M. "Read the fine manual!" Substitute the F-word of your choice.

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  2. My problem is that I've read the manual, but since manuals do not come printed out any more and even if they did, I doubt I'd have it on me when facing the flower to photograph, I read it on my computer the day after I bought the camera. I keep forgetting when it is that one should select speed and when aperture. I really should experiment more.

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    1. I keep the PDF files on my laptop. I look things up, change my camera settings, and then go out to take photos. Since I take photos most days, I don't forget as much as I would if a week or two went by between photo outings.

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  3. peu importe vos réglages(auxquels je ne comprends rien), vos photos sont toujours très belles.

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    1. C'est gentil de votre part de dire ça. Merci.

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  4. KEN and WALT, yesterday, I drank some of the wine from the vineyard in your backyard. It was wonderful! I toasted you both.

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    1. Where did you find that wine? Was it from Domaine de la Renaudie?

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  5. All three are great pictures. I'm partial to the marigold.

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    1. Me too. The wisteria comes close second!

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