# Making the most from a point and shoot



## OllieNZ (4 Aug 2012)

Hi All,
Any tips from some of the experts to make the most out of a point and shoot. Not all of us can afford a dslr and I'd like to make the most out of what I do have to work with (a Panasonic Lumix FS 35 in my case). Tips for taking full tank shots and close ups would be appreciated.


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## thag (4 Aug 2012)

*Re: Making the most froma point and shoot*

ŽTry with differnet scene modes. Try differnet picture sizes, with different sensitivetis (ISO- with higher ISO the picture has more noise), try different autofocus, color modes. You must only try. 

To take a good photo you must prepare the aquarium! 
-The glass must be clean out and inside. 
- You can add some light on the aquarium, the brighter you can do the better will be the picture. Try NOT to put a yellow light, but a cool white. Its brighter and the picture will be better. With more light the ISO wil be lower, an so the picture nicer. 
- When you take photos of the aquarium its recommended to take them at night in darknes. Beacouse thee glass of the aquarium reflects otuther lights, like television, lamps... So in the dark! 
- Another thing to remember is when you take photos the camera must be perpendicular to the aquarium and i recommend an stand for the camera.


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## OllieNZ (4 Aug 2012)

*Re: Making the most froma point and shoot*

Thanks,
I usually do most of the above. I do need to get a tripod. I have the ability to control ISO and the exposure(to a lesser degree) and the white balance.

Thanks for the help so far.


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## Danny (4 Aug 2012)

*Re: Making the most froma point and shoot*

The first thing you can do is get off the auto settings and use the manual, you will always get the best from any camera with the manual settings and not auto.

It takes time and plenty of practice to get it right but you will in the end, as said above the higher the Iso the more nose you get, generally I use a 100ISO although your camera may not go that low so just use as low as you can, then get the right shutter speed ( higher is faster and will take in less light where as lower is slower and will take in more light )

Also lenses such as a ND ( neutral density ) or UV and Polarizing will also help as will a bit of post processing in something like Lightroom or Photoshop just to tweak the brightness and contrast, 99% of pictures will benefit from a tweak in those two and they are the most basic forms of processing.

There are plenty of other things you can do in Photoshop to de-noise an image from high iso etc but to begin with a bit of a brightness and contrast tweak will work wonders until you want to move further in to processing ( if you do )

Many see it as cheating but almost every pro tog I know uses Photoshop on their images even if only for slight tweaks generally in contast.

Practise and more practise is the only way you will learn, also reading and watching tuts on Youtube will help you understand more about it, especially tuts with your camera that will show you what you can achieve with it and how.

A tripod and remote shutter release will also help a lot for stability which in turns give far superior clarity, post up a couple of pics so we can see what improvements can be made


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## OllieNZ (4 Aug 2012)

*Re: Making the most froma point and shoot*

Thanks Danny,
I'll have a play tonight after I've done my tank maintenance


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## OllieNZ (4 Aug 2012)

Well 3 sample shots,
1) Hand held full auto.




2) On a stand ISO100, 10 sec timer



3)On a stand ISO100, 10 sec timer and exposure -1




No post processing (wouldnt know where to start really)


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## Danny (4 Aug 2012)

The actual image quality is quite good, you will defo benefit from some post processing ( photoshop )

I have made some quick adjustments here with your last picture,

Quick crop, Increase contrast and brightness then removed some noise with Topaz de noise.

If you want to get into using something like Photoshop and other plug-ins drop me a pm and I can help


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## Danny (4 Aug 2012)

And this is the same as above but with added hdr effect ( High Dynamic Range ) and Onone software perfect effects dreamland effect.

You can play for hours with any image and the more you get into it the worse it is and often the worse you make a picture look with over processing lol


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## OllieNZ (10 Aug 2012)

Thanks for the examples. The de noise software would be useful any particular to look out for?


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## somethingfishy (10 Aug 2012)

Great thread has given me a but more confidence to have a play with my camera instead of day dreaming about buying a dslr! 

Thanks


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## Danny (11 Aug 2012)

personally I think Topaz is the best, simple to use and very effective, not sure if it can be used as a stand alone or only as a plug in for photoshop though.

@Somethingfishey

I only use a Fujifinepix HS20EXR for day to day stuff but any decent camera ( say £100+) can do as good as a £1000+ in the right hands, it is not what you have but how you use it as they say, once you get 8mp+ you have as much image quality as you need unless you want to blow pictures up to the size of a wall ( which can be done with software anyway )

My HS20 is 16mp and most of my shooting is done at 8mp anyway, I only got it for the zoom and macro which saves carrying around a 2ft cannon equivalent lens lol

The majority of stunning images you see have had some post processing done which really does help 99% of the time even if it is just some cropping and contrast adjustments.

Have a look here http://www.digitalartandphotography.co.uk/gallery.html all of those are taken with the HS20EXR which is quite a budget bridge camera really, just a quick site I put together for friends of the family etc really as photography is only a hobby but thought I may make a few pennies along the way.


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## HarryRobinson (11 Aug 2012)

I had a little go 

Ollie's Scape by Harry.R, on Flickr


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## Danny (11 Aug 2012)

Great mate, only thing I would say is the shadows could do with lightening a bit especially on the right hand side but otherwise great   

The more you play the better you get, practice makes perfect


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## OllieNZ (11 Aug 2012)

My attempt, I don't have photoshop so I'm using a program called photoscape.

Danny any reason for using 8mp over 16?


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## OllieNZ (11 Aug 2012)

A better attempt I think, I see what you mean about it being easy to over process


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## darren636 (11 Aug 2012)

those little panasonics are great cameras.


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