Suggestions on a Digital Camera

[dayton_p._strickland1]

I'm not sure exactly how why it works, but you can greatly shorten the DOF with the point-and-shooters by using the "portait" mode (usually an icon of a woman's face with flowing hair). It has worked for me on the Canon G3, and Olympus 5050, 5060 and 7070. Another neat trick for getting easy fill flash all the time is to shoot in "night scene" mode (icon of moon and star). By the way, my 7-year-old granddaughter gets great photos with her Canon 610 I bought her for Christmas last year.

[ronald_moravec1]

Don`t knkow how Brad did it, but the A610 has a black and white mode.

[michael s.]

Generally I don't like the "black and white mode," as it throws away too much info and it's irreversible.

 

Other means of conversion to b & w after the fact are in my view more pleasing to the eye, much more versatile, and have the advantage of preserving your original 'color' photo.

[Brad_]

<I>Nice portraits, Brad! I would have guessed they were made on film. How did you

convert them to b&w?</i><P>

 

Thanks!<P>

 

It's a combination of an Imaging Factory pluggin, pre color filtering, toning, and adding

noise in various ways, along with some sharpening. May have used the Gradient Map

method on a couple instead - don't remember.<P>

 

Regarding built-in B&W modes, it's far better to do the conversion in post. The ability to

do color filtering in the beginning stages of post (which is different than toning in the end)

is a huge factor in getting successful results.

[tom_halfhill]

Brad: Yeah, I figured there was a Photoshop plug-in involved, with some noise added. Some of your portraits hint of film grain. Nice work.

[Brad_]

<I>Brad: Yeah, I figured there was a Photoshop plug-in involved, with some noise added.

Some of your portraits hint of film grain. </I><P>

 

The pluggin is relatively recent. I've been a long-term fan of the Gradient Map method and

still use that quite a bit. One step in ps - and no extra cost. The "grain" is added

independent of the conversion method.

[EricM]

Brad, do you, or does your camera(s) allow, to shoot RAW?

[mallik]

Thanks guys, for several suggestions. I bought the Canon S3 IS and returned it to get the

Panasonic Lumix FZ30 with the Leica lens. The Canon was good, and it is true that the

Panasonic has 'some' noise occasionally. But I liked the Panasonic for the feel. It was

heavy, had one ring for zoom (instead of the rocker switch most digital cameras have), and

one for manual focus. I found this more convenient to my style of photographing. I have to

admit, it was a tough decision, more so considering that Panasonic more expensive and

did not appear to (from review of sample pictures on web) give pictures any better than

the Canon. But I felt I 'actually' enjoy the handling of a camera in my hand, than purely on

the output!! Sounds funny? I am yet to try out the camera, but felt happy for the decision

to return Canon and buy Panasonic with the Leica lens. And oh, by the way, when I shot

couple of shots of a nearby object with the Canon once with the largest aperture f2.8 and

smallest at f8, with about normal focal length, I did not see a significant difference in DOF

- thanks to the advanced point and shoots!!

 

Mallik.

[michael s.]

Mallik - The question of "feel" is not trivial. If you like the heavier weight, the handling, etc., then you'll reach for the camera more often and take more photos. That's the whole idea.

 

Hope you post some photos with us here.