bright vivid shots ?

D

dan murdoch

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dan
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im new to photography and still learning the basics .im going to thailand at xmas and i really want to capture the vibrancy of the country, the pics ive been taking so far have not been that bright .does anybody have any suggestions for settings for my 350d that will help me achieve this ?
 
Use RAW and then you can change the settings in PP and batch convert to jpeg in the most realistic way to get the results you want.
This can be done using the Canon DPP software.
 
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Also, pay attention to the light and composition, it makes all the difference.
 
I use ACDsee as I find Photoshop so hard :(

Apart from the obvious things like light and composition you can adjust the contrast, lightness, levels, sharpness and colour saturation. I use a 30D and just shoot in jpg. You can also use exposure bracketing and WB bracketing in camera. It's worth taking a couple of shots on different white balance settings too to find out which works best in your particular environment.

My original pictures straight from camera often don't look that great but by playing around with them I get some really bright and colourful pictures.This is especially important here in Spain as the harsh light often bleaches out colour.

So, play with your camera settings, get to know them really well before you go and use PP software.
 
Bruja said:
I use ACDsee as I find Photoshop so hard :(

Apart from the obvious things like light and composition you can adjust the contrast, lightness, levels, sharpness and colour saturation. I use a 30D and just shoot in jpg. You can also use exposure bracketing and WB bracketing in camera. It's worth taking a couple of shots on different white balance settings too to find out which works best in your particular environment.

My original pictures straight from camera often don't look that great but by playing around with them I get some really bright and colourful pictures.This is especially important here in Spain as the harsh light often bleaches out colour.

So, play with your camera settings, get to know them really well before you go and use PP software.
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But if you shoot in RAW and use Canons DPP software you can change those settings from the RAW file as if you were changing the camera settings. You don't need Photoshop just use RAW and DPP.
 
yeah i was thinking about pp using raw, but i didnt get the pp software disc with my 2nd hand camera, so i think i will try the suggested manual alterations until i get hold of a disc.ive tried the contrast ,sharpness etc settings so will try some different wb settings.on a side note does anybody know where i could buy a disc ?
 
dan murdoch said:
yeah i was thinking about pp using raw, but i didnt get the pp software disc with my 2nd hand camera, so i think i will try the suggested manual alterations until i get hold of a disc.ive tried the contrast ,sharpness etc settings so will try some different wb settings.on a side note does anybody know where i could buy a disc ?
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Put the camera on a tripod and take a series of identical pictures, varying the Picture Styles settings etc as you go. Easy to see the differences that way. Contrast and Saturation are probably the ones to concentrate on.

You can get a complete set of all manuals and software from here, Robert Scott Associates. He runs the EOS magazine, amongst other things Canon. About £15 I think http://www.eos-magazine.com/
 
yeah it is listed as prameters , had a little play with them after work today.will spend a bit more time on it tommorow.would photoshop elements be preferable over the canon pp software ?
 
Take photos in full sun with the sun behind you. This gives you the brightness and contrast you are after. Expose about 1/2 a stop brighter than normal- this will give the images a "brighter but not overdone" look. Increase saturation a little and if necessary further tweak contrast a bit in PP. You can also use a flash to creative effects, including fill with a darker than normal background, or even creating a vignette. You can achieve the style you are after without too much PP, but PP makes it easier.
 
dan murdoch said:
yeah i was thinking about pp using raw, but i didnt get the pp software disc with my 2nd hand camera, so i think i will try the suggested manual alterations until i get hold of a disc.ive tried the contrast ,sharpness etc settings so will try some different wb settings.on a side note does anybody know where i could buy a disc ?
Click to expand...

You can download all the Canon software for free at www.canon.co.uk/support
 
dan murdoch said:
yeah it is listed as prameters , had a little play with them after work today.will spend a bit more time on it tommorow.would photoshop elements be preferable over the canon pp software ?
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Elements is probably a bit more user friendly but Lightroom is the nicest environment as far as I'm concerned.

Are you shooting RAW? Don't forget that any in-camera adjustments you apply like saturation, contrast etc won't be reflected in the RAW file when you view it in Lightroom, they'll only be visible on the JPEG.

What I would do is shoot RAW, make sure the pictures are exposed correctly and then worry about making them "pop" with saturation and other adjustments later, in Lightroom.
 
BertUK said:
Elements is probably a bit more user friendly but Lightroom is the nicest environment as far as I'm concerned.

Are you shooting RAW? Don't forget that any in-camera adjustments you apply like saturation, contrast etc won't be reflected in the RAW file when you view it in Lightroom, they'll only be visible on the JPEG.

What I would do is shoot RAW, make sure the pictures are exposed correctly and then worry about making them "pop" with saturation and other adjustments later, in Lightroom.
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yeah i think this is the route i will take,may as well shoot in raw.
 
1 tip for thailand that might help your shots is to get a Circular polariser and learn how to use it.

Will give you much better saturation in bright conditions when used properly. you can also use it to help control reflections :)
 
think about your white balance as well. A higher than normal WB will warm up the shot and the atmosphere it gives, a lower than normal WB will cool it down. It helps to get into your head the white balance in Kelvin values of everyday situations - sunlight, shade, flash, tungsten etc.

1.jpg


For people photography I usually use roughly ~5900K in daylight, whereas correct WB would be ~5200K. The result is warmer images which have a feeling of warmth in 'em, top it off with a vignette and you can have quite an effect going on. I'm no expert on it but to me the way an image is manipulated like this can actually make it have quite a powerful psychological effect.
 
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HoppyUK said:
I think only upgrades are free. You need to register your software first.
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Don't think so. I've never registered my 30D or the software that came with it, but I have a feeling that you need to have a previous version of the Canon software installed before the updater works.

I spent six months in South Africa last year, didn't take my disks with me and bought a new laptop. I just borrowed the DPP disk for an old version, installed it, and downloaded the latest update. No problem.
 
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