[Ian]

Just to set the scene, I know very little about cameras - mainly as I've had a "point and shoot" until very recently.

One problem that seems to be a common theme with anything I take outside is dark photos. I don't know if that is just due to my bad positioning and the real lighting conditions, or something I can rectify by playing with the settings. I guess it's a bit of both.

I've attached a few examples to show you what I mean.

This one is probably the worst offender, and I don't know how I could capture it so I could actually see the colour of the trees. Because the sky is so bright, most of the rest of the picture is so dark you can't actually make out any detail.




This is the same as the above but to a lesser degree - it was a really bright day so the sky came out fine, but the rest of the image is too dark (considering it was nice and red at the time!).





This one is almost good, but the left hand side is too dark - I guess there's nothing I could set to change that and it's just down to correct positioning though?





Does anyone have any tips on what I can do to prevent this sort of thing happening, do I need to play with ISO settings or the like?

[TriplexDread]

With the really bright ones over exposed ones i think a polarising filter will do the job. Although im no expert myself mate

found this with a quick search hope it can help

http://www.great-landscape-photograp...a-filters.html

[Taffycat]

I expect the experts will be able to tell you about the camera setting tweaks, but meanwhile, if you happen to have Picasa (free) then the "fill light" will remove a lot of the darkness. As you can see, you don't then have those nice shadows on the pathway, but you can see into the trees. Hope you don't mind me having a twiddle with it

[nivrip]

Great find TC. I've just recently downloaded Picasa but I hadn't come across this facility yet. I've just brightened up some of my recent photos using it.

[muckshifter]

P&S do a lot to compensate for the lack of knowledge on behalf of the photographer ... I still see a lot of crap pics.



So, what camera is it ???

[Ian]

It's the Panasonic Lumix FZ18 - it's a superzoom camera halfway between a P&S and DSLR, so suits me

Thanks for the tweaks TC , Picasa is a great bit of free software . I've adjusted some of them to get the lighting a bit better, but I wasn't sure if there was something I could do pre-processing to get the best out of it.

[muckshifter]

ah, yes I remember ...


So basically it's a P&S wannabe SLR

Tip 1
Don't point it into the sun

Tip 2
Point it more at the 'shady' spot, then holding the shutter half way down, move the camera and click

Tip 3
Take more than one pic, the film is cheap enough

Tip 4
experiment

[Abarbarian]

Is that Windermere ?? from Loughrigg ?

Nice camera ! I'd have gone for the Cannon S5 1S meself. Some of your problems are caused by the small sensor that the camera has the Cannon has the same sensor. This review gives you a bit of info on it.

http://www.trustedreviews.com/digita...ix-DMC-FZ18/p7

Well worth a read. I recon yuo might have to tweak the ISO settings to get the best out of it. Do as Mucks says take several shots of what you want as it is quick and easy to dump the ones that are junk.
In that shot of the lake with the red hillside, I recon there was a small bit of cloud over the sun just as you took the shot, taking several shots even with the briefest of gaps between shots would have given you several different lighted images to choose from. A filter to cut out some of the suns rays would be good. Best time for natural light shots is early in the morning. Thats about all I know about cameras. Happy snapping.

[Ian]

Thanks folks, it looks like I need to have more of a play with my camera (as well as taking plenty shots of each scene ).

Originally Posted by Abarbarian

Is that Windermere ?? from Loughrigg ?

It is indeed! Well spotted

[Abarbarian]

I been there too.



Thats not my best side, as us photographers say.