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In what will no doubt turn out to be a vain attempt to raise the standard of my photography to something approaching 'weekend snapper', I've gone and bought a new toy - a Canon EOS 400D
Reading the quick guide (I'm not really brave enough to try the big manual yet), it obviously does a heap of things I know next to nothing about.
Anyhoo, I opened the box when we were visiting friends, and he and I took some pictures in his garden. One thing I've found is that the grass particularly looks a bit 'washed out'. Would a filter of some kind help me? It was a very sunny afternoon, and I know I can manipulate them in Photoshop, but I'd like to get a bit of a head start.
I'm attaching a couple of photos to show you - they've had nothing done to them, apart from the resolution being reduced in Photoshop to save Nuke's bandwidth.
Gerald, from one to another, they look acceptable to me. You have to realise that your minds eye does not always perceive reality but the camera does. In the grass one, you could have adjusted the exposure which have given the grass more colour but you would have lost the depth, you can see what's in the darkness behind. I like the flower one because it focuses on the one flower and only gives an idea of what's behind, it's particularly effective with portraits.
Before taking a photograph, especially if you can tripod the camera, have a really good look at what you are photographing, be really critical, then you wont be quite so disappointed with the result.
John
Did you have a Fuji Camera before at all. Fujis have always intensified greens.
With the camera you have now there are a lot of adjustments you can make for different subjects
You do not say what the grass was like in real life or what time of the day it was. Certain things reflect light differently at different times of the day. Has the camera recorded the scene accurately. It is also worth asking Annies opinion. Women have a better naturally trained eye for colours, men need to train theirs.
If the camera has washed-out the colours it could be a number of things. What is the colour balance set for, have you any exposure corrections on, what asa (iso) have you set
I have changed the green grass, looking at this and yours what do you remember as being the more accurate. Your eye and your subconscience play silly games Gerald and often see the colour you want to see, the camera is a computer without such emotion and records faithfully inline with the operators settings.
I have the same camera & it has the facility to "enhance" the characteristics of the pictures.
Setting the "Picture Style" allows you to achieve different colour response effects. Sharpness, contrast, colour tone and saturation, there's even customised options where these are individually adjustable.
The only problem I found was that you have to remember to set it before you take your shots!!
I now shoot in RAW & process with Lightroom - means I can concentrate on the subject & its composition & worry about t'other bits later.
Thats a good plan G. Shooting in raw basically gives you a digital negative that the camera settings have not effected in the same way they do to a jpg or to a lesser degree a Tiff.
This is an interesting thread. Many say today's cameras do the work for the photographer. For the snap photographer using one of todays compacts or even mobile phones this is true in a way but cameras like you have Gerald are quite complicated and need operating correctly but the results can be fantastic.
Hi Gerald,
I think the difference between your shot & Artona's edit clearly show how differences can be perceived when looking at colours. One of the 'easiest' ways of learning about your new digital camera is to set up a still shot (either of yours would do) & take a picture with every setting of the camera (I'm not familiar with the 400D - but you can defo do that with the older 350D and label the pics on screen) - then simply choose which one looks best.
As Artona says modern cameras will try & do everything for you - and in alot of instances the few basic programs (scenery, portrait, natural light etc) will give good results - however a camera such as yours literally has 1000's of combinations that can be adjusted - it's part of the fun.
The photos were taken at about midday, and I remember the grass as being somewhere between my photo and your mod, Stew, but probably closer to yours. My friend has spent a lot of time on his garden, especially the grass, and I suspect that the grass was reflecting the sun and my eyes were compensating. My previous cameras were both Olympus digitals. Exposure time (from the file) was 0.005, "aperture value" is 6.64386 , although the "F number" is 10
Thanks for the specific info, Gary. I haven't had chance to play with it yet, but I did read there are several preset 'photo types' you can set (e.g. landscape, portrait etc) that I will play with.
Thanks for the helpful advice, guys (except Peejay - my friend will be round in half an hour to discuss with you the state of his lawn )
As Stew says, this is a step beyond the compact 'point and shoot' cameras, and I realise I'll need to read up a lot on 'proper' photography.
Looking at the pic overall I'd be tempted to say it's overexposed by 1/3rd of a stop - look for you EV control and adjust it - alternately use photoshop,Some cameras overexpose some underexpose very few are spot on. I've given up shooting in jpg and only use raw now.
BTW a chick check on exposure would be to photograph the sky and see if highlights are burnt out(very white no detail) if so try reducing the EV setting until just right and dial in for evey shot.
You could also check the histogram to see if the camera is overexposing.
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France
Waving in memory of Peter and Fiona
Fighting with Mavisīs MESO WARRIORS 
, although the "F number" is 10
) 
