Just begining to get the hang of it...:)

Well you've got a fine DLSR my Friend, Olympus has got it going on these days don't they? Excellent Photo's by the way. I've been in Photography for quite some time and these cameras just keep blowing my mind.

What kind of questions might you have at this point? It sure looks as though you've got a handle on taking Great Photographs.

Do you have (use) and additional lighting? Or just the on-board flash? I use both when needed with my Photography, plus reflectors when appropriate.

Jeff (Jelderkc) . . .

Hi Jelderkc. I love my E-410! I'm glad you like my pix.:) I was just looking for some pointers on my camera's settings. I noticed that it tends to underexpose a little, especially in areas with lots of contrast like in bright sunlight or places with lots of snow. As for light sources, I mostly use the onboard tho occasionally I use it with my Hannimex remote flash for filling in dark shadows oir if I want a specific effect.

cheers,

Tony

Sounds Great, I too have become a serious fan of Olympus. I have noticed that (at times) my Photo's look better on the camera than they look on the PC, so I do use Photo Shop on everything and mainly just simply adjust the Curves. This feature allows you to simply adjust your lighting in either direction darker or lighter in just a couple of steps. It's a really easy way to make a Great Photo into a Fantastic Photo without a bunch of editing.

Another thing that I have been playing with is shooting in Standard TIF (not all cameras can do this) or RAW. Shooting in RAW is going to add an extra step but it IS well worth the extra step(s) involved. When shooting in RAW, you can change the WB (White Balance) a bunch and thus "save" some of your Photo's that may be either too light or dark. I'm not sure what editing program you currently use but I have tried several and I have chosen Photo Shop as it does allow for more creative results. It is a tougher program to learn but it is worth it in the long run. I did give Olympus Master (both 1 & 2) and I am not satisfied at all. I simply leave them on the PC for updating my cameras and lens's.

Another thing for you to try is to change away from using your Auto White Balance and choose "Custom" White Balance. Olympus makes it very easy to use Custom WB on every shot and in every situation. In fact, I use this so much that I've setup a 2 button combination to set the Custom WB in less time than it takes to take the Photo. This helps with all indoor Photo's magically.

Have a "Picture Perfect" day,

Jeff . . .

Thanx for the tips Jeff. I use Photoshop CS3 extended and Lightroom to play with most of my pix and occasionally Micrografx or Picassa. I agree with you about Olympus Master, I didn't like it much either.
Most of the time I use the auto WB setting and shoot in shq or hq format (jpeg) because this saves space on my card. (I tend to shoot an average of between 200-300 shots per photo session.) Raw files take up LOTS of space and I use them only for special shots.
I'll try the custom WB and see how I like it. I've had a problem with noise in my nightshots and maybe this'll help.:) You said you've got a "2 button combination" set up on your camera? How did you do that?

cheers,
Tony

Hi Tony, As far as the "hot button" setup, it is different between our cameras (sorry) so you will need to look it up in your manual. I use the 500 series but they are really similar.

Another thing to watch for, keep you ISO as low as you can go. I try to keep mine at 100 as this produces much clearer and less noisy Images. Now, on the night / low light shots, you can use your auto settings (they work very well) however a few things to note.

Before setting the camera to night mode, make sure it's ISO is set to 100. Then make the selection.

When you change back to ANY mode - be it auto and Portrait or macro etc. your ISO will change to the higher ISO range, so go in each time and lower it manually.

When I set to Custom WB, I keep a coffee filter (anything Bright White) to hold in the area that you'll be shooting, I press and hold my set button and press my shutter and press the OK button and viola, I have the PERFECT WB for that shot. The Auto WB works fairly well "if" you have (TRUE) white in your background that the camera can see. It's brain will seek out the White in any background to set the WB. It's very effective but it NEEDS to see true white in order to establish a true WB.

As for the ISO, like I said, I almost always use 100. There are times though when I need a faster shutter speed and can't (or don't want to) use any flash that I will step it up, but then I may have to deal with some noise. It's a trade off but for the most part, I keep in the 100 range.

There's a NR feature on the camera that I don't use, and the NR in PS is not the greatest. I have heard of a better NR filter for PS that I will hunt for when I get the time but for now, I try to provide enough lighting for my subject the old fashioned way - I drag out the Studio lighting.

When you play around with your manual settings, you will find trade offs - faster shutter speeds can mean higher ISO's and you make the decision as to what and where you want those trades.

Your camera (with EXIF Data / Meta-Data) can teach you more than a Photography School and a lot cheaper as well. Take lots of Photo's and change your settings, take notes as to what your settings are and study your results. I know it sounds very basic, but it works very well. I've been doing this for many years now and I am still learning.

I belong to several Photography Sites on-line and there's one in particular that I use to study a LOT of Photographers Internationally. The Site allows FREE memberships that allow for 4 uploads daily, the Exif data usually uploads and is shown with the Photos, people (members) can rate and comment on the Photo's. This is where I spot a Photo that I like and I investigate and read the Exif Data, this tells me how the Photographer set his / her camera so I can try it too. The name of the Site is Eyefetch you can find it at www.eyefetch.com If you join, look me up, last week I was promoted to Site Co-Administrator. That's why I haven't been on here as much lately. My name there is the same as here; Jelderkc - If you join, look me up and send me a Friends request.

Have a "Picture Perfect" day,

Jeff . . .

Thanx for all the advice Jeff. I'll definitly check out the site you told me about. I'm also a member of several Photo sites, www.harphampix.com , myshots.com, canadiangeographic.ca, and redbubble.com to name a few. Come and check them out if you're not already a member.:)

cheers,
Tony