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Stoke Courtenay


checkrail
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  • RMweb Gold
6 hours ago, KNP said:

Agree with Miss Prism

What are your camera settings?

 

Ha ha.  Thanks gentlemen - point well made. 

 

I'm not quite getting the hang of this yet, am I?  As far as I know I've been shooting with my TZ-100 on aperture priority, f8 (highest it'll do), ISO 125.  But I find the buttons for options and menus on the back very baffling, and might have inadvertently altered settings without knowing it. I don't really know what any button will do when I touch it, and I don't actually know what most of the menu options mean.  They might as well be in Serbo-Croat.

 

But I think the reason may be my recent fiddling with the various 'white balance' options (whatever white balance is).  Think I was getting better results with my old point 'n' shoot Canon Ixus compact!

 

RTFM I suppose (insofar as I can understand it).

 

John.

 

 

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  • RMweb Gold
27 minutes ago, checkrail said:

They might as well be in Serbo-Croat.

Latin or Cyrillic alphabet?

 

I find that it is possible with the phone on my camera to set the exposure on, say, a darker area of the screen. With my camera it is slightly more involved, pointing at a darker area to set the exposure, then moving the camera. Actually, that’s no use if you have carefully composed the scene, including framing the shot, with the camera on a stand. There most be some setting for the equivalent of stopping.

 

Film cameras weren’t all bad...

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  • RMweb Gold

Hi John,

 

You have probably inadvertently set Spot Metering. Try changing to Multiple metering. Here's an extract about that from the TZ-100 manual:

 

tz_100_b.png.f4072910a05d40b4353d7ec6d7600020.png 

 

The camera will then match the exposure to the whole scene as best it can.  The setting is in the MENU > REC > METERING MODE setting.

 

If the picture is still too dark, you can make it lighter (or darker) using Exposure Compensation on the rear dial control. Here is the manual extract for that:

 

tz_100_a.png.66e28efa1dc3f6fc43ef4058a0c56849.png

 

 

p.s. the White Balance setting allows you to compensate for the type of lighting. For example flourescent lighting will make everything look green. Incandescent (filament) light bulbs will make everything look yellow. At sunset everything looks red. Using the White Balance setting you can tell the camera to correct for such conditions to make the picture look more natural.

 

tz_100_c.png.582d394b757a996c8eeedc938ee12117.png

 

cheers,

 

Martin.

Edited by martin_wynne
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  • RMweb Gold

Thanks Martin, Kevin, Miss P., Dave, Simon et al for useful info, hints and tips, which I'll try to apply.

 

As ever this forum is a fount of knowledge and expertise, and not just on railway modelling!

 

John.

 

 

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5 minutes ago, checkrail said:

Thanks Martin, Kevin, Miss P., Dave, Simon et al for useful info, hints and tips, which I'll try to apply.

 

As ever this forum is a fount of knowledge and expertise, and not just on railway modelling!

 

John.

 

 

 

John

 

As you might be aware I also use the TZ 100 and to help here are the current settings I am using

 

From main screen

Photo Style = Standard

Picture Setting = 3:2  4K

Metering Mode = Multi

Exposure = 0

ISO = 200

White Balance = Incandescent (this will give a bluish tint which I sometimes edit with a warmish tint to bring...some warmth back...)

 

then from Menu - Camera setting (8 pages but I have selected what I mainly use)

AF = macro

Quality = max (off on Post Focus)

AF mode = 49 - Area (off on Post Focus)

i.Dynamic = Standard

i.Resolution = Standard

ISO Limit Set = 800 (if set low then it will not go above that when set on auto)

Extended ISO = Off

Long Shtr NR = On

Diffraction Comp = Auto

i.Zoom = On

Digital Zoom = On

Color space = SRGB

Stabiliser = max

 

I use Post Focus which means most of the settings like P, S, A don't work.

As you don't use this try putting camera on A (or even P) but have the ISO on Auto or up around say 400 and see what happens.

 

Hope this of use, it's a great camera I just think some of the settings need tweaking.

 

Regards

 

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You think that you've got problems ?

 

I tried to send a video to YouTube !!! :laugh:

 

The-Camerman_2.jpg.f984f30375ae81881cac06b50871a13c.jpg

Edited by bgman
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  • RMweb Gold

Still experimenting with camera (interesting, but not quite as much as experimenting with CAMRA), following good advice received here.

 

So far, seem to have banished the 'darkness at noon' look.  WB on 'incandescent' was far too blue, so went back to AWB.  Shooting on time delay at f8, I can't quite make my mind up yet which ISO setting gives best results.  (I've been trying 125, 200 and 400.)  I also note that the pics look much better on the camera than they do on my laptop.  (That might just be the lighting in the study.)

 

Anyway, here's Tiverton Castle on a down Plymouth express.

TC1.jpg.794e0fe177f3d178833db7fdfb05f074.jpg

 

TC2.jpg.7a3c5d2c5ee87253149c6fa61adb7be8.jpg

John C.

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Hi John,

 

They still look a bit dark to me. Can you see the banding in the "sky" in pictures 1 and 2? (I think it's present in all the photos but it shows up most clearly in those 2.) I'm not sure what that implies but it suggest something's not right somewhere.

 

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John

 

Agree with Phil that something is not set quite right or the lighting is insufficient.

Can I suggest one thing.

On the main screen set the ISO and White Balance on to auto and then turn the mode dial to P.

See what the camera does then when repeating one of the previous pictures.

 

226819646_TC5.jpg.8763abfb7cc2b5fd7727db9478d7e7f41.jpg.4249150bf5cf887233d285264cb23189.jpg

 

A very, very quick edit of the colours and you can see that the basics are there.....

 

It's there, it just needs some more tweaking.

 

 

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Hi John,

 

The colour banding in the skies and elsewhere is indicative of having the camera set to 256-colour depth. In other words there are only 256 different colours in the picture, instead of the usual 16 million different colours.

 

Have you inadvertently set the camera to save in GIF format? Or are you processing the image in some other software before uploading?

 

cheers,

 

Martin.

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Hi John,

 

I have been looking at the TZ100 manual. It seems that the camera has a 4K burst mode, which uses MPEG image recording (similar to a video) instead of normal full-colour.

 

It looks to be easy to turn it on accidentally -- just press the 4K button. That would override your slow shutter speed and produce dark results and colour patches/banding.

 

It's intended for capturing fast-action sports and similar pictures.

 

Not so easy to turn it off -- press the button again, select the option I have ringed red, and press MENU/SET:

 

tz_100_d.png.eca4764a98b2e617d07bcd646a5221c0.png


cheers,

 

Martin.

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Hi John,

Fantastic layout, wonderfully evocative.

I assume the photo issues you are having are due to a lack of natural light in your attic and getting the camera settings right.  You could try a bit of image processing.  I have taken the liberty of downloading this image...

 

TC5.jpg.8763abfb7cc2b5fd7727db9478d7e7f4.jpg.96851414aaf3e99c80ca7a56066b143b.jpg

 

...and tweaking it as follows.

 

Firstly I have Microsoft Office 2010 installed on my PC and I can open jpeg images using it ("Open with").  There is an auto correct button which yielded this result.

 

43961657_MSOffice.jpg.bce454b715eabdb820901f8a0039d984.jpg

 

I also have Photo Shop Elements, the cheapo version of Adobe PS, which can also automatically adjust pics and the following image resulted.

 

842260958_PSElements.jpg.abe58c55599463faaac621e611274541.jpg

 

Both tweaks I think have improved your image.  If you have access to this sort of software you could give it a try.

 

I hope this helps.

 

Best Regards,

Brian.

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  • RMweb Gold

Scrolling through your pages (always a pleasure)  I see your pictures’ colour balance and exposure changed in February when you started to download to the new improved RMWeb. I wonder the process of adjusting the file size to fit altered some picture characteristics . Everything was perfect before that. Just a thought.

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  • RMweb Gold
1 hour ago, Brian D said:

Both tweaks I think have improved your image.  If you have access to this sort of software you could give it a try.

Nice work Brian - those versions do look good -  and thanks for good suggestions to try  Appreciated!

 

John.

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