HikeArizona.COM

After looking through page after page of the calendar status multiple times, I've decided that page 3 has the best photos.

I'm going to consider that a compliment. Thank you!

Same here :thanx:

yeah buddy...the page 3 losers rule!

You guys are the unsung hero photographers of HAZ, at least for the time being. Maybe you guys still have time to sneak onto page 1....

You've posted some awesome stuff lately, too!

Thanks for the compliment! I do my best, I'm kind of limited by the camera though.

That's actually a great opportunity to learn, I've found. I had an old dSLR that was a hand-me-down and not very powerful by today's standards. Using it forced me to learn the intricacies of aperture and composition; and it made me pay more attention to light and how it's used. That's critical before acquiring an expensive setup. Like Nick is fond of pointing out (and quite correct): We could take Jack Dykinga's camera out this afternoon and still not make the shots he makes. Play with what you got and test its boundaries for a while and you'll be amazed how much you can do!

I've noticed improvement in my composition, I can't figure out how to manually change the aperture, shutter speed and iso settings. Guess I shouldn't have lost the instruction manual.

What are you shooting with?

What kind of camera do you have? If it's like most p and s digitals with manual capabilities, "m" should make it manual, "s" for shutter priority, and "a" for aperture priority. Set it to any of those (I would say "s" or "m") and start messing with the different scroll wheels (or whatever you would call those) and see how the numbers in your little digital display change. Numbers like 22, 16, 11, etc. will be the f stop, and 1/500, 1/250, 1/200 etc. will be the shutter speed. You probably know all that already, but just in case. I probably wouldn't actually try fully manual setting unless it has a spot meter, which would appear when you have it set to "m" and hold the shutter button down half way or so; the meter would show up while looking through the view finder.

Otherwise, google the camera model and I'm sure you can download the instruction manual for free in PDF form somewhere. I shoot with film and have to be sparing with my shots, so unfortunately I'll only leave a hike with 1 or 2 good pictures. I'm getting rather tired of that so I'll be investing in a nice dslr sometime later this year and joining the rest of the world.

Its a Samsung Digimax L60 point and shoot type. It doesn't really have any scroll wheels but I figured out how to change the iso setting! I have to go into the camera menu and select the "program" function. It has a "+/-" option which I looks to be the shutter speed. It has a weird bar gauge thing that goes from -2 to 2. But the shutter speed depends on what iso setting and what type of light setting it is on. I think it always auto adjusts the aperture.

The -2 and 2 are allowing you to go up to 2 stops above or below the auto exposure, but that is the extent of your manual exposure options. It's called 2EV exposure compensation (EV=exposure value).

Most of the point-and-shoots have "modes." They're usually pretty simplistic things like "portrait" or "night", etc. Your camera may have a "landscape" mode that would, in theory, drop the aperture down to something like f8.0 and give you pretty good depth of field so your more sweeping shots get detail through-and-through.

I would experiment with those modes (if available) and see what works best for each situation. As for ISO, you pretty much want to leave that as low as you can unless you need to shoot indoors without a flash or want a specific effect in a cave, etc...

azpride wrote:The -2 and 2 are allowing you to go up to 2 stops above or below the auto exposure, but that is the extent of your manual exposure options. It's called 2EV exposure compensation (EV=exposure value).

Use these when things seem "washed out" by light; sometimes it will help, sometimes not. Keep in mind that stopping it back two values will let 1/4 less light into the shot, so be careful. You might also lose some detail in the picture depending on what the camera does in terms of compensation when stopping back the aperture...

Jeff MacE wrote:our camera may have a "landscape" mode that would, in theory, drop the aperture down to something like f8.0 and give you pretty good depth of field so your more sweeping shots get detail through-and-through.

The landscape mode it what I use most of the time (except for flora) and it works alright but I hardly ever can get great cloud shots unless i'm only shooting the clouds. I'll play around with the +/- next time I'm out and see what I can do with it. Thanks for all the info, Jeff MacE and azpride! I'll take any tips and info I can get!

When shooting landscapes with a point-and-shoot where you want to capture the sky and clouds, it sometimes helps to frame the shot so that you can instruct the camera to aim into the blue sky and still capture the scene below. This forces it to compensate the exposure for the sky rather than the scene (which will be reflecting much less light). You should get a bluer sky and more detail in the clouds. The only drawback might be a darker scene below, but you can overcome that with practice...

I usually have to go -.3 on any landscape picture, when the sky is really bright I go -.7. I have Casio Exilm, not the greatest camera but it has lasted me well with what I put it through. It does have a "quick" button that I was able to program as the exposure, so I don't have to go through the menu settings all the time.

i have no idea what Im doing with my Kodak Easyshare ($80) but I guess im lucky that some of the photos came out. Ill keep these tips in mind, surely they will come to avail me someday. There's a happy little snake that made page 3 - and thats good enough for me!

In the early 1980's I entered a camera shop in Phoenix and asked for a camera that would fit in my shirt pocket and take pictures like those found in Arizona Highways. The clerk handed me one of the first PHD (push here dummy) automatic 35 MM cameras and it did exactly what he said. Don't remember the brand or model but I carried it while backpacking and guiding for many years. I will be hiking Arizona again later this fall and will need some basic quidelines on what digital camera will fit in my shirt pocket and do the same. Doubt that I will be able to compete with you all, but still would like to get some decent pictures. What is your recommendations? You can PM me so as not to change the direction of this thread.