Deb Ward, GWS, OWS, PWS, WSI - WATERCOLOR/WATER MEDIA - My passion is teaching adult “beginners”. Weekly classes in my home; workshops; classes for Cincinnati Recreation Commission. My work is nationally recognized and published - see “Featured” on my sidebar. I’m a Signature Member of Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana state Watercolor Societies, Cincinnati Art Club, past-President of Greater Cincinnati Watercolor Society. Contact info below under “Class Information”

Thursday, January 16, 2014

NEW CAMERA - PART TROIS

Status:
Photo program downloaded – CHECK
          Of course, it didn’t load in the way it said it would – I’m beginning to get used to that!
Camera manual downloaded – CHECK
          Remember when they used to give you an actual manual – or are you too young for that!
          Manual?  Totally unhelpful after a quick review.
Photos taken and uploaded to photo program - CHECK
          Well, I’m not at all impressed with the photo program, seems it does less than the Kodak does.
          Plus when I downloaded it every photo in my computer went into it – didn’t see that coming! 
          Thankfully there is still a way for things to go into my Kodak program, or I would have been toast.

Perhaps because I have broken this new camera process down into small parts spread over several days, I didn’t feel too panicky or upset or frustrated.  Of course, it could also be due to the fact that I no longer assume things will load as stated in the instructions - I now know THEY NEVER DO in my computer world!  And since the process was broken down in between things that I actually CAN do – like paint, read, cook, fill dishwasher and do laundry – I didn’t feel constantly stupid.

I have now used both cameras to shoot the same objects and see which photos look the best.   I thought – “wow - wouldn’t I be surprised to find the Kodak out performing the Sony!” 

Here goes – you be the judge!

These first two are full zoom.  The Sony is on top.  (I know, stupid photos, but just something so I can use the camera - I’ll delete them – these ain’t paintin’ pitchers!)

Full zoom (Sony) - we get the cow heads!
Full Zoom (Kodak) - we get cow butts!
These are both taken with the lens at no zoom, again Sony on top.  Both were taken into the sun and through the dining room door - not the best conditions.

I think there is a bit more definition with the cattle.
This one (Kodak) seems a bit more blue- ish.
So, the verdict is that the Sony will obviously take better photos, but I will have to figure out how to get them resized and cropped.  I will have to gradually take time to look into the Sony program, it’s not making sense and seems it doesn’t do as much as the Kodak program does - maybe I’m missing something.  I want to be able to take photos of my paintings for shows, and want to be able to crop them so I can clean up the edges.  I also need to be able to resize them for these blog posts!

Jeesh – seems like the more the “improve” things, the worse they get – or is it just me???

Wish me luck.

PS – I just realized that there is a way on the camera itself to change the resolutions – to take photos for the web which is what I had put some of the photos on (accidentally while messing with the menu function) – and high resolution.  Soooooo – now I know that little bit of information.  Learning through trial and error, here in the computer age!  But it means I’ll be re-taking a couple of photos for show entries – yippee.

Also, I find it odd that I can’t change the size once the photos are taken – unless I’ll learn that later.  In other words, you have to know when you take the photo whether it’s something you want to keep in low resolution, such as a blog photo, or high resolution for a show entry – hmmmmmm – there’s probably a way to change this in the camera, it’s just taking me a while to find it.

I feel like I’m back in school – most likely in math or science class – totally clueless and probably daydreaming about some boy . . . . 

2 comments:

Vicki Greene said...

I hope you and your new camera become good friends. There are things that my camera does that I still do not understand and I have had it for years. In fact I am sure that the person writing the manual probably never saw or used the camera.

Mary Sheehan Winn said...

Sony is giving sharper images without the bluish cast.
I agree with Vicki, they are all too complicated now, but for my purposes, they're fine.
My days of printing photos for artistic merit are pretty much in the past.