How the camera settings can affect the picture quality
- Thread starter Jerzyiroc
- Start date
So unfortunately there was no beach for me this weekend 
As bad as I wanted to go there was no way I could be in a car for almost 2 hours with traffic. It's still too soon after the surgery to do that This blows.. Anyway, with that said I'm going to try and take some pictures in different light conditions and this time I will make sure I put the settings above the picture. Just as before the point will NOT be to take perfect pictures, the point will be to show how much of a drastic change the quality could be with the settings changed. As I said before some will find that it can be annoying to change the settings but seriously stop being lazy. It takes literally 5 seconds to change any specific setting. The Evo is more than capable of taking great pictures with the default settings outdoors, it's indoors under low light with or without the flash that the default settings begin to take away from the quality.. I'm gonna take a few pics now actually and post them. After this, take some pics and try it out too! OO and probably tomorrow I'm going to take some pictures, of the exact same thing of course, but in all the mega pixels available so people can also see how the quality changes... I've taken some already and you'll probably be very surprised...
As bad as I wanted to go there was no way I could be in a car for almost 2 hours with traffic. It's still too soon after the surgery to do that This blows.. Anyway, with that said I'm going to try and take some pictures in different light conditions and this time I will make sure I put the settings above the picture. Just as before the point will NOT be to take perfect pictures, the point will be to show how much of a drastic change the quality could be with the settings changed. As I said before some will find that it can be annoying to change the settings but seriously stop being lazy. It takes literally 5 seconds to change any specific setting. The Evo is more than capable of taking great pictures with the default settings outdoors, it's indoors under low light with or without the flash that the default settings begin to take away from the quality.. I'm gonna take a few pics now actually and post them. After this, take some pics and try it out too! OO and probably tomorrow I'm going to take some pictures, of the exact same thing of course, but in all the mega pixels available so people can also see how the quality changes... I've taken some already and you'll probably be very surprised...So here are 5 pictures taken. Again like last time it's of the same thing, focused on the same thing with just changes in the ISO level. Notice as the ISO goes up you can see more "noise" in the wall. Granted, this isn't a true low light series of pictures because the flash is on but still, it gives you a good idea of what's going on with the difference in ISOs.
Default settings: Auto ISO
Default settings: ISO 100
Default settings: ISO 400
Default settings: ISO 800
Default settings: ISO 1250
Now one very important thing to remember too when taking a picture. This is probably THE most overlooked thing... Pick your focus point wisely. The next two pictures were taken with the EXACT same settings, everything default. The difference? The top picture was focused just below the tv, and the bottom picture was taken focusing on the TV
What I did find odd is one of the pics I took focusing on the tv resulted in the flash not going off. Maybe the focus was on a different part of the TV and the sensor read enough light to not put the flash on?
So anyway, when you're about to take a picture be very aware with what you're focusing on. It can definitely make or break your picture, especially indoors/low light. too..
Tomorrow I'll post the varying MP settings.
Default settings: Auto ISO
Default settings: ISO 100
Default settings: ISO 400
Default settings: ISO 800
Default settings: ISO 1250
Now one very important thing to remember too when taking a picture. This is probably THE most overlooked thing... Pick your focus point wisely. The next two pictures were taken with the EXACT same settings, everything default. The difference? The top picture was focused just below the tv, and the bottom picture was taken focusing on the TV
What I did find odd is one of the pics I took focusing on the tv resulted in the flash not going off. Maybe the focus was on a different part of the TV and the sensor read enough light to not put the flash on?
So anyway, when you're about to take a picture be very aware with what you're focusing on. It can definitely make or break your picture, especially indoors/low light. too..
Tomorrow I'll post the varying MP settings.
Last edited:
All I have to say is wow.
a gamecube?! really?!
lol jk.
Nice post
LOL I JUST noticed this post. My girl loves Mario Party lol. The PS3 next to that is my baby
Darth Mo
Well-known member
- May 17, 2010
- 1,319
- 58
- 48
@Jerzey
One thing you seem to overlook is the metering mode: Spot, Center Area, or Average.
Spot: Chooses essentially a single point of light, selectable. Good when there are potentially multiple subjects in a scene that vary highly in brightness.
Center Area: Just as it sounds. The grid function can help determine what area it's using. Probably the best setting to leave on since generally you'll frame a shot with the intended subject in the middle. Not so great for outdoor or landscape shots and you can lose the perimeter of the scene.
Average: Chooses a value midway between the brightest and darkest point in the whole shot. Decent when the scene is uniformly lit for the most part; can lead to bad shots if there are significant difference in brightness levels in the scene.
My guess is you had center weighted or spot selected for that last shot where the flash doesn't activate and you end up with a shot of the TV floating in darkness. Had you chosen average, the background would be visible, but the image on the TV would probably be blown out.
That's where metering mode is important. Sometimes you have to sacrifice parts of a scene in order to have the subject properly exposes. Common occurrences of improper metering are outdoor shots of people on a sunny day. If the people are in the shade of a tree or the sun is off to the side or behind them, using average metering leads to the people being under exposed because the sensor sees plenty of total light in the whole scene, but the people are left in the shadows. Another is indoors near a window on a bright day. Many times you will have to blow out the window in order to get the subject exposed as a lot of the light on the window doesn't hit the subject.
All of this comes from practice as I'm sure the pros and serious amateur photogs out there will agree with. You have to learn how your camera actually "sees;" it's a lot different than how our eyes work. There are some pretty advanced image processors (face detection and whatnot) but the camera really doesn't know what it's looking at which can be frustrating. You, the photographer, have to set it based on what you want. I get excellent shots from my real camera, but when a friend randomly picks it up, 4 out of 5 times they end with a lousy shot. Why? Because I've snapped close to 10,000 photos with it so I know what to expect from a scene given the composition. You learn to identify light sources and how they fall on potential subjects and know what settings you need or if it's going to be almost impossible to get a good shot. Even with a fully manual camera, there are some cases where you just won't be able to get the shot you want.
Enough of that. If you want to get good shots, just practice until you do. If you just want decent casual shots with your camera phone, it won't take long to figure out what you need to do. You're not going to be Ansel Adams, but snapping off a few dozen shots for a couple days you'll do well enough.
One thing you seem to overlook is the metering mode: Spot, Center Area, or Average.
Spot: Chooses essentially a single point of light, selectable. Good when there are potentially multiple subjects in a scene that vary highly in brightness.
Center Area: Just as it sounds. The grid function can help determine what area it's using. Probably the best setting to leave on since generally you'll frame a shot with the intended subject in the middle. Not so great for outdoor or landscape shots and you can lose the perimeter of the scene.
Average: Chooses a value midway between the brightest and darkest point in the whole shot. Decent when the scene is uniformly lit for the most part; can lead to bad shots if there are significant difference in brightness levels in the scene.
My guess is you had center weighted or spot selected for that last shot where the flash doesn't activate and you end up with a shot of the TV floating in darkness. Had you chosen average, the background would be visible, but the image on the TV would probably be blown out.
That's where metering mode is important. Sometimes you have to sacrifice parts of a scene in order to have the subject properly exposes. Common occurrences of improper metering are outdoor shots of people on a sunny day. If the people are in the shade of a tree or the sun is off to the side or behind them, using average metering leads to the people being under exposed because the sensor sees plenty of total light in the whole scene, but the people are left in the shadows. Another is indoors near a window on a bright day. Many times you will have to blow out the window in order to get the subject exposed as a lot of the light on the window doesn't hit the subject.
All of this comes from practice as I'm sure the pros and serious amateur photogs out there will agree with. You have to learn how your camera actually "sees;" it's a lot different than how our eyes work. There are some pretty advanced image processors (face detection and whatnot) but the camera really doesn't know what it's looking at which can be frustrating. You, the photographer, have to set it based on what you want. I get excellent shots from my real camera, but when a friend randomly picks it up, 4 out of 5 times they end with a lousy shot. Why? Because I've snapped close to 10,000 photos with it so I know what to expect from a scene given the composition. You learn to identify light sources and how they fall on potential subjects and know what settings you need or if it's going to be almost impossible to get a good shot. Even with a fully manual camera, there are some cases where you just won't be able to get the shot you want.
Enough of that. If you want to get good shots, just practice until you do. If you just want decent casual shots with your camera phone, it won't take long to figure out what you need to do. You're not going to be Ansel Adams, but snapping off a few dozen shots for a couple days you'll do well enough.
i keep forgetting about the settings and quickly just snap pics lol this post will now make me look into changing my settings more often
I had to show my gf the powers of ISO on my phone and why her BB takes crappy pics and mine takes such good pics all the time. She now has an Evo as of yesterday. She is finally a believer this phone is the bomb.
My evo seems to take pretty good pics if the picture is not moving. I have been trying to take pics of my daughter and forget it. by the time the shutter goes off, she is gone. I is almost useless to me because of this. Does anyone know how to get past this? My Palm pre took way better pictures of moving people/things.
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