I received a few compliments on the last photo of Zoe in the post about her birthday, so I thought I would show the before and after.
Before:
After:
I’ve been playing around a little with Picassa, Google’s free photo editing software, and I’ve been pretty impressed with it. I was really happy with the way this photo turned out, so I appreciate that others have commented on it. I’m not claiming to be a great photographer or anything, but I have been trying to teach myself a few things. I would like to take some photography classes someday, but I’m just playing around for now. (I really want to learn Spanish, too, but I’m not quite sure when I’ll find time to do either.)
So, obviously, I cropped the picture to get the soft drink and other miscellaneous Chuck E. Cheese items out of it. Then I added a soft focus to get rid of even more background stuff. Also, since the photo was a touch fuzzy to start with, the soft focus almost made it look like I did it on purpose. Finally, I used the retouch tool to remove the stain from Zoe’s dress.
I mentioned a while back that I got a new camera. I did not purchase the much sought after SLR. I had the Nikon D40 (and the D60) in my hot little hands, and I had Christian’s OK to spend the money, but I couldn’t do it. SLRs are too big to be practical for me right now. I just don’t see myself lugging one around while I am also lugging three-kids-under-three around, too. Maybe someday, but it didn’t seem like the best thing for us now.
After testing quite a few cameras and doing some research, I settled on the Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-H10. It’s larger than a regular point-and-shoot, but it takes 8mp photos, has a 10X zoom, and has a more powerful flash. I’ve been fairly happy with it. The color is great. It’s pretty fast and it takes good action shots, like my dolphin photos in Florida.
There are two things I don’t like though. First, I’m having a hard time with action shots in low light, but I know these would be difficult to get with pretty much any camera. They turn out OK, and probably would have looked fine to me a few months ago, but now that I’m paying attention it bugs me. Second, Sony uses a proprietarty Memory Stick instead of a standard SD card. For some reason, my computer HATES the Memory Stick. It works in Christian’s computer just fine, but I obviously want to be able to work on my own.
Any advice? Anything I should have done differently when editing Zoe’s photo? Suggestions for low light action shots? Suggestions on a different camera to try (short of the SLR)?
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We have the Sony. We really like it but two have had to go back (yeah warranty) because the lens has gotten stuck and wont retract. It has been a pain in the tush.
Ugh. That’s not good to hear. We haven’t had any problems like that yet, but I’ll make sure I hang on to those warranty papers!
I did think the soft focus was intentional; I love the way the focus is sharper on her face, then fades out to the edges. I am a lousy photographer – if my digits are out of the photo and all subjects’ heads are in it, it is a successful photograph. It helps that you have beautiful models, but there is definite talent there. Keep ‘em coming.
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Holy cow, those dolphin photos are awesome!!
Low light is super tough. Can your camera do an external flash? If so, I guess that would be the way to go. You can crank up the ISO but then you’ll get grain as a result. Tough situation.
The retracting lens cameras are notorious for having issues. I love love love my Canon but it also has issues. It’s because tiny grains of sand and dirt and dust and stuff get in the retracting channels or whatever they are called really easily. So you could do what I didn’t and just make sure you blow it out before turning it off frequently and otherwise take care to have it cleaned regularly. I didn’t and now I’m waiting for the day when my beloved S3 stops working
The camera I had before that had the same thing happen. One trip the sand dunes and it was history.
wow that’s amazing. I love what you did. I learned a lot, thank you!