Photo sharing: Sony Alpha

[zackiedawg]

Agreed - for correcting white balance, RAW is almost a necessity - you can adjust for poor white balance in JPG, but you're actually reworking the colors - correcting whites sometimes throws off other colors badly. In RAW, white balance can be altered or changed anytime, and as good as doing it in the camera.

As a JPG shooter, I rely on getting white balance where I want it up front, since correcting later is not easy. I'll use Auto sometimes when I know the camera can handle it, use presets on occasion like night shooting where I know it will work, and the rest of the time I use manual setting. Taking a WB reading is pretty easy - for me, best to do through a white balance cap, or a coffee filter, over the lens. Coffee filters are cheap and easy to carry, so that tends to be my go-to method most of the time.

 

[Amy]

Thanks for your comments guys! Nice to know I'm on the right track thinking that white balance is causing the yellow-ish tint on my photos. While I'm dying to try shooting in Raw, I want to learn this camera and figure out how to get photos the best that I can right from the camera - I don't have a whole lot of time to deal with correcting photos in Elements, so the fewer corrections needed the better!

Taking a WB reading is pretty easy - for me, best to do through a white balance cap, or a coffee filter, over the lens. Coffee filters are cheap and easy to carry, so that tends to be my go-to method most of the time.

Justin - what do you mean by this?

 

[Khokhonutt]

Justin - what do you mean by this?

I had to google this myself. Search on coffee filter white balance.

If I understood correctly, it's a trick where you can carry coffee filters (because they are a neutral white) and for each lighting situation, you can shoot a picture of just the coffee filter, then use your manual white balance correction in the camera to set the white balance for the shots in that lighting.

I've got to go to the manual and figure this out now.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

In a pinch you can also set your white balance to anything that is white in the area you are shooting. If something is available anyway. That isn't always the case when shooting outside so it's useful to carry a card (or coffee filter apparently! ) but usually inside you can find something.

Amy - you were right on noticing that when you use a scene mode that the camera will select the white balance. Most of the other modes will allow you to set the white balance but the scene modes and the auto mode don't allow you to control it.

Has anybody else downloaded the new firmware? Here's a shot that I took while checking out the new picture effects. It's something fun to play with.

NEX-3 (partial color - yellow effect)

And from earlier in the week. I was excited to see this little guy - we have far more lizards than frogs here in Nevada.

NEX-3 18-55mm lens.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Anyone have the a55? I've got the a200 and I'm looking to upgrade to the a55. I've read a ton of really good reviews for it; seems like the only drawback is the grip is a little on the small side.

Sorry bomzar - I missed your post before. I have the A55 - have had it since January. It's a great camera - lots of features for the $$$$'s. The camera will provide some very nice upgrades from the A200 like much better high iso, faster fps, video and the articulating screen. The shape will be different but the trade off is a little lighter weight. The electronic view finder will probably get your attention when first using it - it is different - like watching a video screen compared to looking thru the lens of the DSLR. But now I hardly ever notice it.

Sony just released another firmware update that has added some in camera picture effects so there's lots of new things to have fun with too!

 

[Khokhonutt]

Has anybody else downloaded the new firmware? Here's a shot that I took while checking out the new picture effects. It's something fun to play with.

NEX-3 (partial color - yellow effect)

I've updated my camera, but haven't had a chance to play with it yet. That color effect is pretty slick.

Here's one I did with my A100, but I had to do it with layers:

Will be neat to try it straight from the camera.

 

[zackiedawg]

Nice examples of the new picture effects. I loaded the firmware a few days ago for my NEX3...but haven't really used the picture effects. I mostly wanted the peaking function, and have found it absolutely brilliant for manually focusing old lenses on the fly - much faster than zooming to focus, and easy to do at a quick glance of the LCD. I tried it out while doing a swamp tour yesterday, and it helped me nail the focus every time.

BTW - on the coffee filter thing - sorry I didn't explain that more! Most Sony cameras include a white balance setting for 'manual' - you can go into this setting, and it allows you to manually set the white balance. As Kathy described, you can actually do this by pointing at anything white and manually setting the white balance off this object...but what the coffee filter does is it allows you to filter the overall ambient light through a neutral diffuser, so the camera is only seeing a diffused color that may have some color tint to it and will correct it for white. So whatever color cast might be in the light, you can 'filter' it out by manually setting the white balance through the filter. The manual white balance setting will prompt you on screen to point at something white and press the shutter - it isn't taking a photo that it saves - it just uses that snap to set the white balance. They make special caps for white balance adjustment, but a coffee filter can do it for pennies, so it's just a cheap, easy trick to use!

 

[Amy]

I'm determined to use my NEX5 tomorrow night for fireworks photos. Unlike my Canon, the NEX doesn't have a "fireworks" setting. No problem I figured. I'll just look up the settings from my fireworks shots last year and use Manual on the NEX to duplicate those settings.

So....using the fireworks setting last year, I got really nice shots with ISO 80, TV 2 sec, AV 8, and I remember that I used the 2 sec delay on the shutter because I didn't have a remote shutter release.

Ok, first problem: the lowest ISO on the NEX is 200. No problem, I figured I'd just bump up the aperture to 11 or 16 to compensate for the higher ISO.

BIG problem: the only shutter delay on the NEX is 10 sec!! You can choose one shot after a 10 sec delay, or 3 shots after a 10 sec delay. I could even work with a 3 sec delay, but not 10 sec.

Now, I WILL be using a tripod. Is it at all possible I can push the shutter release button w/o shaking the camera? I'm going to give it a try.

Any other suggestions?

 

[Khokhonutt]

I'm determined to use my NEX5 tomorrow night for fireworks photos. Unlike my Canon, the NEX doesn't have a "fireworks" setting. No problem I figured. I'll just look up the settings from my fireworks shots last year and use Manual on the NEX to duplicate those settings.

So....using the fireworks setting last year, I got really nice shots with ISO 80, TV 2 sec, AV 8, and I remember that I used the 2 sec delay on the shutter because I didn't have a remote shutter release.

Ok, first problem: the lowest ISO on the NEX is 200. No problem, I figured I'd just bump up the aperture to 11 or 16 to compensate for the higher ISO.

BIG problem: the only shutter delay on the NEX is 10 sec!! You can choose one shot after a 10 sec delay, or 3 shots after a 10 sec delay. I could even work with a 3 sec delay, but not 10 sec.

Now, I WILL be using a tripod. Is it at all possible I can push the shutter release button w/o shaking the camera? I'm going to give it a try.

Any other suggestions?

When you're in the menu that selects the timed shooting, select 10 second and look for the options (using the bottom function button). When you select that you have an option to set a 2 second delay.

 

[Khokhonutt]

When you're in the menu that selects the timed shooting, select 10 second and look for the options (using the bottom function button). When you select that you have an option to set a 2 second delay.

To be more specific, Menu -> Camera -> Drive Mode -> Scroll to 10 Sec Self-timer -> Options (Function button C) -> Scroll to 2sec -> Select -> Select.

 

[Amy]

Jeff - you're AWESOME!!! Thank you so much! Found it right away with your instructions. For some reason, finding the diff. options isn't intuitive for me with this camera. I don't know if it's just where Sony puts things on the menus, or if it's just me coming from a Canon.

One more quick question: I'm going to have to use manual focus, but there's no "distance" marking in the viewfinder like my Canon. I assume what I should do is get my camera set up while it's still light out and set the focus on the farthest thing I can, correct? Or am I missing another menu/setting somewhere?

 

[Khokhonutt]

Jeff - you're AWESOME!!! Thank you so much! Found it right away with your instructions. For some reason, finding the diff. options isn't intuitive for me with this camera. I don't know if it's just where Sony puts things on the menus, or if it's just me coming from a Canon.

One more quick question: I'm going to have to use manual focus, but there's no "distance" marking in the viewfinder like my Canon. I assume what I should do is get my camera set up while it's still light out and set the focus on the farthest thing I can, correct? Or am I missing another menu/setting somewhere?

I have not tried fireworks with mine yet, but I've seen the following thread:

Shoot Fireworks with a NEX

Too late for you this time, but there is a wireless remote for the NEX-5. I really would prefer wired, but I'm going to give my remote a try when we head to the world later this month.

 

[Amy]

Thanks for the info - I really should spend more time on that dpreview site!

 

[Khokhonutt]

Thanks for the info - I really should spend more time on that dpreview site!

I've been checking it out since it was suggested to me. I'm not sure I care much for the layout, but the info is there.

 

[Amy]

We had horrible thunderstorms all afternoon and early evening yesterday, but the rain stopped in time for the fireworks! Hot and humid with no wind, so the grand finale wasn't so great since there was no wind to blow the smoke away. But I managed to get a LOT of great shots. Here are my favorites, all shot with my NEX5 in Manual, ISO200, TV 2 sec, AV 16, shutter on a 2 sec delay, used a tripod. Other than cropping, these are straight out of the camera. P.S. - Thanks for your help with my panic attack Jeff!

I think this one looks like a flower on a stem:

 

[Amy]

And some more:

 

[Khokhonutt]

We had horrible thunderstorms all afternoon and early evening yesterday, but the rain stopped in time for the fireworks! Hot and humid with no wind, so the grand finale wasn't so great since there was no wind to blow the smoke away. But I managed to get a LOT of great shots. Here are my favorites, all shot with my NEX5 in Manual, ISO200, TV 2 sec, AV 16, shutter on a 2 sec delay, used a tripod. Other than cropping, these are straight out of the camera. P.S. - Thanks for your help with my panic attack Jeff!

Very cool! Glad I could help. How far away were you from the fireworks for these shots?

 

[Amy]

Very cool! Glad I could help. How far away were you from the fireworks for these shots?

I guess maybe 1/4 mile away? There's a strip mall behind our large shopping mall and they shot off the fireworks from behind the strip mall. So even with the lens at 55mm, I had to crop a bit - just too much black sky.

 

[Khokhonutt]

First of all, I did not originate this idea. I ran across it during one of my evenings of NEX Internet searches.

In prep for our Disney trip next week, I wanted to have better control over the flash for close ups (food). I found a discussion where I guy created a homemade lightshere for the NEX flash out of a ping pong ball. This evening I went down to Target and picked up a 6 pack of ping pong balls for about $1.50 and broke out the Exacto knife.

I butchered the first one, then I decided to make a template out of paper, that I pre-fit to the flash. I got a decent, usable sphere out of the 2nd attempt, but had to widen the opening (having not accounted for the curve of the ball the first time). I wanted to have a spare, and one to take pictures of, so I adjusted my template and cut the second, it came out great the first try.

The results, I think were impressive.

Here's a shot of one of the uncut ping pong balls, without the sphere mounted:

Notice how blown out the picture is. I'm sure Justin can tell me some cool adjustment I could make to fix this, but when there's duct tape and ping pong balls handy, I went this route.

Here's a shot of one of the cut spheres, with the sphere mounted:

Much better results, I think.

Both shots were taken in macro mode with no changes other than to mount the sphere.

Here's a shot of the camera with the sphere mounted (and the spare):

(Taken with my wife's Canon SX210IS.)

Pretty cool little trick, I think.

 

[zackiedawg]

Nice mod, Jeff - it's definitely an old trick, especially useful for closeup/macro diffusing. I've seen it done with ping pong balls, with old white film canisters, with medical gloves, and with...um...certain other opaquish stretchable latex items.

Time to bump this thread a bit with some photos too - thought I'd share a couple more wildlife photos from my A550 & Minolta 300mm F4 APO, from the Florida wetlands:

I got nice closeup opportunity with a least bittern - rare as they don't usually like people saddling up so close to them:

A black-bellied whistling duck who refused to move out of my way, let me close to within my lens' minimum focus distance:

Another from a little farther away, so you can see his body and colors:

Purple gallinule reaching for some seeds:

This green heron was too busy grooming itself to worry about my approach:

This anhinga drying itself off in the hot sun was making all kinds of silly stretches and poses: