How to get the most out of my new Sony RX100?

August 25, 2013 9:10 PM

I've been wanting to pick up photography as a hobby for a little while now and last week took the plunge with a Sony RX100 due to the great reviews, compact size and limited future potential spending (i.e., no expensive lenses to purchase). I'm wondering how to go about getting the most out of it when it seems like most photography resources are for DSLRs. I also have a specific question about an issue that I've noticed in some of my photos.

Specific question first: I have noticed a blurriness/fuzziness sort of issue in some of my photos. This photo has a good example of what I've noticed -- you will see the issue particularly in the "pine trees" (not sure the actual type of tree) to the left behind the Sequoia. What could be causing this? I was shooting in the camera's Intelligent Auto and Superior Auto modes (can't remember the particular one for this photo). Do I need to shoot in manual mode to not have fuzzy trees? The photo was taken in RAW and then exported as a jpeg from Lightroom, if that matters. I've read so many awesome reviews of this camera so I'm sure it's something that I'm doing wrong, not the RX100.

More generally, I'm wondering how best to learn how to become a great (hobbyist) photographer on a camera that is not a basic point-and-shoot but also not a DSLR. From a previous Ask I found the Reddit photography class, which looks really helpful for photography in general, and I'm also going to be learning more about composition. But on the more technical side, I would love some suggestions of resources (websites, books, videos, anything!) that could be of use to a person learning how to best use the settings on this type of camera, or for resources for other types of cameras that you think I would still find helpful.

posted by imalaowai to Technology (10 answers total)

Auto means that the only control you have over the photo is where you aim the camera, and when you press the button.

Have you thought about taking a class at a local community college?
posted by oceanjesse at 9:25 PM on August 25, 2013

Response by poster: Hi oceanjesse, yes, I know that. But I guess I was wondering if there is something buried in the camera's general settings that might improve that fuzziness problem in auto mode. I mean, this is an expensive camera (at least for me) -- can you only get non-fuzzy trees if you are in one of the manual modes?


Community college class idea is great, though I just checked and their schedule doesn't work with mine. I'll have to see what pops up next semester. The only thing I'm not sure of though is if it makes sense to take a photography class with this type of camera -- I'm assuming the teacher and most, if not all, students would be using a DSLR.
posted by imalaowai at 9:55 PM on August 25, 2013

Best answer: The most common, and in my opinion best book suggestion is Understanding Exposure. There's not much I can say about it that isn't said better by reviewers on Amazon, or elsewhere if you Google for reviews of the book. It's the bible. Check it out. For videos, I really enjoyed Joel Sartore's Fundamentals of Photography class. And for websites, Lynda has a trove of photography lectures.

The RX100 wouldn't be my first suggestion for everyone who's brand new to photography...but if you're certain you want to develop this as a hobby, then actually the RX100 is a perfect purchase. When I took my first introductory photography class, two Saturdays at a state school, I used a semi-sophisticated Canon point-and-shoot. It worked okay, but there was an assignment I couldn't complete because the camera lacked manual controls. With the RX100, you have access to every control you'll need to learn how cameras work. Even for classes that explicitly say, "You must use a DSLR," if they're intro classes then you will absolutely be fine using the RX100. The same goes for using the resources I mentioned above.

Gary Friedman has an e-manual on the RX100, and I think it's a worthwhile resource for learning your way around the camera's capabilities; but if this is all new to you, then you should begin by learning the basics of exposure. That will be quicker and easier to learn, and you'll see more improvement. For instance, if you want to learn about background blurring, flip open Peterson's book and read about aperture. Twenty or thirty minutes later, you'll understand what's happening and how to avoid it, and you'll even have some ideas how to make it work for you in the right circumstances.
posted by cribcage at 10:15 PM on August 25, 2013 [4 favorites]

Best answer: The Fuzzy Trees are fuzzy because they aren't in sharp focus. They aren't in sharp focus because the camera decided to focus on something else. It also decided to open the aperture up pretty far (f2.8, which may be the max for that camera) because the lighting was relatively dim.

If you want to learn how to be a great photographer, start by reading up on how cameras work, with particular focus on 4 variables: shutter speed, aperture, ISO and focal length of the lens. The high points:

• The shutter speed determines how long light is allowed to fall on the sensor. It is also used to control the blur of moving objects.
• Aperture determines the area through which unfocused light is allowed to pass on its way to the sensor. It is also used to control the depth of field. A wider aperture is designated by a smaller f-stop number (ie f2.8), allows more light through, and results in a shallower depth of field.
• The combination of shutter speed and aperture determine how much light lands on the sensor (the exposure).
• The ISO setting determines how sensitive the circuitry which reads the information out of the image sensor. Raising the ISO can allow the camera to take a well exposed picture with a shutter speed and aperture which would result in an underexposed photo at a lower ISO. The tradeoff is that higher sensitivity means that there is more noise in the photo.
• The focal length of the lens determines the perspective and the width of the field of view. It also influences the depth of field. A short focal length captures a wide angle of view, makes perspective more exaggerated, and a deeper depth of field. A long focal length (telephoto) results in a smaller field of view and reduced perspective (by making objects appear closer) and a smaller depth of field.

Along side of that, put your camera in either shutter or aperture priority mode. In these modes, you set one aspect of the exposure, and the camera automatically adjusts the other to get a proper exposure. I'd suggest using shutter priority when you are shooting a subject where motion (or the freezing thereof) is important, and aperture priority where motion isn't a major concern and you want to experiment with depth of field in order to isolate your subject from the background. The other thing is to look at photos you've already taken with an eye on how these variables were set. Flickr shows this information, as do apps like iPhoto and Picassa. Given what you've learned about what these settings do, think about how they have combined to influence the look of your photo.

The other technical item to worry about is focus. Again, take advantage of the automation the camera provides, but take more control of it. Find the setting that forces the camera to use the center of the frame when autofocusing. Then, point your camera at the part of the scene you want to be in focus, press the shutter button halfway and hold it there, which causes the camera to autofocus, then move the camera to compose your scene before pushing the button the rest of the way to take the photo.

Finally, and just as importantly as these technical considerations are to learn more about composition and lighting/shadows. One simple guideline for composition is the "rule of thirds," which is to divide the frame into three equal portions with 2 horizontal and two vertical lines, and to place the subject or other important divisions in the photo at the intersection or along these lines. Your camera probably even has a setting to display a 3x3 grid on the viewfinder when taking a shot in order to help you.

With respect to composition, think about what you are taking a picture of. You complain that the tree photo has fuzzy trees, but main subject appears to be the woman and/or the tree she's standing in front of. Is the woman the subject of the photo, or is the point really to show the size of the tree? Either way, why is she in the shadows, rather than in the patch of light to her right?
posted by Good Brain at 10:41 PM on August 25, 2013 [7 favorites]

Just to reinforce the importance of depth of field in this particular case. Smaller apertures (the bigger numbers - yes it's confusing, deal with it!) mean that the zone of acceptable focus extends further behind and in front of the object you are focussing on. This is what I assume you wanted to portray. Sometimes the opposite is true and you want to throw the background out of focus, hence narrower apertures, but if you are striving for this effect there should be a decent separation between main subject and background.
posted by epo at 3:42 AM on August 26, 2013

Erm, "narrower" -> "larger", sorry.
posted by epo at 4:23 AM on August 26, 2013

Under the "Scene" mode (SCN on the dial) there is a landscape setting.. the camera will attempt to make as much of the shot in focus as possible by using a small aperture.
posted by starman at 4:55 AM on August 26, 2013

Blurriness is usually a result of one of two issues (assuming that it isn't because of an issue like a smudge on the lens or something like that):

1- low depth of field-- at an f-stop like 2.8, you have a quite narrow depth of field, so your subject is in focus but your background isn't. This would be fixed by being in 'aperture priority mode' (sometimes 'A' mode) and setting your f-stop to maybe 8 or 16.

2- too slow shutter speed-- this doesn't appear to be the case in this photo, but if you have your shutter speed too slow, the photo will be blurry if your hands move, or if the subject moves in some way (branches swaying, etc.). This would be fixed by putting your camera in 'shutter priority mode' and speeding the shutter speed up to, say, 1/250 or 1/500.

Both of these might make the photo darker, so be mindful of that-- you may need to compensate by increasing the ISO.
posted by matcha action at 4:59 AM on August 26, 2013

Maybe the online photography courses at Udemy? I have not tried them out personally, but we've been researching for an online course for our son's birthday to go with a secondhand camera, and Udemy is what we're going with because there's a big range of photography courses for different skills and they're video lessons which seem particularly good for photography, as he doesn't like to read guidebooks.
posted by viggorlijah at 6:24 AM on August 26, 2013

Response by poster: Awesome, really helpful answers. I usually have the camera in one of the Intelligent Auto modes, which normally chooses the Landscape setting in pictures like the one I linked, but I'm going to try the Aperture priority mode to see what kind of difference that makes.

Cribcage -- thanks for all the book, video, etc. recommendations. I will definitely be checking out Understanding Exposure and Gary Friedman's e-book.

Going on a long hike today and bringing my camera -- excited to try some of these recommendations!
posted by imalaowai at 12:57 PM on August 31, 2013