Why are my pictures so shitty?

[Phil McAvity]

I have a Samsung Galaxy S10+ with a 12 megapixel camera and a Sony DSC-H300 camera with a 20 megapixel camera and both take pictures that look to be ~1 megapixel. Neither take clear pictures but both should take crystal clear pics. It's the weirdest fucking thing and I can't figure out why but I sure get why the guy sold me this shitty camera about 6 months ago for cheap. I always have the Sony set to Easy mode and even when I max out the digital zoom on the Samsung the image looks clear on the screen yet when I take the picture it isn't

Any ideas shutterbugs?

[Doady]

If you seriously expect us to know what is wrong with your photographs based on 4 sentences that you write, then that explains what is wrong with your photographs right there. You need to learn what to expect, not only from your camera and "digital zoom", but also what to expect from yourself as a photographer, and from other people as an audience.

[homebucket]

Crappy photos usually indicate crappy photographers in my experience. A good photographer can easily take great photos with crappy cameras.

I'm gonna go ahead and declare this user error in this case.

[SIGSEGV]

Are your hands shaky? Do you compulsively move the camera as soon as you take the picture? Are the pictures less blurry with a tripod? There are ways to hold a camera to make it more stable, which might help.

[Phil McAvity]

Originally Posted by Doady

If you seriously expect us to know what is wrong with your photographs based on 4 sentences that you write, then that explains what is wrong with your photographs right there. You need to learn what to expect, not only from your camera and "digital zoom", but also what to expect from yourself as a photographer, and from other people as an audience.

I guess the hubris in your response (suggesting that no one here could possibly know more than you about how to help me) was well founded as no one here seems able to so I expect i'll have to go to a photography site for help

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

Are your hands shaky? Do you compulsively move the camera as soon as you take the picture? Are the pictures less blurry with a tripod? There are ways to hold a camera to make it more stable, which might help.

You didn't pay attention to what I wrote, I didn't say the pictures were blurry due to shaking, I said they're not clear even though both cameras have image stabilization features built in. I've taken plenty of "accidentally artistic" pictures due to camera shakiness over the years to know the difference

[Doady]

Originally Posted by Phil McAvity

I guess the hubris in your response (suggesting that no one here could possibly know more than you about how to help me) was well founded as no one here seems able to so I expect i'll have to go to a photography site for help

Where the fuck did I even suggest that I knew more than everyone else, that no one else could possibly know more than me? Show me. Explain it to me. Educate me. Teach me how to be as humble as you.

[Phil McAvity]

Originally Posted by Doady

Where the fuck did I even suggest that I knew more than everyone else, that no one else could possibly know more than me? Show me. Explain it to me. Educate me. Teach me how to be as humble as you.

Unbeknownst to you, you just proved my point with your combination of hostility, feigned humility and then smugness

[Doady]

Originally Posted by Phil McAvity

Unbeknownst to you, you just proved my point with your combination of hostility, feigned humility and then smugness

You are the one who made the unfriendly and condescending response first about my "hubris" and you criticized the supposed lack of abilities and knowledge of me and everyone else here. Somehow we are supposed to know about what is wrong with your photos with so little information, not even one photo sample. And again you make sure to point out how much less knowledgeable I am than you with your use of "unbeknownst". The only "hostility, feigned humility and smugness" here seems to be coming from you.

Again, I ask: where the fuck is the "hubris" in saying I am unable to properly answer your question? How does saying that I don't know the answer suggest that I think I know more than everyone else? Explain it to me. You seem obsessed with criticizing my and other people's responses here. So teach us. Show us how to make a proper response.

[biguc]

Originally Posted by Phil McAvity

I have a Samsung Galaxy S10+ with a 12 megapixel camera and a Sony DSC-H300 camera with a 20 megapixel camera and both take pictures that look to be ~1 megapixel. Neither take clear pictures but both should take crystal clear pics. It's the weirdest fucking thing and I can't figure out why but I sure get why the guy sold me this shitty camera about 6 months ago for cheap. I always have the Sony set to Easy mode and even when I max out the digital zoom on the Samsung the image looks clear on the screen yet when I take the picture it isn't

Any ideas shutterbugs?

Don't use digital zoom.

[bilbao58]

Let me suggest that it is nigh on impossible for anyone to diagnose the problems with your photos without actually seeing some of them. And yeah, don't use digital zoom. It's crap.

[Phil McAvity]

Originally Posted by biguc

Don't use digital zoom.

You need to go back and read what I wrote again, digital zoom is not the problem

Originally Posted by Doady

Again, I ask: where the fuck is the "hubris" in saying I am unable to properly answer your question? How does saying that I don't know the answer suggest that I think I know more than everyone else? Explain it to me. You seem obsessed with criticizing my and other people's responses here. So teach us. Show us how to make a proper response.

The whole problem is, you didn't say "I" can't help you, you said "we" can't help you, implying that there's no one on this forum that knows more about photography than you. If you mean't "I" you should have said "I" because it came across as arrogant to speak for others. As it turns out you were right though, no one here seems capable of helping me

[Doady]

Originally Posted by Phil McAvity

You need to go back and read what I wrote again, digital zoom is not the problem


The whole problem is, you didn't say "I" can't help you, you said "we" can't help you, implying that there's no one on this forum that knows more about photography than you. If you mean't "I" you should have said "I" because it came across as arrogant to speak for others. As it turns out you were right though, no one here seems capable of helping me

It's not arrogance. I knew others can't help you because we have so little information to work with. Give us more details, give us some us some photo samples, then we can help. I responded to you and other people here responded to you because we are capable of helping you and we want to help you. You just need to help us help you. Tell us more about your problems - what you are trying to photograph, when you are trying to photograph it, the settings used for the photographs, and so on - and most importantly show us your problems, show us the bad photos, and it will be much easier to help you. Upload photos to Flickr and let us see.

[bilbao58]

Never mind.

[cabasse]

Originally Posted by Phil McAvity

You need to go back and read what I wrote again, digital zoom is not the problem


The whole problem is, you didn't say "I" can't help you, you said "we" can't help you, implying that there's no one on this forum that knows more about photography than you. If you mean't "I" you should have said "I" because it came across as arrogant to speak for others. As it turns out you were right though, no one here seems capable of helping me

digital zoom sucks ass.

https://melthornberryphotography.com...tal-zoom-sucks

[Phil McAvity]

Originally Posted by Doady

It's not arrogance. I knew others can't help you because we have so little information to work with. Give us more details, give us some us some photo samples, then we can help. I responded to you and other people here responded to you because we are capable of helping you and we want to help you. You just need to help us help you. Tell us more about your problems - what you are trying to photograph, when you are trying to photograph it, the settings used for the photographs, and so on - and most importantly show us your problems, show us the bad photos, and it will be much easier to help you. Upload photos to Flickr and let us see.

Okay fair enough, maybe you're not as hubristic as I said but I can't imagine how posting a bunch of my unclear photos could possibly clarify the issue because it's not like my camera settings would be on display in the pictures. I've taken two series of pictures-one series inside with my phone and one series outside at night in easy mode with my camera and all the pictures were equally unclear

Originally Posted by cabasse

digital zoom sucks ass.

https://melthornberryphotography.com...tal-zoom-sucks

People here really don't pay attention. I've known for a long time that digital zoom is about as useful as tits on bull and have already said that's not the problem

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by Phil McAvity

Okay fair enough, maybe you're not as hubristic as I said but I can't imagine how posting a bunch of my unclear photos could possibly clarify the issue because it's not like my camera settings would be on display in the pictures. I've taken two series of pictures-one series inside with my phone and one series outside at night in easy mode with my camera and all the pictures were equally unclear

Depending on how you post your pictures, the EXIF data could indeed be available.

[Doady]

Originally Posted by Phil McAvity

Okay fair enough, maybe you're not as hubristic as I said but I can't imagine how posting a bunch of my unclear photos could possibly clarify the issue because it's not like my camera settings would be on display in the pictures. I've taken two series of pictures-one series inside with my phone and one series outside at night in easy mode with my camera and all the pictures were equally unclear



People here really don't pay attention. I've known for a long time that digital zoom is about as useful as tits on bull and have already said that's not the problem

It might have been too dark inside your house. Certainly, it would have been too dark outside at night.

Darker conditions means less light, when there is less light the camera requires larger aperture (smaller F-stop) and higher ISO. When camera reaches the aperture and ISO limit, then it needs to reduce the shutter speed, and when the shutter speed is too slow then the camera will start to capture movement, including the movement of the camera caused by the shaking of your hands, and that is what causes blur.

Even my $3000 camera I have to put on a tripod at night for good image quality, especially when I zoom in. When you zoom it, the effect of camera shake is magnified and even higher shutter speeds are required.

As SIGSEGV said, posting the photos would give us EXIF info including the shutter speed which would confirm that is the problem. But based on what you describe, I think it is safe to say the shutter speed is too low.

Your Sony camera has a Night scene mode which might help shooting handheld in extremely low light conditions. But for better results, use the Manual (M) mode, set the F-number to the lowest F-number possible (e.g. F3.0), and try not to zoom in too much. For best results and full use of zoom, you will need to set the camera on a tripod, or rest it on a railing or table or some other surface, to keep the camera as still as possible while shooting.

Just to give some examples, here are some photos of Montreal I took handheld at night and of course they turned out blurry:

ISO 200, F5.6, 1/6 seconds


ISO 200, F5.6, 1.3 seconds


ISO 200, F5.6, 1/4 seconds

Compare to more recent photos taken near my house. They are sharp because I put the camera on a tripod. Sharp photos would have been impossible otherwise:

ISO 100, F5.6, 3.2 seconds


ISO 100, F5.6, 6 seconds


ISO 100, F5.6, 5 seconds

In dark conditions, you need to increase the shutter speed with higher ISO and lower F-number. If you cannot increase shutter speed enough, then you need to find ways to keep the camera still. And increasing shutter speed means 1/20th of a second, then 1/30, then 1/60 and so on. Reducing shutter speed would mean 1/10th of a second, then 1/5, then 1/2 then 1 second, and so on.

A photo at F5.6 and ISO 100 requiring shutter speed of 6 seconds. With F2.8 and ISO 400, the shutter speed would increase to 1/3 second, more handholdable than 6 seconds, but maybe still not enough.

[cabasse]

Originally Posted by Phil McAvity

People here really don't pay attention. I've known for a long time that digital zoom is about as useful as tits on bull and have already said that's not the problem

i don't think my attention span is the problem here, you literally said this

Originally Posted by Phil McAvity

even when I max out the digital zoom on the Samsung the image looks clear on the screen yet when I take the picture it isn't

with much regret for replying,
- cabasse

[bilbao58]

Originally Posted by cabasse

i don't think my attention span is the problem here, you literally said this


"even when I max out the digital zoom on the Samsung the image looks clear on the screen yet when I take the picture it isn't"

with much regret for replying,
- cabasse

I suppose it's possible by "max out the digital zoom" he means the zoom is all the way out as opposed to all the way in. In other words, no zoom at all. I read it the same way you did.

[DZH22]

Is it set to take pictures at the max resolution? Just because it CAN take pictures up to 12 megapixels, it doesn't mean it's set to that now. When I was having storage issues on an old computer I lowered the picture quality on my camera at the time to save space. Maybe somebody lowered the quality on yours and you just need to set it back to its highest resolution.