"No lights, no tripod, just a windowsil" Topic

Here's how to take a photo without any lights.
Picture is worth a thousand words and all that:
picture

Result:
picture

You're probably best choosing a time when there's some cloud to diffuse the sunlight.
The plasticard reflector removes shadows.
The magazine isn't accidental but may not be necessary with all cameras.
If mine is flat on the same surface as the model then it messes up the autofocus.
On the edge of a thin magazine and it's fine.
The camera goes on the edge of the magazine.
That's right no tripod.
The blue background is not necessary if you have a lot of light but the figure will be dark without it if it's a dull day. It's snowing outside right now.

I manipulated the picture using picasa which is free off google.
Aside from cropping all I did was use the tuning tab to correct colours.
Click on the dropper, click on a white part of the picture.
Do this before you crop.

Very well done. Thanks for the tips. I am never satisfied with my results.

If it helps anyone that's great.
I spent years taking rubbish photos, I know the frustration.

Posted this stuff on a couple of forums.
Someone recommended tracing paper as a diffuser on sunny days.
I think maybe a north facing windowsill could also work.

That looks so simple, even I can take a good picture. Thanks for the guidance.

That looks pretty good, although there is still some softness to the picture. Maybe that's from the post work you did on it with Picasa. If not I'd still recommend a tripod. I also see a lot of noise. That's most likely from using too high an ISO setting. Most non-SLR digitals start getting noisy above ISO 400. You can lower your ISO if you use a tripod.

If you are having auto-focus problems, try this trick. If you can change it, set your camera to center point priority on the auto-focus and put the miniature in the center of the frame. If that doesn't help, find where your auto-focus assist light shines. This is probably pretty close to your lens on the left side as you are looking at the front of the camera. Stand a pencil or something like that on end next to your miniature, no closer or further away from the camera than the miniature on the same side as the auto-focus assist light. Now focus the camera. Make slight adjustments left or right with the pencil until the camera's auto-focus gets the pencil and miniature in focus. Once it does, remove the pencil and finish pressing the shutter to take the photo. You'll have the the miniature in focus everytime. No more focusing on the pattern on the paper behind the fig.

This is a good picture in any case. Much better than I've seen on so many sites.

Very interesting, thanks.

I'd need the subject higher to use a tripod.
Maybe try with the little wire one tomorrow.
I assumed part of the indowsill plus is the light reflected off the white windowsill in front.
Raising the subject up might reduce that.

The iso setting on my camera doesn't have numbers as such.
It has categories.
"Shoot low light scene without flash" maybe?
It's more a snapper than your "serious" camera.
link
The deciding plusses for me being it fits in my shirt pocket on holiday and the sliding lens cover is andy-proof.

Another thing to try is just taking my finger off the top of the camera.
I held it with the base flat against the magazine.
It stands up on it's own anyhow.
Or do digital cameras have moving bits could move the camera?

I shall experiment and report back.

They don't have many moving parts, at least those that will introduce shake, but if your camera has a shutter delay use it. Even sitting on the magazine by itself, the act of pressing the button and releasing it can introduce minor vibrations that can effect the sharpness of the photo. A 2 second delay can do wonders for reducing or eliminating the shake.

Setting it to shoot a low light scene without flash will increase it's ISO setting to a higher value. This will introduce noise. It is essentially telling your camera to be more sensitive to light, and increase the shutter time, at the expense of quality. This will give you poorer results as it will also be more susceptable to shake. I don't know what settings that are available on the camera, but, if available, set it to shoot a high light scene with no flash.

Looking at that site, it looks like the camera does have the ability to manually change the ISO setting, all the way up to ISO 3200, which will give really poor pictures. You probably have the camera set to auto mode. You'll need to set it to manual to change the ISO. I'd look to set it to ISO 80, 100, or 200 and no higher.

Definitely get the tripod, but you can get by setting it on the magazine if you set the shutter delay to 2 or more seconds.

I always use the timer.

Tried with both my small tripods today.
The wire one is a pain to adjust but the solid legged one shows promise.

After much messing about with the menus on my camera I have finally managed to set it to manual ISO.
You have to change one setting on one menu then you get different options on another.
If only I could get away with that kind of thing on web sites I write.

I had it set to high light with no flash as you suspected but now I'm set to try the joys of ISO 80.

Thanks for your help.
I'll experiment more and see what improvement I can come up with.