Do DSLRs perform better than a handy cell phone camera for day light landscapes?

Do DSLRs perform better than a handy cell phone camera for day light landscapes?
Not for most of us who do not get paid for our photographs. The photos can be a bit better but when you add the cost of the camera and inconvenience of carry a bulky camera and some lenses, the difference may not worth it for most of us. In broad day light landscapes, a bulky DSLR is not worth the weight compared to a handy cell phone.  However if you are taking photos in low light or early morning/late evening, DSLR do take better photos.

Here are two photos taken around noon of a mountain and a frozen lake in Mammoth Lakes area. One photo is taken with a DSLR pentax K30 with 50mm lens on it and the other photo is taken with Samsung Note 4 camera. As you can see, Pentax did take a nice photo but the photo took with Samsung cell phone is also usable and good when shared with friends.

Make a photo brighter or darker with Exposure Compensation

Exposure Compensation is one of the most powerful tools for taking better photos.
I was in Bishop, CA at the famous Erick Schat's Bakkery. I was eating outside the building and wanted to take a photo of the place. There was significant backlight which was turning the sign and the building too dark.

Regular photo

How can you fix this issue with Trial and Error Photography?
It is simple. The issue was that the things I wanted in the photo were too dark. Solution is simple. I needed to tell camera to take in more light. Thankfully my Samsung Note 4 provides Exposure Compensation. I turned it on and moved it to +1. By changing this control, I simply told my camera to take in double light.

As you can see, the sky is getting washed out but sky wasn't my interest, I need the sign to be clearly visible. I was happy with the photo. However I had time so I tried to take one more photo with different value for Exposure Compensation. This way, having tried 2-3 different exposure values, I was able to get a photo that I liked.

Btw, if you happen to be in or around Bishop and Mammoth Lakes area, try this Erick Schat's Bakkery place. It is busy and offers nice collection of sugar and fat. However if you see this same name, Erick Shat's bakkery in Mammoth Lake, avoid it. Looks like they don't have anything fresh. They seem to get stuff from Bishop bakkery and sell. We had 2 8-year old kids. They loved the Erik Schat's in Bishop but they didn't even finish one donut that we got from Erick Schat's in Mammoth lakes are. 

Outdoor photos and people too dark

Most of time, in outdoor photos, faces of friends and family get too dark. this happens because of the bright light in the background and our subject standing in shadow. Same is true when people are wearing caps or hats and the shadow hides eyes and some part of the face.

One time I was hiking with a friend. The background was so beautiful with low clouds. It was simply amazing. We decided to take a photo to we can save the moment in our memories.

As you can see in the photo the background is simply amazing but it is hard to see my friend's face. If you run into such situations, how can you work around the problem?

Solution with Trial and Error Photography:

In T&EP (Trial & Error photography), first you have find the issue. What is the issue with this photo? The issue is that person is too dark.

Solution:
We have to get more light in the photo. Enough light so the face is nice and clear. One way is to use Exposure Compensation to let more light in. This will however wash out the background. The background in the photo is perfect. We don't want to ruin it. So what can we do to take a better photo? We can use some artificial light ;) Most cameras have flash- a source or good light. The flash works fine for up to 20 feet and my friend was around 10 feet away. I turned on the flash and took a new photo. The flash brightened up everything around me including my friend! See the next photo here:

Compare both photos and you will see how we fixed the original issue in few seconds and were able to take a nice photo in same situation.

Enjoy photography with easy no-cost Trial and Error Photography.

Your photos are coming out in unnatural colors? Blame it to White Balance

Blue or Red tint in your photos?

A friend called and asked me why his vacation photos came out with annoying blue tint! I immediately felt that his camera had some White Balance issues. I asked him to email me few photos. When I looked at the photos, I knew his White Balance setting was messed up. To confirm, I read EXIF data and it did show that the photos were taken with WB set as Tungsten. 

The problem here is that the White Balance or the WB setting on his Nikon was somehow changed to Tungsten. He wasn't awere but this caused the camera to apply some color fix on all photos he took! 

What do you do in Trial and Error Photography if the photos you are taking are not coming with natural colors?

Fix: Find the WB/White Balance control. Keep it to Auto. Most modern camera's do good job in determining color temperature. However if you are outside in cloudy day and colors in the photos are not coming out well, you can change White Balance to Cloudy and taken new photos to see if the issue is fixed. If you are inside a home with fluorescent or tungsten light and colors in photos are not coming out well, you can manually change the White Balance to proper setting. However if you start setting the White Balance yourself, please be aware to bring it back to Auto WB or whenever you see unnatural colors, think of the WB control and reset it to proper setting.

Is there any solution for vacation photos which are already taken? 
Oh, well, if you liked the place, go again so you can take better photos LOL. If that is not possible, use Picasa or some software and use Auto Color or WB Correction controls. This will not be a perfect fix but at least your photos will be usable.
I fixed above photos with PhotoScape and here is how they look.

If color correction is not working properly, one more solution is to remove the colors LOL.
Change photos to Sepia or Black and White.

Enjoy photography. It is simple with Trial and Errors way ;)
  

Taking a nice photo of the Moon- the Trial and Error Photography way.

Have you ever tried to take a photo of the Moon but only to find that it is impossible to take one good photo?
Many times, we see a beautiful Moon on the horizon or up in the sky and it looks so beautiful, we get tempted to take a photo. Let us assume we have a multi zoom camera- a camera with 10x plus zoom. We turn on the camera, zoom in and take a photo in Program mode or in Semi Auto mode. Here is the photo that most of us will end up with. Nothing but a ball of white light.

You can try few times but most of the time, your photo will not be good enough to satisfy you. Here is a photo I took with my 24x zoom camera. I am not sure which camera I used but I guess it was Fujifilm X-S1 with 26x zoom.

How to take a better photo?
It is a  not difficult to take a better photo with Trial and Error photography.
In Trial and Error Photography, first take a photo in Auto or Program mode. Then look at the photo. If the photo is not good enough, find the issue. Once you know the issue, try to fix it. That's it.

What is an issue with this photo? The photo is over-exposed. In other words, camera took in more light that it needed. This caused the moon to be washed out.
So the issue with the photo is TOO MUCH LIGHT taken by camera.

How to fix the issue?

Simple. The issue is too much light taken by camera. How to tell camera to take less light? Professional, photography books and pundits will start getting into ISO, Aperture, Shutter speed etc. Who in our world has time for all that BS? We want to take better photos without getting too much in technical of photography.
There is one simple way to tell camera to take less light. Find this button or control that has this symbol. It is called Exposure Compensation. This is a great button when you want to tell camera to take in less light or more light.

Click on this button/control and you will see a sliding scale with positive and negative value as shown in the image here. To tell camera to take less light, move the value to negative range (with some scroll button or with left-right arrows). Set it to -1 and take a new photo. If that photos is also still too bright, set the value to -2 and take a photo again. With 2 to 4 different EV values, you will be able to take some beautiful photo of the moon as shown below. 

Didn't I tell you that you don't need degrees to take better photos? Just believe in my Trial and Error approach and you will be able to make yourself happy in majority of the situations and that too without spending too much money on camera equipment or too much time behind a camera lens or photography books.
Enjoy photography- the easiest way. A lazy person's way ;)

Want to take better photos? I can help you.

Trial and Error is a fundamental method to solve problems. It can be used in many fields including photography. As such, it is a far superior method for most of us to take better photos. Thanks to digital photography, in my opinion, this is the best way to take good photos. There is no need to learn photography for people like us who really don't want to make a career out of it.

What is a Trial and Error Photography? It is a two step simple process:
Step 1: Take a photo and find the issue.
Step 2: Try to fix the issue.

Sounds so simple, right? Yes, it sounds so simple and it actually is that simple to improve your photos. Most of the time, there are a very few reasons why a photo comes out bad. Maybe we missed focus, light is too low, background is too bright, framing is done poorly, etc. Once you identify the problem, you can try to fix it. There are few tricks for every issue. Press some buttons on the camera and take a new photo. Is this new photo good? If it is, you are done. If not, find the issue and try to fix it again. Do this 2-3 times and I am sure you will be able to take a photo that meets your objectives.

Are you excited to start your journey with me? In few posts and in few days, I want to help you improve your photos to great extent. I want to share some tricks that I have learned- either by reading some articles or by trial and error.

Welcome to my blog.