How to reduce blur in pictures

Not everyone is a professional photographer (at least I’m not). But with the available "post processing" tools in even the most basic photo editing software, you can do a lot of things with your less-than-ideal pictures, like: reduce noise, compensate for over- or under-exposed shots, and correct colours when you forgot to adjust the white-balance before taking the pictures. However, one thing that is very hard, or rather almost impossible, to fix is a blurry picture. This is when you have to think ahead, to "pre process" the shot before it happens. Here are some suggestions, mostly from my own experience, which I hope you’d find useful in helping you capture sharper photos!

• Get a camera with image stabilization feature. This is especially important if you use zoom because any camera shake is amplified by the magnitude of the zoom accordingly. But even without zoom, it is still very useful. Most Panasonic cameras have this feature.
• Use the flash, even in daylight. I’m not a big flash user, because sometimes I think the images turn out harsh and unnatural looking (plus flash can be distracting depending on the situation, and then you might have the issue of red-eyes to deal with). But in some cases you’re really better off using it, like in extremely low light, or bright outdoors where your subjects are backlit casting shadows on their faces. Some cameras, like my Panasonic FZ20, allows you to adjust the intensity of the flash, so you can get enough light to make a clear picture, but not too much to make it harsh.
• If your camera has shutter priority mode, you can adjust the shutter speed higher (i.e. faster). This will work well if you have ample light but might result in an under-exposed picture indoors or at night.
• To allow more light in at high shutter speeds, usually the sensitivity (ISO setting) is increased (some cameras allow you to adjust this too). However, this might increase the noise of the shots. Certain cameras have built-in noise reduction, and some even let you adjust how much (like my FZ20, again… lest I keep repeating myself, I’m just going to say right here that the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20 has pretty much all the features I’m gonna mention here.)
• Try the "burst" or "continuous" mode on your camera, if available. It will take a few shots in a row (the frame rate and number of shots depend on your camera’s capability). Having more pictures increases your chance of getting a good, clear one that you like. You can always delete the rest.
• I realize that many cameras don’t have that much manual controls. But nowadays, many point-and-shoots will have something called the "best shot modes" or "scene modes". E.g. portrait, scenery, fireworks… and they automatically adjust the shutter speed, aperture, ISO, and even flash settings for you according to the mode you choose. Casio Exilim has some of the best (and easiest to use) modes I’ve seen, so I like to recommend their cameras even though their image quality is not always the best. But it’s such a fun camera, you’ll end up enjoying taking pictures and taking more shots, and I think that’s more important than taking perfect photos every time (remember, I’m not a pro, and I’m thinking that most people reading this aren’t either). But where was I… oh yeah, choose the "Sports" mode if your subject is moving around a lot. Or there might be a "Panning" mode, which works best when your subject is moving fast along one specific direction.
• Sometimes, blur is caused not so much by camera shake or subject movement, but by lack of focus. Usually it is harder to focus in low light. The "AF illuminator", or "Focus assist lamp" will come in handy here (again, if your camera has it). The camera sends a beam of light (usually red, sometimes infrared) to help pick up the focus. It is not as intrusive as the flash, but can still be distracting. Once I used it at a concert that didn’t allow flash photography. But when people on stage started to look uneasily in my direction, I quickly turned the AF assist light off. I guess some might be thinking it was a laser beam from a gun pointing at them… haha… ok, my bad, shouldn’t laugh at that.
• Another way is to pre-focus before taking the picture. This is achieved by pressing the shutter release button halfway, to "lock" the focus on your subject. I have tried this successfully with, for example, a flower swaying every which way in the wind. By first locking the focus, the "wild" flower can generally be "tamed". There are other uses for the halfway shutter release, like exposure lock. But that’s info for future topic(s?)

A few other things you can consider / keep in mind:

• Drink less caffeine, so your hands will shake less when holding the camera!
• If possible, ask your subject to stop moving.
• RTFM, I mean, read the fine manual :) Honestly, I haven’t even begun to use my cameras to their full potential. But it really helps to read through the manual, to at least know what your camera is capable of. You might be surprised… nowadays they pack a ton of features into miniscule cameras. A lot of times I read reviews of people complaining that a certain camera takes lousy pictures. But I have the same/similar camera and don’t see some of the problems they mention. Therefore, I say, go RTFM!
• If all else fails, gather all your blurry pictures together, and put them in your "artistic shots" collection. Tell everyone, they are blurred for art’s sake. Heck, some professionals adjust all kinds of settings on their cameras in order to take that perfectly blurred shot, while you did it effortlessly!

In conclusion, I think Panasonic needs to start paying me commission. Gloria and I have had Panasonic cameras for a while now, and last year I recommended the FX9 (along with a few other cameras) to one of my managers and he bought it, Megan just bought the FZ20, Niu’s going to buy the FX01, which my sister and I are also considering (or rather, drooling over), and which I just suggested to another co-worker who is looking for a camera under $300. Plus Jessie’s thinking of upgrading her camera… guess what I would recommend to her?? Just to clarify, I do NOT work for Panasonic!! And I have included Casios and Canons in my recommendations (because I’ve also owned these cameras before), but people somehow end up choosing the Panasonic :)

Random crap

I can’t seem to settle down long enough to write a decent entry. I’ve just got random crap floating in my head. I do my best thinking while driving to and from work, so I actually don’t mind the long commute (well, unless I encounter stupid drivers, which is unfortunately quite frequent). Sometimes I can think of really cool and interesting stuff, but as I’m driving, I couldn’t type or write them down (and while I have a voice recorder, I hate the sound of my recorded voice so that’s not an option). By the time I get a chance to pen something down, I’ve forgotten half of the stuff, and I waste time trying to remember them. I need to design something that can transfer my thoughts directly to Movable Type. That’ll save me lots of time and frustration. Actually I need a device that can capture and store my thoughts, period. Not just for blogging, but for work, school, social, home, everything. Ok, the device already exist, it’s called a BRAIN. But mine isn’t functioning very well anymore, there are just too many memory leaks (get it? memory leaks! haha… sorry, geek joke). I need a backup brain.

 

While waiting for my backup brain to arrive, perhaps I can immortalize some of my thoughts (those that I managed to salvage) in a book. If you’d like to publish your words, poems, pictures, and even your blog in a hardcopy and hardcover book, check out Blurb.com. It’s different from other self-publishers where some are text-only, and others require you to start off with a "package" that costs hundreds of dollars. Blurb.com only charges you for copies that you print, so you can publish one book or a hundred. Make each copy slightly different, or personalized. Add pictures with anecdotes, or not… more flexible than those "photo books" that some photo sites offer. I think that’s its main selling point – flexibility. You can find much better pricing elsewhere, but probably with more limited options of how your book can look like. I think they’re also working on something that’ll feed your blog right into a book. Hmm, might be interesting to beta test for them.

 

Mavs won game 2. Yeah! They kicked major ass!

 

I saw a news report on CNN that made me fume. It was about illegal aliens stealing social security numbers so they could find employment, get a driver’s license, open bank account etc. And since the IRS, SSA and credit agencies are not obliged to inform you when another name is associated with your SSN, you usually won’t find out about the problem until something goes horribly wrong. By that time, it’s probably too late, you’ll end up spending huge amounts of money and time trying to straighten your records (and your life) out. While the person who did all these to you gets away scot-free, because "privacy rules" keep his identity hidden. Identity theft is a felony, so why are these people protected and the victims punished?

 

There’s still a bunch of crap in my head, but the translation engine between thoughts and words doesn’t work very well, plus I’m sleepy. Save them for next time. And I have yet to conclude my "Dream job" series… (already forgot what points I was trying to make with those). Help.

Camera in flames and other news

Never was a big fan of HP digital cameras, and here’s one more reason to make me run further away. If you have the HP Photosmart R707 camera, do not, I repeat, DO NOT put non-rechargeable batteries inside it and then connect the adapter or docking station – because it might burst into flames! HP has issued a press release advising the public about the "potential fire hazard" and is providing a firmware update to fix the problem.

 

Actually, I think there have been cases where cell phones (including Nokia) caught on fire too, but they were usually because the user has bought a cheap replacement battery that didn’t conform to some safety requirements and standards. In HP’s case, the battery in question is by Duracell.

 

There’s enough stuff to worry about in our lives already without having to fear that my cameras or cell phones might burn my house down!

 

But of course, I’m just being dramatic. Those are very isolated incidents. Many other kinds of accidents are much more likely to happen. You know what I’m talking about.

 

"In over 13 years in business and after flying more than 80,000 passengers, we’ve never scratched a soul. But in the same period, we’ve had 42 people not show up for their flights due to car accidents." This is a quote taken from Barnstorming Adventures (which Bruce and I want to try when we go to CA). The roads and highways are really dangerous places and we’re at risk everyday (the longer the commute, the higher the risk… maybe need to find a job closer to home, or work from home!)

 

That’s why they call it defensive driving. It’s not enough being a safe driver yourself, in addition you’ll have to learn to react to other driver’s mistakes and stupidity. Just a couple of days ago someone cut me off when I had the right of way. If I didn’t swerve into the other lane in time, I’d have been hit by the van. I looked over at the driver and HE gave ME a dirty look in return. WHAT?!?!?!?! I HAD THE RIGHT OF WAY!!!!!

He looked Mexican, and while I really don’t want to generalize, I couldn’t help but think that he might be an illegal alien. Which means he probably doesn’t have a driver’s license. Which means that he didn’t have to take the driving test. Which means that he didn’t have to study for it and thus didn’t know the rules of the road and thus didn’t know that I HAD THE RIGHT OF WAY!!!!! (And the next day, in a similar scenario, I decided to play it safe and slowed down to check for stupid drivers before going, even though I know I could just go. I barely tapped on my brakes for half a second and the car behind me gave me a loud HONK. Damn it, if it’s not stupid drivers, it’s impatient ones!! Again, he gave me a dirty look as he zoomed past me after we turned. What’s with these people???)

 

And what if I didn’t react in time and the Mexican-looking guy hit me and he turned out really to be illegal without insurance etc. etc.,… my insurance will have to end up paying for it, and my insurance premiums will go up because of that, and I end up paying for his mistakes??

 

Now to the hot topic of immigration. I hope they’ll never approve an amnesty act. Why should illegal immigrants get automatic citizenship, when the rest of us had to jump through numerous hoops to just get a green card? It’s rewarding people who have committed CRIMES and punishing the law-abiding ones. As for the other stuff… I’m not sure of the details…. like guest worker program, or pay-a-penalty-and-stay, or whatever. I don’t know enough details to comment, but I just hope they don’t make things too easy. Else they will never fix the root of the problem. If there’s anything they should approve, it’s the DREAM ACT.

 

If I traspassed on your property, secretly camped out in your garage, used your bedroom and bath and raided your fridge when you’re not around/looking, how would you feel? Or say you invited me over to stay at your place for a week. I liked it so much I decided to move in without discussing it with you. And then I disagreed with some house rules that you might have and demanded to have things my way. What would you be thinking? That I have no respect for you, correct? That I have no right to do all those things, yeah? But if instead I asked for your opinion and permission, and we work something out, reach an agreement, maybe you’ll actually want me to stay because of things I can contribute and help with….

 

Why is my green card renewal taking so long?? I filed the paperwork, I paid the fees… I hope they’re not working on some illegal alien’s application and delaying mine…!!!

 

Wait… what was this post about? Oh, cameras. As Gloria has noted, I can end up talking about something totally unrelated to what I started with. My train of thought frequently derails. Or perhaps it’s because I usually have multiple trains of thoughts…. and collisions can happen resulting in a mess like this. Hmm, train accidents in my head… well, still safer than car accidents on the road!

 

Back to cameras. Ah yes,I wanted to write about the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20 that’s onsale at Amazon for only $299.99! Man, that’s almost down to half of what I paid for it less than 2 years ago. If you’re in the market for a fantastic camera, GET THIS! Superb picture quality, almost-SLR response without the cost (esp. at the current price), and need I mention the MEGA 12x zoom and O.I.S.?? And unless you’re printing poster sized photos, you really don’t need anything more than 5-6 Mpix. Even if you crop a picture down to ~3Mpix, you can still make great prints up to 8×10. In fact I leave mine on at the 3Mpix setting most of the time, and have learnt to frame (or "crop" if you will) my shots using the marvelous optical zoom lens.

 

Hey, I think I’ve finally succeeded in alienating all of my readers with my train wreck of a mind…..

06-06-06

Dooms day. Armageddon. The Omen. Ahhhhh…..

 

Well, the reason I wailed is not because of any of the above. I’ve been sick for the last 3 days and just felt like screaming, but my throat hurts so bad so I have to do it virtually.

 

I’m looking forward to 07-07-07 next year, since se7en is my favorite number. 666 is boring. Yawn.

 

Speaking of the devil, I’ve had it up to here with Cingular. Ok, it’s not fair to associate Cingular with evil… or maybe it is? Anyway, all their claims about "fewest dropped calls". Yeah, right, because you can’t establish the calls in the first place! "More bars in more places"? Hmm, I can’t seem to find those places… So they are upgrading their cell towers for UMTS (3G) coverage… that’s a good thing, but if that’s going to affect the current GSM services, they’re gonna start losing their 2G customers. Oh wait, that won’t happen, because most of us are ball-and-chained into lenghty contracts with them!

 

Let’s say this is just a temporary thing and signal strength will improve soon. They still need to do something about their buggy billing system. I’ve only been with them for a few months, but I had to call them almost every time I get a bill to fix something. And I’m not nickle-and-diming, really, we’re talking hundreds of dollars here (total). Sure, they were good about reversing the charges, but why all the mistakes in the first place? So that the customer service people have something to do? If it didn’t involve wasting my time and getting me frustrated, it’ll have been fine. Now I hesitate to add my sister to the family plan because I don’t want to go through the same headaches I had to deal with when I added Alice.

 

When I changed from individual plan to family plan, I was told that I’ll lose my rollover minutes. While I wasn’t too thrilled with that, I could accept it and just had to remind Bruce and Alice to watch their usage for a while. Thus when I got my last bill, I was surprised to see that we had a balance of 2000+ rollovers. Huh??? What the…. how messed up is this? I know I shouldn’t be complaining about having the extra minutes. But why not just give them to me when I initially changed plans, so we didn’t have to deal with the pro-rated charges and exceeding the pro-rated minutes and all that jazz? It’ll be nice if they don’t yo-yo us between feast and famine this way.

 

Ok, I’ll have to say there are some redeeming qualities in Cingular. They have more coverage domestically as well as roaming coverage internationally compared to T-mobile, at least based on my experiences. This is important to me as I travel quite a bit. And the fact that they’re GSM-based gives them a huge advantage over Sprint and Verizon, even though I really like Sprint’s Fair & Flexible plans, and Verizon’s reputable network. Oh well, we can’t have it all…