I have noticed that there are quite a few who use the same camera that I have. I have been trying all different Photostyles and settings, but somehow I am not happy with them. Even at Iso 80, I find that the images are rather noisy sometimes. Atm I am using Natural and have changed the sharpness and noise reduction to -. I shoot in Aperture mode and sometimes Manual. I would be interested to know what Photostyle is being used and what settings have been changed. I would be very grateful for any advice. Thanks in advance.
@chapjohn Thanks so much John, I have watched all the videos on youtube, but none of them talk about the Photostyle settings and how to get the best results.
I'm going to be using my TZ80 for a while as my Sony has a glitch. I almost always shoot on Auto. And we're obviously in very different parts of the world with different light conditions. Are you taking your shots at full resolution? What are you doing when you Post Process to keep image quality high? Have you posted any shots which demonstrate your problem?
@anniesue I am totally off auto as I am just about finishing an online course with Emma Davies ( a year with my camera) which is fabulous. My problem is probably not noticed in the images I post, as I have to to quite a bit of editing in Topaz Studio. The images are very noisy when using the zoom. I think I am taking the shots in full resolution (how do I check that)? The only issue I have is that I do not know what Photostyle and settings are best. I have googled, and two proffesionals recommend different styles and settings. I just want to know what others are using to get the best result without too much post processing ;-)
Photostyles are only used to give a certain look to the jpgs you get from the camera. If you want the best quality you should look into shooting in RAW. RAW files give you much more data to work with in post production/editing. Just make sure that whatever editing software you use support the RAW files from your camera.
@ludwigsdiana I shoot in Standard photo style - but again that is by default. However, I see there are different options, so perhaps you need to use one of the others if taking a landscape/scenery shot for example. From a quick test I did, I think natural depresses the colour slightly. You can shoot RAW with this model - and Topaz Studio supports RAW - but then you always have to edit, rather than reducing the amount of editing as you are attempting to achieve. Re noisiness: make sure you have got digital zoom turned off and are only using optical zoom. Even then, the top end of 30x optical zoom on a compact is likely to be noisy - and the 'saturation' of distant subjects will be less intense. You can get round this by shooting different parts of the picture separately, making sure focus and metering is successively on foreground, mid ground and back ground and then splicing them together in post processing. I will find a link to another 365 member's shot where this is particularly successful.
You check your resolution by pressing the 'menu' button and then in the Rec menu, scroll down to Picture Size. Make it say L for Large. In Aspect Ratio (previous menu option) 4:3 this will be 18 mega pixels, and in Aspect Ratio 3:2, this will be 16 mega pixels. Under Quality is where you choose to shoot jpegs or RAW - and at what quality you shoot them - or you can shoot both jpegs and RAW at the same time.
I don't know if that has helped, but it seems to me, if you are shooting off Auto, then you are not likely to find a single setting suitable for every shot.
@anniesue You are a star Annie, thanks so much for all the thought and time you put into helping me. I really appreciate it very much. I am using all the settings that you recommended fortunately. I will have to google about splicing, as I have never heard of it before. I only have my camera for about a year now and a total newbie to photography. I will give Raw a try, (shooting in raw and jpeg) but probably have to download a software. Could you please advise me on that? Once again, thanks for everything :-)
@anniesue That is for the TZ 80 (which I also have) I checked the blog for the FZ 80 and have my camera set according to the recommended settings. On a different blog, the settings are totally different. So I suppose each individual has he's own preferences. I am just trying to find mine :-)
@helstor@anniesue I just googled a bit to find out more about shooting in raw. Which software do I download, either to Lightroom or Topaz Studio. I definitely want to give it a go, with your help ;-)
I must admit, I was a bit confused but never mind. I did go to buy the TZ80 today but decided against it because it’s too big, much bigger than my TZ40
@ludwigsdiana splicing is also called stitching - it just means taking different parts of different pictures and putting them together - or at least allowing the software to do so. @ellida, whose shot I pasted above, calls it stacking. I don't use RAW, but my Photoshop Elements 13 offers RAW editing - and I checked that Topaz Studio does too - though Helge has raised the issue of whether it supports every camera. Good luck!
@annie-sue@ldwigsdiana Sorry to butt in to your thread with minutiae, but stacking and stitching are very different. My stacked shot was made up of several shots of exactly the same image, the first focussing on the nearest object, next shot is a little more distantly focussed and so on right on the horizon. In this case only about 4 or 5 shots. The stacking software is specialist (in this case Helicon.com) and is capable of combining the images finding the sharpest points in each.
Stitching is another term for merging to panorama (the term used by PhotoShop and Lightroom).
Sorry to be pedantic, but stacking is very time consuming but (I find) quite satisfying.
@helstor Sorry to be a nuisance Helge, but I have LR 6 and would need a minimum of 6.9 with a perpetual license to be able to use Adobe Raw. It only supports LR CC now. Is there any other raw file converter that I can download? Thanks in advance.
@ludwigsdiana For Panasonic FZ80 you need to upgrade to Lightroom perpetual version 6.9 (if you have version 6.0 it should be a free upgrade) with camera raw version 9.9. This should open RAW files from TZ80 as well.
@helstor Thanks so much, I am getting rather frustrated. I tried to download the 9.9, but it keeps jumping back to 10.something, I don't know if that is compatible. Will give it a rest today and try again tomorrow ;-)
@ellida a bit of precision never goes amiss! I use the word stitching (probably wrongly as it turns out) when I take one shot exposed for the land, and another for the sky and merge them into one.
@helstor Good morning Helge, I managed to download the 9.9 converter, now I do not know what to do with it. I took some raw photos yesterday and would like to see what I can do. Do I put them in an extra folder, or how do I access them. I really would appreciate your help as this is all new land to me. Many thanks in advance :-)
I only used lightroom a few times some years ago, but I think you have to import your raw files into Lightroom and then switch to the develop module. I'm sure there are others who use Lightroom on a daily basis who can be more helpful than me.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3SPqkMLxdU&list=PLcrGrImj2QFUtXTkIQIY-HzZf6b4pJBA6
You check your resolution by pressing the 'menu' button and then in the Rec menu, scroll down to Picture Size. Make it say L for Large. In Aspect Ratio (previous menu option) 4:3 this will be 18 mega pixels, and in Aspect Ratio 3:2, this will be 16 mega pixels. Under Quality is where you choose to shoot jpegs or RAW - and at what quality you shoot them - or you can shoot both jpegs and RAW at the same time.
I don't know if that has helped, but it seems to me, if you are shooting off Auto, then you are not likely to find a single setting suitable for every shot.
https://helpx.adobe.com/camera-raw/kb/camera-raw-plug-supported-cameras.html
I'm not familiar with Topaz Studio.
Stitching is another term for merging to panorama (the term used by PhotoShop and Lightroom).
Sorry to be pedantic, but stacking is very time consuming but (I find) quite satisfying.
I only used lightroom a few times some years ago, but I think you have to import your raw files into Lightroom and then switch to the develop module. I'm sure there are others who use Lightroom on a daily basis who can be more helpful than me.