How to avoid these kinds of shots?

[zero]

Hi all,

My brother-in-law took a lot of pictures during last month. These 2 pictures caught my eye as some of even my shots turn out like this. Its basically a shot with loads of buildings but the picture just isn't sharp. There is a whitish shade over the entire picture and details are horrible. Sometimes, even pictures I take turn out to be somewhat like this when I am trying to take faraway shots. A couple of my Niagara Falls pictures turned out like these as well (daytime shots) where the details are horrible and the picture has a whitish shade (hazy?) all over.

Is there any settings that can be changed manually (Such as aperture) which would improve the picture (if not make it completely sharp). I would like to avoid getting these sorts of pictures. Any pointers would be helpful. Thanks!

[LoveOfSelene]

Hi all,

My brother-in-law took a lot of pictures during last month. These 2 pictures caught my eye as some of even my shots turn out like this. Its basically a shot with loads of buildings but the picture just isn't sharp. There is a whitish shade over the entire picture and details are horrible. Sometimes, even pictures I take turn out to be somewhat like this when I am trying to take faraway shots. A couple of my Niagara Falls pictures turned out like these as well (daytime shots) where the details are horrible and the picture has a whitish shade (hazy?) all over.

Is there any settings that can be changed manually (Such as aperture) which would improve the picture (if not make it completely sharp). I would like to avoid getting these sorts of pictures. Any pointers would be helpful. Thanks!

I can't explain the "whitish shade" completly, but i believe it's atmospheric haze or your lens was fogged. To increase depth of field, simply choose a aperture of around f/8 or f/16, the higher the number the sharper the picture will be. The smaller the number is, the shallower the depth of field becomes.

May i ask what camera you/your brother-in-law using? I want to say a kodak but im probally wrong.
~loveofselene

[ktixx]

I would have to say that the pictures you are taking look a bit overexposed. The images are very small, so I am not 100% sure, but if you look the white on the buildings look a little blown out. Try lowering the ISO and using a Smaller aperture (IE: F/8 - F/16+).
Ken

[LoveOfSelene]

oh, something else to add.

In Photoshop CS you can fix the photograph to an extent.

I don't know your abilities in photoshop so i'll make it simple.
Under Image>Adjustments: (Very useful stuff here)

In Photoshop 7 you can adjust the contrast.
In Photoshop CS use "Auto Contrast" under Image>Adjustments.

In Photoshop CS you can also use "Auto Color" which is very useful at times. (Note how i say at times)

Just another cent of my suggestions.
~Loveofselene

Added: here's an example of one of your photo's corrected to an extent

[Norm in Fujino]

A couple of my Niagara Falls pictures turned out like these as well (daytime shots) where the details are horrible and the picture has a whitish shade (hazy?) all over.

Basically, the photos have been compressed too muchl to tell much about "why?" Surely this isn't the size they came out of the camera at? If it is, the quality setting is far too low (or the camera just isn't capable of taking good pictures :( ).
What kind of camera is it, what were the settings, etc.?
FWIW, cameras with low resolution (e.g., 1 MP class) have a very hard time with scenic shots like this since the picture itself is composed solely of very fine detail, yet the pixelation characteristic of a low-resolution camera automatically competes with the fine detail. (The viewer's eye is drawn to the fine detail in such a scene, and the low resolution can't support that critical a view).
The whitish or blurish look could be atmospheric haze, or low resolution, or low contrast in the camera, camera shake, or a combination of all three (or other factors). If the camera has a "contrast" or "sharpening" setting, you might try raising that for shots like this. A little bit can be done in post processing, but not enough at this scale:
http://www2.gol.com/users/nhavens/resource/test_1.jpg

[ReF]

i played around with the photos in photoshop and got pretty much the same results as love of selene and norm. i added a tiny bit of saturation to the one with more buildings. if you don't have any fancy photo editing programs you can still adjust the contrast and saturation with free software that usually comes with your camera or free downloads online. i do believe it is due to atmospheric haze(common in cities) because if you look at the post processed shot with the water, you will notice that details get much hazier/blurrier towards the back. in addition to post processing, you can cut atmospheric haze by using a polarizing filter before the image reaches your camera's sensor. this makes details sharper and yields better results if post processing is still needed. atmosperic haze is almost completely invisible/non existent with an infrared filter, but it dramatically alters the shot. i also agree with using a small aperture whenever possible. other than that, keep an eye out for a clear day (windy days or after the rain) and take the shot again at that time, if possible.

[zero]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. It seems like almost everyone agrees that the aperture should be small to get better pictures.

I like the post-processed images Ref, Norm,Selene. Playing with color levels and saturations definitely helps. Hopefully small aperture will give better details as well.

Ktixx: Yah the pictures are small, thats how he emailed me.

Selene: He does have a Kodak! How did you guess?! Its 3 or 4 MP model. Not sure what model though. I have an old Sony camera....looking to upgrade it when I will really need it after couple months.

[LoveOfSelene]

Selene: He does have a Kodak! How did you guess?! Its 3 or 4 MP model. Not sure what model though. I have an old Sony camera....looking to upgrade it when I will really need it after couple months.

;) Kodak has there own "signature". What i like to call it.

[D70FAN]

I would have to say that the pictures you are taking look a bit overexposed. The images are very small, so I am not 100% sure, but if you look the white on the buildings look a little blown out. Try lowering the ISO and using a Smaller aperture (IE: F/8 - F/16+).
Ken

I'm pretty sure that these were taken with an all-in-one, which has a range of about f2.8 to f8...maybe f11 if they are lucky. Great DOF, not much bokeh. ;)

[HotRod]

photoshop 7 has auto color, auto contrast, as well as auto levels :)