Off Topic · [from reddit] How to: Maximize image quality with your point and shoot (page 1)

http://www.reddit.com/r/photography/comm...

I posted this as a reply in a post, but thought this could be of use to more people so I made this submission.
There are several things you can and should do to get the most out of the images from your P&S. If you use it correctly people won't know with what camera the shot was taken. Here's an image, guess with what camera it was taken; I'll give you the answer at the end of the post.
Now; the first thing you'll need to learn are the general limitations of P&S cameras. Here's a list.
Low dynamic range (Range of tones of gray that the camera can see; or what the brightest and darkest thing in an image can be where you still see detail)
Slow autofocus
Often poor manual controls
Large depth of field
Doesn't capture raw images
Poor high ISO performance (noise in images taken in low light)
The big issues are the low dynamic range and the large depth of field. These two are the biggest issues which make images taken from a P&S look "amateur" compared to images taken with a DSLR.
How do I work around these problems?
First we'll tackle the low dynamic range. This issue produces two symptoms in images. The first one is that you often get your foreground underexposed and sky overexposed which makes the photo look unpleasent. Here's an example. This is an image taken outside during a cloudy day. As you can see the ground and people are a bit dark and the sky is nearly totally white. Not really a pretty photo. What caused this to happen?
This image was taken quite up north in Svalbard during the summer when the sun is always up high. But in a normal part of the world this would equate to taking a photo at around noon. This is when the sun is at it's brightest which means the clouds are at their brightest. The second thing that creates this scene with a lot of dynamic range (difference between light and dark) is the fact that the photographer is shooting towards where the sun would be. This is the brightest part of an already bright sky. And since the ground is mostly dark rocks which reflect little light you have a scene with more dynamic range than what a P&S can show you. How do you work around this? Simple, NEVER shoot towards the sun if you want both the sky and foreground to be well exposed. Here's another example. This is a very simmilar image taken the day after the previous. Same place, same time of day (though that is irrelevant in Svalbard during the summer since the sun is just as high in the sky). The only difference between this and the previous image is that this one is shot away from the sun. This photo is also slightly edited; most noticeably the sky has been darkened with a curves layer and a layer mask. Heres the original to better compare it with the previous example. See, the unedited image is also better than the other one, simply for shooting in a different direction. Here the reason the ground is so dark is because the camera exposed the scene with 18% grey in mind, but that's for another lesson. The second problem of lack of dynamic range in P&S cameras is that the blown out area is oftentimes VERY unappealing. Instead of just loosing information to light you get weird colorshifts at the border of the overexposed area. Here's one showing a cyan shift. This is almost impossible to fix. Avoid it. Here's a shot almost against the sun that DOES work, because it does not rely on having the foreground correctly exposed..
Onwards.
The problem with slow autofocus is easy. Don't shoot moving things, or if you do focus on a point and wait until the thing that's moving is at that point, then take the photo. Just be aware of the lag between pressing the shutter button and taking the photo. This technique requires A LOT of practice before getting it right. This is how sports photos of eg. race cars were taken before cameras had autofocus. Some old dogs still do this.
Onwards.
Often poor manual controls. This is also quite an easy problem. Either shoot in auto mode or if your camera has it use aperture priority. You only need to adjust the exposure compensation anyway. Most P&S cameras aren't designed with manual use in mind and therefore are very difficult and time consuming to use if you use them in manual mode. Most however work quite well in aperture priority mode since the exposure compensation feature is often just a button press away.
Onwards. Large depth of field. One thing with cameras with large sensors (DSLRs et. al.) is that the area that is sharp is quite thin and the area which is blurry is quite large. This is an effect of a large sensor and a large aperture. You can only recreate this using post processing. Simply avoid taking photos where you would like this effect. This means when you're taking portraits you'll have to think A LOT more about your backgrounds because you can't hide them in the blur of a large aperture. You're backgrounds will show in all their ugliness. Try to find pretty backgrounds.
Onwards. Doesn't capture raw images. This is a bit of biggie too, but not such a large problem. If your camera has the settings turn the sharpness, noise reduction to their lowest levels. Also put saturation and contrast to 0 (DON'T have the camera reduce these below 0; you just want the camera to not raise these; you want to do it yourself). All cameras apply post processing to the photos you take before the camera saves the photos to the memorycard. Ideally you want to control this on a per image basis and not have the camera do it for you. You do a MUCH better job at this.
Onwards. Poor high ISO performance. Just don't shoot when it's dark. Or if you have to do it like this. Before going out and shooting test your camera at home. Set the ISO from 100 all the way to the maximum your camera has. Choose highest one that you find still acceptable as the highest you'll ever use. Now when you're at your friends party put your camera to this ISO, the largest aperture you can (smallest number) and put the camera on timer mode. Now either attach the camera to a small tripod or just set it on a table and press the shutter and wait until the timer takes a photo. Don't forget to turn off the flash and set the white balance to incandescent (if your shooting in a room thats lit with lightbulbs).
And now download photoshop (the trial version) and search youtube for photoshop curves tutorials and photoshop layer mask tutorials. Boom, now you're taking better photos than 90 % of people with DSLRs'.
Oh and that first image I linked to? It was taken with a 5 meagpixel GoPro Hero HD, which is a video camera.