photos

hi

i have a sony cyber shot 64x zoom. could i ask someones advise. i love to take sunrise and sunset, but which would i be better with.......auto or manual?. i am only amateur, but i do love taking photos. i am going on our caribbean cruise in 9 days, 15 dec from manchester to barbados. ( cant wait ) thanks. lynn

Auto is going to be simpler and will safely get you the most successful shots; manual gives you more creativity.

What's the actual model number of your camera? It looks like Sony's current offering is a 63X zoom, DSC-H400. One thing that looks nice with that camera is you can choose a "scene" manually and then the automatic feature will take over (it ordinarily selects the scene for you). There's an option for a beach scene, for instance, that would probably work for an over-water sunrise or sunset (the camera may well select that mode itself).

If you're unsure of the camera, you are going to have more usable shots in auto; experience makes manual more interesting.

hi

many thanks for your reply. yes it is a 63xzoom h400. i will take your advice and use auto, and it does have a scene selection. once again thankyou. when i return from my cruise i will try and put some photos on here. lynn

One thing you can do when you have time:

Take pictures of the same thing in auto and various manual modes. It'll make you more comfortable with changing options. For instance, a lot of photographers shoot predominantly on aperture priority. It gives you more control over lighting and depth of field. So shoot some shots in different lighting in auto and in aperture priority (you get used to picking a number with time) and see how they compare.

I wouldn't necessarily do that on the cruise, but try it at home and see.

If you end up shooting auto, go over your controls and find the Exposure Compensation settings (usually indicated by a "+/-"). Adjusting the brightness down can add drama to an otherwise bland sea and sky picture.

This was shot with a -1 adjustment which cuts the light in half:

BTW, the beach setting usually increases the exposure to offset the camera's programming that tries to average the scene to a set standard. Beach or Snow settings would overexpose a sunset shot.

I'm pretty sure your camera has a sunset/sunrise setting.

Dave

BTW, the beach setting usually increases the exposure to offset the camera's programming that tries to average the scene to a set standard. Beach or Snow settings would overexpose a sunset shot.

 

I'm pretty sure your camera has a sunset/sunrise setting.

 

Dave

Oops! My bad on that.

I did pull up the manual and didn't see a sunset/sunrise setting, unless it's on the main dial rather than a scene.