Settings on digicam for posting on TRT?

[Phantom Phish]

I have access to a borrowed digital camera for a week, and thought I'd like to try and take a few shots of my tank to post on TRT. The camera is a Nikon coolpix 995. I'm reading the manual right now, but is there anyone who can offer advice for which settings I should use to post pictures on TRT? i.e. resolution (camera offers settings for Hi, fine, normal and basic), image size (VGA, XGA, SXGA, UXGA, 3:2 and full, going from smallest to largest), ISO, shutter speed etc...

[gregt]

Have you read this thread yet? Lot's of good stuff there:

http://thereeftank.com/forums/showth...threadid=23680

[Phantom Phish]

Greg:
Thanks, yes I've seen that thread. The comments about using a tripod and the self timer are good ones I think. The last post mentions using an ISO of 400 and aperature priority at 5.6. But how about image size and resolution? Is it better to take the shots at the highest resolution and image size and then try to resize it with, say Photoshop Elements, or take it at a lower resolution and image size that can be directly posted on TRT without resizing? If so, what settings would allow the image to posted directly to TRT? Sorry about all the questions, I have some experience with film cameras, but am a newbie when it comes to digital.

[gregt]

It's always better to have higher resolution, but for posting on the web, the lowest is probably more than adequate. You'll be able to post better pictures using good techniques and low resolution than bad techniques and high resolution.

[Phantom Phish]

OK, let me give this a try and see if it works...

[gregt]

Very nice.

[Phantom Phish]

OK, that seemed to work fairly well, except I seem to have lost some resolution when I resized it, it doesn't look quite as sharp as the original....

[Phantom Phish]

Let's try again...

[Phantom Phish]

Well, it's not bad, but I'm definitely loosing some sharpness/resolution somewhere in the process.

[gregt]

email me the originals and I will take a look this evening...

[gumhead]

After resizing you should use a sharpening tool. What are you using for editing software.

[MiddletonMark]

Well, the best guys are `on it' ... so the only thing I'd recommend [having a 995] is to use the Macro mode [the little mountain/flower button] and have it on the `flower' setting for close-macro -> if you're shooting things up close [like coral polyps, etc]. The 995 has a really nice macro, can focus pretty close.

But the pictures and tank look great! Minor sharpening ... and you're there IMO.

---
Gumhead ... what would you suggest for sharpening in Photoshop? I've been using the unsharpen mask mostly .. and playing with the bars some. What would you recommend for sharpening / settings?

Thanks in advance

[Phantom Phish]

Gumhead:
Thanks, I'll try some sharpening. I used Adobe Photoshop Elements to resize the pictures, from 1280 x 960 to 640 x 480. I believe there's a sharpening tool in there somewhere, I'll give that a try. Didn't do any "optimizing", maybe I should give that a try if I can find a program to do it (don't think Photoshop Elements does, but might be wrong there).

MiddletonMark:
I used the macro setting on some closer shots (not the ones posted here), seems to work pretty well. Looking back at the original of the full tank shot, the entire tank probably isn't as sharp as it should be. The tank is in a hallway, and I can't back up the camera very far to get everything in even at the widest angle setting. So I had to shoot at an angle with a fairly wide f stop to keep the shutter speed fast enough that fish and the swaying Colt coral weren't too blurry. Anyway, I'm thinking I might need to shoot that one again at a tighter f stop like f22 inorder to get more depth of field.

Gregg:
I'll try some of the suggestions above first, before bothering you with sending the files in an e-mail Thanks again.

[Phantom Phish]

Ok, same shot with sharpening...

[Phantom Phish]

OK, that's looking pretty close to the original. Maybe a little too contrasty, but not bad.