Panasonic Lumix FZ28

Reaching Out

Program Mode: F4.4, 1/30 sec., ISO400.

Could not resist another one, but I promise this is the last. Otherwise untouched other than slight crop and saturated in Picasa.

A play on depth of field, with max zoom. Slightly cropped in Picasa and slight enhancement in saturation, otherwise untouched. I would like to think this pix gives different people different feelings. Enjoy.

Amazing

Program Mode: F4.4, 1/400 sec., ISO100.

Went out and shot this on a bright day. Not supposed to be the best of lighting conditions. Am amazed at the amount of details captured, if you look below, which is a crop of the same pix.

Hospital Raja Permaisuri Bainun, Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia.

Shutter Priority Mode: F3.6, 2 sec., ISO100.

A place of dread and a place of hope, where so much rest on the shoulders of so few. Ordinary people just like you and me, rendering services to their fellow men irrespective of race and religion, choosing to make a difference, with dedication and without recognition. Nurses who have to smile for their husbands, children, colleagues and patients, and still find the courage to launder their blood tainted uniforms. Untold stories of generosity among those who can least afford to be generous. Here, you get to see what it means to be human.

Shutter Priority Mode: F3.0, 2 sec., ISO100.

Half Moon

Half Moon.

Could not resist giving this another shot, on a beautiful night with clear skies. This is the same moon all of us, on this earth are looking at, no matter where we are. For friends that's far away, look up and know that I am also looking.

Night Portraits with the FZ28.

Your's truly with the Mrs. F3.0, 1.0s, ISO100. Disclaimer: No professional models were used in this shoot :)

Here's how I did it:

Use a tripod, asking someone to hand held your camera and shoot would NOT do at all.
I used Program mode and ask the camera to decide on the settings.
I set max ISO to ISO400 but the camera decides ISO100 is good with F3.0 and a shutter time of 1 second.
I opened up my flash on the FZ28, and set it to slow sync / red eye mode. This effectively tells the camera that I want a slow shutter to absorb the natural lights but still want the flash to fire a short burst anyway. Auto or Forced Flash would fire flash but would not have a slow shutter to absorb the natural night scenery.
Because the flash is used, and it has an effective range, meaning if you stand too far it won't illuminate your face well, my experience says you must stand about less than 10 feet away. On paper, the FZ28 flash has a range of 8.5 meters at wide angle and 5.4 meters at telephoto, but you'll need to experiment with this to get your subject well illuminated.
I also used the timer set at 10 seconds. The auto focus assist lamp (orange) will blink and on steady when the timer is about to be reached. Be SURE to tell your subject (people) to stay still for 1 or 2 seconds even after the camera has fired it's flash. This is because the camera has decided to open the shutter for 1 second to absorb the night scenery after firing the flash, and if you moved during this time, your subject will be blurred.
Sometimes if I set the camera auto focus mode to face detection, it will not be able to recognize faces during night portraits as the scene is dark. This may cause the camera to focus on other parts of the scene and have your faces out of focus. Therefore, I used 1 area focusing. The default when using 1 area focusing is to focus in the middle of the scene, but if you press the AF/Focus button near the shutter button for a second or two, you'll be able to use the joystick to move the focus rectangle to anywhere you choose. Move this focus rectangle to your subject's faces and the camera should be able to focus properly on your subject's face.

Happy shooting!

Picasa Tuning Magic.

I took this pix and thought it's too dark.

After Picasa automatic tuning, it look OK to me.

What I've learned:

Set your FZ28 to max ISO400.
Use either Program mode or Shutter mode.
Try using ISO100 and if it's too dark, increase the shutter time or increase ISO.
Always us a tripod and always use the timer. When you press the shutter on the camera, you'll induce camera shake, and the pix will be blurred, but after the timer, the camera will stable down and the pix will be sharp.
Taking a good pix takes time, so don't be in a hurry.