she couldn't take the picture

[John Camp]

My wife and I went to a restaurant today, on the St. Croix River in Minnesota. A woman wanted to get a picture of their party of 4, and couldn't make the digital p&s take the picture. The problem was that they were sitting in front of the window with the bright sky and water outside, while inside, with the sun in the west (the window looked east) it was quite dim. The auto setting light meter couldn't handle the disparity, and the faces in the photos were apparently too dark to see. Further, it appeared that when they forced a flash in an effort to fill, the pop-up flash was not powerful enough to fill at a distance long enough to get all four people in the photo...

JC

 

[bmattock]

[EDIT] Nevermind, I have nothing to say. I think it is great. That's all.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[ch1]

This would probably have been a wipe-out on a film P&S too.

A dSLR could have taken the pic by metering to a neutral light setting, locking it in and then re-composing. Just like with a film SLR! 😉

 

[Trius]

XA or Infinity (long discontinued) or Stylus could handle it, at least with negative film.

 

[Rich Silfver]

Heavily backlit situations would cause exactly the same problem for a film P&S.
The only difference is that she found out right away rather than next week when picking up her film from Wahlgreens.

More experienced photographers could have worked around the problem but once again it doesn't sound as if the tool was the issue here.

 

[Trius]

Good point, Rich. But then, with any "tool" that is supposed to be auto everything, it really isn't ... and there is an expectation that the user has at least minimal responsibility to know how to operate it.

When the Infinity was introduced, it was one of the first (if not the first) P&S cameras to have a spot/backlight compensation capability. I sold a ton of those, and always explained that and showed the buyer how to use it.

The fact someone buys what is for them a relatively expensive tool and doesn't bother to learn how to use it properly always confounds me.

 

[aad]

Don't some P&S cameras have a backlight mode?
In Belize, the folks in front had a Canon DSLR, trying to make a shot through a wet window, but the AF wouldn't let them. They asked me with my old Pentax how I did it, and I showed them the switch. They sort of slapped themselves on the forehead and said "Of course", so it isn't even ignorance, just forgetfulness sometimes.

 

[ywenz]

How do you know her pic didn't turn out? Or did you assume it didn't?

Maybe this whole things speaks more of the photographer's skill rather than the limits of the equipment.

 

[ErnestoJL]

Good point, Rich. But then, with any "tool" that is supposed to be auto everything, it really isn't ... and there is an expectation that the user has at least minimal responsibility to know how to operate it.

When the Infinity was introduced, it was one of the first (if not the first) P&S cameras to have a spot/backlight compensation capability. I sold a ton of those, and always explained that and showed the buyer how to use it.

The fact someone buys what is for them a relatively expensive tool and doesn't bother to learn how to use it properly always confounds me.

Many years ago, when I was 13 y.o. and started the tech school, I was trying to make a complicated wood piece at the carpenter shop. I said to my teacher: Oh, I have the wrong tool! He stared to me and answered: Boy, you´ve the right one, but´s not in your hands, but above your neck!.

This early lesson helped me for the past 40 years in many ways.
IMO many people doesn´t want to involve into something that (they think) a machine can do better... (thinking?) OMG!

Ernesto