What Happened To My Picture Quality?

Stella was heading out for her 3rd walk of the day on Saturday. I am not sure she is a real fan of the three walks in one day as she seems to walk in her "slower than slow" mode. To the point of dragging the front edges of her paws with each step.


Sadie is always ready for a walk, sometimes even minutes after we return.

My post tonight is going to be about picture quality. I am either losing my mind or I have lost the deep colors of my pictures. I have thought the picture quality of my photos has decreased a lot in recent months. At first I thought it was the time of year with dull drab surroundings. I rechecked all of my camera settings, made sure the lens was clean as well as the mirrors inside the camera.

I even took a day of photos with my iPhone 6s so I could compare them. Still, they all looked 'off'. The colors were not as deep and rich as I remember them being when I bought the camera in September 2014 and even as recently as September 2016.

Since I shoot all my pictures in the 'auto' mode, there are only so many ways I can change the settings. By the camera default settings I would assume that all of them are set for optimal results.

None of these pictures on the blog today were edited in any way.

I have searched google for info, I've watched YouTube videos from camera professionals, read Nikon D3200 forums, and read my owners manual from cover to cover ... I didn't find what I was looking for. Although I did find one answer to one of my questions.

By default, the D3200 pictures shot at jpg, are in a 'soft' mode. They need to have their 'sharpness' adjusted, thus the reason I was finding they were looking much better when I did that and it really wasn't my old eyes that were the problem. Sharpness isn't my complaint though. Depth of color is, vibrant natural colors are not there most of the time.

To me a lot of my pictures have a dull quality when it comes to color. I am not a professional photographer and probably not a high amateur but I do know the time of day makes a difference in the light, which makes a difference in picture quality.

All of these pictures were taken after 5pm where most of my blog pictures are taken between 9:30am - 11:30am. Still I can see a difference in the pictures I take in the afternoons, where they might not show up on the blog.

I know that sunshine will make my pictures look better than those with overcast skies ... just like my moods.

Luckily I have saved every picture taken with the Nikon D3200, ~10,000 of them. I also have folders for different topics and each hound has their own folder of pictures, most recent on top. Just like spreadsheets I might be a little obsessive when it comes to making file folders because I have a folder labeled "house roof" ... where there is a daily picture of the back of my house where I can see the older roof in all kinds of weather and note if there is any damage taking place. Too curious I guess.

For a while I had talked myself into thinking the change of picture quality took place when I replaced the stock Nikon lens with a new Tamron lens. So I went back and looked at pictures of the same things, side by side, shot close to the same time of day ... I did not see any differences in the lens used.

Just to make sure I went out Saturday morning on the first walk of the day with the Nikon 55mm - 200mm lens attached. I was instantly reminded why I bought a new Tamron lens ... the Nikon lens would not auto focus on the first picture. Later on during the walk, it would not auto focus on any length greater than 70mm zoom. For reference I posted all of those pictures on my private blog where I could look at them on the Blogger platform and compare.

I saw no difference in picture quality nor depth of color.

So about the time I downloaded these pictures for tonight's blog post, I had just watched a video on a basic set up for the Nikon D3200 ... and it came to me ... the possible answer. One, that I will check out on the Sunday morning hound walk.

When I first bought the camera and started shooting pictures, I was shooting on a setting of 'RAW-JPEG". After reading a few forum answers that I found searching on google, that may not be the solution either.

I do remember the reasons I changed from Raw to Jpg Fine ... file size. I also had to do extra steps to reduce the size of the picture so I could upload it into Blogger or Wordpress. I was told that the quality would not be that much different, if seen at all, between Raw and Fine settings. Basically the raw file was like a negative of the picture, while the jpg was the picture itself.

Here is a picture of Sadie taken on September 29, 2014 with the Nikon lens. You can see the different in sharpness, clarity, and color. It is also funny/surprising that I was still putting her on the tether anytime she was outside.

Or this one taken July 9, 2016 at 4:45pm ... not edited

Those above were taken with the Nikon 55mm-200mm lens.

September 6, 2016 my new Tamron 18mm-200mm lens arrived and I saw no difference in color or quality. The picture below was taken the morning after the lens arrived. In my eyes, this picture looks much better than any picture I have taken in the last 6 months.

Maybe it's my eyes ... but recent photos don't look as good as the ones I took last fall.

I think I'll take a night off from google searches, baseball games, picture files and start a new book. I have a few on my shelf that were bought but never read. With tall glasses of caffeinated ice tea that should keep me occupied for the rest of the night into the early morning hours.

The beautiful weather is back in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.

Heidi Demanded a Walk On Friday

While the hounds were outside after their Friday afternoon lunch, I had a change of plans. It was time to take off the Z4 car cover and take a drive. While I was taking the cover off I decided I did not want to wait for dinner and the Chinese Buffet, although it is open during the day. I was going the opposite direction for some Amish food buffet.

It was a beautiful drive to and from. It wasn't warm enough to put the top down but the scenery through this curves and hills of southern Indiana is great to see. As usual the food was great, seafood is always a special on Friday, great salad bar and coconut pie that you can't pass up.

I had left Heidi alone to protect the house with Sadie and Stella sleeping in the bedroom with the door shut. It's normal for Heidi to bark when I get home to let me know there were no problems while I was gone. Then she likes to stand up on her back legs with her paws on my legs to greet me.

Today was a little different. After she hopped down, she started barking non-stop and ran toward the door. I let her out, then went back to open the bedroom door to let the bloodhounds out. Grabbing my camera I knew the hounds would be ready for a walk. Would Heidi?

From the way that Heidi was barking I had a feeling that is what she wanted to do. When it is warm outside and she is feeling good, it's the way she acts.

She alternated from trotting to walk to stopping for a deeper smell.

Stella charged out of bounds, through the wooded area to the right of us and attempted to go down into the gully. She came when I called her but with three hounds going three different directions, Stella had earned "temporary restriction".

Heidi has never liked getting her feet wet, especially on a walk. So once the path started getting wet as we neared the back of the field, she tip toed away from the path, slowly looking for some dry ground.

When I bought her from the GABR in June 2011, she had a reputation as a 'runner', to be leashed at all times. She just needed some room to run because a few weeks after she arrived I could see she would not need to be leashed all the times we were outside. She has never gone near the highway nor has run off when she is let outside on her own.

She still has one of the better noses among the hounds.

Stella figured out she could still scratch her itch even with the 6' leash dangling from her collar. She had been dragging it from about the first turn to the back of the field. It was taken off right after I took this picture.

Heidi was enjoying her own pace as was Stella. My problem was up ahead ... Sadie had taken off running toward the neighbor's woods. It had to be the big blonde cat she smelled.

Before I could go get Sadie I had to get Stella ... she started running toward me when I called her name. Heidi kept walking on the path.

I finally got all three of them herded into one area ... just like cattle. All their noses were headed in the same and correct direction ... a successful walk.

I still have not made it over to vet for annual checkups and a rabies shot for each. I'll take Heidi first and then maybe the bloodhounds at the same time ... that should be a great picture of both of them in the back of the Mini Countryman when it happens.

Heidi has filled out a little around all those bones I felt last fall and winter, so she has added some pounds. She does not have any irritated skin but some areas where the hair will never grow back. All of her skin is soft and her coat is smooth and soft. The change in dog food helped.

She wagged her tail most of the way, stopped for a few places of interest and acted as if she was enjoying her afternoon outside.

It wasn't five minutes inside the house where all three had found their favorite spots and were out for their afternoon siestas. Another successful day in the life of a hound.

Warmer temps have arrived here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.

Sadie & Stella Very Active This Morning

I made the mistake of leaving a window open plus a few windows had the screen windows down instead of the storm windows closed. That mistake did not fail to remind me just how cold it was last night. The living room thermometer was showing 58° ... big mistake.

So I guess we will be pushing those warmer temps out one more day before they start. It was still too nice to not take a walk with the hounds. With it below 70° Heidi stayed in bed, hidden under my Marmot sleeping bag. Sadie grabbed my left hand with her mouth and led me through the yard to the field, while Stella stopped to have some morning grass.

You can see how fast the grass is growing. It is not that tall all over the field but just in areas the hounds dumped their tanks over the winter months. I saw how cold it was when I stepped outside for the first trip of the day so this time I put on the Mountain Hear Wear down parka, my ski cap and a light pair of gloves for our morning walk.

A few steps into the field Sadie released my left hand and took off sprinting in every direction possible. She was unconscious as she turned on a dime and moved in different directions back and forth across the field. Was it the cat or deer ?

I turned to check on Stella and I was happy again to see her running. It wasn't important that she was running to meet me. It was important to see for the second day in a row that she was running after taking some time off. I was almost to the point of taking her to the vet for a blood test to see if she was sick, due to her lack of running. She loves to run.

By the time I clipped off a few pictures of Stella, I turned to continue to walk and saw that Sadie was already close to the first turn. She was still going crazy with tracking scents, moving in short bursts of speed in different directions back and forth from left to right.

By the way Sadie was action I thought it might be possible for a deer chase this morning. That was fine with me, I would have let them sprint as far as they wanted or until they wore out but I would only walk to catch up with them. I found out there were no deer to chase, only their scent to track.

Stella ran past my leg at full speed toward Sadie. Then immediately ran into the bushes where you could see the deer had mashed some of them down to ground level. Stella was in deer heaven for a while.

Once again, when I turned to continue the walk, Sadie had taken off for the far right corner and Stella was following at full speed. A first for her in what seems to be in months. I still have not looked back through the blog or her pictures just to see how long it's been since she has sprinted somewhere.

At this point I had to yell Sadie's name. She was on the move and was headed down into the gully. It would be nothing but deer scent, thick bushes and deep mud at the bottom. They can both go to the very edge of the gully but not down into it.

She turned immediately when she heard her name and took off down the back edge of the field. Stella and I could not keep up with her today. When her tail is curled and her nose is to the ground she is really locked into something and pays attention to nothing else while she is on the move.

Stella decide she was finished trying to keep up with Sadie and went back to her own pace.

The field grass seems to be growing by the hour. There are a lot of new tall sprouts of hay coming up. It always seems if they do that second cut in the fall, there are less weeds in the following spring with a lot more hay to cut in June.

While Stella and I walked at our normal pace, Sadie continued to search and explore a long way in front of us. Her nose was to the ground all the way to the backyard.

I let Stella hang back where she was in the field while I approached the house. She came running to catch up and had to check out what Sadie had found so close to the house.

By this time and the area that they would not leave, I was pretty sure that big blonde cat we saw a few weeks ago by the neighbor's woods had paid us a visit while we slept. She also might be a great mouse hunter because it has been so long since I have seen a mouse inside the house, that I can't remember the last time.

It's on the chilly side but it's a beautiful day today. We will get in another hound walk later, maybe even two more. I'm motivated enough to get some domestic things done around the house today and might head to the Chinese Buffet downtown for dinner tonight. Not only does it taste good, it's all you can eat for $8.

I don't know if you noticed or not but I edited my pictures different on yesterday's second post. I was going to say something about it but forgot until it was too late to mention. Instead of clicking the "enhance' icon in the Apple Photos program for each picture, I only clicked the "auto" under Sharpness. That kept the lighting and color as the lens captured the picture but tweaked the pictures just a little for a sharper view.

With today's pictures I did a little of both and some not at all. Sometimes the "enhance" will make the hounds too dark or the grass too bright green.

I called Exede customer service yesterday to verify what I was having done next Tuesday was okay for a current customer. The local biz that installed the dish in June 2014 will be changing out the modem and adding updated equipment onto the dish ... for faster download speeds.

Exede customer service told me I was getting a deal that new customer get, everything was fine and it was correct to call them next Tuesday after the changes are made to cancel my old account number. I forgot to mention yesterday, in addition of a $16 per month savings and more data per month, that on the 3rd month of billing they will give me a $50 credit. That will make my bill only $17 after taxes in July for 20Gb of date per month.

For those of you that live in rural areas or even in towns that have only DSL internet service ... I can tell you living up here on the hill I get high winds and severe storms at times ... my satellite internet has been more reliable than any DSL service I had before. It's very rare that I lose the satellite signal. My download speeds are between 12Mbps - 15Mbps.

That is all from 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.