Having problems with the flash\ blurred and grainy images

Hi,

Please clean your lenses and double check that you haven't activated night mode somehow. You can take pictures in different lighting to check if the issue remains consistent.

Thank you.

Try increasing the ISO setting higher to 800 or more.

There are a few things to consider:

-- Are your hands steady as you take the shot, and are you moving the camera before the shutter actually clicks? As a test, put the camera down on a table top and take a picture without moving the camera until well after the shutter clicks. If the resulting image is not blurry--you just proved that your holding technique needs improvement!

--This camera has image stabilization to help you deal with camera shake--do you have this feature turned on in the menu?

--If your subjects are moving and your shutter speed is slow (meaning that the shutter stays open a relatively long time to gather enough light) then you will get blur. And, even if your subject is not moving but the shutter speed is slow, then your camera shake will come back to haunt you.

To fix slow shutter speed, you can either use a flash to freeze the action, or you can manually increase the ISO setting to a higher number, or you can choose a preset like "sports" which will tell the camera you want faster shutter speeds. A higher ISO setting will allow for faster shutter speeds, but it can also result in a grainy look, called "noise" if you set it too high.

Most likely it is your holding technique and the setting you are choosing that is causing the blur. If you are in decently bright light outdoors, you hold your camera steady and wait for the shutter to click, and you have image stabilization on, then you should have sharp pictures. If you are indoors, expect to need a flash.

You need to set the white balance for the kind of light in the gym. Take a few test shots while changing the white balance each time until you're happy with the color. For indoor shots, set your ISO to at least 800 and turn off the flash unless you're 10-12 feet from the action. If the camera has some sort of shake reduction, turn it on.

Indoor actions in low-to-moderate light are very difficult. This is why professional photographers pay thousands for DSLRs with high quality high-ISO settings, and thousands more for big and heavy lenses that can shoot with a large aperture (small f-stop number) to get the most light into the lens and onto the sensor.

Your Olympus D-555 only goes to ISO 400, which is not suitable for indoor action shots, and the lens is f/3 to f/5 which is not a fast lens. What you are trying to do is simply not possible with this camera. You need good quality at ISO 1600 (or higher) and f/2.8 or faster for the lens. This will give you 8 to 16 times as much light gathering capability in low light situations, letting you use a much faster shutter to capture action shots in low light.

Maybe. Assuming you can't add more light, you can either increase the ISO and/or open up the aperture. Try going to A (Aperture) mode and opening up the lens all the way. This will give you the fastest shutter speed possible under the conditions. That may or may not be fast enough.

Yes. The question is how good they'll turn out.

You're right that it's because it's darker indoors. You can compensate for this at least in part by raising the ISO. This runs the risk of increased noise, but given the choice between a noisy pic and no pic...

A fast lens may get you a stop or two, but they're expen$ive.

A third option is to increase the amount of light. Multiple flashes around the basket, for example. Or floodlights mounted on the roof...

If you can adjust the ISO sensitivity to a lower number then the graininess will be reduced.

However, by reducing the ISO, you will need a slower shutter speed and a larger aperture. A tripod, table or other support may be necessary.

The "noise reduction" setting on the camera can also be adjusted a step up.

Taking pictures at full resolution and fine compression will also help.
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Overall, at least try lowering the ISO, and using the flash brighter.

First, try to get more light, particularly natural light (window); second, try using shutter priority (S mode), setting the shutter speed at not less than 1/50, faster if you are shooting motion/action (check the Properties of the blurred pictures that you've been getting in Camedia software - the shutter speeds are probably too slow because of the low light), and experiment with higher ISO settings (either 200 or Auto, not 400) though there's a trade-off in noise levels.

With the camera you have, noise isn't much of an issue when pushing the ISO to 400, 800 or even 1600. Try setting at ISO 400 and change it to manual mode or shutter priority and then choose a faster shutter speed. Take some test shots. If it's still blurred, increase the shutter speed and ISO to 800 and try again.