help with sony DSC-S85

jacksonpt

Active Member
Kind of off topic, kind of not. I have a Sony DSC-S85 4megapixel camera that I'm getting frustrated with. I have some general knowledge about photography, but I'm by no means an expert. I understand the concepts of aperature and shutter speed, etc., but I haven't taken enough pictures (at least not enough good ones) to know how to apply those concepts. Make sense?
I have 3 questions...
I generally take pictures on the "fine" setting, at 1600x1200, in jpeg format. Will taking pictures at higher resolutions improve image quality, especially the closeups (I know about, and use macro mode)? I have a problem getting the edges of objects to stay sharp in closeups... they tend to get grainy. What about taking them as tiffs and using photoshop to change them to jpegs?
How can I set the camera so that the background is in focus at the same time as the foreground? I did it once by accident, I set something to infinity, but I can't do it again. I thought it would have been an aperature setting, but I can't figure out how to get back to infinity, and the user manual doesn't help.
Take a look at this picture. It was taken on the "fine" setting, at 1600x1200, in jpeg format, in macro mode. I cropped the image to about 1000x1000, so the blenny was in the center of the image. At this point, the image was clearly grainy. I then shrunk the image to 400x400, and it looks good. Is there a way to get the pics to look good at full resolution, right off the camera (i.e. not by using photoshop), or is that the limitation of my 4mp camera?
Thanks all. If I can get some decent ones to turn out, I hope to have some pics this weekend.
 
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