Canon camera...

mikejones

Member
Anyone using the Canon PowerShot sd cameras to take cool pics? if so can you give some tips on how to do it?

TIA

mike
 
You have 3x optical zoom, which is nice. Make sure the shutter speed is up. 1/250 but preferably 1/500 should be good. If you can't get a high enough shutter speed, zooming out all the way lets you go to f/2.8 aperture. This will increase shutter speed. If your shutter speed is still not high enough, you can go all the way up to 1600 ISO...though I have no clue how well a small sensor P&S camera will handle that kind of speed.
I assumed you are using the SD1000. If its an earlier model you may not have some of the listed capabilities. Please list specific model and sample pictures.
 
My camera is a Canon PowerShot sd450 DIGITAL ELPH. These are the best I got from hundreds of pics I've taken so far

IMG_3348.jpg

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I don't have any recent pics cuz my younger brother lost the memory card
 
1) looks okay, just dirty glass. Not the camera's fault.
2) Your aperture was set to f/2.8 which as I mentioned before is exactly what you want. Unfortionately your shutter speed was only 1/30 of a seconed. Remember how I said you want 1/250? 1/30 gives too much time for a) movement of your fish or b) movement by you "camera shake". Its hard to tell which in this case. If possible try to bump up your ISO speed which will give a faster shutter speed. I have no idea if you even have this option.
3) Aperture was at f/2.8 (good) but your shutter speed was only 1/20 of a second. You moved your hand too much while the picture was being taken and you get one image displaying all that movement. Try not holding the camera so far from your face. Use the viewfinder (that little box for your eye) NOT the LCD. This should help your problem at least slightly.
4) f/2.8 1/30
5) f/2.8 1/30 You did pretty good on this one. The only difference between 4 and 5 is you had a much sturdier hand in 5.
6) f/2.8 1/20 I'm surprised this one turned out as well as it did.
 
You seem to have a couple options:
1) Increase light. Photography revolves around light and you just don't have enough of it. Either turn on your MH, use a flash (not recommended) or use some lights in the room. The problem is MH will make the image harsh and bland. Flash will also do this and unless care is taken, give a nasty reflection on the glass.
2) Steady your hand. Given the light you have to work with (and the resulting available shutter speed) your hand just isn't steady enough. This is why tripods are so popular. They are made for this very problem. Sorry for you, no mater how steady your hand is, your fish still swim fast. This is a great solution to shooting coral however. If you can't get a tripod, try a stack of books. Wedge some paper under the camera to tilt it. If you have a timer delay on the shutter button, this is the time to use it. That way your camera will just be resting still on a pile of books pointed at your coral when it takes the picture. Take your hands out of the picture no pun intended.
3) Increase your ISO speed. This will increase your camera's sensitivity to light. The trade off is spots on the image called noise (turn your TV to a channel that doesn't exist to see the video version of this phenomenon).
 
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I did a little research on your specific camera:
While you can't go up to 1600 ISO like the SD1000 I mentioned earlier, you can hit

ISO
Auto, 50,100,200,400

Take your ISO setting off of Auto and set it to 400. This should help with your shutter speed problem, though not dramatically enough that you still must fix those shaky hands. Try holding the camera differently. Pretend your a sniper and the fish/coral is Hitler in a bunker a mile away. If your hand sways just a little while you pull the trigger...you'll miss your shot. Accept waltzing in an octopus' garden, there is no difference here.

When you are not shooting in low light, I recommend reseting ISO to 100 for every day use.

Good luck and I will eagerly await your new report card.
 
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I would second the tripod, and also suggest using the timer. that way the camera will not shake. I use a canon a720is and both these things really help my pics.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12438495#post12438495 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by TitusvileSurfer
I did a little research on your specific camera:
While you can't go up to 1600 ISO like the SD1000 I mentioned earlier, you can hit

ISO
Auto, 50,100,200,400

Take your ISO setting off of Auto and set it to 400. This should help with your shutter speed problem, though not dramatically enough that you still must fix those shaky hands. Try holding the camera differently. Pretend your a sniper and the fish/coral is Hitler in a bunker a mile away. If your hand sways just a little while you pull the trigger...you'll miss your shot. Accept waltzing in an octopus' garden, there is no difference here.

When you are not shooting in low light, I recommend reseting ISO to 100 for every day use.

Good luck and I will eagerly await your new report card.


Sorry it took too long to reply but I just got the memory card.
Heres my "report card":lol: :D I did what yo recommended (Take your ISO setting off of Auto and set it to 400) And it did help but now I think the quality its a bit poor IMO.

Here are the best pics I got
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HOPE I did Good. :worried2:
 
Alright lets interpret the results!
1) f/2.8, 1/200 ISO unknown.
Alright, you found a way to get your shutter speed up whoo hoo!. Now you have to decide for yourself when you want high shutter speed and when you don't. If you have a tripod or use my book method, you can get away with a much lower shutter speed for something still that isn't going to run away. In this shot, the back and front of your subject was blurry because of the f/2.8. This my very well have been what your wanted, but if you take your shutter speed down a notch and make your aperture f/4 or f/5.6, much more of the subject will be in focus.
2) f/2.8, 1/250, ISO ?
Well you hit my magic 1/250 number mentioned earlier and look at how much better you can see that big red clown nose, rainbow wig, and Ronald McDonald shoes compared to the first! Sure, image quality is reduced but at least everything is clear.
3) f/2.8 1/200, ISO ?
Good job, your high shutter speed fish froze that fish in mid air...er...water column!
4) f/2.8 1/125 ISO?
With fish going the opposite ways they are really hard to track! This combined with slow shutter speed (for such fast movers) is why they blurred out. The clown fish above them is a hands down improvement from the original. Good job!

ISO unfortuneately does take away image quality, that is the trade off. You can't get light for free! OR can you? Bigger Better cameras with large sensors take high ISO *MUCH* better. ISO 400 and ISO 3,200 are about the same from my camera to yours. I think your getting about as good as images as you can pull from that camera the this point. The only other thing I could suggest is increasing the light, so that you can decrease the ISO from 400 to 200 and the the same f/2.8 1/250. To do this however, you must have DOUBLE (2x) the light.
 
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Ok I'll try getting more light with something else cuz my tank is in my livingroom and theres not much light there just the MH for the tank. Theres something I dont quite get since you been helping, what does f/2.8 1/250 and the rest of these same numbers mean?
 
Oh goodness without understand that, everything I said might as well been Chinese. Not to let all the previous typing be wasted, I will try to redeem myself.
Exposure (how your camera sees light and how "bright" the picture turns out) is affected equally by three main powers. Aperture, Shutter speed, and ISO
1) APERTURE (the most powerful…and confusing)
Think of a garden hose...a very fat one with an adjustable nozzle on the end. Instead of water, it deals with light. The maximum Aperture of the hose is its thickness. The adjustable aperture is how large of a nozzle setting you have. The very largest hose that exists in theory is f/1 (though an f/0.7 was used to shoot one movie). As you can see, this number is a fraction. If I replace the “f” with “1” for demonstrational purposes, 1/1 is bigger than 1/2.8 or 1/4. Here is the mathematical formula:
Aperture.png
(stolen from Wikipedia if memory serves)
Don't worry about memorizing that fraction because you won't actually need to bust out a pen and paper to figure the answer out every time. "f" represents the Focal length (35mm, 50mm, 100mm...) "N" is the number we place under the "f" (f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6...). But notice the square root in that equation. Each setting increases light by a square root of 2, and each increment (called a "stop") DOUBLES the light of the increment before it. The "stops" are: f/1, f/1.4, f/2, f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16, f/22, f/32. Many cameras, such as my 40D can measure these stops in 1/3s (f/2.8, f/3.2, f/3.5, f/4...)
The square root of 2 is about ~ 1.414214
f/1 x 1.414214 = f/1.4
f/1.4 x 1.414214 = f/2
f/2 x 1.414214 = f/2.8
f/2.8x 1.414214 = f/4
and so on...the main thing to understand is that each stop doubles the one before it.
The fraction f/4 does change with the focal length.
When you see something, your eyes are actually interpreting light bouncing off of it. Light fades over distance and you have to increase the sensitivity to the light depending on distance. A 400mm lens set at f/4 has a diameter of 100mm. A 100mm lens, also set at f/4, has a diameter of 25mm. This is why those big telephoto lenses are so…BIG! Not just showing off, physics says they have to be.
Every lens has a unique amount of stops it can go to. My 24-70 is an f/2.8 maximum f/22 minimum. My 70-200 is a f/2.8 max f/32 min. The Canon Xti kit lens 18-55mm is a f/3.5-f/5.6 max and f/22-f/38 min. When it 18-55 is zoomed all the way out to 18mm (wide) it can go to f/3.5. When the 18-55 is set to 55mm, it can only go to f/5.6. Many cheaper lenses have this annoying drawback. Your PowerShot can go from f/2.8-f/4.9 max and f/32-f/45 min. This is why I told you to zoom your camera all the way out, so that you can get f/2.8.
One thing about aperture that doesn’t have to do with light (well at least not in the manner I’ve been talking about): The larger the aperture (f/1) the LESS of the picture will be in focus. This is why you see the front and back of pictures blurred out with only a small selection in focus. A favorite of portraits, open the nearest magazine (golf digest for example) and look at Tiger Woods. See how his big silly face is all smiles, you can even count the dimples in his chin. Look at the tree behind him…it looks like a kindergartener drew it. The leaves are 1 big green blob and the trunk is a blurry brown line. I bet you never even noticed before, and that is the whole idea. Tiger is the only thing in focus, so your eyes don’t even bother to look at the cute baby squirrels just born in that big green blob. The photographer probably used f/2.8 or even f/1.4. If he used f/22, you could see those baby squirrels and Tiger wouldn’t be nearly as attention grabbing. How far away the photographer was from Tiger, and how far away the cute baby squirrels were behind him also plays a role. The closer the lens is to the subject, the smaller the focus (known as Depth of Field or DOF). If the photographer backs up, then you could see some of the grass 2/3 behind the focus point and 1/3 in front.
2) Shutter Speed
Shutter speed is a far easier subject to understand. Remember the nozzle on your light hose? Well it has a handle bar. The shutter speed is how long the handle is pressed, measured in seconds. In your camera, your shutter closes and takes a picture. Depending on the speed of the shutter you can let more or less light in. These are also measured in stops. Each is twice as large as the last: 30 seconds, 15 seconds, 8 seconds, 4, 2, 1 second, 1/2 of a second, 1/4, 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500, 1/1000, 1/2000, 1/4000, and 1/8000 of a second are typical ranges in DSLRs. A shutter speed used in these time frames will include EVERYTHING that happens within that time in the picture. So if you have a tang bouncing off the walls and your shutter speed is 1 second, everywhere that tang goes within that second will show up in the picture as a blurry streak. Likewise, however much YOU move the camera around in that second will merge the edges of everything together in a blurry mess. This is called camera shake, enter the tripod. For general picture taking, I wouldn’t recommend less than 1/30 without a tripod. For fast moving fish, 1/125 but preferably 1/250 shutter speeds should freeze them in place. The faster it moves, the faster the shutter speed.
These numbers also effect or are affected by Aperture. Say you are at f/5.6 @ 1/60 but you want a 1/250 shutter speed. Move the Aperture *down one stop* to f/4 and the shutter speed also moves a stop to 1/125. Move another stop to f/2.8 and the shutter speed moves to f/250. How much LIGHT you have depends whether f/5.6 = 1/60 or if there is *twice as much light* f/5.6 = 1/125. Whatever the light is, moving from f/5.6 to f/4 always doubles the light the camera sees, and hence doubles the shutter speed to bring it back down.
3) ISO
ISO is the the 3rd edge of the triangle, and the cheater’s way out. This is how sensitive your camera is to light. If you are at f/5.6 @ 1/60 but really want that background in focus…and need a higher shutter speed more, moving your ISO will fix your problem.
ISO 100, f/5.6, 1/60
ISO 200, move to f/8, 1/60 OR f/5.6, 1/125
ISO 400, move to f/11, 1/60 OR f/5.6 1/250 OR f/8, 1/125.
My camera goes from ISO 100-3200 in 1/3 increments
Aperture determines how much of the shot is in focus. Shutter speed determines how long the subject is recorded, and ISO determines how much interference you see as little black or colored dots (two different types of “noise”) Turn your TV to a channel to playboy. See all the “snow” covering the hot chick? That is the video version of high noise. Turn your radio to a channel that doesn’t exist…it’s the SAME THING just audible. “Film grain” is the still picture version of the phenomenon called “noise”. Different cameras handle noise better than others. You may not want to venture all the way to ISO 400 because you get spots all over the place. I can’t even tell the difference from ISO 100 to ISO 400 on my camera.
Your Powershot’s range is 80, 100, 200, 400, or auto. Unfortunately it will choose the aperture and shutter speed for you every time, so this has all been kind of a mute point. At least (I hope) you now understand the basics.
Shew that took over an hour! Hows that for "post padding"?! :P
 
To complete my dumb hose analogy, and wrap it all up:
Aperture is the nozzle setting or how big the outlet of the hose is
Shutter speed is how long the handle is depressed, letting water out of the hose
ISO is how loose the valve is, letting LOTS of water or a little water into the hose itself. With LOTS of water, watch out for stray mist! (noise)
 
Hey, I'm here to help. I was pleased to see the 2nd round of shots was better than the selection out of "hundreds" in the first series. Progress is good!
 
PS

There is one other very critical area I should mention that ties the exposure triangle together - the exposure.
Getting the proper exposure is very important. Otherwise everything will appear dark (you didn't let enough light in) or white (too much light, also known as highlights).
Our eyes have a better dynamic range than our cameras, meaning we can see detail brighter and darker. Stop reading and scroll up to the last picture set, specifically the two clown fish (picture 2, 3) and notice what is different between the two exposures.
In picture 2 the clown is a darker red (though I guess it could be a different fish), the mushroom is darker, and the substrate has more detail compared to picture 3.

Exposure Meter

I don't think you have Av or Tv, so I won't bother with it. Turn your camera to M. Doubtfully in the viewfinder, but on the lcd screen you should see a bar in the bottom center. It reads -2..-1..0..1..2 This is your exposure meter. When your Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO match to a setting the camera likes it will read 0. So now you may ask "well why wouldn't I always want it to read 0? I'm going by what the camera is telling me regardless, so why not just trust it?" Because trusting it made the difference between shot 2 and 3.

Metering

Open up the manual for your camera and look up Metering. You have three options.
Spot (center) : The camera examines a little circle in the middle of the picture, maybe you can even see it. It looks at how much light is there and tells you "0" will make everything in this circle look the best you can do, everything outside the circle could be too dark to see or too bright to have any detail...don't know don't care.
Center-weighted : With center-weighted, the meter will look outside the spot. The whole picture is considered but the spot still holds control.
Evaluative : Here the whole picture is looked considered equally and the meter tries to make it all work.
Turn your camera to spot metering and point it at your popcorn ceiling. Turn some lights on, make it look white. Take a picture with the meter on 0. When you look at your picture, the ceiling should be grey. The meter looks for 18% grey and tries to match everything to that.
Grey (like a road) = 0
Sky (just above the sun) = 0
White (snow or) = +1
Black (your goth sister) = -1
Green (a patch of zoos) = -2/3

Exposure Triangle

Now you have a basic understanding of what the needle means. Keep your camera on M and use your needle, aperture, shutter speed, and ISO until you can make your camera do what you want it to on demand and anticipate the results. Obviously, I'll be happy to clear anything up/answer new questions.
 
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