Powershot S2 IS settings??

[flfireman1]

Hi,
Ive got the Canon Powershot S2 IS camera and out of 100 shots I get maybe 4 good ones. I was wondering if the pros on here could help me out with what the best settings are to shoot my aquarium with. Basically my fish pics either come out to blurry or not sharp enough.
Thanks
Eric

 

[TitusvileSurfer]

Post
Pictures

 

[flfireman1]

okay here are a couple:

 

[abereefur]

can you manually adjust shutter speeds? try adjusting to a faster shutter, and get the camera off of auto mode. (you could also try a tripod for the coral shots)

 

[James11]

I have a S3 IS and you can put it in manual mode and do macro shots of your corals and you can adjust all the settings. You'll have to play around with the settings to get a little sharper image. I'll try and post some photos and check my settings for you. I also have some macro lenses that I added for those close ups.

 

[TitusvileSurfer]

Your avatar and the tang were both shot at 1/15 of a second. I can't BELIEVE your avatar came our as well as it did. I can't even understand why the tang looks so sharp all things considered. You need more light, a higher ISO rating, wider apertures (f/2.8), all for the purpose of getting a higher shutter speed. 1/15 just isn't going to cut it. The Copperband was 1/60. You should be shooting fish 1/150+, 1/250+ preferred.

 

[James11]

Here are some pics I took with my S3 IS.

Zoos

Close Up on Ant W/ Bower Macro

Flower

Zoos close up

 

[Skeptic_07]

i have an S2 IS.. i usually just put the dial on auto and use macro mode. That seems to work pretty well for hand shooting. Sometimes i'll get the tripod out and try manually setting the shutter and aperture. f2.8 of course and 1/30 seems to be pretty decent for non-moving targets. My problem is that the photos always come out dark when i start making the shutterspeed 1/60 1/100 and when i use the flash i dont get the right colors at all. Its a decent enough camera, i think. Heres a couple shots that i took of my FW planted tank back in the day. I cant really seem to get shots like this of my SW tank with the same camera. I guess thats why i'm lookin to upgrade.

 

[TitusvileSurfer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12544232#post12544232 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Skeptic_07
Sometimes i'll get the tripod out and try manually setting the shutter and aperture. f2.8 of course and 1/30 seems to be pretty decent for non-moving targets. My problem is that the photos always come out dark when i start making the shutter speed 1/60 1/100

Well I would certainly hope so, otherwise something would be dreadfully wrong. Try bumping your ISO up.

 

[Skeptic_07]

OK i'll try to figure that out. thanks!

 

[TitusvileSurfer]

Last night I wrote a rather small book on the subject here:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=12542523#post12542523

 

[flfireman1]

TitusvileSurfer,
Tried taking a couple of shots with the advice you gave, here is what I got:

 

[TitusvileSurfer]

That fish shot looks pretty good. You used your flash (create more light!) while avoiding nasty glare and pushed your shutter speed all the way to 1/500 (I'm so proud)! The shot was pretty bright, so you could get away with a little less light. If your reading f/2.8 @ 1/500, bump your aperture down to f/4 @ 1/250. This shutter speed is still plenty fast, you will have a larger depth of field, and the overall image will be sharper. Those fins on the fish would have been much better defined this way. At any rate, it turned out leaps and bounds better than the tang (where you may have wanted the full 1/500) and you are making solid improvement.

The full tank (or half tank whatever) looks mighty fine as well. Realizing you didn't need super speed, 1/15 with some sort of stabilizer I would imagine (books/tripod) seemed to work for you. The colors also look great, nice use of your manual white balance. Verdict: Great job!