canon s2 is/general photography help!

[jmc]

Greetings!

Last year I was given a Canon S2 IS for christmas as a gift. It was somewhat of a mix up, as I felt it was a little "too much" camera for my needs.

Anyway, I told myself I would get used to it and kept it.

I have taken some really great photos with it, especially outside. However I am having two specific problems with it.

One, what is the best way to take an indoor picture in lower light? Typically these photos are from a distance. For instance, I tried to take a photo of a wedding party (standing for photos from a real photographer) from a long way across a church. If anyone is moving at all, it is blurred. And even when my hands shake a bit, it is blurred.

Another example, I tried taking an indoor photo of a couple dancing from maybe 30 yards away, every photo except one was blurred.

My second problem is that I am having no luck with the macro mode at all. Supposedly if I activate the macro mode I should be able to take very close pictures. But when I try this, the photos come out blurry as well.

All my shots are done on the "auto" wheel setting, which may be the source of my problems. Is there a general guide to photography online that I could read to familiarize myself with the many features of this camera?

Thanks for any help given.

[Frost]

Hi,

I'm having the exact same problems. I could have been the one that posted the message above.

My photos I take are blurry if there is even the slighest movement by the subject, which is ridiculous. It must be a setting somewhere, I find it hard to believe this camera can't take pictures like a point and shoot.

I also can't seem to get indoor pictures to come out great. I've used the "Auto" setting, and the scene setting switched to "indoor". That latter works ok, but it's still not great. If I use the auto setting with a flash, the flash is much to bright and washed out the color of everything.

The macro function on my camera I can't seem to get working either. I turn it on, the icon is shown on the camera, but it's still very blurry.

This is supposed to be an incredible camera and I bought it based on the reviews I read, but so far the blurry movement problem and indoor lighting issue has really disappointed me.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[tiffaneyjo]

I don't have the S2 IS, but I do have the S3 IS which is only slightly different.

For the camera shaking, in low light situations I always use a tripod. Here is the reason, when the lights are low, more light must be emiited to the camera's sensor, therefore you shutter speed will be long. With a long shutter speed and you holding the camera is will definitely come out blurred because your hand is going to shake. If the camera is on a tripod the long shutter speed won't be a problem because the camera will remain stable.

Tripods are very inexpensive (I got my from target for $30) and will be a great asset to your camera.

Just my two cents.

[SlipNslide]

Here is the issue with these point and shoots. They are great cameras for outdoors and indoors where there is lots of light but most point and shoot cameras largest aperturs when zoomed is usually around 5.6. This is where basics of camera lighting come into play. People think that a tripod will help you in low light situations but this is only partially true. If your not getting enough light into the lens to get your shutter speed hight enough a tripod will help you steady the shot, BUT if the subject is moving then a Tripod wont help you at all. The secret is you have to get your shutter speed up fast enough to freez the action. The only way to do this is get more light into the lens. F5.6 does not allow you to get that much light into the lens Hense people say you need fast glass. Fast glass is usually a lens with the Apertur 2.8 or larger. Now thats another missconception to beginners because we are tought a large number is bigger but in apertur its the opposite. The smaller the number the larger your aperture. People will spout off all these words that a beginner wont understand but i see it all the time. I read people say "Step up a few stops" Well a beginner won't know what that means but people will still say it to a beginner all the time. We as beginners feel silly for asking these questions and wont ask what the words mean. Just ask eventually you will get a straight answar. Here is an example of Aperture and the benifets.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aperture

The more light you get into the lens the faster your shutter speed. The faster your shutter speed the easyer it is to freeze action. Image stabilizer, tripods none of that matters if your subject is moving.
Another way to get your shutter speed faster is up your ISO. ISO makes your sensor which is located behind the lens more sensative to light, but when you increase your ISO your picture will start to become noisy. The picture wont seem as creamy and smooth. I hope this helps you guys out. I know when I started I was so confused and frustrated. Learn to look at your camera and check your shutter speed all the time.

Good luck and happy shooting.

ps. A rule of thumb I always used when trying to determine my shutter speed is what ever your lens length is your shutter speed should match it or be faster. Example. If I am shooting at 70mm I will always check to be sure my shutter speed is 1/70 or above to be able o handhold the shot.

[TcJohnson]

Adam has good advise here I would like to add that on your macro shots you must be at least 9 inches away from your subject and if you zoom you will have to be a bit futher back than that to get it to focus on the subject Also i would check the in cam menu is mode and be sure it was set to continuous or shooting and not off the advanced guide on canons web site will help if you have lost or dont have your guide both of these cameras have very good capibilities including manual control as well i would set the pixel size captured to Large more information is saved and not compressed or lost due to small file size Page 26 manual and page 37 The link is http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/co...&modelid=13077 copy and paste to your browser this will take you to the s3 is camera go to drivers and downloads and follow the links to the manual.

[grazhopr]

For indoors photography, in less than ideal lighting conditions, there are a few things you can do. Try various settings to start and see if you can improve your results. If I were to shoot inside a church for example, I would try to move as close as possible to the subject. Set the camera to aperture priority (Av), select a big aperture (lowest number possible) and let the camera adjust shutter speed for you to get the correct exposure (a tripod is always a great addition, if you're allowed to setup one inside a church. Any firm support you can find is a plus anyway). I can't guarantee it will work everytime, so I would encourage you to practice inside your home with various lighting conditions to get familiar with the camera settings. That will give you a head start and be prepared when you're in the real situation. Also, try your camera in Manual mode and play with various Aperture and Shutter Speed settings. The objective is to check for exposure when half pressing the shutter button. You'll see a number on the upper left corner that will look something like +1, or -1/3 (there's really a wide range of numbers) that will indicate if your overexposing or underexposing. Your objective is zero "0" which in theory indicates the correct exposure. But it never hurts to overexpose a little in some situations. You can always post process and tone it down a bit and prevent from adding noise to the picture (grainy look). Remember a couple of basic things: Big apertures (low numbers) allow more light to come into the camera sensor. Low shutter speeds allow the sensor to be exposed to light for longer period of time, so a moving subject will appear blurry in the final image. High shutter speeds in contrast (1/400, 1/640, etc), will freeze motion. Correct exposures are the result of combining a certain aperture to a certain shutter speed. The correct exposure means that the correct amount of light hit the sensor in order to achieve a clear image, as a general conception.
There's also the ISO setting issue. Higher ISO will compensate for the lack of light, but unfortunately it will introduce noise in the picture as well, so I'd try to shoot at the lowest ISO setting possible at first, and try to make it work.

Hope this helps !

[gtrgeorge]

The comments regarding high ISO settings and noise are quite right. On the other hand, if the shot is important enough, and it's a matter of getting the shot or not getting the shot, you might not mind a little noise in the photo. You have to decide, but the higher ISO does help; anything that gets you a faster shutter speed will help with the blurring.

Another trick you might want to try, if your shutter speed is borderline, like 1/10 - 1/20, is to turn on the continuous shot mode, hold the camera as steady as possible, and fire off 4-5 shots in a row. Obviously, if the subject is what's moving, this won't help, but if it's a matter of camera shake, it could. I have tried this several times, and at least one of the shots comes out decent...

George