Blurry photos

[JeanfromBNA]

Bought a Canon SD750 before our trip, and although we had fun using it, we had many blurry photos. I think that I had the camera on automatic, so it would adjust the settings as required, but the photos were blurry if the light was less than bright, or if the subject was moving, as when we were photographing animals. I switched the ISO to ISO HI for nighttime, and photos are still blurry. In summary, unless I was standing completely still taking a picture of something that was also completely still in broad daylight, the photo tended to be blurry.

Any ideas? The manual doesn't help much.

 

[Ducky4Disney]

Sounds like you needed a flash (especially for the night shots).

Post a few of them here with the EXIF info, that would give us a better idea of the situation you were in.

My MIL's camera doesn't have an automatic pop-up flash and I am constantly reminding her to lift the flash while she's snapping away indoors. The pics might look good on the screen because of the low resolution - but you blow them up and they are blurry.

Show us some examples.

D4D

 

[ukcatfan]

That sounds typical of any p&s. The shutter speeds just have to get slow in order to let enough light in. A tripod could help if the subject is not moving.

Kevin

 

[jann1033]

i've noticed unless i stand right, i have more of a tendency to have blurry photos, especially in low light.
http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/how-to-hold-a-digital-camera/
i've never had a digital p&s and truthfully i wonder when i see so many holding them out at arms length to take a shot how in the world they aren't blurry

 

[JeanfromBNA]

Here are a couple of photos that I've re-sized for the boards:

This is at Flights of Wonder. We were about four rows back, in the shade.

File size: 45111 bytes
File date: 2007:10:21 19:36:06
Camera make: Canon
Camera model: Canon PowerShot SD750
Date/Time: 2007:09:30 13:23:22
Resolution: 640 x 480
Flash used: Yes (auto, red eye reduction mode)
Focal length: 17.4mm (35mm equivalent: 438mm)
Digital Zoom: 4.000x
CCD width: 1.43mm
Exposure time: 0.017 s (1/60)
Aperture: f/4.9
ISO equiv.: 250
Whitebalance: Auto
Metering Mode: matrix

This is a picture of the lioness during Kilmanjaro Safari.

File size: 43840 bytes
File date: 2007:10:21 19:28:23
Camera make: Canon
Camera model: Canon PowerShot SD750
Date/Time: 2007:09:30 10:04:30
Resolution: 640 x 480
Flash used: No (auto)
Focal length: 14.4mm (35mm equivalent: 91mm)
CCD width: 5.72mm
Exposure time: 0.0025 s (1/400)
Aperture: f/4.5
ISO equiv.: 80
Whitebalance: Auto
Metering Mode: matrix

This is a pretty bird in what I thought was good light. I noticed that it says that a flash was used.

File size: 56022 bytes
File date: 2007:10:21 19:34:30
Camera make: Canon
Camera model: Canon PowerShot SD750
Date/Time: 2007:09:30 11:17:23
Resolution: 640 x 480
Flash used: Yes (auto, red eye reduction mode)
Focal length: 17.4mm (35mm equivalent: 329mm)
Digital Zoom: 3.000x
CCD width: 1.90mm
Exposure time: 0.017 s (1/60)
Aperture: f/4.9
ISO equiv.: 250
Whitebalance: Auto
Metering Mode: matri

Do these photos look normal to you? I was hoping for a camera that was point & shoot most of the time so that we could get good pictures without having to re-set it each time we shoot. Do I have it on the wrong settings?

 

[Pea-n-Me]

There are ways you can improve your camera's performance but it involves you learning some photography basics. If you search through old threads here, there's a lot of information as this type of question gets asked pretty frequently. Let us know if you want to "put in the time" and we can give you lots of tips.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I ran your pictures through noise reduction software (hope you don't mind). It helped a little, especially on #1.

Shooting at a high ISO causes graininess/aka "noise" in your pictures. It's preferable to keep the ISO as low as you can, although sometimes in low light if you can't use flash, you have to go up.

 

[JeanfromBNA]

I bought a digital camera five or six years ago that I now use for work. It shoots basic shots; it has a zoom & a flash, but that's about it. I thought that the Canon SD750was a point & shoot camera with a few nifty extra features. I wouldn't mind learning some good tips and tricks, but is there an automatic setting on this camera that will select the best ISO, shutter speed, aperture, etc. without having to change it manually?

I did not manually change the ISO or any of the settings on any of the shots that I posted. The only thing that I knew how to do was zoom and turn the flash on and off.

 

[ukcatfan]

There are ways you can improve your camera's performance but it involves you learning some photography basics. If you search through old threads here, there's a lot of information as this type of question gets asked pretty frequently. Let us know if you want to "put in the time" and we can give you lots of tips.

With the SD series, there are not many manual features, so it might be more of a knowing your camera's limitations and how to frame to get the best exposure.

I can also tell you that the shutter speed for both bird shots was way too slow for the focal length(based on reported EXIF), so that might have a large part of it solved. You typically want 1/the 35mm equiv. focal length. For example, if it is at 200mm in 35mm equiv. then you want a shutter at least as fast as 1/200. The lion shot should be fine based on this, but it could have just plain missed the focus spot. That can even happen on the most expensive cameras.

On a side note, it does not look like the EXIF you reported is showing the correct 35mm equiv. It is showing 17.4mm as two different 35mm equiv. ratings.

Kevin

 

[ukcatfan]

I wouldn't mind learning some good tips and tricks, but is there an automatic setting on this camera that will select the best ISO, shutter speed, aperture, etc. without having to change it manually?

You are already using that setting with the auto mode. The problem is that this is still just a computer program taking input and delivering the best output that it can. Tricky lighting is very hard for it to figure out and it can often be tricked. That is the whole point of manual settings. They are to basically there for the user to tell the camera that it is wrong in its opinion of the scene and it should override based on what you think. I do not believe that the SDs have manual settings, but you should be able to use the exposure compensation to help.

Kevin

 

[seashoreCM]

For the Canon SD series cameras, some have "modes" that suggest shutter speed and aperture combinations. What you want is a fast shutter speed. I am told that a mode called "kids & pets" tends to give better pictures in not-so-bright light or of not-so-still subjects. (Almost no point and shoot camera can take sharp pictures of fast moving objects except perhaps in bright sunlight with minimum zoom.)

When the shutter is faster, the aperture must be larger. The more you zoom, the sooner the aperture maxes out and then the automatic camera has to slow down the shutter anyway.

If your night shots are not only blurry but the background looks unnaturally bright, change the "exposure compensation" to a negative number. This darkens the picture overall and may increase the shutter speed and in turn make holding the camera steady a bit less critical.

Not sure whether your model camera has "image stabilization" which helps sharpen the picture if your hands holding the camera are not-so-steady. If so, be sure that feature is turned on.

If you were used to film cameras, it takes some getting used to holding the camera steady in front of you to see the screen viewfinder versus holding the camera against your face which is usually steadier.

Digital camera hints: http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/digicam.htm

 

[caniswolfie]

I noticed from using my Firefox EXIF plugin on your photos to grab more EXIF data that it lists the following:

# Exposure Time (1 / Shutter Speed) = 1/60 second = 0.01667 second
# Lens F-Number/F-Stop = 49/10 = F4.90
# ISO Speed Ratings = 250
# Exif Version = 0220
# Original Date/Time = 2007:09:30 13:23:22
# Digitization Date/Time = 2007:09:30 13:23:22
# Components Configuration = 0x01,0x02,0x03,0x00 / YCbCr
# Compressed Bits per Pixel = 3/1 = 3.00
# Shutter Speed Value (APEX) = 189/32
Shutter Speed (Exposure Time) = 1/59.97 second
# Aperture Value (APEX) = 147/32
Aperture = F4.91
# Exposure Bias (EV) = 0/3 = 0.00
# Max Aperture Value (APEX) = 147/32 = 4.59
Max Aperture = F4.91
# Metering Mode = pattern / multi-segment (5)
# Flash = Flash fired, auto mode, red-eye reduction mode
# Focal Length = 17400/1000 mm = 17.40 mm
# FlashPix Version = 0100
# Colour Space = sRGB (1)
# Image Width = 3072 pixels
# Image Height = 2304 pixels
# Focal Plane X-Resolution = 12288000/225 = 54613.33
# Focal Plane Y-Resolution = 9216000/169 = 54532.54
# Focal Plane X/Y-Resolution Unit = inch (2)
# Image Sensing Method = one-chip color area sensor (2)
# Image Source = digital still camera (DSC)
# Custom Rendered = normal process (0)
# Exposure Mode = auto exposure (0)
# White Balance = auto (0)
# Digital Zoom Ratio = 3072/768 = 4.00
# Scene Capture Type = standard (0)

At the bottom here, you can notice that it lists digital zoom at 4, and from this review, the camera has a 4x digital zoom. It is possible that is also degrading your photos to cause a blur on the photos. Digital zoom basically "crops" your photo lowering the resolution to give the illusion of a zooming in. With this on top of the low light issues, it can probably cause an issue with the sharpness.

 

[SharonLowe]

The biggest problem for 1 and 3 is the digital zoom - turn it off in your camera menu! Digital zoom is just a cropping thing as others have said and it doesn't give very good results. The lion is motion blur - the safari ride is going too fast and is too bumpy for most people to get decent shots.

 

[Ducky4Disney]

Hey it looks like you've gotten some good advice based on the shots you posted. My first thought was a flash, then I saw the Eagle and I was thinking ISO but that didn't seem to be the issue, now I see the digital zoom information from your photos and that explains a lot.

What about your resolution being set at 640x480? That seems like a fairly low resolution to begin with, top it off with med-high ISO, and digital zoom and you're in for blurry pictures.

D4D

 

[JeanfromBNA]

Thank you, everybody, for your input on the problems that I have had with my digital camera. Is digital zoom the same thing as the zoom on the camera, or is it something else?

Can anybody recommend a guide to digital photography online? Maybe that way I won't have to pester you with too many questions.

Regarding the photo resolution, could it have happened when I downsized the photos for the boards in photobucket?

 

[Pea-n-Me]

The link that Seashore CM posted above is a good start. Digital cameras have optical zoom and digital zoom. Optical zoom is really the only one you want to use regularly, hence Sharon's suggestion to turn off the digital zoom on your camera.

There is a book highly recommended on this board called Understanding Exposure. It explains in simple terms photogaphy basics. Many of the principles are the same whether you have a film or digital camera, and having more of an understanding will help you take better pictures in the long run (though initially it might seem more confusing).

Besides turning off the digital zoom, you should venture into trying some of the different modes of your camera, such as night shot, portrait, etc. These, in effect, change the settings on your camera to get the best pictures in certain conditions, probably better than auto. Again, a guide like Understanding Exposure will help you learn why.

 

[JeanfromBNA]

Thank you.