Can someone PLEASE help me with my camera settings???

[MommyWithDreams]

I need some help with my camera before our trip to Dland in 2 weeks.
I just need to know what i should have my settings at for everyday pics, night pics, fireworks etc etc.
I have a canon powershot SD630 ELPH. I LOVE my camera but the problem is it does sooo much and I'm not sure of it's capabilities. The video too is amazing.
I asked once before on this board and was reccommended that i visit a Canon board, which I did, only to find the snooty almost professional photographers basically telling me to read the manuel. Same experience it seems another poster here had found.
I just want some of the basics to get some lifelong memories on my camera.
Thanks in advance.

 

[YEKCIM]

I need some help with my camera before our trip to Dland in 2 weeks.
I just need to know what i should have my settings at for everyday pics, night pics, fireworks etc etc.
I have a canon powershot SD630 ELPH. I LOVE my camera but the problem is it does sooo much and I'm not sure of it's capabilities. The video too is amazing.
I asked once before on this board and was reccommended that i visit a Canon board, which I did, only to find the snooty almost professional photographers basically telling me to read the manuel. Same experience it seems another poster here had found.
I just want some of the basics to get some lifelong memories on my camera.
Thanks in advance.

Hope this does not sound "snooty", and I'm for sure no professional, but if you don't want to take the time to read the manual and spend time experimenting with the capabilities of your camera, just use it in point and shoot mode, which is "A" or "Auto" mode, in which the camera does everything except compose the shot for you.

Good luck!

~YEKCIM

 

[MommyWithDreams]

I have read the manual and I have played with the settings. I basically just wanted to see if anyone else on the board had this camera and how they have used it at Disneyland. Shots at disneyland are far different than the shots you take every day at home. Thanks anyway.

 

[boBQuincy]

1st "rule" - set the image size to Large-Fine. You never know which image will be the one you want to enlarge. If you really, really have a limited amount of memory card space Medium-Fine may have to do but the loss of image quality may be a problem.

2nd "rule" - set Digital Zoom to "Off". Digital Zoom will only make your images look worse and can really ruin them.

3rd "rule" - leave the camera in "Auto" if you are not good with the various settings. "Auto" is fine for most situations.

4th "rule" - use some sort of camera support whenever you can (tree, pole, trashcan, etc.). Small cameras are very easy to shake when you press the shutter button and a lot of images are blurred that way.

5th and most important "rule" - take plenty of photos. I have never (well hardly ever) come home and thought "wow, I took too many".
And have fun!


boB

 

[MommyWithDreams]

Thank you so much Bob.
I have a 2GB card so I think I'll be ok. My boyfriend has the same camera and he has a 1gb so between the two of us we should be ok on the finest setting don't you think?
I'm still learning about the ISO ...does this make much of a difference or should I have it set at anything in particular for night vs. day shots?

 

[Lachesis00]

VERY good rules!

I try to shoot in 100 ISO. However, you will be more likely to get blurry photos (a steady hand is needed). I, myself would never shoot above 400 if possible. And if so (night shots) I would use a tripod.

Even though I shoot in AV mode most of the time, once in a blue moon manual. I do not hesitate to shoot in Program or Auto mode if I really want to make sure I get good photos. I used my program mode on my DSLR about 75% yesterday at the Japanese Maturi yesterday.

Out of 125 photos, I liked maybe 5. (A lot of photographers feel this way, maybe 10% of their photos are print worthy, but they take 1000 photos a day... and keep like 100). None enough to print. But thats just me. In the last 10 years of digital shooting, I never print my own photos, at least not for me. LOL.

I do not know what your camera is capable of, so I can't offer much help except a tripod is a MUST for night shots or low light situations, Program mode or trying out manual modes.

If you are wanting to try AV mode, use the Sunny F/16 rule:


Sunny 16 rule
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the EP by Ben Folds, see Sunny 16 (EP)

In photography, the sunny 16 rule (or, less often, the "sunny f/16 rule") is a method to estimate correct daylight exposures without using a light meter.

The basic sunny 16 rule, applicable on a sunny day, is this:

* Set aperture to f/16 and shutter speed (reciprocal seconds) to ISO film speed.

For example, for ISO 100 film, choose shutter speed of 1/100 second (or 1/125 second)

The elaborated form of the sunny 16 rule for more general situations is:

1. Set the shutter speed to the setting nearest to the ISO film speed
2. Set the f-number according to the table below:

Aperture Lighting Conditions Shadow Detail
f/16 Sunny Distinct
f/11 Slight Overcast Soft around edges
f/8 Overcast Barely visible
f/5.6 Heavy Overcast No shadows
f/4 Sunset
[1]

For example, to shoot ISO 100 film in sunny conditions, set the shutter speed to 1/100 or 1/125 and the f-stop to f/16. With ISO 200 film, set the speed to 1/200 or 1/250. For ISO 400 film, 1/400 or 1/500. As with other light readings, the shutter speed can be changed, as long as the f-number is compensated. For example, 1/250th of a second at f/11 would be equivalent to 1/125th at f/16.


Good luck and I hope you share photos when you get back!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1st "rule" - set the image size to Large-Fine. You never know which image will be the one you want to enlarge. If you really, really have a limited amount of memory card space Medium-Fine may have to do but the loss of image quality may be a problem.

2nd "rule" - set Digital Zoom to "Off". Digital Zoom will only make your images look worse and can really ruin them.

3rd "rule" - leave the camera in "Auto" if you are not good with the various settings. "Auto" is fine for most situations.

4th "rule" - use some sort of camera support whenever you can (tree, pole, trashcan, etc.). Small cameras are very easy to shake when you press the shutter button and a lot of images are blurred that way.

5th and most important "rule" - take plenty of photos. I have never (well hardly ever) come home and thought "wow, I took too many".
And have fun!


boB

 

[boBQuincy]

I'm still learning about the ISO ...does this make much of a difference or should I have it set at anything in particular for night vs. day shots?

ISO should usually be set at the lowest setting that provides a shutter speed fast enough to avoid blur. For daytime that usually means ISO 100 is best.
I am not happy with the results from my (older) P&S at anything over ISO 100 so I keep it locked at that unless it comes down to a 'photo or no photo' situation. Newer P&S cameras are better but for most of them I still consider ISO 400 too noisy.

At night there may not be much choice, especially with the short flash range of most cameras. Take some test photos of the same subject at different ISO and see where the noise becomes objectionable.

For most people 2GB is enough for at least a few days. For me it would mean "so what do we do after the first morning?".

 

[jann1033]

if you could before you go, why not take a shot of something "normal" with each iso setting and download to what ever software you have then see what they are like, if you can enlarge them etc. that way you'd know what iso you don't want to go above. to me anything over 400 is just asking to be disappointed so i don't even go to 800 ( chicken that i am) but some darker rides might be tempting....

 

[seashoreCM]

With most digital cameras, ISO 100 should work well for all outdoor daytime shots except perhaps cloudy conditions at dusk or at maximum zoom.

The lower the ISO the better, except when there is low light such as indoors or at night you have to go to a higher ISO to overcome the camera's limitations for lens opening and shutter speed. The higher the ISO the more graininess the picture will have. (This is also true for film cameras.)

At night when you will need to set the ISO higher, a grainy picture is probably better than no picture.

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

Typical or Sunny-16 shutter speeds for an automatic camera with f/2.8 lens providing f/5.6 when fully zoomed and ISO 100:
Bright sun -- 1/3000, 1/800 unzoomed and fully zoomed respectively
Hazy sun -- 1/1500, 1/400
Cloudy bright -- 1/800, 1/200
Heavy overcast -- 1/400, 1/100
Sunny but subject in shade -- 1/400, 1/100
Most people should be able to hold the camera steady enough for 1/100 second exposures.

 

[Groucho]

I was actually just holding both my wife's SD600 and my mother's SD630 today - they are identical except that the 630 has the 3" screen, instead of the 2.5" one on the 600.

In "auto" mode at least (I didn't play any further than that), your only choices for ISO are "ISO Auto" and "ISO High" - the latter producing quite nasty levels of noise. Unfortunately, the small sensor in these cameras means that night photos are (like most any PnS camera) largely going to be disappointing - if the ISO goes up, the noise is severe; if the ISO stays down then the shutter speed goes up and it'll be blurry, or you can use the flash, which is OK but has a fairly limited range due to the size of the camera itself (plus you're guaranteed red-eye if taking people pictures, since the flash is so close to the lens.)

I think an important part of being happy with your results is knowing your camera's limitations and being prepared to work around them if necessary. If you want to take night photos, bring a little pocket tripod and leave the ISO setting low. If you're taking a picture of something and using the flash, make sure that you're close enough to let the flash work effectively.

They are nice little cameras (and the video mode is very nice, but I hate that it won't let you use optical zoom when recording, like some others will), though - but they cannot work magic, not even in the Magic Kingdom.

 

[MommyWithDreams]

Thank you so so so much for all the tips. I'm going to play around with it a bit more this week. I might post some of the pics I've taken recently that are good, then some that are so so but I can't figure out what I'm doing different on those "not so good shots"....I'll be ready for our trip in two weeks with all the great advice.