Tips on taking the best possible picture with a point & shoot camera

cadd · Apr 16, 2007

Hey everyone. I'm new here. Decided to get a point & shoot for now....and trying to understand ISO, aperture, shutter speed & all the nice stuff I hear you guys talk about.

But I'm going to take things one step at a time.

I just recently purchased a Fuji F30 point & shoot camera. I took over 200 shots this wkend in a bar/lounge. Nothing special. Had it in AUTO mode and just point & shoot.

So, any pointers would be really really appreciated!

After uploading the pics onto my PC, I realized that almost every picture was taken with an aperture of 2.8 and shutter speed of 1/60 (with the flash on).

We had a few brighter shots indoors (restaurants), but the aperture was still "stuck" at 2.8. Is this normal???

Alright.....back on topic. If you guys have special tricks, let's hear it! Share the secrets

zerolux · Apr 16, 2007

i enjoyed reading through this site, and learned alot http://www.morguefile.com/archive/classroom.php

not sure about the camera being stuck at 2.8. could it still have been too dark? what was the shutterspeed for those shots? are the shots exposed right? i think most p+s cameras will also adjust the iso to compensate when in auto mode. try it in the daytime, high noon and see what you get then.

best tip, do everything you can to avoid using the flash. get a tripod, even a cheap one can help. and take tons of pics. for every 50-100 you take you might get 1 "great" picture, you never know. :thumbup:

xfloggingkylex · Apr 16, 2007

In auto mode, the camera selects the aperture and shutter speed. 2.8 is usually the fastest a point and shoot will go, so the fact that all your pictures are at 2.8 probably means that it was a dark environment.

But as far as the best possible pictures go, you want to shoot with the lowest ISO possible and the faster shutterspeed needed to avoid blur, be it from your hand or from a moving subject. Especially on the small sensors of point and shoots, high ISO leads to noise, and it is very obvious on a poinst and shoot, so the lower your ISO the higher quality your images will be.