Canon point and shoot beginner

[mahi_Australia]

Thanks for introducing me to his literature Derrel. Yesterday I tried taking some family photos and my idea was to take portrait type photos with background blurred. I tried playing with aperture settings but was unsuccessful not sure if my camera is equipped for that. Other thing i am becoming good at using ISO in low light conditions.


Sent from my iPhone using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app

 

[Derrel]

Well, honestly: the Canon Sx720 has a small-sized, but 20.3 million pixel sensor; due to the small physical size of the sensor, it will not do the in focus people/blurry backdrop type of pictures at close distances, the way say a 35mm SLR or a medium-format SLR would do, or a full-frame digitial SLR, or even a crop-frame d-slr. Buuuuuuut, on the other hand, the digicam type cameras can do somehting people have wanted to be able to do for over a hundred years, and that is to achieve "deep focus", with relative ease...without the need for split-diopter filters, or for camera movements with a view camera and the Schiempflug principle, or for stopping to to f/64.

What some might see as a dis-advantage, can easily become a major source of strength in scenic and landscape and social photography. Social photography, like on the street, or in a diner or restaurant, or at a carnival, etc.; the ability to have a SHARP, clear picture across a wide span of distancs, from fairly close, all the way to 50 meters, and out to nearly Infinity...THAT is the province of the digicam.

And also: the Sx720 has that ****incredibly long**** maximum zoom setting for a digicam. I recall taking a shot of my son and his mother from about 50 meters with her red 720...I was like, "WOW! This is one hell of a looooong zoom lens!" I mean, I would reckon it is like a 600 or 800mm equivalent on FX...it is a POWERFUL zoom....

So, focus on the strengths the camera has. If you absolutely WANT a defocused background on a portrait, learn the modern ways to do defocusing in software. But be aware that, for over 100 years or more, getting deep,deep focus was often a goal of many.

 

[jcdeboever]

Get ready for some easy learning. Fun book...

Sent from my XT1254 using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app

 

[mahi_Australia]

I think I got little bit of success playing with aperture and zoom settings on my camera..check the photo below and let me know if there is possibility of enhancement and I am on right path. I wanted a more close up shot but I thought it might disturb the quality. I still feel the photo is bit shaky...do you guys feel it or it's just me over thinking, I took it with hand.

Sent from my iPhone using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app

 

[jcdeboever]

Thanks for introducing me to his literature Derrel. Yesterday I tried taking some family photos and my idea was to take portrait type photos with background blurred. I tried playing with aperture settings but was unsuccessful not sure if my camera is equipped for that. Other thing i am becoming good at using ISO in low light conditions.


Sent from my iPhone using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app

You can get the blurred backgrounds but you need to make the camera do it. It needs to be set in manual mode in order to accomplish it. Actually, the blurring with these types is very smooth and creamy. Typically, or generally speaking, the apeture needs to be close to it's largest setting. What I do is usually at the 70mm to 90 range, adjust my shutter to roughly 125 to 200s, and move the shutter to 2.8 or as close to it as I can to -0- exposure, usually with max auto ISO set to a range of 100 to 800. If you fire a portrait shot in this range at or around the settings I listed, a beautiful background will be there. Additionally, put the focus point on one of the eyes. Evaluative metering seems to work best on my SX60HS. You need to experiment with some dolls or objects. In good light, you may need to set the shutter speed a lot higher. Study depth of field, ISO, and apeture.

Sent from my XT1254 using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app

 

[jcdeboever]

I think I got little bit of success playing with aperture and zoom settings on my camera..check the photo below and let me know if there is possibility of enhancement and I am on right path. I wanted a more close up shot but I thought it might disturb the quality. I still feel the photo is bit shaky...do you guys feel it or it's just me over thinking, I took it with hand. View attachment 132190


Sent from my iPhone using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app

Pretty good but typical for the camera. You need to practice breathing and be as steady as you can. If that was on a tripod, it would have been tack sharp. What mode were you in?

Sent from my XT1254 using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app

 

[Derrel]

The bird: was it shot through a window? It's not really "shakey" I think...looks like either window glass or maybe optical quality starting to decrease a bit, or perhaps digital zoom? Again...the camera you have has a craaaaaaazy-long 40x optical and a 4x digital zoom, so 160x...

 

[mahi_Australia]

I shot from my backyard open space...bird was few houses away sitting on top. I think the optical quality as mentioned by you is decreased a bit or the focus was was not set correctly may be...


Sent from my iPhone using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app

 

[mahi_Australia]

I think I got little bit of success playing with aperture and zoom settings on my camera..check the photo below and let me know if there is possibility of enhancement and I am on right path. I wanted a more close up shot but I thought it might disturb the quality. I still feel the photo is bit shaky...do you guys feel it or it's just me over thinking, I took it with hand. View attachment 132190


Sent from my iPhone using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app

Pretty good but typical for the camera. You need to practice breathing and be as steady as you can. If that was on a tripod, it would have been tack sharp. What mode were you in?

Sent from my XT1254 using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app

I was in sports mode setting and zoom, I was also expecting if bird fly I can catch the motion too.


Sent from my iPhone using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app

 

[jcdeboever]

I think I got little bit of success playing with aperture and zoom settings on my camera..check the photo below and let me know if there is possibility of enhancement and I am on right path. I wanted a more close up shot but I thought it might disturb the quality. I still feel the photo is bit shaky...do you guys feel it or it's just me over thinking, I took it with hand. View attachment 132190


Sent from my iPhone using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app

Pretty good but typical for the camera. You need to practice breathing and be as steady as you can. If that was on a tripod, it would have been tack sharp. What mode were you in?

Sent from my XT1254 using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app

I was in sports mode setting and zoom, I was also expecting if bird fly I can catch the motion too.


Sent from my iPhone using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app

Pretty typical image quality for the long super zoom and no tripod. Sports mode is auto with increased shutter speed. Personally, Tv (camera decides aperture, you decide shutter speed) would have been the better choice and a shutter speed twice the speed of focal length; for example... if your lens was zoomed out to 600mm, you would probably go to 1000 or 1200, providing your camera goes beyond 1000. But it is a moot point because you didn't have the camera / lens stabilized. That image is a prime example on the limitations of a digital zoom shooting hand held. My SX60HS is good hand held to about 300mm zoomed but you better be rock steady. The water color effect and chroma are typical of megapixel crammed, small sensors. You know your in digital zoom because the image in the viewfinder gets all jittery and uncontrollable.

 

[mahi_Australia]

I took the below photo this morning....Chimes hanging in my front yard. I know it's not a good attractive photo, First time I tried manual mode on my camera With zoom. I was standing quite far other side of the road. I was expecting a brighter chimes in the photo but was not successful.

Sent from my iPhone using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app

 

[photo1x1.com]

I took the below photo this morning....Chimes hanging in my front yard. I know it's not a good attractive photo, First time I tried manual mode on my camera With zoom. I was standing quite far other side of the road. I was expecting a brighter chimes in the photo but was not successful. View attachment 132329
Sent from my iPhone using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app

The chimes are in backlight, so the background is brighter than the chimes and eliminate the option to make the image even brighter. The only thing you can do is add some light to the foreground. That can be done by flash (if you are standing far away on the other road it can´t be the on camera flash though), or reflectors placed accordingly. Continuous lights would probably not work because they are not powerful enough to compete with the daylight. Another option would be to combine different exposures into one image in post production (called HDR).
If you are shooting RAW rather than jpg, you can also push the shadows and reduce the highlights a bit in software and get closer to what you actually saw.
You expected the chimes to be brighter because your brain is doing some "in camera processing" of everything you see . And in doing that it is much better than every camera in the world. So cameras have some limitations in regard to the so called dynamic range. If a scene contains extremely bright AND extremely dark parts, it cannot capture all the tones in one single image.

 

[mahi_Australia]

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2017 to all. Wish you good luck and success in all your endeavors. Last night experimented with shutter priority mode...New Year eve fireworks in Adelaide. I was in awkward position to take good pics with so much crowd at the bridge.

Sent from my iPhone using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app

 

[jcdeboever]

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2017 to all. Wish you good luck and success in all your endeavors. Last night experimented with shutter priority mode...New Year eve fireworks in Adelaide. I was in awkward position to take good pics with so much crowd at the bridge.View attachment 132460View attachment 132461View attachment 132462View attachment 132463


Sent from my iPhone using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app

Tripod

Sent from my XT1254 using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app

 

[mahi_Australia]

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2017 to all. Wish you good luck and success in all your endeavors. Last night experimented with shutter priority mode...New Year eve fireworks in Adelaide. I was in awkward position to take good pics with so much crowd at the bridge.View attachment 132460View attachment 132461View attachment 132462View attachment 132463


Sent from my iPhone using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app

Tripod

Sent from my XT1254 using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app

No still with hand



Sent from my iPhone using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app