Disappointed, need guidance!

Anisha Kaul · Jan 12, 2011

Used AV mode were Apperture speed needs to be set and shutter speed gets automatically set.
Photos were shot in the room lit with a tube light at night.

Apperture: F8.0 (Max the camera can handle)
ISO: Auto
Flash: +-0
Light metering: spot
AWB: white balance

Not able to see any effect of depth of field anywhere here, I think it is time to throw away the camera

Syco · Jan 12, 2011

There's a problem with your image links.

Anisha Kaul · Jan 12, 2011

Thanks, now it is solved, these img tags

misstwinklytoes · Jan 12, 2011

It looks like missed focus. What was the SS?

Anisha Kaul · Jan 12, 2011

What is SS?

Syco · Jan 12, 2011

If those were hand-held shots, I'm guessing that at f/8 you've got movement blur. Otherwise, they're just uniformly out-of-focus.

Anisha Kaul · Jan 12, 2011

Yes they were handheld shots!

oldmacman · Jan 12, 2011

Anisha Kaul said:
What is SS?

SS=Shutter Speed. How did the camera balance the lighting based on the aperture selection.

BTW, in that close space, you won't see much depth of field plane. Set to the lowest aperture on the lens if you want to isolate a particular area. Do it with a tripod so camera shake isn't mistaken for an out of focus (OOF) area.

misstwinklytoes · Jan 12, 2011

Shutter speed.

Aperture 8
Exposure Time 0.6
Focal Length 22.0 mm
Flash Off, Did not fire
Date and Time (Original) 2011:01:12 21:28:22
Metering Mode Spot
F Number 8Exposure Compensation -2
ISO 400

It looks like a long shutter speed to me. Try during the day when you have more light. You might have had camera shake unless you were using a tripod. Not sure why the exposure compensation says -2?... Doesn't seem right. Someone else might chime in, though. What is your goal? To see a DOF?

Boomn4x4 · Jan 12, 2011

The Powershot SX210 is a point and shoot.... getting DOF results with a point and shoot at such a small focal length (this shot is at 22mm) is going to be disapointing.

The results you got are to be expected with this camera.

Also, maybe I'm not understanding you, but if you are looking for a small DOF, you should set the number to its lowest, not its highest.

BuS_RiDeR · Jan 12, 2011

Anisha Kaul said:
Used AV mode were Apperture speed needs to be set and shutter speed gets automatically set.
Photos were shot in the room lit with a tube light at night.

Not to pick nits... Perhaps its just a typo... I make them all the time.

But I feel it important that you are aware that the aperture setting is not based on speed. But how wide or narrow the "tunnel" is that allows light through the lens.

Not able to see any effect of depth of field anywhere here, I think it is time to throw away the camera

Click to expand...

It looks as though your image may be suffering from camera shake due to a slow shutter. Were you hand holding the camera? Try to maintain a shutter speed of at least 1/45th of a second (if not faster) when hand holding.

Or put the camera on a tripod if you are going to use a slower shutter speed.

I have a feeling that the camera shake is canceling any DoF.

bazooka · Jan 12, 2011

If you want to see DoF, you need to choose a brighter aperture... just open your camera up as high as it will go. This will also help with your motion blur. But like Boom said, it's going to be difficult to get a shallow depth of field with a point & shoot, particularly at a wide focal length.

KmH · Jan 12, 2011

Don't throw the camera away, there's nothing wrong with it.

Your shutter speed was to slow, which caused the soft focus from camera motion. You didn't get any background blur (depth-of-field) because your subjects are right up against the background (no depth), and your aperture was to small (f/8).

The EXIF data also indicates you had -2 EV of exposure compensation set making the photo underexposed.

In short you need to learn more about how the exposure triad and how those 3 settings effect a photograph.

Anisha Kaul · Jan 12, 2011

oldmacman said:
SS=Shutter Speed. How did the camera balance the lighting based on the aperture selection... Do it with a tripod so camera shake isn't mistaken for an out of focus (OOF) area.

Thanks, don't have a tripod yet.

misstwinklytoes said:
Not sure why the exposure compensation says -2?... Doesn't seem right.

Yes, I want to understand what's that -2 doing there? and yes I was looking for a DOF.

BuS_RiDeR said:
But I feel it important that you are aware that the aperture setting is not based on speed. But how wide or narrow the "tunnel" is that allows light through the lens.

That was not a typo and I don't mind picking nits

That was a newbie's first technical post! Thanks for pointing out.

BuS_RiDeR said:
Were you hand holding the camera? Try to maintain a shutter speed of at least 1/45th of a second (if not faster) when hand holding.

I'll try that, thanks!

Below I have attached the photo with aperture set to f4.5 and flash on and it is still on the av mode, but it still looks useless

BuS_RiDeR · Jan 12, 2011

Anisha Kaul said:
Below I have attached the photo with aperture set to f4.5 and flash on and it is still on the av mode, but it still looks useless

Don't be mad. It looks much better than you original.

Av mode only allows you to control the aperture, not the shutter. I think your shutter speed is the culprit. Try putting the camera on a box or something since you dont have a tripod. And maybe use the self timer to avoid camera shake when pressing the shutter.