Photos have unintended watercolor painting effect

[Adamtrons]

Hello. I’m using a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX150 18.2 MP camera set to the Superior Auto mode. I’ve had very mixed results with about half my photos having an unintended watercolor effect. Some photos will be clear and sharp and others will look like a Winslow Homer painting. I don’t understand what’s happening and I could use some help. Is it the ISO setting? Maybe I should quit using Superior Auto mode and switch to Program mode, then lock in 100 or 200 ISO? Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this issue. Below are some samples. First the problem sample from normal distance and then zoomed in for detail. Then a good sample normal and zoomed for comparison. Both photos were taken with Superior Auto Mode. Thank you in advance for your help!

 

[Scatterbrained]

Well, the first shot was taken with no flash at iso 800 while the second shot was taken with flash at iso 320. It's likely that the first shot suffers from overzealous noise reduction and sharpening.

 

[Adamtrons]

Thank you for replying. Those are good points. I'm somewhat new at this and had forgotten for a minute that I could check the image details in the properties to determine what exactly happened. I'm going to try and stay away from the higher ISOs because they look ugly and maybe set the flash to stay on.

 

[TheNevadanStig]

Looks like it went over the top with a shake reduction, and then went over the top again with a smoothing effect to compensate for the shake reduction.