Please help - S3IS manual settings

[chelle]

Hi everyone!

We recently purchased an S3IS and love it - have been taking heaps of great photos using the auto settings up until now, as I have started using the manual settings and the quality of my photos has taken a nose dive - definitely user related:(

I am mostly interested in taking pet and animal photographs at the moment (I am an artist and need good quality reference material for my work). Most of the photos I am taking are close up (4-8 feet max), outside in natural lighting. Although some shots are full body, most are close up of the head/face, I want to capture as much detail as possible, preferably with the background blurred.

I am hoping to get some advice as to where to start with my manual settings to achieve this type of photo. LOL I have very unscientifically and randomly tried chaning my settings so I really don't know what is working and what isn't.

I am reading and re-reading my manual but still don't quite get it:(

Could someone please give me a step by step on what my settings should be (mode, shutter, apperture, ISO) to achieve the photo's I am after? I'm trying to work out settings for when the animal is backlit as well (I get a lot of wildlife in my backyard and can't always place them in the light the way I want!)

Alternatively if there is a website that gives step by step settings for various results, that would be great!

Thanks!

Michelle

[XaiLo]

First suggestion is that you purchase "Understanding Exposure" Revised Edition by Bryan Peterson. Secondly you will probably have more sucess if you purchase a close-up filter set I recommend the Hoya Close-Up set. Short of those suggestions you'll need a wide aperature 3.5 and be at full tele... focus on your subject only, there also needs to be a distance between your subject and the subjects background for the effect to work. hth ;)

Congrats and welcome to the community stop by the "Some S3 Pics" Thread and post some pics. :)

[BowerR64]

I have an easier idea, put the camera on "P" mode. Set the ISO to 80 and try vivid on and off. Try the flash on and off with low and medium settings (flash fill) try the different white balance settings (sun icon, cloud icon, custom, auto)

As you try "P" mode remember the camera settings that pop up. THen when you go into manual you can adjust the apature or shutter up and down to get a darker or lighter exsposure.

"P" mode is a creative auto mode. It picks good settings but also lets you adjust basic settings like white balance, ev +/- and the color exsposure (b/w, vivid, sepia) "P" mode selects the hard settings like apature and shutter speed wich are hard to learn at first. Ive had my camera for about a year and im just now getting good with manual mode but i still start with "P" mode.

With a flash fill outdoors, you can do some neat things with it. You can set the camera fairly dark so the subject looks under exsposed but the background is lit up really good. Then when you push the shutter button the flash fires and fills in that under exsposed subject and it levels out the complete image. It takes some practice because the flash has limited control so you need to test distance the closer you are the more the flash will over exspose if its not set but this gives you an idea what you can do if you play around with it. Like i said ive been messing with mine for over a year and im just now starting to fully figure it out. When i take the first shot what needs changed to get the shot i want.

[XaiLo]

BowerR64 I'd like to see some of your relative examples.

[BowerR64]

BowerR64 I'd like to see some of your relative examples.

Of what? flash fill?

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y191/BowerR64/Camera/DOFportraitmode.jpg

* * *This is a 12" action figure its not a life size subject macro was used to try getting a blurry background* * *

[BowerR64]

First suggestion is that you purchase "Understanding Exposure" Revised Edition by Bryan Peterson. Secondly you will probably have more sucess if you purchase a close-up filter set I recommend the Hoya Close-Up set. Short of those suggestions you'll need a wide aperature 3.5 and be at full tele... focus on your subject only, there also needs to be a distance between your subject and the subjects background for the effect to work. hth ;)

Congrats and welcome to the community stop by the "Some S3 Pics" Thread and post some pics. :)

The book is a good tip it will help you learn quicker i havnt read it but im sure it wont hurt. The closeup filter set i dont understand this sugestion. Closeup filters are for macro shots, he said hes shooting from 4-8 feet how will the closeup filters work at 4-8 feet? Full tele will give an extreme blur as shown im my examples. You dont always need full tele (test what you like) i think for good portrait shots about half tele seems to be the best. You still blur the background but you can still makeout what the background is. I find that a little more interesting.

So try half zoom with a larger apature 3.2 and while your at half tele, half zoom then move back to compose your shot with the camera at half zoom in P mode see how that looks for you.

[amimaija]

Reading this forum helps a lot and the stickeys especially.......it takes a long time to get it all and remember to use it...



Hi everyone!

We recently purchased an S3IS and love it - have been taking heaps of great photos using the auto settings up until now, as I have started using the manual settings and the quality of my photos has taken a nose dive - definitely user related:(

I am mostly interested in taking pet and animal photographs at the moment (I am an artist and need good quality reference material for my work). Most of the photos I am taking are close up (4-8 feet max), outside in natural lighting. Although some shots are full body, most are close up of the head/face, I want to capture as much detail as possible, preferably with the background blurred.

I am hoping to get some advice as to where to start with my manual settings to achieve this type of photo. LOL I have very unscientifically and randomly tried chaning my settings so I really don't know what is working and what isn't.

I am reading and re-reading my manual but still don't quite get it:(

Could someone please give me a step by step on what my settings should be (mode, shutter, apperture, ISO) to achieve the photo's I am after? I'm trying to work out settings for when the animal is backlit as well (I get a lot of wildlife in my backyard and can't always place them in the light the way I want!)

Alternatively if there is a website that gives step by step settings for various results, that would be great!

Thanks!

Michelle

[chelle]

Thanks for the replies, although I am not sure about the close up filter suggestion either, as I am not doing macro's.

This is an example of the type of photo I am taking, this was taken today (a bright sunny early summer day) in mild shade and is a little dark, particularly around the eyes. I think I can fix it in Paintshop (not sure, I'm still learning that as well).

I took another photo, same position (about 4ft away) and same shade but using the flash and that worked well, but I am pretty sure I had that on either portrait or manual with the flash.

Can anyone suggest what manual settings I should try if I was to successfully take this photo again? Call me stubborn but I *really* want to learn how to do this manually!

Something else I tried today and also with my cat yesterday was getting all the fur in sharp focus (I was only getting the nose/eyes in sharp focus wiht some minor blurring of the ears/chest fur). What I did was half depress the shutter release while focusing on fur at a greater distance from the lens (eg ear fur), then moving the camera to focus onthe eyes/nose then taking the photo. This seemed to get all of the fur in sharp focus but I just wanted to check if this was just a co-incidence or if that is the right way to achieve that?

Thanks for the help! I am sure this will get less confusing...eventually!

Michelle

[drama]

I prefer using the manual mode myself, as it seems to give me the best results
You have to take the time to fiddle with it

I am assuming you are using a tripod , or I strongly reccomend it
As it allows you to try multiple exposure settings on the same compostion

My typical routine goes like so:
1 Decide the aperture

You get most details at apertures of to 5-5.6 on the S3
Going above needs longer exposure, you may get good results with better depth of field
Going to values like 2.7 decreases the depth of field but also decreases exposure times

Decide the shutter speed
Faster shutter speeds will give you more detail

Once you decide on the aperture & shutter speed, review on the LCD
Fiddle till happy :)

2 Get the colors right
Most folks leave it at auto white balance & that works OK
I try to manually set it for each scene

Two ways to do this
a) Use a white or 18% gray card, make the camera focus on it under the same lighting conditions
b) also works, pick a gray or white area in your composition & zoom in on that

It will take some practise to get this right but its well worth it


3 Get a good sharp focus

Using Manual focus is highly reccomended
While holding the MF key pressed down adjust the up & down directional keys
The distance is also shown , once you have acheived optimal focus press the set button, you have focus lock
In the manual focus mode you will get a magnified image of the central potion for easier \ sharper focusing


Now you are all set to shoot :)
Make sure you try multiple settings with the focus & white balance set

What you think is the best shot is usually not :(
Hope this was helpful, I recently learned all this myself
I appreciate you deciding to sticking with the manual mode
More experienced folks can correct me if I have made any mistakes

good luck & keep clicking

[iem]

hi bowerr64,

do you recommend the "p" mode for a complete novice over auto? i don't have the camera yet, but based on what you wrote, it sounds like you get the best of both worlds - everything being automatically set and if you need to adjust something you can. (which i won't know how to do the day i get it - smile)

one of my immediate uses it to take photos and maybe video of vacant land. the other use from now until the end of the year will be xmas decoration inside and outside at night.

thank you.
indera


I have an easier idea, put the camera on "P" mode. Set the ISO to 80 and try vivid on and off. Try the flash on and off with low and medium settings (flash fill) try the different white balance settings (sun icon, cloud icon, custom, auto)

As you try "P" mode remember the camera settings that pop up. THen when you go into manual you can adjust the apature or shutter up and down to get a darker or lighter exsposure.

"P" mode is a creative auto mode. It picks good settings but also lets you adjust basic settings like white balance, ev +/- and the color exsposure (b/w, vivid, sepia) "P" mode selects the hard settings like apature and shutter speed wich are hard to learn at first. Ive had my camera for about a year and im just now getting good with manual mode but i still start with "P" mode.

[BowerR64]

I think its better, auto seems to look flat and lifeless sometimes. When i first got my S2 i took a few pictures and i wasnt very happy then i started to mess around with it and had no idea what i was doing. Some one sugested to me to use "P" mode and then the images started to liven up. It picks the hard settings like shutter and apature so all you can really do is adjust things like color, vivid, B/W and then adjust flash and the exsposure. To me in "P" mode the settings you can adjust are pretty basic.

When you get a shot in "P" mode you dont like post it and maybe we can figure out whats wrong.

It seems when i started using "P" mode i got alot better at controling the camera. I would see the camera chose the same settings over and over indoors so it made it easier when i went to manual mode. It kinda taught me what to use.

The 2 shots you took up there of your cat and dog look good IMO. What do you think?

[chelle]

I am determined to get this all figured out so I have been taking several hundred photos a day trying to get it all figured out, and I am pleased to report that the % of good photos I am getting is going back up again:)

And even better, today I figured out how to use the "M" manual setting which I am ABSOLUTELY stoked about, because I was having difficulty in some situations because neither apperture priority or shutter priority would give me a clean shot, but by using the "M" setting I can now get those shots:)

I couldn't figure out how to use the manual focus, so thanks for the advice about holding the button down (LOL I am sure that is in the manual but I must have missed it).

I have found the histogram the biggest help (other than giving myself pleanty of time that is), although I havn't tried adjusting things like colour. I don't have a tripod as yet, hopefully I'll get one for Christmas, then I want a telephoto lens:)

For a complete novice I would suggest starting with the pure auto mode - let the camera make the decisions until you get used to using it, then start playing around with the settings.

I found the auto settings on this camera to be really great, and it is not really necessary to use the manual settings if you just want good snap shots...but if you want to get some great photographs, the manual settings allow you to get that as well.