Canon S30

[t.wilson]

Thanks for the forum!

Got the S30. This is a lot of camera for a beginner but with auto and P mode I am set for a while.
As for night shots, I have a long way to go many of the shots I wish to take are either from the deck of a boat or of another boat. So even with a tripod I have some problems.
Any suggestions?

Tom

[Willem]

If you can put the boat in an absolute unmoving state, you can make nightpictures with any camera. But I have never seen it done, succesfully!

Greeting,
Willem

[Tom Brown]

I'm a boater too. I've gotten some terrific ultra low light and low light with motion pictures. There are a couple of tricks.

- take as many pictures as possible (just keep shooting)
- try to hold the camera as steady as you can by leaning up against something, etc.
- if the boat is rocking, do your best to compensate for the rocking
- don't expect any of them to turn out

Two weeks ago I took some pictures of a sunset through my office window. Three of them are good enough to share (just barely). The others are hopelessly blurry. I took about 60 pictures to get these three. My camera is an S110.


Regards,

Tom Brown


http://www.carlsonspeed.com/~tombrown/sunset/Img_0379_800.jpg

http://www.carlsonspeed.com/~tombrown/sunset/Img_0388_800.jpg

http://www.carlsonspeed.com/~tombrown/sunset/Img_0389_800.jpg

[t.wilson]

Thanks Tom nice shots.

I gave it a try.

Almost got lucky with the sunset.

http://www.pbase.com/image/1117521.jpg

This is my backyard.

http://www.pbase.com/image/1117527.jpg

And our Xmas tree,


http://www.pbase.com/image/958566.jpg

Tom w

[sean000]

One trick I learned about taking low-light photos (in situations where the flash wouldn't be helpful as the subject was too far away) with the S-30 is to use the high-speed (fast motion) setting on the shooting mode dial (the one that looks like a runner). I have used this to take fairly decent landscape photos at dusk when the last rays of ambient sunlight were still helpful.

Using the cameras manual aperture and shutterspeed controls are the professional ways to take photos in low-light. However, I am sure you have seen that it takes finding the right balance to avoid blurred images. Using the high-speed setting is great for those situations when you don't have time to monkey with the controls or set up a tripod. The results won't always be great (when the light is low enough...you just have to use a tripod or other stable platform), but the results have surprised me on many occaisions.

[nachi]

t.wilson wrote:
Thanks for the forum!

Got the S30. This is a lot of camera for a beginner but with auto and P mode I am set for a while.
As for night shots, I have a long way to go many of the shots I wish to take are either from the deck of a boat or of another boat. So even with a tripod I have some problems.
Any suggestions?

Tom

Hi,

Try this for night-shots.

Set the mode-dial to aperture-priority-mode. Choose the smallest f-number available - I guess f2.8. This helps you have a high shutter speed so that the picture won't be spoiled too much by the blur. Since the auto-focus system cannot focus in dim light, choose manual focus. In most cases you might have to set it infinity, unless the boats are really close.

The camera will choose the best shutter speed. If the images are still blurry, you can increase the ISO setting. This will make the camera select an even-faster shutter, but the image will turn out to be noisy.
Try fiddling with the different ISO settings.