S30 Settings

[goyard3x]

I just bought a s30 and have been taking pictures for a couple of days, I have noticed that when I take pictures of my kids on a bright and sunny day everything comes out nice except you can't see their faces (darkly shaded) in auto. What setting would help clear this up without making the rest of the picture look washed out? If this is a lame question I am sorry as I am new to this. BTW I have read the manual but thought I could listen to experience first. Thanks,

Goyard

[Rustle]

Two things to try:

1. set the flash to always-on, which will fill out the subject. This is sometimes called 'fill-flash'. The flash isn't strong enough to wash out the background.

2. use the Program setting, which is virtually the same as Auto but allows you more control. You can then change the auto exposure setting (bottom left button) between center-weighted (the default), spot, and evaluative. Check your manual and play with these settings to figure out what works best for you. If you use spot, the camera will read the exposure from whatever is in the center of the frame, so if you aim at someone's face, the camera will attempt to expose that area correctly. Or you can use evaluative, which might work best. Like I said, try 'em all to see what you like.

If you're feeling experimental, start playing with the exposure settings and/or auto bracketing. It's all about playing with the camera. I knew very little about manual controls until I got my S30. I bought a book, read a lot of Web sites, and experiment to figure out what I'm doing.

Russ