Powershot S50 Night/Underwater Help

[Nunnsby]

Hi All

I am having a few problems with my S50. I will start by saying that I am NOT a professional photographer. I use my camera on a purely recreational basis, so I acknowledge that the probelsm I am having might be due to my ignorance/lack of knowledge of photography in general! :?

Now, onto the problems, which are 2 fold, yet I feel they are probably related.

1) Night Shots: I find that if I use AUTO on night shots, with the FLASH DISABLED (OFF), the pictures blur. ie I take a shot of the City of Cape Town, where I live, from a mountain pass, and all the pictures of the lights blur. I am not using a stand, but am holdin it by hand, so reckon that this is a cause, but is the shutter speed not that fast that it can take a picture at night in AUTO mode without blurring?

2) I have an Underwater housing (WP-DC300) that I use for underwater shots, I am a Diving Instructor too, and I find once again, in AUTO mode, with the Flash OFF, the pictures blur, even when there is sufficient light to light the subject.

Can anyone shed some "LIGHT" :D on what I am doing wrond, or give me a few pointers on what to try?

Many thanks to anyone

Richard

[eastcoast909]

Hi:

Unfortunately you are correct. The shutter speed with the auto setting slows down to get the correct exposure for the picture that you are trying to get. The blurring that you are seeing is more than likely camer shake.

Typically you should be using a tripod for all your night shots, or if you do not have a tripod available then try and brace your camera and/or hands on a stationary object.

There are many posts in the forums here on taking night photographs, try searching the other forums. The cameras may be different but the technique for taking the photographs isn't.

The same applies for the underwater pictures. The flash on the S series is not big/strong enough to illuminate much underwater. You are going to have to use an external flash unit. I remember reading about this on the net but cannot remember where it was :cry: , try searching underwater photography & S45.

The S50 should have a "night" setting in the auto settings. Read your manual on the topic to find where it is. It will also caution you that you should be using a tripod.

Hope that this helps.

[clark62r]

Richard, I also have an S50.

Don't use auto mode on this camera for what you want to do for night shots, use manual mode, and maybe manual focus.

The nice thing about the S50 and other digitals is you can see what the exposure is going to look like before you take the shot.

Set up your camera so that you can see the LCD and dial in somthing that looks good in your preview then, push the shutter button down half way
and you will see how far from what the camera thinks the exposer should be in the upper left corner of the LCD if you are off by more then 1 stop
dial it in some.

For night photos of skylines try this, focus at infinity, and open up the apeture to f2.8 to get the maximum shutter speed to limit camera shake problems. Using a tripod or resting the camera on a rock also helps. You can also up the ISO to 400 but you will get alot of noise.

Since you can see whats going on in the LCD just play with it until you get somthing you like.

Just some suggestions.
Have fun with your S50 you can do a lot with it just play.

Clark

[Jon]

Remember, your eyes are much more sensitive to light than a camera is. At night, or under water, what looks right to you is probably a good deal darker. Also, the auto-exposure isn't trying to capture a "night" scene or an "underwater" scene, it's trying to make it look like it would in daylight on the surface. Accordingly, it's using a longer exposure than you'd need to make it look like what you're actually seeing. Underwater, maybe a half stop per 30 feet, and at night, probably 2-3 stops over what would give the effect you're seeing. The night situation will get worse if you're trying to capture the city lights, not the landscape, etc. The lights can probably be safely captured at ISO 100 and 1/60 or so without camera motion.

You'll have more difficulty keeping the camera steady underwater too, since you're balanced to neutral buoyancy, while on land you've got 1 G holding you on the spot. Any little currents, fin-flicks, etc. will make you move and a slowish shutter speed will amplify this. Also, due to refraction underwater, your lens is effectively longer than it is in air, so this also helps magnify the effect of any camera motion. If you hope to use flash (I notice you said you weren't) underwater, you'll need a rig that allows you to use the flash off-camera (not triggered by the built-in flash) to prevent backscatter from suspended particles throwing everything off, but you knew that.

[eastcoast909]

you might want to check out this website.

http://www.digideep.com/articles.php?id=5

Good luck and post some of those pictures :D