What am I doing wrong?

[BamaClark]

I'm shooting with a powershot G9 and there's tons of blur in photos. Any ideas?

[izatt82]

no links or photos

??

[richierich1212]

What are you trying to take pictures of? Check your shutter speed and ISO settings.

[n1as]

What subjects are you shooting? Under what lighting conditions? What camera settings?

Your images might be blurry because they aren't in focus. If so, then the camera picked the wrong thing to focus on. I prefer to configure the camera for center focus only then putting that center point on what I want to be in focus, pressing the shutter 1/2 way to lock the focus, then recomposing the shot and finishing the shutter press. Voila, I have an in-focus off-center subject.

If your blur issues are due to motion then it could be subject motion or camera motion. The first can only be solved by using a fast enough shutter speed to freeze the action, or by using a flash.

If the blur is caused by camera motion, then you have to either raise your shutter speed or find a way to brace / support the camera (i.e. a tripod) when you shoot.

[BamaClark]

Oops.. I thought I had attached the files but apparently they didn't. Will re-try.

[BamaClark]

The first is ok but the lighting looks bad. The second would've been an otherwise great shot were it not for the serious blur. Thanks for all the help. I mainly take photos of the kids and family. LOTS of action shots which brings up another question... What's the best for shooting action shots of kids with the G9? Even in sports mode the images are blurry.. Really annoying. I know this camera is capable of producing great images and I'm just not doing something right. I've played around with it every way I know...

[markubig]

blur usually means your shutter speeds are too slow and your subjects are moving. remember, IS will only help camera shake from you holding the camera and shooting fairly motionless subjects. It won't stop action. but without actual examples, we can't tell you for sure.

[markubig]

What's the best for shooting action shots of kids with the G9?
if you're indoors? flash or LOTS of light

The 2nd shot looks like it focused on either the door instead of your subjects

[BooostedAWD]

I don't really see any blur in the first image.
However the second image isn't due to camera shake; this is a focus issue. You're focused on the door behind the subjects and not your subjects themselves.

[izatt82]

the first shot the lighting looks harsh bouncing flash would help but dont think you can do that with that camera. you can only get so much light out of an in camera flash so depending on the lighting in the room it might be to dark. the second image just looks like the the camera did not focus way out of focus looks like it might have focused on the back wall. if you can set your focus point to just one that way you can foucus on what you want not what the camera wants

[PicBug]

I am no expert on all the G9 settings, but did you know that G9 comes with a "kids & pets" setting? You might just try dialing over to that to see what it can do. From the other G9 users here, it's seems to be a G9 thing that it can be a little tricky to get a good indoor shot, especially with the onboard flash. Many have an additional flash. (No wonder it came with a hotshoe). In your second shot, it's just focused farther out. G9 has the face detection (in the menu settings) which would help a lot here as well.

What a cutie with that red hair!

[CandidG9]

What settings are you using?

[n1as]

First shot is sharp, blur-free but looks "cheap" because of the on-board direct flash. That is the way direct flash looks. Using the on-board flash to light the scene is one of the easiest ways to get bad looking photos.

2nd shot is OOF (out of focus). The camera focused on the background instead of your subject.

If you want good photos with a G9, the best thing you can do is to get some education under your belt. I do not recommend the many scene modes because they prevent you from truly learning. Instead, you should learn about these things:

- ISO
- Shutter Speed
- Aperture (f/ stop)
- White Balance.

Learn those 4 things. Play with the camera in the manual modes working with those 4 things. Learn what each does. Get a good book (Understand Exposure by Peterson is good) and read it. Then shoot in a mode that lets you control those 4 things. M is good, Tv, Av or P is great. Stay away from green box mode and the other special scene modes.

Also, configure the camera to use only the center point for focus. Then get in the habit of 1/2 pressing the shutter to focus on your subject then reframing to form your composition before you finish the shutter press to take the image.

[denncald]

Yes, it would be nice if you could learn some things about setting exposure and flash for indoor shots, but you probably just want to get some good family shots during the holidays...now.

I would recommend you select the Scene mode Indoor for your indoor shots of your family. Read about it on pages 89 and 90 in your User Guide. It adjusts for indoor artificial lighting, and will provide better settings for use of the flash to avoid blurring from slow shutter speeds. You can learn more later, and avoid losing those great family moments now.

I would definitely recommend using flash indoors, even though the built in flash will cause some harsh lighting compared to an expensive hot shoe mounted external flash in bounce position. Also, set your camera to Face Detect (page 116), and turn on Red Eye Reduction (page 113).

Here's a recent shot using Face Detect and Red Eye on, but in Program mode. You could get about the same with the Indoor mode;

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3118/3108033463_a6706b15d2_o.jpg

Dennis

[MarKap77]

Bama, you are asking the standard "newbie" question. Yes, the second image is blurry and it is due to the autofocus making the wrong choice about what you intended to photograph and focusing at the wrong distance.

Understanding what is happening will take a bit or work on your part to understand how flash, shutter speed, aperture, and ISO all inter-relate and their effects on your images. Many threads here that discuss these things, so do lots of reading here and elsewhere to help you understand what is happening.

[n1as]

Yes, it would be nice if you could learn some things about setting exposure and flash for indoor shots, but you probably just want to get some good family shots during the holidays...now.

I would recommend you select the Scene mode Indoor for your indoor shots of your family.

The time it takes to learn about ISO, Shutter Speed, Aperture and White Balance is all of about 3 days if you read through Peterson's book and take some test shots. Using the modes on the camera may get you better stuff or maybe not.

At the very least, you need to learn about controlling focus. All the scene modes in the world won't guarantee the camera focuses on the right thing every time.

[twalker294]

As for focus, my recommendation is to lock the focus on the center point and keep it there. That way YOU decide what to focus on, not the camera. If your subject is off-center as these were, you simply put the center focus point on one of their faces, half press the shutter to lock the focus, then recompose and take the shot. Get in the habit of doing this and it becomes second nature.

[NJdez]

As for focus, my recommendation is to lock the focus on the center point and keep it there. That way YOU decide what to focus on, not the camera. If your subject is off-center as these were, you simply put the center focus point on one of their faces, half press the shutter to lock the focus, then recompose and take the shot. Get in the habit of doing this and it becomes second nature.
if your using this method, make sure to turn off Servo AF.
if you dont, then the camera will continually focus until the shutter closes