S3 Grainy shots!! (PICS)

I dont get it, some are grainy, some are blury, some are ok.
I decided to post some of the worst....

The wood especially looks very grainy.

The grainy shots may be due to your ISO setting being too high. The exif (data that your camera recorded about the shot) does not show the iso. But if you had it on 400 or 800, that will typically give you lots of grain. The shot of the girl next to the tree is a combination of high ISO and slow shutter speed - giving you a grainy and OOF shot. The one with the girl and the boy making a face looks like the back wall is in focus - so you may have had the focus point in the wrong place. With the trees in the last shot, you will need a smaller aperture to get distant object more in focus. But then you will have a slower shutter speed. Perhaps a tripod for a shot like that. The sea shell shot is not so bad. I ran it through a simple one step noise removal in Paint shop pro and it fixed it right up. Read up on some basics of photography and learn how ISO, shutter, and aperture affect shots. S3IS is a great little camera and it has a ton of features.

Stefan

What mode were these pictures shot in?

I am a novice myself. Had the S2 since the end of march. Like most, more camera than I knew what to do with. I would guess light would be your big enemy on most of them. I get a lot of shots with that kind of grain in them and most of the time, not enough light getting into the camera. When you start working with the manual modes, you can get rid of some the grainy look. Here is a small example, but I believe this was taking in TV mode.

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That is a very cool bike you have Mel!
These shots were all taken in the "auto" mode.
I want to start tweaking the came but theres so many different modes I dont know what mode to start adjusting things on!
I was kind of playing around with it last night, thanks alot for your help Stefan. The lower ISO really made things look alot better.
And yes, come to think about it alot of my worst shots are in low light areas.
One other question....What setting for the Image Stabilization should I set my cam to?

EDIT: On another note...the main reason I got this camera was for beach shooting, waves, and surfers. So if anyone has any suggestions for settings for those types of things also, I am all ears!

GCastorino wrote in post #2450103
That is a very cool bike you have Mel!
These shots were all taken in the "auto" mode.
I want to start tweaking the came but theres so many different modes I dont know what mode to start adjusting things on!
I was kind of playing around with it last night, thanks alot for your help Stefan. The lower ISO really made things look alot better.
And yes, come to think about it alot of my worst shots are in low light areas.
One other question....What setting for the Image Stabilization should I set my cam to?

EDIT: On another note...the main reason I got this camera was for beach shooting, waves, and surfers. So if anyone has any suggestions for settings for those types of things also, I am all ears!

Was the flash off? it looks like it was in those pictures. In auto mode, the camera is going to choose the settings that will give you proper exposure, including increasing ISO when needed. The problem on the S3 and other digicams is that the higher ISOs tend to be very noisy/grainy. If you shoot on P mode, it is still auto, but you are able to manually set ISO and flash output, etc.

Shooting in Av allows you to control the aperture and the camera automatically chooses the shutter speed for proper exposure. This mode is best for shooting portaits, group shots, etc. Aperture is the diameter of the lens opening. In a nutshell, it controls how much light is allowed to hit the sensor. The bigger the opening, the more light is let in. To make it easy, the smaller the number, the larget the opening (i.e. 2.0=large aperture/more light, 8.0=small aperture/less light).

Shooting Tv allows you to choose the shutter speed and the camera chooses the aperture for proper exposure. This mode is best for shooting objects in motion. Shutter speed is the time that the shutter is open to allow the light in to hit the sensor. The faster the shutter speed, the less light on the sensor. Fast shutterspees are good for moving objects because they stop the objects in motion. if you shoot a moving object with a slow shutter speed, then you will see what is called motion blur.

Shooting M mode allows you to choose both aperture & shutter speed.

What's great about digital is instant feedback. Shoot in each mode and change the settings and see what the results are. It takes some time, but once you get the hang of it, it's really fun.

Hope that helps to get you started. Enjoy!

GCastorino wrote in post #2450103
That is a very cool bike you have Mel!
These shots were all taken in the "auto" mode.
I want to start tweaking the came but theres so many different modes I dont know what mode to start adjusting things on!
I was kind of playing around with it last night, thanks alot for your help Stefan. The lower ISO really made things look alot better.
And yes, come to think about it alot of my worst shots are in low light areas.
One other question....What setting for the Image Stabilization should I set my cam to?

EDIT: On another note...the main reason I got this camera was for beach shooting, waves, and surfers. So if anyone has any suggestions for settings for those types of things also, I am all ears!

While your getting used to your camera the easy thing to do and still get good pictures is put it in "P" mode. "P" is like "Auto" but gives you some control. Set your ISO to 80 or 100 and your IS on continuous. Pay attention to what the camera is picking in various situations.

As you learn more about photography and your camera, experiment with other modes and see what you can do with each. Take your time and get good fundamentals so you have something solid to build on and take lots of shots. You have a great camera, but take the time to learn it and you will take some great photos.

A good place to start learning is: http://www.shortcourse​s.com/using/index.htm it's quick, easy and FREE. After that take the lessons which are also FREE at: http://www.morguefile.​com/archive/classroom.​php go down to the lessons and click where it says "Click here to view the lesson." Above all have fun, your film is free and the world is not going to end if you take a shot that is not perfect.

My S3 is set to constant IS, it seems to help. But I know a lot of posters like it only on when they shoot. I also like to use P mode, it seems to take better pics than AUTO. And under low light conditions it won't raise the ISO. Another thing for better pics in low light can be changing from color to B&W. Also, some times changing the setting for the light sensor can help in low light; like to evaluate, or center, instead of spot.
As for shooting surfers, I haven't shot any of them...but I would think using the burst setting would help capture the action. However, it's not coming to mind where to find that in the menu, but it's in the users guide.

Have fun

Pic #1 - ISO Too High
Pic #2 - ISO too High
Pic #3 - ISO too High
Pic #4 - It focused on the block wall instead of the girl. maybe, set it to center a/f point if it has it.

Pic #5 - Looks like to me you took it through a window or door. I see a reflection on the right. Nothing looks good through glass like that.

Your camera is a good camera and can produce great results. Those are user error.

If you had image editing okay then I would use some noise reduction on one of them to show you how it helps.

Thanks alot to all you guys. Im sure I will be posting more threads with questions but this is a great start so far!
I think Im addicted already, I just got back from driving around and getting out to shoot things.
I knew this camera would be a lot of fun and am really looking forward to getting to know the ins and outs of it Thanks again guys

Welcome here GC! And welcome to an awesome lil camera. I've got the S2 myself and only had it a lil under 2 weeks. I've shot +/- 800 photos already lol so I'm really learning a lot fast. Best advice I can give you is for you to read the book that came with your camera. You'll learn an awful lot!

Also, for me I ALWAYS shoot in manual lol. (M) You can see in the viewfinder what the shot will look like, cept for noise. You can see if the image is too dark, if it is play with the aperture (the 2.7-8.0 number), or the shutter speed (the "15-1/3200) numbers at the bottom of the screen. Look up Aperture on wikipedia and you'll also learn alot including some about shutter speed (may have to click on a link or 2). These are the things I did and trust me it all helped!

I bought my S2 with the intentions of moving up to an all out DSLR later so I'm all about learning to use this thing in manual I still screw up sometimes lol and have the ISO too high or Photo Effect on Vivid inside...which makes everything inside really warm (reddish) imo. But I'm still learning of course lol so who knows what I can accomplish with lots more time.

Feel free to click on my Flikr address below for a small sampling of my amatuerish shots with my S2. Also, Flikr has a couple of S2/S3 groups where you can join and learn stuff as well...and see the capabilities of these things through those who know how to use them :P

Have fun!!! I love mine!! Just got done taken about 30 shots of the moon out in daylight today lol. Can;t wait to get home and see them. Going to take some of it tonight too hopefully on nothing higher than ISO 100