Tips for photo taking with automatic digital cameras

To make picture taking even easier for those holiday memories, digital cameras, such as the Canon PowerShot or Ixus series, come equipped with Special Scene Modes, manual settings and accessories for any situation. And of course, a few photo taking tips always help.

Snowy Situations: If you’ll be outside making Frosty the Snowman in the snow, try using the Snow Scene mode to shoot clear and bright snow scenes without darkening the subject or leaving an unnatural bluish tint. This will automatically adjust the white balance and compensate for the bright environment.

Indoor Moments: While you’re inside capturing the family opening their gifts or gathering around the dinner table, try the Indoor scene mode. Since lighting may be limited indoors, this scene mode will help reduce blur and improve color accuracy when shooting.

Capturing the Activity: The family’s over to celebrate the holidays and it’s a little hectic with the children running around, but don’t worry. Remember to select the Kids & Pets scene mode to freeze fast-moving subjects to capture those special shots, such as your nephew trying to run away from Grandma under the mistletoe.

Bundle up for Winter: If you’ll be outdoors in the unpredictable winter weather, consider using a Waterproof/All Weather Casing for your digital camera. This is especially helpful in protecting your camera from the elements if you’re skiing or snowboarding on the slopes this season. Most digital cameras have a special housing that allows you to operate all buttons and protect your camera.


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Tips for Canon EOS (SLR) Photography

Digital SLRs like the EOS Rebel XSi, the EOS 50D, and the EOS 5D Mark II are ideal for all kinds of photography. Canon EOS Digital SLRs have the features and performance to perfectly capture the spirit of the season. Want to freeze the action of a snowboarder speeding downhill? Hoping to photograph a cozy family portrait in front of a roaring fire? Looking forward to taking pictures of twinkling holiday lights? Here are a few tips that will help you make the most of your subject, and your camera:

Take advantage of your camera’s continuous shooting capabilities. All EOS Digital SLRs are equipped with built-in motor drives and AI Servo autofocus to track moving subjects for sharp photos. Chances are good that you’ll never need to shoot that many photos in a row, but the internal memory that makes this feature possible also keeps the camera ready to shoot shorter bursts virtually all the time.

To capture the best image, use an appropriate lens. The standard zoom lens that may have come with your digital SLR is a good all-around performer for basic snapshots, but for action photos you’ll be better off with a telephoto lens so you can zoom in for a close-up. For a group photo, choose a wide angle lens to get everyone in your shot.

If you are sitting by the fireplace, you can increase your ISO setting to capture the ambient light. It is not necessary to use the flash because you want to capture natural light. Try using a tripod to steady the camera, and set the ISO to a higher setting than normal, like 800, 1600 or even 3200. This will help to create a more natural balance of exposure between your subject and the background.

Even though flash can ruin the natural lighting of an indoor scene, it’s equally true that creative use of flash illumination can enhance almost any indoor photo. You can get more natural looking indoor flash photos by using the Slow-Sync setting on the camera’s mode dial. This may require a slow shutter speed, so be sure to keep both the camera and the subject steady until the exposure has been completed. For even more creative effects, consider using the camera’s flash exposure compensation setting to cut back on flash illumination in order to make the lighting look more natural.

Take your home movies to a whole new level with Full HD Video Capture! The Canon EOS 5D Mark II is the world's first digital SLR capable of shooting full HD video (1080p) at 30 fps in LiveView mode. Part of the camera's Live View Mode, this new feature offers limitless options for shooting broadcast-quality family videos. You can use any Canon EF lens, and view the clips straight from the camera on either standard or high definition televisions. The video footage is easily edited with most common nonlinear programs such as iMovie.


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Macro mode shooting for near object

Always there is a need to take photos with a closed distance. Be it a flower, a small object, or some documents.

In this case, you got to turn on the macro mode in your camera. This photos demonstrate the effect of macro mode shooting.

Every camera got their limit, for example in this case, the Canon SD870 cannot take it as close as 1cm even with the macro is turned on. But as the distance get further apart, to 2cm and 3cm, the images become very sharp, and the camera can focus correctly.

You may wonder what will happen if you do not turn on macro, you can see it at the last photo. The camera cannot focus at all. So remember to turn on macro when you are going to take a closed-up shot.

Where to buy or sell photos?

If you have take a lot of photos, would like to make money out of it.

Or

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Do checkout these sites:

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How to take night shot

Depending you are taking human or the night scene:

• If you are taking human: use the flash, or use the night portrait or night scene functions provided by the camera.
• If you are taking the scene: NEVER use flash, and possible with a tripod unless you have a steady hand.

Below is a trial with all different ISO setting (manually) with a automatic setting (the night scene mode) on a Canon SD870 or Ixus 860 wide angle camera. The pictures is crop in 100%.

ISO 100 to 400, the top 3 images, very low noise, but as the exposure speed is too long, so the image is blur.

ISO 800 and 1600, the bottom left 2 images, very high noise, but fast exposure speed, so the image is clear without blur.

The final one ISO 250 (seems like when you choose automatic setting on the night scene mode, the ISO is always fixed to 250), the shutter speed is just nice that all the lights are captured with very clean (no noise) image.

Compare to my previous post, http://hightechwebs.blogspot.com/2008/05/night-shot-with-canon-870-or-ixus-860.html, you got to decide to use manual or auto setting when you are going to take night images. As in cases, like in this building, the auto setting is just nice. Whereas in my previous post, http://hightechwebs.blogspot.com/2008/05/night-shot-with-canon-870-or-ixus-860.html, the auto setting gives a poorer performance.

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Night shot with Canon 870 or Ixus 860

This is the night shot with Canon 870 or Ixus 860.


The first image with ISO 800, exposure time 0.3333 sec. The second image with ISO 1600, exposure time 0.167 sec.


It can be seen that ISO 800 (the first image) has limited noise, enough detials (the human siting at the revier side). And no hand shaking, blur image or out of focus.


While the first two took with manual ISO setting. The last image is taken with the "night scene" functions. I find that it always fix the ISO to be 250.


Unfortunately, in this case, only light can be seen, and many details information are lost.


I will show more night shots in the upcoming post.


If you like to see the video taking at night, look at this post:http://hightechwebs.blogspot.com/2008/05/taking-time-lapse-movie-with-your-canon.html

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Tips on taking Panoramic Photo

Panoramic photos, or Photo Stitching is to combine several photos to become a big one...

Many cameras now provide a fuction to let you take such photo, e.g. Canon, this function is always there...

However, without the function provided by the camera, can we take panoramic photos or stich the photos on ourself? Yes... if you know how to do it...

Why we need to do it ourself when the camera has the function, this is because the camera only allows you to stich the photos in one line:

Photo1 Photo2 Photo3 Photo4 --> become a long photo

But not:

Photo1 Photo2

Photo3 Photo4

---> to become a big square or rectangular photo as follows:

So we need to DIY Panoramic Photo..

However there are some tips that you need to pay attention:
1) set your camera to manual setting, so that you can fix the aperture, shuttle speed, if not you get different lighting for different photos, and end up you get something on the left.

2) Control the overlapping portion, not too much overlapping between photos, but also not too little, if not distortion will happen as shown left.

3) Stand as far as possible from the scene.

Finally, a link where you can buy and sell your panoramic photos:

http://www.panohouse.com/index.php