Canon Powershot S2 IS: photography, help and advice

[Kirsten]

Sonia, I noticed that moon shots turn out best in the landscape mode of the camera. Strange, isn't it? LOL

The picture above was taken with an aperture of F3,5 and an exposure time of 1/60 seconds. I also had the flash on. Noticed that the moon is looking clearer with a flash. As I have no tripod, I put the camera on a "corn cushion". I used the zoom to the max (12x opt. + 4x digital), and in the original, the moon is as least twice as big. With my software (Corel Photopaint) I removed some brightness and added some contrast to get clearer colors, and I sharpened the picture - that's all.

Kirsten

[Sonia59]

Thanks, I'll try again! I don't think I can get F3.5 with the full zoom on my camera, but I'll try something approaching. I think my problem is that I have too much light, because the moon looks uniform. I will try reducing the exposure time. And the flash, I did not think about it! What ISO speed do you use? I used 400, may be it was not good. But with the automatic landscape mode, I have no choice anyway, it will be ISO 50. Does it matter in this case?

He-he, I usually never retouch my pics (may be a lack of time also), when they are not good I throw them away and I try again. Except if it is a precious picture of my cats that I cannot take again What I am interested in, is what the camera can do (and me via the camera) more than the computer possibilities. This is also why I am so bad in Digiart

[Kirsten]

Sonia, try to reduce ISO. I took mine with ISO 50.
And does your camera have a spot focus? It also helps to reduce the light of the moon.

Kirsten

[Sonia59]

OK, after looking and commenting at pics from the others, here are some of mine!






Macro flowers



This is the very first flower I took with the macro mode, I am not completely satisfied, but I find the flower beautiful





Insects




Snail


Playing with the color switch!


Most of the macro pics were taken in the shadow, so I could not get very sharp pictures, but they look a bit brighter in the original full size pictures than in these ones.

[Kirsten]

Very beautiful! Love the one of the white flower, and the insects, but what have to done to that cow!? LOL It looks like a fan of the Argentinian football team with these colors! Great job!

Kirsten

[Sonia59]

...but what have to done to that cow!? LOL It looks like a fan of the Argentinian football team with these colors!

It was very funny to do, I made purple (like the Milka chocolate cow, do you know it? ), red, yellow and green cows as well. But I think the blue gives the best result. Yellow, red and green made less contrast with the grass.

[shais_mom]

awesome pics Sonia!

[Sonia59]

Thanks!
If anyone has comments, critics, etc. do not hesitate! What is interesting is to learn new tips and to improve!

[Roxyluvsme13]

I love the cow, lol.

[cloverfdx]

Kirsten thanks for the moon tips, i am about to go out and try it (It is currently 3.30am and 1C hehe), i will let you know if it works .

[Toby's my baby]

Woo Hoo!! Some of you know that I entered some pictures into a contest thing this week. I ended up entering 7 pictures, and came out with a Grand Champion, 6 blues, and a red. I don't remeber what pictures got what, and I dont get my photos back until Sunday, I'll update again then, just wanted to let everyone know!

[shais_mom]

Woo Hoo!! Some of you know that I entered some pictures into a contest thing this week. I ended up entering 7 pictures, and came out with a Grand Champion, 6 blues, and a red. I don't remeber what pictures got what, and I dont get my photos back until Sunday, I'll update again then, just wanted to let everyone know!

congratulations!

[Kirsten]

Sonia, yes, of course I know the Milka cow! It's the best chocolate ever!

@Toby's my baby: Wow, that's awesome news, congrats!! You must be so proud!

@cloverfdx: you're welcome! How did the moon pics turn out?


I also took some new photos yesterday, some rural landscape shots:


(added some color saturation here to make the colors brighter)




(reduced the color saturation in this picture to make it look more ancient)

Kirsten

[RobiLee]

I love everyone's photos.

Kirsten, your landscape photos are awesome. Such beautiful country scenery.

Beth, great big congrats to you! That is so cool.

I haven't been doing much picture taking lately but I did get a shot of the moon. I know it's not great but I thought it did turn out pretty decent considering I was standing in the middle of the street standing on my tip toes with my arms stretched above me as far as they could and trying my hardest to hold the camera as still as possible because I was using all 48x zoom.

[Roxyluvsme13]

It looks really good .