Canon Powershot S2 IS: photography, help and advice

[Toby's my baby]

Beautiful photos Kristen!! How did you get the backgroud to turn out completly black on the Lily photo?

Gosh, you all are making it SO hard for me to decide what pictures to choose!! I have to enter them early thursday morning, and I haven't even picked them out yet!! I still need to pick them out, print them, and frame them! Gosh...I guess I'll have to decide for myself Thank you everyone for your help!

[Kirsten]

Thanks!

How did you get the backgroud to turn out completly black on the Lily photo?

Well, I don't know... I used the tv mode (F7,1, exposure time 1/320, no flash, spot focus). The sun was shining onto the blossom. I was surprised it turned out completely black.

Kirsten

[Sonia59]

Kirsten, yesterday night I tried again the moon shots. It does not turn like yours at all, like this one for example:



I know that my teleobjective is more limited than yours on my camera (x14 at maximum, comprising the use of digital zoom), but still, I should be able to catch the details of the moon, even if the moon would be smaller than yours in the centre of the picture. Can you indicate me the parameters of your picture?
And also, did you crop the picture you posted or is really this size on the original picture?

[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.

[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!