Digital cameras 101

[John Howard]

Hi guys, i have a canon ixus500 and i have been trying to death to take some nice pictures of my small but fast fish!  

Ive tried just about every setting i know of and as far as i can see (im a novice when it comes to photography) the camera sometimes cooperates and gives me beautifull pictures such as these :



and sometimes it doesent cooperate and gives me really poor pictures that are blurry such as these:



Ive messed around with all sorts of settings that are available with this camera (iso, exposure, flash, moving light sources) but i just cant get a good macro image of the fish (like the one i showed yous before). Ive tried setting the cammera off macro and moving up close (bad idea) tried zooming out with macro on, zooming in with macro on changing all sorts of modes etc etc. Its a real hair puller! now i know you cannot pinpoint the exact problem but i would really appreciate it if you could point me in the right direction as to the settings that would most likley produce an acceptable result.

The cameras capabilities in terms of iso etc are:
ISO 50  to 400
EXP -2 to +2 (in manual mode, in automatic Matrix, Center and spot )
Flash Auto, Red eye, Night
unfourtunatley i have no idea about the cameras capabilities when it comes to focus, im pretty sure its just autofocus as i have not found a way of disabling the focus.

The place where im taking the pictures i a dimly light garage (almost dark) with the light source above the fish tanks.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[ShutterbugGail]

Hi John,

Welcome to Digicamhelp.

Unfortunately, your images aren't displaying. I tried putting the url in my browser address bar and can't access them either. If you wish, you can mail them to me at gail@digicamhelp.com. It would be really very helpful to be able to view the image in order to provide a useful response.

One thing I note that you didn't mention is shutter speed. Using a faster shutter speed would help freeze the action. You'll need a fast shutter speed to stop the action of your fast moving fish.

http://www.digicamhelp.com/advanced-digital-camera-settings/shutter-speed.htm

Some other thoughts:

Steady your camera when shooting. If you don't have a tripod set something up where you can place the camera, then use the self-timer to trigger the shutter button.

You should try to increase the lighting in the room. If you use artifical lighting, adjust the camera's white balance setting to match the light. Use lighting from the top and sides, not in back.

http://www.digicamhelp.com/white-balance/

You don't have manual focus on your camera, so try setting it at "infinity lock." This will help keep everything in focus (known as depth of field). This is important because you are shooting through glass, and it can be difficult to focus.

http://www.digicamhelp.com/taking-pictures/depth-of-field.htm

Set your camera to 1 point Auto Focus and see if that helps.

Your digicam has five megapixels. Set the camera to  the highest settings. This will allow you to crop your image instead of relying on macro mode. I don't think I'd use macro mode because it can decrease depth of field, which means there will be less area in focus. In other words, don't take shots really close up.

Hopefully some of these will work. You're going to have to experiment. Without seeing your photos, I really do think the very low lighting is causing you the biggest problem and you should do everything possible to increase it.

Let us know how it goes.

[John Howard]

Ok, i tried again (imageshack was playing up last time for some reason  

here is an example of a good image

http://img31.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img31ℑ=good11.jpg

and here is an example of a bad one

http://img23.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img23ℑ=bad1.jpg

im prety sure the camera is sometimes trying to focus on the background of the aquarium or the glow of the aquarium glass. and sometimes its the dreaded motion blur!!!

im not sure as to wether this camera has shutter speed control. is there another name for it or a universal symbol (so i can have a look at the lcd for clues)

ive found on a specifications page
Shutter Speed : 15 - 1/2,000 sec.  
(maximum being 15 secs i think?)

i dont really know how its controlled (i probably did mess with it but i didnt know it was shutter speed) the manual is not very intuative either  \


oh and btw, thanx for your tips below i will give em a try and see how some of the stuff goes. (even though i cant find anywhere as to how i change shutter speed )

what about iso settings? should they be leaning towards higher values or lower?

[John Howard]

oh no.. dont worry about the pics, seems as imageshack redirects you if you have seen the pictures more than 2 times or something (it worked for the first few clicks but then it stopped and redirected to main page... ill try find another place to upload my pictures.

[John Howard]

ok hopefuly this will owork now

good

http://xs2.xs.to/pics/04112/good.jpg

bad

http://xs2.xs.to/pics/04112/bad.jpg

hope it works now...  

[ShutterbugGail]

Hi again,

The first shot is great. Seems the lighting is sufficent. Looking at the second photo, it sure looks like you have a focusing problem which is exaggerated by the movment of the fish.

I found this site (you don't have to download the fonts to read the text so just click "cancel" when the screen pops up). From what I understand, you may want to try setting your camera on AF Lock. Canon states that this is for Shooting Hard–to–Focus Subjects.

"Using focus lock or AF lock, you can focus on and shoot subjects that are moving quickly, such as animals or children or through glass."

http://web.canon.jp/Imaging/ixus500/foc-e.html#loc

I can't tell from the info if you can adjust shutter speed. Shutter speed is usually specified on the main dial by S or, for some strange reason on some digicams, TV.

If you increase the ISO settings you will have a faster shutter speed, however be aware that you may get some noise at speeds 200 and above. Here's some info on noise, and how to eliminate it. If you use a noise removal program, sharpen the image AFTER you apply the noise filter.

http://www.digicamhelp.com/what-is-noise-reduction/

Let us know if the AF Lock and higher ISO helps.

btw, I admire your patience and determination. It *will* pay off.  

[John Hopward]

wow thanx so much for your help. that site you obtained is a definite bookmark for me !!!   Ive been looking for so long for something a bit more detailed on my camera (the quickstart pamphlet was very brief and the book was unintuative at all!!  

its late here in australia now (11:30pm) so i wont try take piccies of myfish right now but i definitley will try in the morning.. i was messing around with iso and exposure settings this afternoon and placing the camera on the stool and ive found the best settings were exp +1.5 ISO 300 and a timed delay of 2 secs on a stool AND no MACRO MODE!!! ill definitley mess around with the focus tomorow and see what i can come up. for some reason though the images that ive been taking are looking clear but are dull (not as vivid as the good picture above).. ill haveto tr opening the garage to get natural light in and hopefully it will bring out the shine in my subjects


YEY lots more picture taking tomorow for me!! i love it caus it doesent cost a cent (or as you americans would say 'penny'  ) unlike the old style photography with film  

anyway, im blabbing as its late.. thank you vey much for your help! i wil definitley post some links to the pictures i take tomorow and would love to hear a review including constructive criticism   nite all!!!

[John Howard]

hi guys im baacccckkk  

i had a go at some picture taking and this is the best i could come up with.

http://xs2.xs.to/pics/04114/newpiccie.jpg  

its a good result but nowhere near as near as good as the one that i fluked (the good pic above a couple of posts).

Just incase anywone was wondering i used iso 400, 1+ exp, NORMAL picture taking (not the quick pic option!! (very important), no flash, force focus though i was doing it handheld (no tripod or timed)..

ive tried iso200 but the picture comes out blurry (though the noise is lowered considerably and ultimatley looks like my good picture a couple of posts up) .

any criticism will be welcomed so criticise away a(and make sume suggestions of course too!!)  

[John Howard]

oh also a quick question. i always though that iso is dependant (or works much like) shutter speed but after reading your article on noise reduction i states that the main problem with lower iso is unsteady hands.

What im really trying to say i guess is:

if i want to take action shots (such as my speedy fish) does it matter what iso i set it at as long as the camera is perfectly still? or is it an effect just like shutter speed. the lower the iso, the more the camer has to analyse the picture to obtain clearer data resulting in motion blur.

[Mike54]

if i want to take action shots (such as my speedy fish) does it matter what iso i set it at as long as the camera is perfectly still?

Hi John,

If you want to capture a crisp image of your "speedy fish" you'll want to keep your shutter speed as fast as possible with the available light. By increasing the ISO, the "film" (or sensor) can respond more quickly but there are trade offs. For example, let's say you've set your shutter speed to 1/500s at ISO 100 but the image comes out dark with a set light source, increasing the ISO to 200 should brighten the image but may introduce some noise (grain) to the image. Increasing the ISO to 400 will further brighten the image but again will add a bit more noise. If the image is still coming out too dark at ISO 400 then you need to decrease the shutter speed or increase your lighting. My suggestion would be to increase the lighting as much as possible, set your shutter speed as high as you can then try different ISO settings while working the shutter speed down only as necessary to get a properly lighted image. Remember, even keeping the camera perfectly still won't help if your shutter speed is too slow to stop/freeze the action of the fish.

[John Howard]

thank you very much for clearing that up for me Mike . What if i cannot change my shutter speed though (the digica i have is constant 1/2000, i can only change it if i want to do longer speed (from 1 sec to 15) but thats about it when it comes to shutter speed.

does that mean that with increased lighting i should be able to lower the iso and still get desireable results? (such as the one a couple of posts above yours)?  

if so ill start plugging in the multiple adaptors and all my lights up  

[Mike54]

With a shutter speed of 1/2000s and proper lighting you should be able to easily freeze the action of your fish at ISO 100. Looking back at the pics you posted I have a couple of other observations. The good pic seems to have been taken fairly straight on through the glass with the lense pretty close to the tank surface. The bad pic is surely due to the cam focusing on something other than the fish and maybe some shake. Your last pic looks like it was taken at an angle through the glass and at a distance from the tank surface. That may have caused a good part of the blur. Once you have some good light (try lighting from either/both ends of the tank so as to avoid reflection), get as close to the glass and at a straight on angle to minimize any effect the glass may be having.

<edit>Something I came across in my I-travels which if nothing else is an interesting read on photographing reef tanks. Maybe something here will give you a leg up. Wish I would have found something like this when I had my reef tank set up.:-/</edit>

Let us know how it goes.  

[John Howard]

the darn glass on the fish tank is too reflective to take a good picture, and even when i get superclose the darn fish think im gonna feed them and go in a sprinting frenzy   (this is right after theyve been feed, theyre so greedy   )

and also when i get too close the macro is limited so it blurs and i also get reflection off the back surface of the tank..  argh.. i think its just a bit of a hit n miss for me.. i haveto keep trying..  so tedious, but im determined to get it right  

[Mike54]

Hi John, let's get creative here. Promise not to laugh at my sketch?



Cut a piece of cardboard to cover the front of your tank so you can sneak up on those "d**n fish" and cut an area out of that cardboard to view through. Get a small box and cut a hole in it to correspond to your camera and tape that to the cardboard over your view area. With some good light from either end and light restricted from reflecting off the front glass all you need to do is wait for a fishy to cruise by.

Well maybe it won't be that easy but you get the idea.