I just ordered a Canon Powershot S50 for my Bahama trip in two weeks. I haven't been a big fan of photography because all of my previous cameras simply suck. My current digital camera is Kodak DC240 with a pathetic 1.2megapixel.
One of my biggest question is how do you people make your pictures soft? Do you do it in photoshop (which I have) or in the camera directly?
No specific experience with your particular model, however as a whole, Canon is quite good and at 5 megapixels, should be plenty capable.
My pictures improved immensely, once I started supporting the camera during picture taking. 1st with a mono-pod, then eventually with a serious tri-pod.
Ther are at least two recent threads discussing soft focus, one which I began by asking the same question you did. They were very helpful. Also, in the soft focus challenge, folks wrote in the comments area how they acheived their shots which also further help you.
You can add a soft focus in PS as well.
Welcome & Good Luck in the Challenges!
The S50 is a very nice camera, you should be able to obtain great results with it.
Do a forum search on "soft focus" you will come up with a few recent threads on the matter. My preferred technique is software, it's more flexible and just as importantly is reversible.
i see, I still have LOTS to learn even basic vocabularies such as aperture and f-setting etc.
it seems that most of the challenge pictures here have undergone some type of software editing. One of the most interesting effect I noticed is depth of field. I read on other sites that cameras under $1500 usually can't control depth of field, is this true?
I read on other sites that cameras under $1500 usually can't control depth of field, is this true?
Absolutely untrue. If you have manual control of aperture and shutter speed you have control of DOF. Large aperture = shallow DOF. (small number, like 2.8=large aperture)
The closer you are to your subject the shallower your DOF will be as well. That's why shallow DOF is so common in macro shots like this one:
//titoi.com/photos/greenash101903/3137.jpg
Notice the flowers in the foreground are blurred, as is the Biltmore Estate in the background. The area of focus is very narrow.
I see, excellent, it appears that I can control the aperture and the shutter speed for this camera.
a review site says that I can control the shutter speed from
"15 sec - 1/1500 sec. The 1/1500 shutter speed is only available above F4.0 at wide-angle and F7.1 at telephoto."
also the choice of aperture is ranging from
"F2.8 - F8 and will vary depending on the focal range used. "
other than shutter speed which I assume control the longevity of exposure, I have no idea what aperture/F# means.
Your F# or aperture controls DOF and how much light you let in. The larger the aperture, obviously, the more light. Shutter speed allows you to stop or show motion, and also controls how much light you let in to the camera. That's all these two things do.
You can use different combinations of aperture and shutter speed to produce certain effects (like blurring water or freezing a drop of water in mid air) even though the exposure might be exactly the same.
Shutter priority and aperture priority settings on your camera allow you to choose either the shutter or aperture you want to acheive a certain effect, and the camera chooses the other setting for proper exposure. For example, you might want a longer shutter speed to blur the water. Shutter speed priority allows you to dial in your chosen speed and lets the camera pick the correct aperture. Or you can use full manual control to set both the shutter and aperture yourself.
no just a blank browser says done at the bottom. I have tried refresh and waiting nothing opens not even the adobe (which usually does when opening pdf files)
no just a blank browser says done at the bottom. I have tried refresh and waiting nothing opens not even the adobe (which usually does when opening pdf files)
I've had that exact experience with large .pdf files like the exposure tutorial or the sony manual for my camera.
I finally just let it sit there for a long time - more than 10 minutes - and once it was done downloading it came up like normal (even though a couple minutes into it the browser had said done already).
You just need to let it sit and finish downloading, it looks stuck/broken and blank but really it just takes a VERY long time to complete.
