[Luvya]

Yeah, I want to find a forum like this but in the topic of digital camera...or something related to phtography. I just bought a Canon S230, I haven't received it but from the review, it doesn't appear to have the setting on flash intensity! Oh...man! That hurts! I take night shots a lot, usually if I use flash, the pictures come out too bright.......if not using flash, they are often too dark to see

I don't want to mess with ISO setting (I know higher ISO lets more light come to the picture) since it tends to blurr the picture. What do you guys do when taking night shots? Please let's keep this in the novice level...no SRL..or some other fancy equipments please.

 

[jaskin]

www.dpreview.com <-- Most Comprehensive Reviews plus great Forums
www.robgalbraith.com <-- Mostly DSLR Stuff but very good info source
www.clubsnap.org <-- Singaporean base forums. Good traffic flow
www.luminous-landscape.com <-- Great Source for information on digital workflow
www.photo.net <-- Good place to find information, very messy much like audiogon.

In response to your question, it depends if you're wanting to take landscape shots or people shots in dark places. Normally with Landscape at night you would have to leave the exposure on for a while unless you can light the whole area with your flash.

Meaning you can't handhold and you would need a tripod. With people shots, you would need to use the flash. If the picutres are over exposing maybe it's because you're too near the subject?

 

[revan]

I'll second the dpreview recommendation. It has amazing forums with people who are even more obsessed about photography than people here are about headphones.

Revan

 

[Luvya]

Quote:

Originally posted by jaskin www.dpreview.com <-- Most Comprehensive Reviews plus great Forums www.robgalbraith.com <-- Mostly DSLR Stuff but very good info source www.clubsnap.org <-- Singaporean base forums. Good traffic flow www.luminous-landscape.com <-- Great Source for information on digital workflow www.photo.net <-- Good place to find information, very messy much like audiogon. In response to your question, it depends if you're wanting to take landscape shots or people shots in dark places. Normally with Landscape at night you would have to leave the exposure on for a while unless you can light the whole area with your flash. Meaning you can't handhold and you would need a tripod. With people shots, you would need to use the flash. If the picutres are over exposing maybe it's because you're too near the subject?

I am talking about people shots at night. I am only an amateur...and the reason I bought S230 is because of its pocket size so a tripod will defeat the purpose. Too near the subject? Mmmm...but sometimes that's unavoidable..like we were sitting in a cafe shop..and just want to take a picture. Any other suggestion?

 

[wallijonn]

you can always carefully tape tracing paper over the flash head or put white cloth over it (like a mini sock). basically you want to defuse or make the angle of defraction greater, so that you will get a more pleasing picture. in the old days we would also put a little flap of grey board or white board to bounch more light in and at the same time diffuse it.

 

[Russ Arcuri]

Quote:

Originally posted by Luvya I take night shots a lot, usually if I use flash, the pictures come out too bright.......if not using flash, they are often too dark to see I don't want to mess with ISO setting (I know higher ISO lets more light come to the picture) since it tends to blurr the picture.

There is only one way to take this picture correctly. First, set the ISO higher. No, it does not "blur" the picture, though you may notice a bit more CCD noise in the image at the pixel level. Second, put the camera into "night shot" mode -- it's probably a star and a moon symbol, or something similar. Third, put the camera onto a stable surface or a tripod. Fourth, use a remote control to take the picture, or set the self-timer on the camera.

If the people are still too bright, and the camera doesn't allow you to adjust flash intensity, move the people further away from the camera and zoom in on them a bit to make them look the same size in the frame. If you're zoomed in all the way, and the people are still too bright, you can try adjusting the ISO down a bit, though this will kill whatever background details you might have gotten at the higher ISO.

Another thing to try would be to use exposure compensation, if your camera supports it. Try adjusting it to -1, and if that's still too bright, try -2.

By a combination of these various adjustments, you should be able to find a setting that isn't too bad. If none of this works, you're just going to have to accept that your camera is not the ideal tool to take such shots with.

You can learn more about taking photos at http://www.photo.net

It's the best photography site on the internet, IMO.