Captured Moments
Would you like to react to this message? Create an account in a few clicks or log in to continue.

Manual settings on my point and shoot...?

2 posters

Go down

Manual settings on my point and shoot...? Empty Manual settings on my point and shoot...?

Post  TIG Thu Jun 12, 2008 2:39 am

So, I have been fiddling around with my little Canon. It's a PowerShot SD1000 elph. It has manual settings... how do I use these? I mean, I have figured out how to access these options, but what do they actually DO?
I am SO clueless!

They are:
1. +/- (Exp.) Has a slide bar with settings from -2 to 2+, with another button to set "long shutter" at various increments from 1" to 15"
2. Something to do with lighting? has options for auto, cloudy, daylight, tungsten, flourescent, flourescent h (WTF?) and Custom, where if you press a button it evaluates white balance??
3. Some My Colors thingie... options are Off, Vivid, Neutral, Sepia, B/W, Positive Film, Lighter Skin Tone, Darker Skin Tone, Vivid Blue, Vivid Green, Vivid Red, and Custom Color, which has a menu to adjust contrast, sharpness, saturation, red, green, blue, skin tone.
4. Some symbol I don't know, options are Evaluative, Center Weighted Avg., and Spot
5. Another thing I don't know, options are Superfine (322), Fine (515), Normal (1068)
6. Another mystery setting: L/322 (3072x2304), M1/391 (2592x1944), M2/607 (2048x1536), M3/967 (1600x1200), S/3645 (640x480), Postcard/1721 (1600x1200), Widescreen/426 (3072x1728)
TIG
TIG
Forum Coordinator

Posts : 93
Join date : 2008-05-04
Location : Orange County, CA

Back to top Go down

Manual settings on my point and shoot...? Empty Re: Manual settings on my point and shoot...?

Post  mawson Thu Jun 12, 2008 7:35 am

OK I'll try! I don't play with my P&S ever, but some of your questions seem to also exist in SLR world.
!. I think that has to do with bracketing. It will take a picture with a standard, exposure, a decreased exposure and in increase in exposure in incremental f-stops. (not sure exactly)The long shutter thing could be the equivalent of how long the shutter would be depressed.....like 1 second, to 15 or more seconds? I've no clue! (sorry!)

2. I think this one as to do with White balance. See Susan's photo challenge for more info, she has explained and shown it beautifully. Yes, there is auto, cloudy for cloudy days, daylight for bright sun, tungsten for indoor light, flourescent for flourescent light, (dont know about the flourescent h?)And custom is your ability to set your own WB. To set a custom WB you'll want to photograph a white object or board first and you'll want to revisit your camera manual, as they are all done a bit differently.
3. Color thingie: This is to let you choose how you like to have your pics taken. Some like very saturated colors, some like neutral colors, etc. You can also achieve the same things in post processing, but you can do it in camera too. For me, I've picture styles. I can choose standard, portrait which supposedly gives me nice skin tone and crisp pics, Landscape for vivid blues and greens, sharp and crisp images, Neutral: natural colors, subdued images, Faithful: When subject is photographed under a color temp of 5200K, the color is adjusted colorimetrically to match the subject's color. No sharpness is applied, (the above taken from my 30d owner manual) Monochrome: black and white images, Basically you are playing in camera with the color, contrast and saturation. If you know you love vivid greens and blues, or if you know you want to shoot BNW....then it makes sense.
4. This is all metering. (again from my manual as I am no good at adequately explaining this stuff) Evaluative: this is camera's standard metering mode suited for most subjects. After detecting the main subject's position brightness, background, front and back lighting etc. the camera sets the proper exposure. (personally, I don't typically have the best luck with this in my style of shooting)
Partial: Effective when the background is much brighter than the subject due to backlighting etc.On my camera partial metering covers about 9% of the viewfinder area in the center. I do a lot of backlighting and use this a fair amount.
Spot: This is for metering a specific part of the subject or scene. The metering is weighted at the center covering about 3.5% of the viewfinder. I use this often. (but now I am rethinking why I do, LOL!)
Center weighted average metering. The metering is weighted at the center and then averaged for the entire scene.
These are all tools for establishing the proper exposure.
5. Image recording quality. This refers to when you shoot jpegs. It has too do with pixels and ultimately how much you can enlarge your pints. (compression rates) When I shoot jpeg I always use the highest quality I can. Yes, it takes more memory space, but personally I have over 10 gigs and can handle it.
6. Sounds like print size? I reallly have no clue too!
Hope I did not confuse you more. I can try to describe it in "real" terms but, lol, I just kinda "do" it...not explain it, kwim? Maybe someone else can explain it better. I tried!!!
mawson
mawson
Newbie
Newbie

Posts : 81
Join date : 2008-06-06
Age : 53
Location : CA

Back to top Go down

Manual settings on my point and shoot...? Empty Re: Manual settings on my point and shoot...?

Post  TIG Thu Jun 12, 2008 6:35 pm

Thank you! Now I need to learn more and try this stuff out!
TIG
TIG
Forum Coordinator

Posts : 93
Join date : 2008-05-04
Location : Orange County, CA

Back to top Go down

Manual settings on my point and shoot...? Empty Re: Manual settings on my point and shoot...?

Post  Sponsored content


Sponsored content


Back to top Go down

Back to top


 
Permissions in this forum:
You cannot reply to topics in this forum