Need Help With Camera Settings

[kEv H]

Hey guys,

This past weekend I went to the Cleveland Airshow and took a bunch of pictures. When I got back home and started looking through them almost all of them were very grainy and not as clear as I was hoping for. It was the first time for me using the camera (Canon S3 IS) and I had it set on the sport setting and was using the continuous shooting mode.

What should I do to help fix this? Im just starting out with photography as a small hobby so I dont know too much about all the settings yet. (Although I am starting a photo class this semester at school)

Here are a couple pics to show what I'm talking about. I can upload more of them if you guys are interested.

Thanks!









For reference I took this picture at the Detroit Auto Show with my old 2MP Canon Powershot SD100 I think. (seems so much more clear)

[Solberg]

Set your ISO to it's lowest setting. If it's on auto, try and manually setting it to it's lowest setting which should be 100. If this option is locked on auto mode, it should be available in 'P' mode.

[otispunkmeyer]

right well the reason why the pictures are grainy is because of sport setting.

to get the high shutter speeds in any scenario to capture fast moving sports action, sport modes generally bump the ISO value (that is the sensors sensitivity to light) up. its like turning the gain up, it alows the shutter to open and close fast to caputer the action, otherwise you may end up with a blur. on smaller CCD's like the one found your camera there is alot of cross talk between each photo site (or pixel if u wish) and this cross talk is noise, random noise. upping the ISO basically amplifies that noise which is why it becomes more noticable in pictures...making them grainy.

to combat this grainy noise.... manufacturers use software tricks, like noise reduction to try remove or smooth out this graininess....however generally this smudges over details in the shot and blurs textures, even taking the vibrancy out of colours or shifting colours slighty, giving the photo a very soft, muddy look.

so its a combination of high noise and aggressive noise reduction thats caused your pictures to come out less sharp and detailed than you'd hoped.

my advice, with a camera such as the S3 would be to keep the ISO value below 400. i had a SD400 and ISO 400 was borderline passable.

your reference picture was probably taken with the camera on Auto mode, which will of chosen a low ISO value given that there seems to be ample light in that shot, and thus there is less grain due to noise and less noise reduction. add to that the fact there are only 2million pixels on the chip. that chip in the SD100 will be the exact same size as the one in the S3 (1/2.5inch)... less photosites per mm = less cross talk in general = less noise in your image.

if your camera has advanced modes or manual modes, stick it in manual or P and manually keep the ISO at 200 or something. or you could do that and put it in aperture priority (Av) mode and keep the ISO at 200 and the aperture at its max all the time, to let in as much light as possible and give you good shutter speeds.

[kEv H]

Thanks, I had a feeling the sport setting was the cause for the grainy pictures. I guess I will continue to experiment with the settings that you guys suggested and read more about the effects of the settings and what to change for different pictures. I never really knew how much there was to change with photography to get a good picture.

[Dr_Q]

These look good. It's annoying the camera chose the wrong settings for it but you can correct this issue to some degree. I used the noise removal software on your images (I hope this is OK with you) and the results are pretty good. There is a bit of detail lost but you notice the picture instead of just the noise in the picture.

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally Posted by kEv H

Thanks, I had a feeling the sport setting was the cause for the grainy pictures. I guess I will continue to experiment with the settings that you guys suggested and read more about the effects of the settings and what to change for different pictures. I never really knew how much there was to change with photography to get a good picture.

hehe well sounds like you have a lot to learn! but like you say just fiddle with the buttons, change things about, digital allows you to experiement....it doesnt matter if they all come out gash, just delete!

eventually you start to chose settings from experience of what works, what doesnt

you seem to have some quite nicely composed shots there tho!

[kEv H]

Mr_T: Thanks for doing that I dont mind at all.

otis: I do have a lot to learn, before I just turned the camera to Auto and snapped away, but now I want to learn how to make good pictures without the camera doing all of the work for me.