Use Your Point and Shoot More Effectively
Here are five short tips on how to get better results when using a point and shoot camera:
1. See if your camera has manual mode. If it does, switch to this and set your shutter speed to a speed no slower than 1/60th of a second. Now you can handhold the camera without flash in dark situations and take pictures that aren't blurry. Just know the images will be really grainy or dark. But you can usually brighten them on a computer.
2. When taking a picture with the flash, see if you can set your shutter speed to slower than 1/30th of a second. If you shoot at 1/15 or so, the sensor will continue to pick up light from the background after the flash goes off, and you won't have that look where the flash makes the subjects really bright but everything in the background is black. The photos will look much nicer.
3. Take most of your pictures with a point and shoot in bright areas, like outdoors. The sensor is best made for these areas and these pictures will come out very sharp. Frame your pictures so that the subjects heads are near the top of the frame instead of the center. Look at professional photos. That's how it's done. Don't center your subjects faces in the frame or it will look amateurish.
4. When you are about to take a picture of a person, press the shutter button down halfway. This will allow the camera to focus. Then once it is focused and ready, count to three and take the picture the instant you say three. Doing it this way will make you not need to say cheese and then everyone holds their smile forever as the camera takes a while to focus and then take the picture.
5. Turn off the flash when shooting cityscapes or landscapes at night, and set the camera on a table or tripod... something to steady it.
1. See if your camera has manual mode. If it does, switch to this and set your shutter speed to a speed no slower than 1/60th of a second. Now you can handhold the camera without flash in dark situations and take pictures that aren't blurry. Just know the images will be really grainy or dark. But you can usually brighten them on a computer.
2. When taking a picture with the flash, see if you can set your shutter speed to slower than 1/30th of a second. If you shoot at 1/15 or so, the sensor will continue to pick up light from the background after the flash goes off, and you won't have that look where the flash makes the subjects really bright but everything in the background is black. The photos will look much nicer.
3. Take most of your pictures with a point and shoot in bright areas, like outdoors. The sensor is best made for these areas and these pictures will come out very sharp. Frame your pictures so that the subjects heads are near the top of the frame instead of the center. Look at professional photos. That's how it's done. Don't center your subjects faces in the frame or it will look amateurish.
4. When you are about to take a picture of a person, press the shutter button down halfway. This will allow the camera to focus. Then once it is focused and ready, count to three and take the picture the instant you say three. Doing it this way will make you not need to say cheese and then everyone holds their smile forever as the camera takes a while to focus and then take the picture.
5. Turn off the flash when shooting cityscapes or landscapes at night, and set the camera on a table or tripod... something to steady it.