Sickdesigner

Many, if not all, of us have at least one point & shoot camera. They’re great for carrying with you basically anywhere because they’re small, light and easy to use. Their biggest disadvantage is the… poor to awful quality of the photos taken with them. Small sensors, mediocre lenses and noise worse than a Pig Destroyer concert are what characterize a point-and-shoot camera technologically speaking.

Advances in recent years have managed to allow for better point-and-shoots, quality wise, but still nowhere near comparable with even the low end DSLRs. The only disadvantages to a DSLR are their increased weight and size and, of course, the price. Sure, if you want to take photography to the next level you’re going to want to save some money and buy a DSLR but what if you just want to take photos of your family and maybe some nice textures to use in your designs? Does a DSLR’s quality justify the price if all you want is to take perpendicular shots of bark?

Maybe not. And this what this post is going to try to help out with: getting away with it and saving a pretty buck in the process. I am assuming you have a camera. Oh, and if you’ve spent more than 400$ on it, than I regretfully have to inform you that you’d have been better off with one of these.

These tips are guaranteed to help you take the best possible pictures with your point-and-shoot camera. Alright cheapos, let’s get this puppy going:

01

Never, ever, I mean n-e-v-e-r take night shots. P&S have really, really bad responses to light. Their sensors are very small [5 times smaller than a full frame sensor] and thus they distribute light inefficiently and in a night shot, where light is [duh!] scarce you’re gonna end up with a noisy, unrealistically lit photo. This is a big no-no.

02

As much as possible [to be read never] try not to use the flash. Turn on another light or get a lamp if you’re in a room and you need extra light but don’t turn that flash on. It spreads light unevenly, it creates the red eye effect and a kitty dies of sadness if you do. Just kidding about the kitty. Or am I?

03

Don’t touch that ISO! With a P&S any setting above 200 is going to give you serious noise.

Don’t touch that ISO! Seriously, when you first buy that blasted P&S turn it on, go to the ISO setting and if possible password code the ISO setting to it’s smallest possible value, usually 100. If you own a DSLR you’re probably going: “what? I play with my ISO settings all the time and the pics look just as good”. Yeah, with a DSLR. With a P&S any setting above 200 is going to give you serious noise. Go ahead, experiment. Take a picture with the ISO at it’s highest, usually 1600. Then check that out. No amount of Noise Reduction is going to solve that. So, again, do us all a favor: Don’t touch that ISO!

04

Try to take more pictures between 06:00 – 17:00 than 17:00 – 20:00. What’s that? No, I’m not nuts. Here’s why: because P&S have crappy sensors, you have to get as much light in there as possible. I found that light falls best for my camera between 10:00 and 14:00. That’s when I get the best possible pictures. But mornings are generally best. And no, sunsets are not ok. Light is scarce then, unlike mornings and you’re going to lose details and get loads of noise or really dark pics.

05

Work with your Exposure settings a lot. It’s the safest way to have control over how lit your picture is. And no, a Levels Adjustment in your preferred software after the picture has been taken is NOT the same thing.

06

If you just can’t get enough light to get a good pic, don’t fret. All’s not lost. Set your Exposure Time to whatever you need it to be, depending on the situation. Most P&S have a Drive Mode, otherwise known as a timer. Set your timer to something like 10 seconds and rest the camera on something flat so there’s nothing to move it. Usually the motion stabilizer in P&S is pretty shotty, to say the least, so don’t count on that to get rid of any motion blur.

All of these tips deal with in-camera settings, but for those of you that have a DIY thumb, the web has a few very good articles on doing your own price conscious paraphernalia:

DPS: DIY Lighting Hacks for Digital Photographers

Lifehacker: Top 10 DIY Photography Tools

Hope these tips help out with your future pictures and maybe get you to be more interested in photography, if you aren’t already. Until next time, my unsuspecting interwebbies, until next time!

by Radu Chelariu