Useful Tips – Take pictures of children from their eye level

When you take pictures of children or places where children play, try to take the picture from a height that is level with the child’s eyes and not from above. If you take the picture from an adult’s eye level, the picture will be looking down, showing mostly children’s heads and not really showing their facial expressions. Also, since perspective is accentuated with the zoom at wide-angle (W), children’s heads will be emphasized and their bodies will look smaller than in reality. By squatting and taking the picture so as to have your eyes level with the child’s eyes you will get much better results.

Try different eye levels

Picture taken from the parent’s eye level
When the picture is taken from an adult’s eye level, the head is over-emphasized and it’s difficult to see the child’s expression. In addition, the ground appears as background resulting in a dull picture.

	Picture taken from the child’s eye level When the picture is taken so it is level with the child’s eyes, the facial expression comes out really well. Try squatting and taking the picture so as to have your eyes level with the child’s eyes.

Picture taken from a height lower than the child’s eye level
From time to time, try taking the picture from even a lower height. Since the perspective is accentuated with the zoom at wide-angle (W), the legs will seem longer giving the child a taller, more slender figure. Compact digital cameras are light and small enough to make it easy to take pictures from very close to the ground without using the viewfinder.

Useful Tips – Exposure compensation or flash

When shooting pictures indoors or in a dimly lit location, you need to change the camera setting so that the subject will be adequately illuminated. Methods using exposure compensation or flash are available. Which option you should use will differ depending on the picture subject and the conditions for taking the picture. It is easy to use the flash to illuminate a subject. However, when you use the flash, pictures may seem unnatural since the flash eliminates ambient lighting conditions. By contrast, using exposure compensation preserves the ambient lighting, which results in a more natural-looking picture. However, the shutter speed may drop, making it more likely for subject or camera movement blur to occur. If you are in a situation where blurring may occur, you can increase the ISO sensitivity setting. Increasing the ISO sensitivity, however, may result in more noticeable noise. There is no definite answer as to which method is better, so it is probably best to take your pictures using both the flash and exposure compensation.

Compare these pictures taken with exposure compensation and flash

	Shot using exposure compensation: The subject’s facial expression and the incoming light are adequately visible, but the bright areas in the background are overexposed.		Shot using flash: The entire picture is nicely lit, but the interior/exterior brightness and the atmosphere of the interior lighting are not accurately reproduced.

Useful Tips – Auto Bracket

When shooting pictures, it is often difficult to decide what exposure setting should be used. One big advantage of digital cameras is that you can delete unwanted pictures after a shooting session. Therefore, it is recommended that you take extra pictures with various exposure settings. In such a case, the BKT (Auto Bracket) function – if your camera supports it – will come in handy. BKT is a function that allows you to take successive pictures while gradually changing the amount of exposure compensation. You can shoot as many pictures as required simply by keeping the shutter button pressed.

In most camera models, BKT is located within [DRIVE] mode in the menu. You can set the amount of change in the exposure compensation and the number of pictures that will be taken.

* This is the menu screen of SP-500UZ.

To shoot, simply continue pressing the shutter button. Pictures will be recorded in the following order: If you let go of the shutter button in the middle of auto bracketing, the pictures that have been shot up to that point will be recorded.

The pictures will be recorded from left to right, in the following order:
[BKT] Correction value: 1.0 / Number of pictures: 5

±0	+2.0	+1.0	-1.0	-2.0

The pictures will be recorded from left to right, in the following order:
[BKT] Correction value: 1.0 / Number of pictures: 5

+2.0	+1.0	±0	-1.0	-2.0

Taking Pictures of People – Indoors 2

Use the [SCENE] mode’s [SMILE SHOT]
In [SMILE SHOT] mode, the AF mode is set to [FACE DETECT AF] so the camera will automatically detect faces within the frame and track them while keeping the focus on the faces. When a face is detected, a green frame will be displayed around it. The camera looks for changes in the facial expression to detect smiles. The camera may also take the picture when there’s a large change in the facial expression, even if it is not a smile. The camera shoots automatically 3 frames at a time. The record mode is automatically changed to a slightly smaller image size.

	After you point the camera at the subject, the camera will display a green frame when it detects a face.		When the subject smiles, a sequence of 3 pictures is shot automatically. No need to press the shutter button.

Try shooting all kind of pictures using the [SMILE SHOT] function

 * Note that the camera shoots the picture when there is a change in the facial expression. A picture may be shot even if the subject is not smiling.

Useful things to remember

• If the location of the face is moving within the frame, it may not be detected correctly. Try, as much as possible, to have the subject and the camera not move.
• If your camera does not have the [SMILE SHOT] function, try taking pictures setting [DRIVE] to sequential shooting. If your camera has the high-speed sequential shooting drive mode, you can use sequential shooting and not miss any changes in the facial expression.

Taking Pictures of People – Night Scene

Use [SCENE] (Night & Portrait) for slow synchronization photography

When taking pictures of night scenes that include people, using the flash in the Program Auto(P) mode will illuminate the person but the night scene will appear completely black. To avoid this, illuminate the person with the flash, and use a slow shutter speed for the night scene. This method of photography is known as slow synchronization shooting. You can take beautiful pictures using slow synchronization shooting just by setting [SCENE] to [NIGHT+PORTRAIT]. If your camera does not have the [NIGHT+PORTRAIT] setting, try taking pictures by setting the flash mode to slow synchronization.

Compare the effects of Slow Synchronization photography and the regular Program Auto mode

	Picture taken using the flash in Program Auto mode		Picture taken with [SCENE] (Night + Portrait): The shutter speed is a bit too slow resulting in camera blur		Picture taken with [SCENE] (Night + Portrait). A cross filter was used

Useful things to remember

• To shoot night scenery, the shutter must remain open after the flash has gone off. Be sure to tell the subject in advance not to move until the shutter closes.
• With slow synchronization photography, images are more likely to show blurring since the shutter speed is slower. Stabilize the camera by using a tripod or other similar equipment.
• If there is a long distance between the camera and the subject, the light of the flash may not reach the subject. Have the subject stand closer to the camera.
• It may be harder to focus if the subject is in a completely dark location. If it is hard to focus, have the subject stand in a brighter location.
• To further enhance night scenes, try using a cross filter or a similar filter. Although it may not be possible to attach filters to some cameras, filters can be just as effective if you hold them in front of the lens with your hand.