How to with S3 IS

[khooka]

Hi,

Just bought an S3 and have some difficulties shooting in-doors and evenings. Without flash in-doors, the pic looks dark even when the lighting is bright enough eg. supermarkets in SUNTECH city. As for evenings, at 6.50pm onwards, using flash, the background in completely dark. Looks like 9pm. When switch to pre-programed nite mode, pic is blur but the lighting is good. Can anyone help?

 

[kelccm]

It depends on what mode you used when you take those shots. For auto, the camera should be able handle most outdoor scene during the day. But where the light levels are low, like indoors and evening, it will meter your subject and normally will activate the flash and fixed the shutter speed at 1/60s to prevent handshake. Thats why you have the dark background when you take photo in the evening, as the shtter speed is too fast to capture the background.

When you use night mode, the camera will meter for the ambient light as well, and thus you may get very slow shutter speed(slower than what the IS can handle). The flash will still be activated but it is used to illuminate your subject only. So when using night mode, unless you mount it on a tripod or have very steady hands, you may get blurred picture due to handshake.

As for your 1st point reagrding shooting without flash indoors, it depends on what mode you are using and the background. Too much white will fool the camera metering into underexposure.

Just remember that the Image Stabiliser will only help you for a couple of stop and if you are using the long end of your S3, then the handshake effect will be magnified further. Flash is useful for your subject up to a few meters only, and can never help to illuminate your background far behind. Explore the other modes of the camera and see how it may help you in your photo taking. Have fun.

 

[khooka]

Thanks for your reply. I'm going to try-out a few shots this week-end. I'm also thinking of getting a slave flash with a swivel head for S3. Anyone can offer comment on which one to buy?

 

[scramblur11]

Hi,

Just bought an S3 and have some difficulties shooting in-doors and evenings. Without flash in-doors, the pic looks dark even when the lighting is bright enough eg. supermarkets in SUNTECH city. As for evenings, at 6.50pm onwards, using flash, the background in completely dark. Looks like 9pm. When switch to pre-programed nite mode, pic is blur but the lighting is good. Can anyone help?

u can try using the night snapshot mode, under the scene modes, if u r unsure about using the M mode..... it usually set the shuttle speed to ard 1/8 which is gd enough to capture ambient light & background night yet still able to withstand handshake in my opinion