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  1. #1
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
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    1

    Question Best Settings for Powershot A640 5 Megapixels?

    Hello Camera Enthusiasts,

    This is my first time posting here. Again, hello and thanks for having me.

    Before I get into my problem, I'd like to say that I have a "little less than nothing" where it concerns operating a camera. Which explains why I bought a Point and Shoot model. Anyway, I finally bought my very first digital camera the other day. It's a Canon Powershot 640 with 5 Megapixels. It's got a 1GB memory card installed in it.

    I've noticed when I take a snapshot of myself or of others, the image always ends up looking like a different person other than the one standing in front of the lens. It's very frustrating to say the least. I don't know if it's a subtle shadow here and there but using myself as an example, my tone is more white than flesh. Also, shadows around my nose or under my chin makes me look kind of fat when I'm not at all.

    So, I took the initiative and looked at some books and found out about color or white balance. I changed mine to "tungsten" because I only shoot indoors. That seemed to help a lot as far as realistic flesh tones. Then I adjusted something called "ISO" and set that to 100. All this was done in manual mode. That's about it so far.

    Seeing how I'm not the savviest when it comes to digital cameras, I'm wondering if there's anything more I can do to tweak my Canon to get the best possible picture. Again, this is an indoor environment using a regular 60 watt fluorescent bulb as the light source in the background.

    The camera is mostly going to be used for headshots and objects that I will place on auction sites. Occasionally, I'll use it outdoors but that will be rare in my case. I don't know what more I can say.

    Well, I can say one more thing: If you know about my camera's settings and have a suggestion, please indicate how I can go about finding it in the various menus or give me a rough idea.

    Thanks for any assistance you can offer and happy shooting.

    P.S. I notice that "automatic" is not the best way to go when shooting headshots. Very bad.

    Cade

  2. #2
    Captain of the Ship Photo-John's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Location
    Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
    Posts
    15,422

    Re: Best Settings for Powershot A640 5 Megapixels?

    Welcome to thre site, Cade. Do you have the Canon PowerShot A640? Because that's a 10-megapixel camera, not 5. If that is the camera you have, I'd recommend shooting at the full 10-megapixel resolution. There's no point in buying a 10-megapixel camera and then only using half the resolution.

    You've asked a lot of questions and it sounds like you're already on your way. The first thing I'm going to do is encourage you to check out the articles in our Learn section, especially the Point-and-Shoot Digital Camera Tips article.

    Now I'll address two of the issues you mentioned. The first is headshots/portraits. Are you using the flash? And are you zoomed in at all or was the lens at the widest setting? Traditionally, portraits are shot at a longer, telephoto length. Wide angle makes people look kind of weird - especially if they're close to the lens. A longer focal length (more zoom) removes distortion and flattens out the image showing faces as they actually are.

    On camera-flash can be problematic for portraits. Lighting can dramatically change the way a subject looks. If you're using the flash, try shooting a portrait without it in window light and see if that's better. Window light is usually very complimentary for portraits.

    Hopefully that gives you some more direction. There is a bit of a learning curve with photography. And it sounds like your expectations are a little higher than the average point-and-shoot photographer. Keep in mind that some of us have been shooting for years and we're still learning. It never ends. But it's a very rewarding hobby or profession. We're here to help.
    Photo-John

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