The Canon post man arrived today with a little package just for me, it contained one of their shiny new Canon Ixus 200 IS compact cameras. The same camera is called the Powershot SD980 in other parts of the world, but for this review, I’m in the UK with the UK model.
Canon released the new 12mp Ixus 200 IS recently and followed it up, here in the UK at least, with a very vigorous ad campaign. I must admit it made me want to know what all the fuss was about! Well, I’ve got to say that after using the camera for a week or so that it’s compact, cute, solid and quite well priced, and I’d be quite happy to have one in my pocket 24/7!
I am a little wary of “touch screen” products and I think this is all because of the iPhone and how very good its touch screen capabilities are. On the iPhone, with a quick finger stroke you can be on another page or another track or another photo, well because of this thinking, the first thing I did when I powered up the little Canon was to take a couple of quick shots and try out the “flip through” of the image review, and I must say that the Canon Ixus 200 IS started out by disappointing me to be honest, because you can’t just lightly touch it to change things, you have to press a little harder to get the camera to realise what you’re after. I’ve since changed my mind on this! here’s why… Imagine if you’re half way through taking a photo and brush a fingertip against the screen and the camera changes its focus to be on a passing car or a running dog or even a flying pig! and you miss the shot you’re after – so, I understand the thinking behind the sensitivity level required by the touch screen, and with that little issue out of the way, let us move on!
The camera is small, but not silly small. It’s a good size to pop into a pocket in fact, I’d say that it’s even better to carry around than my Ixus 960IS which is a little thicker and slightly bulkier. The little Ixus is 99.9 x 53.4 x 22.9mm in physical size and weighs in at about 130g Which isn’t going to break your back. For such a small camera, the 3.0″ 16×9 (230,000 dots) screen is impressive and in various shooting modes holds some of the icons required for setting things like your flash settings in auto mode and exposure in program mode.
The Ixus 200 IS / Powershot SD980 has a 5x Optical zoom and an aperture of f/2.8 – f/5.9 and shift type image stabilisation as well which is all very lovely and seems to work well together. I won’t go into digital zoom because I firmly believe that it should always remain switched off – hey, that’s just me.
The advert on television shows a sprightly group of people running through the forest using the “Face Tracking” auto focus… It actually works quite well on something like a face, it’s a bit tricky on less contrasty scenes but still, works very well! With all of the gadgetry included (There are 20 different shooting modes to choose from, including Foliage!) you’re not going to be lost for things to try out and then switch off, I say this because I think the little camera does a very good job in standard P mode, or even auto mode for that matter, the image quality is great and with an image of 4000×3000 you could print yourself out a nice poster
Canon have packaged HD movie mode into the sleek compact, and it gives you decent enough 720p HD MOV files to pop up onto YouTube if you so desire.. The Ixus 200 IS will record a 10 minute / 4gb movie. I found the automatic exposure to be very slow (About two seconds to evaluate and switch between a dark subject and a bright one) but if you were outdoors (I was inside taking video of my little boy watching television) I would imagine that the semi-constant lightsource would give you a great movie. It does tend to ramp up the ISO and give you a pretty grainy film in less than ideal lighting conditions. I’ve made a quick video and uploaded it to YouTube in HD format so you can see what I’m on about – It’s quick and choppy, but it’s got a great soundtrack! (That’s my friend, Lou Rhodes)
Here then is a round up of some of the more popular online photo printers that offer panoramic prints. I’m only including the height sizes offered as various vendors offer variable widths. This allows for flexibility when creating panoramas.
On thing I realized when doing this research is that it’s hard to find a good turnkey printer for panoramic prints. Many other sites offer the ability if you call or send your files in on disc, especially in Europe and Australia. Compared to two years ago, though, the number of online retail outfits is growing which is an encouraging sign for those of us who like our images large!
Over the last couple of week’s we’ve run weekend photography challenges and had a lot of positive feedback from readers – so I thought it might be time for another one. Whether you get it done in the weekend or later in the week isn’t really the issue – the idea is simply to give you something to go away and work on and to know that hundreds of others are doing the same thing.
In that post Jennifer suggested the 365 Days challenge where by you shoot one portrait of yourself every day for a year. Of course this a massive commitment but I know many readers have participated in this challenge (and have gotten a lot out of doing it) but this weekend I want to take the ’self portrait’ idea and set that as your challenge or task for the weekend.
Once you’ve taken your self portrait – upload it to a photosharing site and share a link to it in comments below.
PS: looking for some inspiration for your self portrait?
You might also find some inspiration in the ‘Self Portraits’ Assignment that we ran in our forums a couple of years back where there are hundreds of self portraits from readers.
One of the most fascinating and exciting subjects to photograph is arguably a child. Children can also be one of the most challenging little people to photograph! To really grasp them, in their element, and get more than just a smile can sometimes be a work of patience, cleverness and quick wits. The following tips from Véronique da Silva will help you get those images that stop time, that bring tears to parents’ eyes, and that really tell a story.
First things first – the prep! Remember to advise the parents accordingly. Always plan for enough time; i.e. you might need 2-3 hours for very young children (nursing / snacks / breaks), and anywhere from 1 to 2 hours for older children. It is not fair to assume that a child will participate and collaborate in the same way a grown-up would. You must adapt to them, and not vice-versa.
I always tell parents to make sure the kids have napped and are well fed before the session starts. Always pick a time for the session that is suited to the child’s schedule and you will avoid one of the most common pitfalls.
Proper clothing is essential! Remind parents that the children will collaborate much better if they are a) comfortable in their clothing, b) if they were given the opportunity to pick out their own outfit. This does scare some parents who might think picture time = take out the Christmas outfit. Gently assure them that the images will be much more telling and less contrived if the child feels comfortable and confident. I love a child who shows up proudly wearing a tutu!
I strongly suggest starting a session in a familiar place for the child/children; i.e. their home, a favorite beach or park, and then moving locations if desired. When you show up to the session, do not immediately start taking pictures. You will have to gain the child’s and the parents’ trust before anything truly magical happens. I usually sit and chat with the grown-ups for a few minutes and then gently start interacting with the child/children.
Remember to slow everything down. I usually ask the parents to step out of the room or of immediate sight (not in back of me…) as I start interacting with the children, camera in hand. Avoid at all cost the mom or dad standing in back of your telling their child to smile and look at the camera! This is another major pitfall! Talk to the children, but most importantly, listen to them (you will inevitably come away from each session a little bit wiser if you do!). Let the magic happen!
Get down to their level and you will understand their world: crouch, lie down, sit, etc. They will also feel more at ease if you are looking at them from their height.
Ask them questions and get them talking or thinking. Ask them to tell you their favorite story or show you their favorite toy/rock, etc.
Let them guide you through the photo session and don’t fool yourself into thinking it’s the other way around. Suggest ideas and encourage things but be flexible.
Patience, patience, patience.
Have fun! I assure you, you will!
About the Author: Véronique da Silva is a Portrait & Lifestyle Photographer.
Digital photography can be an intimidating hobby because once you get excited about it, you join photo-sharing sites and follow photography forums, and suddenly you’re inundated with lots of other photographer’s work, and *gulp*, a lot of it is better than yours!
It’s very easy to start to feel frustrated and that you’re not good enough, so in this article Jennifer Jacobs from iffles.com has put together a few tips on how to get inspired by other photographers instead of intimidated by them:
Concentrate on one thing to improve
It’s really easy to look through photo after photo from different people and get overwhelmed with all the things you wish you could do better – “I wish I was better at flash photography”, “I wish I could take a good shot of my baby”, “I wish I could get a good high key portrait”, etc.
If you start trying to work on all of those things at once, not only will you remain overwhelmed (and stressed! Goodness, I’m stressed just thinking about all those topics), but you won’t be able to give your full attention to any of them, so it will be hard to get really good at any of them.
For instance, after I first got my DSLR I really wanted to get a photo of me by candlelight. For the life of me, I can’t remember why I focused on this, but I must have read an article about it that made me want to try, so one night, I set up some candles and went for it. I can’t tell you how many photos I took, but I gave up.
A few days later, I tried again, and I finally took the photo that you see above. Is it perfect? No… but my complaints aren’t about the lighting – I don’t like the focus, the expression on my face and the composition could be a bit better… but the lighting? I actually achieved what I wanted. Plus, it’s a lot better than my first attempt.
Listen to others… but not too much
I don’t only get discouraged by other photos, I often get discouraged by things people say: “I would have cropped this differently”, “I don’t like the shallow depth of field”, “too much contrast!”. I think it’s really important to take in everything that everyone says, but to also take it with a grain of salt.
I think critique is important and that people often point out things that I didn’t notice in my own photos – I might be concentrating so much on getting the lighting correct that I didn’t notice the tilting horizon, or I’m struggling with how to edit a particular photo, so I go in one direction, but someone will suggest a different direction that I ultimately like better.
For instance, after an urban photowalk once, I posted some photos and asked for people’s opinions and someone pointed out one of my photos of a local theater might look better with a different crop and converted to black and white. I hadn’t considered this at all, but I tried his suggestion, and I ended up liking it:
That being said, you can’t listen to everything that everyone says. For one thing, you need to have your own style, and you won’t get that if you keep doing what other people tell you to. Also, photography is an art, not a science. Someone else might hate something you love, and that’s ok! Because it’s their opinion and unless that person hired you specifically to take a certain photo – what YOU like matters more than what they like.
On a side note, even if they did hire you, I think it’s really important to stay true to yourself – I would never want to put my name behind a photo that I don’t like, but I suppose that’s a completely different discussion.
Use others’ ideas to come up with your ideas
It often seems to me that other photographers are much more creative than I am and come with all sorts of new ideas and things to take photos of that I never would have thought of. The thing is, they’ve all been inspired by others, too!
Instead of lamenting about “why didn’t I think of that first??”, instead, take their idea, and make it your own. I’m not advocating full-on copycats, just get inspired by certain bits and pieces from other people.
For instance, I have long admired a user on flickr named dCapFoto, and I couldn’t help but be amazed by his photography, especially his use of negative space, like in this photo, and his innovative use of props like in this photo. Inspired, I decided to take those two concepts and turn them into the following photo:
Watch your own progress
It’s really easy to think about all the things you haven’t learned yet. I, for instance, still don’t have an external flash, and I haven’t been happy with many of my photos of other people, and I often get down on myself for these things. It’s easy to forget about all the things I have improved upon. And that’s why I think it’s really important to take some time now and then to look back on where you’ve come from. Remember when you first got your camera and everything was just a bit out of focus? And you never edited a single photo? Think of how much more you know now!
If you use flickr, a great tool for looking back to see how much you improved is photojojo.com’s Time Capsule. You sign up with your flickr account and twice a month, they’ll email you a selection of your photos posted on flickr a year ago.
Remember, everyone has their off days
Feeling really overwhelmed by some of the photos you see on the internet? And think that they’re all so much better than yours? Remember, no matter who is took that photograph and where you see it – that’s not the only photo they took. You’re only seeing their best of the best. No one posts their crappy out-takes!
Now, I’m not saying I’m an amazing photographer, but even I only upload a very small percentage of the photos I take. Remember how I said that candlelight photo above was better than my first attempt? Well, here’s proof that we only ever upload our best photos, check out one of my never-before-seen first attempts at the candlelight shot:
It’s OK. You can laugh.
So. How do you avoid getting intimidated? Let us know in the comments!
About the Author: Jennifer Jacobs is an amateur photographer who runs iffles.com – a site for photography beginners. She’s also addicted to flickr and you can follow her stream here.
About the Author: Véronique da Silva is a Portrait & Lifestyle Photographer.
So. How do you avoid getting intimidated? Let us know in the comments!
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