Perspective is important when doing portraits. If the camera lens is above the top of the person’s head they will look shorter than they actually are. If below the person’s head, they will look taller. It has to do with optics. Best to shoot at the same level as the person’s head.

Hope this helps.

Best regards,

Bill

I’m an amateur in photography and have recently got a G10 upon recommendation from a friend using G9 I love the fact that it produces amazing pictures and not the boring flat colors that most digi compact cameras give.

However, during our Bangkok trip a mth ago, while taking pics of me and my bf. Both of us realised that we seemed to be ‘compressed’. Meaning, looked stumpier or shorter in that sense. I’ve no idea why or is it some setting that I’ve accidentally pressed?

I asked my friend whos using a G9 and she says while taking portraits, she will always get the photographer to squat down and take so there has been no problems so far.

i know perhaps you might not have encounter such problems as you’re more prone to taking landscape photos. Just trying my luck to see if theres any information you can share with me

*Alas, i stil have a long way to go and spend more time playing with the camera and know how to optimise its potential

Thank you

Cheerios

I always shoot RAW, but I do lots of post processing in Photoshop and I want all the data I can get. If I were going to Italy, I would shoot RAW.

Lots of folks don’t care about RAW and prefer JPEG shooting, including a great many professional photographers. I would recommend that you set your camera to Superfine and Large if you decide to shoot JPEGs. You should be able to print 8X10s with that setting and get reasonable quality.

If you are spending thousands of dollars on a “once in a lifetime trip” to me it seems the extra size of files should not matter much. SDHC cards are cheap today and having a few extra for large file sizes won’t set you back that much money.

Try shooting in Av mode, keep you camera set to about f/4 and hold the ISO down to 100 or less and you should be pleased with most shots.

As to pixel size and compression. JPEGs, as you know, are compressed files and you will encounter JPEG artifacts in your photographs. The more compressed files are, the worse the artifacts.

Again, there is nothing wrong with shooting JPEGs and many professionals do that. Just because I like to shoot in RAW does not mean that I am correct and others are wrong, it has to do with my work flow and my post processing needs.

In sum, if you simply do not want to shoot in RAW mode, I strongly recommend you use the highest JPEG settings.

Best regards,

Bill

Thank you for all the wonderful information about the G10. I just upgraded to the G10 as my wife and I are on our way to Italy for a “once in a lifetime” trip. I am not a proffessional and take most photos on Auto/Auto as I am not as proficient with all the different settings as I was many years ago when I used my Minolta SLR. I will print 4×6 photos of the trip and post many images to my family website to share. Although I often use Fireworks to crop, zoom and resize I do not publish any photos for sale or print anything larger than an occasional 8” x 10”.

With that background, I am trying to decide what recording Pixel size and compression to set the G10 at. I really don’t have a use for 14.7mp but I do want the sharpest, clearest photos that I can take. My old Minolta was totally awesome on landscapes and I didn’t see that quality in my previous digital. I have taken a series of test shots at different settings and really don’t see a heck of a lot of difference on the computer screen between the three combinations listed below but 8-9mb photos fill up my hard drive fast and take a long time to open, save, and manipulate. i.e.

Superfine and Large = 8.3mb
Superfine and Med 1= 4.9 mb
Fine and Med 1 = 2.9 mb

I thought that I wanted to stick with Superfine as Canon claims it gives higher quality images but it looks like the SuperFine photo had 95% compression and the Fine had 86%. I am told that’s a very high number for fine, that’s why it’s so clear and that, for my needs, I may never see a difference between Fine and SuperFine (86 and 95)? Can you explain whether Pixel size or compression is more critical for sharpness and help me decide on the combination with the minimum file size that will still impress me with the photo quality? I don’t want to come back from Italy and wish I had set all the G10 settings at maximum but I don’t want to create excessively large files either if I will never use them.

Sorry this got so long. Thanks for your comments.

JIM

Thank you for your kind comment.

Like you, I sometimes have difficulty with heavy equipment, especially over long treks. There is a great advantage to smaller cameras and lenses. I just sold my 1Ds Mark II and acquired the 5D Mark II. What a difference!

You will be pleased with the G10 if you stick to lower ISO settings, I highly recommend that you stay below ISO 200, best at ISO 80. If you do that, the images you will obtain will be as good as or better than those done with the Rebel Xsi. Really.

Please contact me once you have done some shots and let me know how the G10 is working for you. Would love to see some of your shots. Just email me at my contact information.

Best regards,

Bill

The viewfinder is really off. My rule of thumb is to move up about 1/8th to 1/4th of the frame and right a tad. Takes a little practice but soon you will get used to it.

My G10 gallery is here: http://www.bill.lockharts.com/index.php/tag/canon-powershot-g10

Unfortunately for you, I do mostly landscapes and wildlife stuff. The shot of Duncan Sinclair was shot in very low light.

Remember, stay at ISO 80 unless you know how to process high noise images very well.

Best regards,

Bill

Yeah, I still have concern about the viewfinder. I start taking photo with my father’s old film camera, so it feel natural to use viewfinder. I guess more stability with 3 points contact & hold the camera by the lens.

For other technical Christmas wish, I’ll just follow the more experience photographer.

Do you have G9/G10 gallery that contain city live ??
People (active/working/walking), low light situation (not necessary night scene), or something like that ??
All I could find with google so far are landscape, nature/outdoor and static object. Maybe you can help.

thanks be4 Bill
rD