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Camera - What settings do you use?

thomamon

thomamon

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Nov 24, 2008
1,221
163
Flemington, NJ
So I've upgraded from the 5 to 5S! I was using the same camera settings with the 5S that I did with the 5, but I am noticing the photos seem to be more blurry.

On the 5 I always shot with HDR and rarely used the flash unless the situation really called for it.

I am noticing a couple of things with the 5S. There is little to no difference between a regular shot and the the HDR version. I have it keep both versions then delete the one that I do not like.

I also notice that there seems to be more blur with the 5S then with the 5! Is anyone else noticing that?

At times it can become quite frustrating. At my wifes birthday celebration at my parents house the other night, every picture of us with her cake is soft/blurry.

I never recall having this problem in the past.
 
thomamon said:
So I've upgraded from the 5 to 5S! I was using the same camera settings with the 5S that I did with the 5, but I am noticing the photos seem to be more blurry.

On the 5 I always shot with HDR and rarely used the flash unless the situation really called for it.

I am noticing a couple of things with the 5S. There is little to no difference between a regular shot and the the HDR version. I have it keep both versions then delete the one that I do not like.

I also notice that there seems to be more blur with the 5S then with the 5! Is anyone else noticing that?

At times it can become quite frustrating. At my wifes birthday celebration at my parents house the other night, every picture of us with her cake is soft/blurry.

I never recall having this problem in the past.
Click to expand...
The iPhone still struggles when the subject is moving around a lot, I suggest using burst if there is movement or just keep on touching to focus on a composed shot
 
Here is an example, we are not moving...
 

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thomamon said:
Here is an example, we are not moving...
Click to expand...

Nice picture anyway!

By design photos in low light will almost always be "soft" due to aperture and shutter speed. Was there a green square around at least one or both faces? That will demonstrate the camera has what it thinks are the best settings. But even then the sharpness depends on the amount of light. It's less noticeable when looking at a person, but trying to read a cake is difficult. For a photo like that I recommend the flash. The 5s flash is an order of magnitude better than any iOS device before it.

This doesn't really answer your question so I'll say that I believe low light pictures are much better with the 5s. But when I zoom in and look the edges of items are "soft".

And tell Mom that she needs to do a better job getting out of the picture! Very sweet. :)
 
I had to relearn to take photos w/ my 5S.

Burst mode and volume rocker pics are what I currently use, one for good non blurry pics and the other one for a fast pic that looks good enough.
 
PNutts said:
Nice picture anyway!

By design photos in low light will almost always be "soft" due to aperture and shutter speed. Was there a green square around at least one or both faces? That will demonstrate the camera has what it thinks are the best settings. But even then the sharpness depends on the amount of light. It's less noticeable when looking at a person, but trying to read a cake is difficult. For a photo like that I recommend the flash. The 5s flash is an order of magnitude better than any iOS device before it.

This doesn't really answer your question so I'll say that I believe low light pictures are much better with the 5s. But when I zoom in and look the edges of items are "soft".

And tell Mom that she needs to do a better job getting out of the picture! Very sweet. :)
Click to expand...

Actually, that is my aunt, lol.

Yeah, considering how well the pictures come out with the flash now I thought that may be the problem as well. Thanks so much for the feedback.

The flash pics really are impressive with the 5S, so I may just set it to no HDR and Auto Flash in the future. I will also give people taking the pictures better instructions such as the box around the face next time.

----------
Carlanga said:
I had to relearn to take photos w/ my 5S.

Burst mode and volume rocker pics are what I currently use, one for good non blurry pics and the other one for a fast pic that looks good enough.
Click to expand...

What is volume rocker? I must have missed that!
 
I use the HDR mode, grid, and touch focus. Also if you put your finger on the screen and hold it there for 2 seconds, you can lock the focus and exposure to to better your photos. This technique is helpful when you need to recompose without the camera re-adjusting for focus and exposure. This technique also works on video recording as well.
 
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ToddH said:
I use the HDR mode, grid, and touch focus. Also if you put your finger on the screen and hold it there for 2 seconds, you can lock the focus and exposure to to better your photos. This technique is helpful when you need to recompose without the camera re-adjusting for focus and exposure. This technique also works on video recording as well.
Click to expand...
Thanks, will try!
Carlanga said:
even so, it's gonna be a more stable pic than pressing the screen.
Click to expand...

You think? Will try!
 
Do you understand what HDR does? let's say one part of the picture is overexposed, another part is underexposed. HDR will take 2 pictures and merge them together. You shouldn't use HDR as a default setting.
 
ToroidalZeus said:
Do you understand what HDR does? let's say one part of the picture is overexposed, another part is underexposed. HDR will take 2 pictures and merge them together. You shouldn't use HDR as a default setting.
Click to expand...

Every picture I take is HDR and I have it set to keep both so I can decide which to keep. The only time HDR is off is when I set the flash to On so it will guaranteed flash. With the 5s it has to be pretty dark before I use the flash. I haven't had time to look at the 5s, but in many cases the 5 HDR would actually sharpen the image.

But I'm curious, why not leave HDR as default? It's not the same as bracketing exposures but solves a lot of point-and-shoot sins.
 
Very cool. HDR does still sharpen them up on the 5s. Below are some random kids (none are mine so feel free to make fun of them). :p On my phone I zoomed in and then did a screen capture. Looking at the blond girl's hair you'll see it and the rest of the HDR pic is sharper.

photo 1.PNG

photo 2.PNG
 
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