**The Canon SX260: A Point and Shoot Camera Review**

We recently had the opportunity to test out the Canon SX260, one of the best cameras available on Amazon.com. Our goal was to see if this point and shoot camera could help our photographer friend take drastically better images.

**A Debate about Equipment and Photography**

Before we even started testing the camera, we had a debate about the role of equipment in photography. Some people believe that giving someone the best equipment possible will result in great photos. Our photographer friend argued that there's more to taking pictures than just the camera. While it's true that having good equipment can make a big difference, our friend pointed out that even with the best camera, you still need to know how to use it.

**The Limitations of Point and Shoot Cameras**

Point and shoot cameras like the Canon SX260 have some limitations that can hold back photographers. For example, they often lack manual controls, which means there's no way to adjust settings like aperture or shutter speed. However, our friend believes that these restrictions can actually make you a better photographer. "The camera makes the man," they say. This philosophy is supported by Ansel Adams, who said that a good photograph is not just about the equipment you use, but also about knowing where to stand and how to compose your shot.

**Tips for Taking Better Photos with a Point and Shoot Camera**

Despite the limitations of point and shoot cameras, there are still some basic techniques that can help improve your photos. Our photographer friend shared some tips on how to take better images with this camera. First, try to be aware of the geometry in your photo. This means paying attention to things like horizons and composition. Keep your horizon relatively straight as a starting point, and avoid tilting your camera unless you have a good reason for doing so.

Another important technique is the rule of thirds. Instead of placing your subject directly in the center of the frame, try placing them off-center by dividing the frame into thirds both horizontally and vertically. This will create more balanced and interesting compositions. Finally, be mindful of the background and how it affects your photo. Using zoom to get a soft blurry background can be useful, but if your subject isn't far away from you, just use your feet or a tripod to steady your shot.

**Lighting and Metering**

When taking photos with a point and shoot camera, lighting is also an important consideration. One common mistake is using the flash too much. Unless you're shooting in very dark conditions, try turning off the flash and instead using available light sources like lamps, candles, or street lights. These can often provide better results than the flash on your camera.

Metering is another crucial aspect of photography that's easy to overlook when using a point and shoot camera. Most cameras today have metering modes that allow you to choose how the camera measures light in the scene. By pointing your camera at different parts of the scene, you can force the camera to meter different areas. For example, if you're trying to capture a portrait, try pointing your camera at the subject's eyes instead of their face.

**Aperture Priority Mode**

One way to gain more control over your camera is to switch from auto mode to aperture priority mode. This allows you to adjust the aperture (the size of the opening through which light enters the lens) while the camera still chooses the shutter speed for you. By opening up your aperture, you can get faster shutter speeds and create a shallow depth of field that blurs the background.

**Flash: A Necessary Evil**

Finally, there's the flash on your point and shoot camera. Unfortunately, this is often one of the most overused features in photography. Unless you're shooting in very dark conditions or want to add some dramatic effect to your photos, try turning off the flash. The light it produces can be harsh and unflattering, and often doesn't even add anything to the image.

**Experimentation and Failure**

The best way to learn how to use a camera is through experimentation and failure. Don't be afraid to move around or ask your subject to move if you need to. Also, don't be too proud to try different techniques until you find what works for you. This is how photographers grow and develop their skills.

**Conclusion**

The Canon SX260 may not be the most powerful camera on the market, but with some practice and experimentation, it can help our photographer friend take better photos. By being aware of geometry, composition, lighting, and metering, and using techniques like aperture priority mode and available light sources, you can take great photos even with a point and shoot camera.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwelcome to topshelf I'm David Pierce and on this show we bring you the best in consumer electronics past present and future this week the ancient art of capturing light from Kota Chrome to Instagram from Cinema to selfies and out in the deserts of Nevada the future of it all our senior reporter Brian Bishop investigates the past 5 years have seen a dramatic shift in the creation and distribution of visual media digitally shot films now regularly win Oscars HD is the Baseline standard at home and 4K content isn't just hitting theaters it's shaping up to be the latest front in the battle for the living room the industry is changing the one place that's most evident is right here in Las Vegas Nevada this is where the National Association of broadcasters holding its annual trade show it's a place where the people making tomorrow's tools can meet up with the creative individuals that will end up using them this is Nab 2013 here on the show floor there's big name companies like red Canon and Sony as well as a lot of smaller vendors every type of film making equipment imaginable is here there's one constant theme 4K it's here and in a big way Sony which has been pushing the industry towards 4K capture and distribution showed off two new prototype cameras for video and taking Stills one looked like the futuristic DSLR but the other borrowed a lot of design cues from reds liner products the company also priced its home 4K media player which will be priced at $699 later this year and when if you're hungry for even more resolution red had a clean room on the show floor where was upgrading owners of the Red Epic to its new K Dragon sensor now if you know the name Phantom you know it's all about slow motion and this is the Phantom Flex 4k camera it can shoot 1,000 frames per second of 4K footage this here is a prototype it about working about 4 weeks ago uh with a 64 gig capacity there's a number of different capacities you can get you can shoot about 5 Seconds of footage what's that like in playback at 1,000 frames per second that's 3 and 1/2 minutes of footage now price on this the be body itself is going to be about $100,000 but a full kit can be about 140 so obviously this is professional level gear something you're not going to be basically buying for yourself and now you know it's interesting you know this right here is the original Phantom Flex that has 2500 frames per second at HD resolution but technology has been evolving so quickly they can make it even smaller which brings us to the Miro now this can basically shoot, 1500 frames per second in HD resolution at a much smaller form Factory this runs around $50,000 all these cameras capture fantastic High frame rate photography and uh and I want one I want all of them as technology has advanced it's enabled professional level Hardware to get both smaller and more portable cameras can go places they've never been able to go before but making that footage look smooth and steady presents its own set of challenges we're here at free flies Booth looking at the movie This has taken uh the Internet by stor the last few weeks it's a camera stabilization system uses digitally controlled gyroscopes other electronics you can basically put your your digital SLR in here lightweight cameras and get some really really smooth shots you wouldn't be able to get otherwise it's a pretty exciting example of how you can go and get some really creative shots without a huge bunch of the equipment that you normally would have to use we are a creative technology company that makes creative tools for Creative Minds so I mean like NAB couldn't be the more perfect show for us because there's a bunch of Geeks that are super creative that's us you know I mean we are we are the nav crowd so we took our professional grade zenmuse camera stabilization platform and have built an in to the Phantom it's crazy how responsive it is it's very responsive yeah it goes exactly where you tell it to go yep just like that just like that let it touch the ground and then just drop it down nice flying man thanks dude people are taking things to another extreme this is the steady cam curve it's a motion stabilization device for your GoPro camera now steady cam is the company behind the original big full body rigs that use to stabilize cameras for motion tracking shots you seen them in good Fells you SE them in The Shining this is a small version of it we're seeing lots of smaller cameras like this go out and feeling need to find a way to make these shots you know a little bit less shaky this looks like it's pretty stable so uh so I'm going to take this out and go uh go film Boogie Nights it's not just consumer cameras changing the game we're also seeing traditional consumer electronics trickling up the food chain and opening up some exciting possibilities this is the bond 2 from pter you hook it up to your camera it canver your footage into h264 video and then puts it out over the Internet there are six USB ports you can just plug in stock sticks from variet T-Mobile AT&T and basically it send it to pter servers and it reconstitutes it and from there you can put the footage wherever you want you know on the air on the internet directly and what's really cool about this thing is it takes what used to be you know you need a satellite truck to do these things before and now you can do it in this little box right here that costs about $4,000 uh you have add the sticks obviously but basically you can take a camera out in the field shoot something and have it on the Internet or anywhere else you want right away with just this little box in a lot of ways we at the dawn of a golden era technology and creativity are opening up possibilities that were only dreamt of just a few years ago while the gear itself is exciting that's really only one part of the story the real payoff is what directors cinematographers and other creative professionals are doing with this new generation of tools and to reap those benefits you don't need to travel to Las Vegas just open your eyes so nobody's carrying around a 4K cell phone yet yet but shows like NAB are a really good indication of where the consumer Market will be in a couple years from now what's $10,000 at NAB might be $200 before you know it and the Fujifilm x100s one of the new cameras we've seen in The Verge offices may not be $200 but it's still a lot of camera for a surprisingly small price here with me to talk about it is the verge's resident photography expert Michael Shane and you kind of love this camera right yeah I really do why what what's so special about this camera I mean it's pretty yes aside from the fact that it's beautiful uh looks on everything though it has a great personality it do it's what's on the inside it counts so let's get the the the basics out of the way first this is it's not a full-frame camera which means it's not a 35mm sensor unlike some of the higher end Pro right unlike the Sony RX1 which is another compact camera or full dslrs like the 5D Mark I Mark III Nikon D800 Etc right uh but this camera I think is quite possibly best cropped sensor on the planet right now that money can buy I think Fuji's doing amazing stuff and if Fuji ever starts to make fullframe sensors in a compact camera watch out uh so does that mean am I am I going to take meaningfully better pictures with this than with any other camera or like so you I'm curious for you particularly cuz you own a 5D Mark II yeah right and you you're a pro you you know like get paid money to take pictures sometimes which makes you Pro um so but you want this camera you want to spend $1,300 I do I don't off my 5D Mark I doesn't leave my apartment or the office that often it's sort of a it's a tool it's a Workhorse it's gigantic that big lens on it you know it weighs a lot uh but this this is Tiny this weighs nothing and it's unobtrusive people don't notice this if I'm walking around the city or I'm in the subway and I lift my 5D Mark II to take a photo it's like waving a flag that says hello I'm a photographer and I'm about to invade your space please turn away yeah exactly but this camera allows me to remain invisible right and it's it you can make it basically silent too right so youil it's got built-in electronic shutter sounds but they're a little dumb you just leave it silent and it's like it's not even there it's it's a a wonderful portable camera and the image quality is fantastic so if if I'm just you know regular guy there are a lot of cameras out there for $1,300 right across a whole bunch of different they can look different work differently there even some dslrs you can get for $13 so if if I'm somebody who doesn't know much about photos but just wants to to take great pictures with a nice camera that doesn't weigh you know 40,000 lb yeah uh is this is this the one to get not in my opinion okay uh this camera is a phenomenal camera for experienced or professional photographers who are looking for a second body I mean this camera has a physical mechanical aperture ring that clicks it's got a physical dial for exposure compensation a physical dial for your exposures the point is this camera wants to be shot in manual or at the very least in aperture priority mode and this camera its cousins made by Fuji the Sony RX1 they kind of they all a little bit idiosyncratic and you have to be the kind of photographer or consumer who's excited to sort of dive in and figure out what kind of relationship you have to have with a camera to make great pictures and this is the kind of camera that demands that but if you're just looking to take snapshots of friends of the kids going out trips and you want to take great photos and not really worry so much about making great photos I think you can probably spend less money end up with results you'll be happy with and then take the extra money left over and do something else with it but so then on on the flip side of that if I'm a if I'm a pro photographer I want something you know people buy dslrs because and they're big because they have all the buttons and all the dials control and image quality right and and this you think this has enough of that or at least the right amount of it AB I absolutely think it does like I said at the beginning it's not a full-frame sensor right but that's that's not everything I mean until I played with this camera I was like oh I can't use a camera that doesn't have a full-frame sensor but once I tried this I was sort of convinced yeah F2 looks a lot different on a fullframe sensor than it does on this camera but the the image quality is great it feels great in the hand it's beautiful to look at from in my opinion is beautiful I mean that's totally subjective it looks like a camera from like5 years ago yeah I mean it's sort of a throwback to the old like a compact cameras but the great thing about this I mean it's a fixed it's one lens it's fixed but it's 35 mm and artistically speaking that introduces certain restrictions that I think are are really good having only a 35mm field of view to work with changes the way you see scenes it changes the way you make photos and I think uh restrictions like that make you a better photographer well yeah so that's we actually had this debate in the middle of talking about this camera before where you were saying you know my theory is basically put the best equipment possible in somebody's hands and they'll probably take great pictures right like if I handed you if I handed my grandma a 5D Mark I put it on auto she'd probably take great pictures uh but your theory is that you know there's a lot more to taking pictures than just the camera and and that applies to both you know taking great pictures with a 5D Mark I and with like a you know terrible $200 point and shoot that hopefully no one just my opinion it's certainly not like a revolutionary new idea well we like we tell my mom this I like I take great pictures and my mom's like man you must have a really great camera I'm like no Mom just took good pictures what you need to do is go get one of those disposables from like Target or you know one of those and then take amazing pictures with that so this is what I don't think can be done and this is what we sent you out to do with Ross Miller who I'm pretty sure is like the worst photographer that has ever existed on planet Earth that's harsh I can't comment and basically what I wanted to see is does the camera make the man or does the man make the camera anel Adams said that a good photograph is knowing where to stand you can take the most horrifically awful pictures with the best of cameras and you can take great pictures with just about any camera you can find on the street so we went out and bought the Canon SX260 right now the best camera on amazon.com and we're going to give you a few tips to show you how to take drastically better images even with a point and shoot like most things in photography composition can be pretty subjective but there are a few basic ideas that will be helpful when you're getting started always try to be aware of the geometry in your photo especially Horizons Keep Your Horizon relatively straight as a starting point you really should have a good reason for tilting your camera also be mindful of the so-called rule of thirds the center of the frame is generally a zone of Despair and disappointment zooming can help you achieve a soft blurry background with a point and shoot but if your subject isn't actually far away from you just use your feet zooming also makes it harder to keep a steady shot so if you don't have a tripod become a tripod walls railings trees that crazy position from yoga last night do whatever you have to to steady your hand then there's the light when you press the shutter button halfway the camera measures the light in the scene and chooses it settings for the photo this is called metering but you can force the camera to meter different parts of a scene just by pointing it somewhere other than your subject do what you can to put light sources behind you including and especially the sun if you want a bit more control leave the plush prison of auto mode behind and try aperture priority the aperture is the size of the opening through which light enters the lens and it also affects your depth of field at a basic level depth of field is what determines how blurry or sharp your background is if auto mode wants f8 for example but that results in a shutter speed that's too too slow switch to aperture priority mode and open up your aperture to a lower number you'll have a faster shutter speed that might be better suited to your needs okay so let's talk about Flash as a general rule just just turn it off except for the darkest of circumstances most cameras today will do all right without the retina burning assault weapon that the manufacturer decided you couldn't live without seriously is this how you want to remember your night it's like a PSA for bad decisions don't be afraid to move or to ask your subject to move look for lamps candles street lights LED keychains road flares pretty much any light source around you will be better than the flash on your point and shoot camera all right it's time to let loose a little bit take everything I just said and forget about it then jump into the point and choots menu system and try manual mode with wild abandon experimentation and failure are how photographers grow assuming you have a patient subject you'd be surprised what some simple adjustments can get you that's it for our show thanks so much for watching thanks to Brian Bishop for being here thanks to Michael Shane and especially thanks to Ross Miller who I promise is a much better photographer than he lets on for lots more on all this especially our full review of the Fujifilm x100s be sure and check out the verge.com thank you again so much for watching we'll see you next weekwelcome to topshelf I'm David Pierce and on this show we bring you the best in consumer electronics past present and future this week the ancient art of capturing light from Kota Chrome to Instagram from Cinema to selfies and out in the deserts of Nevada the future of it all our senior reporter Brian Bishop investigates the past 5 years have seen a dramatic shift in the creation and distribution of visual media digitally shot films now regularly win Oscars HD is the Baseline standard at home and 4K content isn't just hitting theaters it's shaping up to be the latest front in the battle for the living room the industry is changing the one place that's most evident is right here in Las Vegas Nevada this is where the National Association of broadcasters holding its annual trade show it's a place where the people making tomorrow's tools can meet up with the creative individuals that will end up using them this is Nab 2013 here on the show floor there's big name companies like red Canon and Sony as well as a lot of smaller vendors every type of film making equipment imaginable is here there's one constant theme 4K it's here and in a big way Sony which has been pushing the industry towards 4K capture and distribution showed off two new prototype cameras for video and taking Stills one looked like the futuristic DSLR but the other borrowed a lot of design cues from reds liner products the company also priced its home 4K media player which will be priced at $699 later this year and when if you're hungry for even more resolution red had a clean room on the show floor where was upgrading owners of the Red Epic to its new K Dragon sensor now if you know the name Phantom you know it's all about slow motion and this is the Phantom Flex 4k camera it can shoot 1,000 frames per second of 4K footage this here is a prototype it about working about 4 weeks ago uh with a 64 gig capacity there's a number of different capacities you can get you can shoot about 5 Seconds of footage what's that like in playback at 1,000 frames per second that's 3 and 1/2 minutes of footage now price on this the be body itself is going to be about $100,000 but a full kit can be about 140 so obviously this is professional level gear something you're not going to be basically buying for yourself and now you know it's interesting you know this right here is the original Phantom Flex that has 2500 frames per second at HD resolution but technology has been evolving so quickly they can make it even smaller which brings us to the Miro now this can basically shoot, 1500 frames per second in HD resolution at a much smaller form Factory this runs around $50,000 all these cameras capture fantastic High frame rate photography and uh and I want one I want all of them as technology has advanced it's enabled professional level Hardware to get both smaller and more portable cameras can go places they've never been able to go before but making that footage look smooth and steady presents its own set of challenges we're here at free flies Booth looking at the movie This has taken uh the Internet by stor the last few weeks it's a camera stabilization system uses digitally controlled gyroscopes other electronics you can basically put your your digital SLR in here lightweight cameras and get some really really smooth shots you wouldn't be able to get otherwise it's a pretty exciting example of how you can go and get some really creative shots without a huge bunch of the equipment that you normally would have to use we are a creative technology company that makes creative tools for Creative Minds so I mean like NAB couldn't be the more perfect show for us because there's a bunch of Geeks that are super creative that's us you know I mean we are we are the nav crowd so we took our professional grade zenmuse camera stabilization platform and have built an in to the Phantom it's crazy how responsive it is it's very responsive yeah it goes exactly where you tell it to go yep just like that just like that let it touch the ground and then just drop it down nice flying man thanks dude people are taking things to another extreme this is the steady cam curve it's a motion stabilization device for your GoPro camera now steady cam is the company behind the original big full body rigs that use to stabilize cameras for motion tracking shots you seen them in good Fells you SE them in The Shining this is a small version of it we're seeing lots of smaller cameras like this go out and feeling need to find a way to make these shots you know a little bit less shaky this looks like it's pretty stable so uh so I'm going to take this out and go uh go film Boogie Nights it's not just consumer cameras changing the game we're also seeing traditional consumer electronics trickling up the food chain and opening up some exciting possibilities this is the bond 2 from pter you hook it up to your camera it canver your footage into h264 video and then puts it out over the Internet there are six USB ports you can just plug in stock sticks from variet T-Mobile AT&T and basically it send it to pter servers and it reconstitutes it and from there you can put the footage wherever you want you know on the air on the internet directly and what's really cool about this thing is it takes what used to be you know you need a satellite truck to do these things before and now you can do it in this little box right here that costs about $4,000 uh you have add the sticks obviously but basically you can take a camera out in the field shoot something and have it on the Internet or anywhere else you want right away with just this little box in a lot of ways we at the dawn of a golden era technology and creativity are opening up possibilities that were only dreamt of just a few years ago while the gear itself is exciting that's really only one part of the story the real payoff is what directors cinematographers and other creative professionals are doing with this new generation of tools and to reap those benefits you don't need to travel to Las Vegas just open your eyes so nobody's carrying around a 4K cell phone yet yet but shows like NAB are a really good indication of where the consumer Market will be in a couple years from now what's $10,000 at NAB might be $200 before you know it and the Fujifilm x100s one of the new cameras we've seen in The Verge offices may not be $200 but it's still a lot of camera for a surprisingly small price here with me to talk about it is the verge's resident photography expert Michael Shane and you kind of love this camera right yeah I really do why what what's so special about this camera I mean it's pretty yes aside from the fact that it's beautiful uh looks on everything though it has a great personality it do it's what's on the inside it counts so let's get the the the basics out of the way first this is it's not a full-frame camera which means it's not a 35mm sensor unlike some of the higher end Pro right unlike the Sony RX1 which is another compact camera or full dslrs like the 5D Mark I Mark III Nikon D800 Etc right uh but this camera I think is quite possibly best cropped sensor on the planet right now that money can buy I think Fuji's doing amazing stuff and if Fuji ever starts to make fullframe sensors in a compact camera watch out uh so does that mean am I am I going to take meaningfully better pictures with this than with any other camera or like so you I'm curious for you particularly cuz you own a 5D Mark II yeah right and you you're a pro you you know like get paid money to take pictures sometimes which makes you Pro um so but you want this camera you want to spend $1,300 I do I don't off my 5D Mark I doesn't leave my apartment or the office that often it's sort of a it's a tool it's a Workhorse it's gigantic that big lens on it you know it weighs a lot uh but this this is Tiny this weighs nothing and it's unobtrusive people don't notice this if I'm walking around the city or I'm in the subway and I lift my 5D Mark II to take a photo it's like waving a flag that says hello I'm a photographer and I'm about to invade your space please turn away yeah exactly but this camera allows me to remain invisible right and it's it you can make it basically silent too right so youil it's got built-in electronic shutter sounds but they're a little dumb you just leave it silent and it's like it's not even there it's it's a a wonderful portable camera and the image quality is fantastic so if if I'm just you know regular guy there are a lot of cameras out there for $1,300 right across a whole bunch of different they can look different work differently there even some dslrs you can get for $13 so if if I'm somebody who doesn't know much about photos but just wants to to take great pictures with a nice camera that doesn't weigh you know 40,000 lb yeah uh is this is this the one to get not in my opinion okay uh this camera is a phenomenal camera for experienced or professional photographers who are looking for a second body I mean this camera has a physical mechanical aperture ring that clicks it's got a physical dial for exposure compensation a physical dial for your exposures the point is this camera wants to be shot in manual or at the very least in aperture priority mode and this camera its cousins made by Fuji the Sony RX1 they kind of they all a little bit idiosyncratic and you have to be the kind of photographer or consumer who's excited to sort of dive in and figure out what kind of relationship you have to have with a camera to make great pictures and this is the kind of camera that demands that but if you're just looking to take snapshots of friends of the kids going out trips and you want to take great photos and not really worry so much about making great photos I think you can probably spend less money end up with results you'll be happy with and then take the extra money left over and do something else with it but so then on on the flip side of that if I'm a if I'm a pro photographer I want something you know people buy dslrs because and they're big because they have all the buttons and all the dials control and image quality right and and this you think this has enough of that or at least the right amount of it AB I absolutely think it does like I said at the beginning it's not a full-frame sensor right but that's that's not everything I mean until I played with this camera I was like oh I can't use a camera that doesn't have a full-frame sensor but once I tried this I was sort of convinced yeah F2 looks a lot different on a fullframe sensor than it does on this camera but the the image quality is great it feels great in the hand it's beautiful to look at from in my opinion is beautiful I mean that's totally subjective it looks like a camera from like5 years ago yeah I mean it's sort of a throwback to the old like a compact cameras but the great thing about this I mean it's a fixed it's one lens it's fixed but it's 35 mm and artistically speaking that introduces certain restrictions that I think are are really good having only a 35mm field of view to work with changes the way you see scenes it changes the way you make photos and I think uh restrictions like that make you a better photographer well yeah so that's we actually had this debate in the middle of talking about this camera before where you were saying you know my theory is basically put the best equipment possible in somebody's hands and they'll probably take great pictures right like if I handed you if I handed my grandma a 5D Mark I put it on auto she'd probably take great pictures uh but your theory is that you know there's a lot more to taking pictures than just the camera and and that applies to both you know taking great pictures with a 5D Mark I and with like a you know terrible $200 point and shoot that hopefully no one just my opinion it's certainly not like a revolutionary new idea well we like we tell my mom this I like I take great pictures and my mom's like man you must have a really great camera I'm like no Mom just took good pictures what you need to do is go get one of those disposables from like Target or you know one of those and then take amazing pictures with that so this is what I don't think can be done and this is what we sent you out to do with Ross Miller who I'm pretty sure is like the worst photographer that has ever existed on planet Earth that's harsh I can't comment and basically what I wanted to see is does the camera make the man or does the man make the camera anel Adams said that a good photograph is knowing where to stand you can take the most horrifically awful pictures with the best of cameras and you can take great pictures with just about any camera you can find on the street so we went out and bought the Canon SX260 right now the best camera on amazon.com and we're going to give you a few tips to show you how to take drastically better images even with a point and shoot like most things in photography composition can be pretty subjective but there are a few basic ideas that will be helpful when you're getting started always try to be aware of the geometry in your photo especially Horizons Keep Your Horizon relatively straight as a starting point you really should have a good reason for tilting your camera also be mindful of the so-called rule of thirds the center of the frame is generally a zone of Despair and disappointment zooming can help you achieve a soft blurry background with a point and shoot but if your subject isn't actually far away from you just use your feet zooming also makes it harder to keep a steady shot so if you don't have a tripod become a tripod walls railings trees that crazy position from yoga last night do whatever you have to to steady your hand then there's the light when you press the shutter button halfway the camera measures the light in the scene and chooses it settings for the photo this is called metering but you can force the camera to meter different parts of a scene just by pointing it somewhere other than your subject do what you can to put light sources behind you including and especially the sun if you want a bit more control leave the plush prison of auto mode behind and try aperture priority the aperture is the size of the opening through which light enters the lens and it also affects your depth of field at a basic level depth of field is what determines how blurry or sharp your background is if auto mode wants f8 for example but that results in a shutter speed that's too too slow switch to aperture priority mode and open up your aperture to a lower number you'll have a faster shutter speed that might be better suited to your needs okay so let's talk about Flash as a general rule just just turn it off except for the darkest of circumstances most cameras today will do all right without the retina burning assault weapon that the manufacturer decided you couldn't live without seriously is this how you want to remember your night it's like a PSA for bad decisions don't be afraid to move or to ask your subject to move look for lamps candles street lights LED keychains road flares pretty much any light source around you will be better than the flash on your point and shoot camera all right it's time to let loose a little bit take everything I just said and forget about it then jump into the point and choots menu system and try manual mode with wild abandon experimentation and failure are how photographers grow assuming you have a patient subject you'd be surprised what some simple adjustments can get you that's it for our show thanks so much for watching thanks to Brian Bishop for being here thanks to Michael Shane and especially thanks to Ross Miller who I promise is a much better photographer than he lets on for lots more on all this especially our full review of the Fujifilm x100s be sure and check out the verge.com thank you again so much for watching we'll see you next week\n"