PaliKona wrote:First off, I take my shots with a point and shoot, a Canon S110.
The thing I've found frustrating with having the camera in "auto" setting is that when I'm taking a picture and focusing on one element (say, trees in the foreground), the settings set for the foreground, but wash the background and sky out. If I point the camera at the sky and background, it sets for that, but the foreground is too dark.
What do people do in situations like this, where you're shooting outdoor scenes that have such a difference in dark/light?
I'm assuming jumping into manual mode will help this?
Jumping into manual mode may help, but using aperture priority or shuttle priority will help you control the camera 99% as well as manual mode if you know what you're doing.
I use to own a S100, so i understand how the camera works. The HDR mode works fantastic, as long as you use a tripod. You can use multiple bracketed shots and software to get a similar effect too.
What will help out too is allowing the camera to shoot RAW and adjusting the RAW photos afterwards using software. The S110 will only shoot RAW in aperture priority, shutter priority, and manual mode. When starting out with shooting RAW, have the camera record in RAW+JPEG, so it will record both formats.
No matter what, you'll be fighting the small sensor's limited dynamic range (able to handle highlights and shadows at the same time). Upgrading to something with a larger sensor (RX100 for example) will help out even more, but the S110 is still very capable.