Newbie In Photography - Image Quality

I am fairly new to photography. I have a decent grasp of how to use focus and lighting but I do have one question. I can't seem to get those really great quality images that others seem to get. I'm only using a Canon sx20is so I know it is not the best camera but is that really all it is coming down to? Is it simply the camera or am I doing something wrong?

Without samples to look at it would be difficult to tell you if you were doing something wrong.
Having said that, if you are unable to get good quality images with your Canon SX20 (and it's not broken) it probably is you rather than the camera. You have to understand what goes into a quality photo, and the capabilities and limitations of your equipment.
Post some samples and what you feel is lacking and I am sure you will get some useful feedback. You may also want to visit a photography site like dpreview.

Oh god..whatever you do.. don't go to dpreview ! Their idea of understanding how to take a good picture is to compare corner to corner sharpness of brick walls ! If you're a Canon user you're MUCH better off getting advice from people whom actually WORK as photographers for a living. Try POTN.

But yes, please do provide sample images. One thing I can suggest without looking at any of your photos, is to make sure that in the menu system, the jpg resolution and quality is set to the highest level possible. Also, the image viewer or processing software can make a difference as well. Another thing to consider is that a lot of websites (mobile me is a HUGE culprit) compress the heck out of your already compressed images in order to resize them. There's more to it than you might imagine. Lastly, a lot of the time it's down to user error OR a defect in the hardware.

We need more details.

Doug

Edit: Your camera looks to be the successor to my S3IS, (and S5) which is a great bridge camera and has given me plenty of fantastic images. I'd be hard pressed to believe that its image quality wasn't as good or better than either of those camera's.

Ok thanks for your responses. I'll try and get some photos up soon.

Is your concern with the sharpness/size of your images or the content?

If it's the quality in terms of sharpness, I'm stumped. I'm not familiar with the camera, but glancing at the specs, it seems perfectly capable of producing high quality images. Doug b already said what I would tell you, which is just to check the settings on your camera and import/editing programs to make sure the quality is set high enough.

If it's the content you're concerned about, I'll tell you the advice that you'll hear from every single photographer you ask: Just get out and shoot. Have your camera with you as much as possible. Not all of your pictures will be good, but getting out and getting the experience behind the lens will do wonders for your photography.

Unrelated, @Doug b: I absolutely love your description of dpreview.

Corbab said:

If it's the content you're concerned about, I'll tell you the advice that you'll hear from every single photographer you ask: Just get out and shoot. Have your camera with you as much as possible. Not all of your pictures will be good, but getting out and getting the experience behind the lens will do wonders for your photography.

Click to expand...

Great advice and very true. I was out today on an Island (Margaret Island) which is like one big lawn/park and the light was very mixed. Lots of shadows from the sun moving into different areas of trees, but the parts not in shadow were extremely bright. Makes metering a real PITA, especially depending upon the color of the surfaces which the light is reflecting off of. (This is important because the reflected surface is what your camera meters from)

Anyway, I think I took about 200 candid shots in a couple of hours, and have already culled about 100 of those. I don't save shots which are blurry unless I intended on them being that way, and it happens more often than not, that shots WILL be blurry. Reason being ? User error. Sometimes it's blatant error, and sometimes you're just so caught up in what you're shooting, that you forget to do something like what I should have done today, which would have saved a few more decent shots.

An example, and what I should have done, was to turn my ISO up to at least 400, though 800 would have been ideal, in those shadowy areas. I was shooting in Aperture priority, as I mostly do when I'm in a mixed light situation and don't want to miss an spontaneous candid event. I noticed afterward that a lot of my shots had a shutter speed between 1/100th-1/250th of a second. Not even near fast enough to freeze a person who is moving at a normal pace without some motion blur.

That is the part I was building up to. But without further information about your photos etc.. I'd rather not keep babbling on, out of fear that you already know this, and it's another issue all together. There are a lot of reasons why you're getting said results. And I'm still curious to see your samples.

Doug