IXUS 185 Distorted Image

[Carr]

Hi,

Yesterday I took self portraits of myself with a Cannon ixus 185 point and shoot digital camera on a tripod set to a 10 second timer, I wasn't very far away,but very close either but I ended up with a distorted somewhat fat face and a double chin which I don't have in person,in the mirror or even in inexpensive camera phones even though I have gotten the wide angle lens distortion if the camera was too close to my face but you can't really tell how close it is and sometimes you get lucky and get really good results. Do you have any suggestions on how to avoid this problem?

Thank You

[Commercial link removed and replaced with screenshot to facilitate discussion.]

[Tronhard]

Lighting and posture can create double chins.  If you have soft light from in front you will not get great shadowing.  I personally find that shooting outside in soft available light (such as lightly cloud-cover day or for harsh days, in a shadowed area) gives the bet results.  On top of that if you have the camera low down and tilt your head down to look at it, you will get a double chin.  So, raise the camera up a bit and look up and that will stretch your neck and reduce the chances of a double chin.

[rs-eos]

Your camera's zoom lens goes from wide angle to telephoto.  28 mm to 224 mm in terms of a full frame camera equivalent.  That's why I mentioned putting your zoom range at around half-way to get around 126 mm.  That should make a good headshot focal length (in the range of 85 mm to 135 mm).

[Carr]

Ricky,

Thank you but how do I do this? I don't think the zoom lens stays while the timer is on and I don't know which buttons to press to get the zoom. And I can't tell how far away I am if it's far enough etc.And back in November 2019 when I first got this camera, my father just using the auto feature took a test shot picture of me from a medium distance and my face was somewhat stretched from side to side like a wide angle lens camera phone, and I had the double chin, and  I thought that's really strange why is this new camera doing this? I had never used it myself until now, and I hadn't looked at that picture for several years and I remembered that it wasn't good but I forgot it was that bad.

Also a Best Buy Geeksquad agent said that I need to update the software in this camera by plugging it into my desk top computer, but when I plugged it in all it did was download my pictures.

[Carr]

Thank you but how do I do this? I don't think the zoom lens stays while the timer is on and I don't know which buttons to press to get the zoom. And I can't tell how far away I am if it's far enough etc.And back in November 2019 when I first got this camera, my father just using the auto feature took a picture of me from a medium distance and my face was somewhat stretched from side to side like a wide angle lens camera phone, and I had the double chin, and  I thought that's really strange why is this new camera doing this? I had never used it myself until now, and I hadn't looked at that picture for several years and I remembered that it wasn't good but I forgot it was that bad.

I just tried to do test shots on zoom and portrait mode from a good distance and I still got the same distorted fat face with a double chin. I only got one good serious expression headshot portrait a few days ago but it had a yellowish bright tone over exposed look to it so it looks better in black and white but I was able to somewhat correct this on the color picture with a site that I can't remember the name of right now.

The camera took a nice clear un distorted picture of my bedroom lamp,but people's face portraits it's poor.

[Carr]

Thank you but how do I do this? I don't think the zoom lens stays while the timer is on and I don't know which buttons to press to get the zoom. And I can't tell how far away I am if it's far enough etc.And back in November 2019 when I first got this camera, my father just using the auto feature took a picture of me from a medium distance and my face was somewhat stretched from side to side like a wide angle lens camera phone, and I had the double chin, and  I thought that's really strange why is this new camera doing this? I had never used it myself until now, and I hadn't looked at that picture for several years and I remembered that it wasn't good but I forgot it was that bad.

[Carr]

I don't really know how to use the zoom lens,and I can't tell if I'm far away enough. And back in November 2019 when I first got this camera, my father just using the auto feature took a picture of me from a medium distance and my face was somewhat stretched from side to side like a wide angle lens camera phone, and I had the double chin, and  I thought that's really strange why is this new camera doing this? I had never used it myself until now, and I hadn't looked at that picture for several years and I remembered that it wasn't good but I forgot it was that bad.

I just tried to do test shots on zoom and portrait mode from a good distance and I still got the same distorted fat face with a double chin. I only got one good serious expression headshot portrait a few days ago but it had a yellowish bright tone over exposed look to it so it looks better in black and white but I was able to somewhat correct this on the color picture with a site that I can't remember the name of right now.

The camera took a nice clear un distorted picture of my bedroom lamp, but people's face portraits it's poor.

Thank You

[Tronhard]

If you don't know how to use the camera, the first thing to do is read the manual, or better still, go to a camera store or club and get them to help you use the camera.  HERE  is a link to the manual - just click on it to see it.  Use it directly on the screen or download it and print the bits you need.  

If you want to learn the basics of photography, invest a couple of hours and watch THIS YOU TUBE VIDEO by National Geographic Photographer Chris Bray - it's a very easy intro to the basics.

[Carr]

Hi,

Thank you very much again. I have read the online manual several times over the last few years and I read it again about how to take a portrait but it doesn't improve anything. I just bought this inexpensive camera yesterday from amazon.com,

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B3JKYYYD?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1

[Tronhard]

What specific benefit does this camera deliver for you?  It is more a video recording camera than a stills camera... do you want to video yourself as opposed to take still selfies?

[Carr]

Hi,

I don't know why you say this, it this camera's description it says that it takes digital pictures as well as video so does my ixus. This camera says it has a selfie timer too.