I had the chance to spend a few days in PEI last weekend and took the opportunity to take a few photos. I was traveling light so I only brought my Canon PowerShot S90 point and shoot camera.

Canon PowerShot S90

A few words on the PowerShot S90; I really like this little camera. While many photographers rave about the Canon Gxx series of cameras, I find that they are compact but not truly pocket cameras as the S90 is.

Here are some of the nice features of the Canon PowerShot S90:

Being a small compact camera it is expectedly not fast enough to shoot action, flash is not powerful, etc.

The only feature that I am disappointed with is the macro focusing abilities which keeps hunting for focus.

Overall I would highly recommend this camera for someone wanting a true pocket camera with advanced features. It won’t give you the photo quality of a DSLR, but because you can carry it in your pocket at all times, it will allow you to get some shots you would otherwise miss! This is the ideal bring everywhere pocket camera for times you are not bringing along your camera bag with DSLR and lenses with you.

Here are a few sample pictures taken with the PowerShot S90 and some Photoshop/ACR processing descriptions. Unless indicated otherwise all photos captured at ISO 80:

Here are before and after photos to show color fringing in S90. The before photo shows some purple fringing which is a common problem with compact cameras because of their relatively small sensor size. Both images are crops that were blown up at 300% to clearly show the fringing and how it can be removed by using ACR. The after photo was processed using Adobe Camera Raw 5.7 Beta. A simple adjustment was made in the ‘Lens Settings’ ‘Chromatic Aberrations’ tab with Defringe ‘All Edges’ selected and with a ‘Fix Blue/Yellow Fringe’ set at +54.

Blue fringing can be seen on the un-processed photo along edges on the left side of the object and a little bit of yellow fringing on the other side of this 300% image crop

Photo after processing through ACR Chromatic Aberrations defringe all edges selection. Fringing virtually eliminated in the 300% image crop.

Canon PowerShot S90 samples photos processed through Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop CS4:

Cavendish PEI Lighthouse with ominous cloudy sky

Lobster traps, Cavendish PEI, processed with Photoshop CS4 HSL adjustment layer to punch up and warm up colors

Lobster Traps PEI ACR default image settings

Lobtser Traps PEI processed through ACR and Photoshop with Topaz Adjust 4 filter

I wanted to create a grungy, almost graphic, looking image so I used Topaz Adjust 4 Spicify settings applied as a Smart Object filter /100% Opacity/ Normal Blending. An Unsharp mask with 155%/2.8 pixels/3 levels was applied as a Smart Filter with 100% Opacity/ Luminosity Blending. The above adjustments gave the desired results for the ropes on the ground but gave an overly greenish tint to the Lobster traps. So a B/W adjustment layer was added with a #e1d3b3 color tint. The layer was applied in Overlay mode with an Opacity of 100%. The layer mask of the B&W layer was used to block it’s effect on the cables and only impact the lobster traps and give them back a more natural looking color.

Photoshop adjustment layers used to produce final image. Unsharp Mask, Topaz Adjust 4 filters layers and B&W tint layer to pull natural colors back in lobster traps with layer mask.

Additional information on the Canon PowerShot S90:

Canon PowerShot S90 Review at dpreview.com

PowerShot S90 at Canon USA Website
Luminous Landscape PowerShot S90 review