get rid of camera shake icon?

Teig wrote:

By changing the aperture ratio, this does help a bit but definitely still not a clear photo. Is there a way to take photos when there is action in the shot? I feel like I want to be able to use this camera for multipurpose (both for family photo shoots as well as recording everyday life with the kiddos) and I'm unable to do either- I've had this camera since it came out and only used a couple of times as it's always blurry! Any help greatly appreciated as I'm debating buying a different camera before starting to take on family sessions.

Thx!

Asked under an old post (so what?) but a timeless issue.

The main two reasons for blurry images are 1) shutter speed (Tv) too slow for subject movement, hand movement, or combined, and 2) loss of focus. Job one is find an online manual for your specific model and read it through for various ways to control these, that vary a lot model to model and year to year - if you identify it here someone might have relevant direct experience. Most Powershots have good "Image Stabilisation" (IS) so be sure that's on unless using a tripod.

1) Shutter speed - practice just holding in variously stable positions, depending on the camera and EVF viewer or rear screen, focusing on a perfectly stationary object, to learn the minimum shutter speed for your own jittering around. Read up on some typical speeds for various kinds of subject motion. Lower ambient light requires slower shutter or higher ISO) and telephoto zoom forces the aperture (Av) to close down, requiring slower shutter or higher ISO.

2. Loss of focus can happen in many ways in different circumstances. With active subjects like kiddos or pets you might or might not have various focus tracking settings in the camera. Tracking motion that way is hit and miss by nature. A trick I like to use where a subject or small group are moving just a little around a stable object is to lock the focus on that object, and in many cases the focus will continue to be sharp on the subjects (within the "depth of field" - worth looking up) despite their movements - I use the autofocus lock (AFL) setting on most Powershots.

A reasonable first approach is to ask "What would Auto do?" - or one of the Scene settings can put you in the ballpark for different shooting conditions. The automated settings for many models in difficult light is to ratchet up ISO to ugly output, so be aware of your own tolerance for higher ISO on your model. Only you will know if a better camera (there's always a better camera) will cure the problem or it's just lack of familiarity and experience with the one in hand.