Focal Length and Aperture

[Kolourl3lincl]

I recently got a canon sx120is as a fairly cheap way to get into manual photography. It's rather slow but I love it.

Recently though I been trying to pull people and out from the background around them. I wondering if this has to do with the focus or the aperture settings? Also, is this possible with a point and shoot camera?

I wish to be about to do something like this picture below:
Low Tide on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

The photographer was able to set what area they wanted to stand out.

[OsmosisStudios]

The first hurdle is the camera.
P&S cameras like your SX20is have a very small sensor which makes shallow depth of field (the phenomenon youre looking for) hard to do. It's much easier with the sensors found in dSLRs, especially the higher end.

If youre really trying to do it, the point is to make the aperture as BIG as possible. That means using the smallest aperture number you can.

You should try using the macro mode on the SX20is and see if that helps with it.

[Kolourl3lincl]

Thank you, I will just have to save up a few more dollars and get the Dslr. Sigh. Oh well.

[private]

since you can do manual, set the aperture as wide as possible (the lowest number) it might not look exactly the same.

The photo that you linked to sd the pic was taken with a Nikon SUPER COOLSCAN 9000 ED not a Nikon person but it does not sound like a dslr to me, but then again, I know nothing about Nikon...

[vandergus]

The photo that you linked to sd the pic was taken with a Nikon SUPER COOLSCAN 9000 ED not a Nikon person but it does not sound like a dslr to me, but then again, I know nothing about Nikon...

That's a scanner, which means it was probably shot on film. And since it's part of a "Hasselblad" set, it's probably medium format film.

For the OP, in addition to using a large aperture, you can also get really close to the subject. The closer you're focusing, the narrower the depth of field will be. It will limit the types of compositions you can use (i.e. it probably won't work for portraits) but you still might be able to do something interesting.

[Edsport]

You can also do it in post processing. Check the video...

Video Tutorial - Photoshopping Tilt Shift | Photo Guides

[inkista]

Couple things you can try, but yes, you are limited by the small sensor and tiny focal lengths of the camera you're using.

DoF an out of focus blur are affected by a number of things. Aperture is only one of them.

1. Focal length: the longer your focal length, the more limited your depth of field becomes. However, with a digicam, this is like going from 5mm to 50 or 70mm, so it may not have as much success for you as:
   
   
2. Subject distance. The nearer the camera is to the subject, the shallower the DoF becomes. This is why macro shots always have background blur and thin DoF.
   
   
3. Subject-to-background distance. Just getting your subject farther away from the background can introduce more out-of-focus blur (i.e., instead of standing against a wall, have them stand 10 feet in front of the wall).

[teaking]

Wouldnt setting it to the lowest f stop in AV mode and then having the subject stand farer away from the camera and then zooming in and filling the frame on the subject narrow the depth of field? It says it has a 20x zoom so maybe the magnification would cause a narrower depth of field or at least give that effect.

[pbailey68]

I have a similar problem with my S5200. I've found that I get the best shallow DOF by using the largest aperture, zooming in as much as possible, and moving back from my subject. It also helps if the subject is a good distance from it's background.

Hope this helps.