Beginning Photographer

[inkista]

Out of focus blur is governed by a bunch of factors, of which aperture is only one. But here are the things you can do to increase the background blur:

1) Zoom all the way in. The longer your focal length is, the thinner the DoF will seem to be. Unfortunately, with most P&S cameras, you don't have that much focal length to play with. While they'll tell you you have some incredible 400mm-equivalent zoom, realize that with the 6x crop factor, you're realistically only looking at about 100mm of actual focal length.

2) Use the widest aperture setting (lowest f-number) you can. The wider your aperture is, the thinner the DoF will be. Note that this may be mutually exclusive with 1). Sadly, with a P&S, you're likely to be limited to f/2.8 at the wide end of the zoom. Zoomed all the way in, you may be squeezed down to f/5.6.

3) Get the camera as close to your subject as you can (note this may also be mutually exclusive with 1). You may need to trade off subject distance for focal length--i.e., you'll be able to get the camera its closest to the subject if you are zoomed all the way out). The closer you are to the subject, the thinner your DoF will be--this is why macro shots almost always have blurred backgrounds and thin DoF.

4) Get your subject as far away from the background as possible. It's damn near impossible to blur out a background that's adjacent to the subject. If someone's leaning against a wall, the wall's probably going to be in focus. If they're 10' in front of the wall, you'll have a much easier time trying to blur it out.

I would also like to show that using a small aperture on a P&S can still get you some background blur if you're focusing at macro distances.


Canon S90. @22.5mm (i.e., zoomed all the way in). iso 320, f/8, 1/250s.