DOF - How do I achieve?

[StephensGirl3]

Hello everyone. I am a brand-spankin' new member! I have a question for those of you who are much better at photography than I....

How do I achieve DOF with my camera? I shoot with a Canon Powershot SX10IS. THose it is only a bridge camera, it does have all the manual options I could ever want, or ever use. Is it possible for me to achieve DOF with this camera in Manual mode?

Any suggestions you could give will be much appreciated!!!

[dcclark]

First, welcome to DPS!

Second, you're using DOF in a slightly funny way. Depth of Field is a quality that an image has: you can have lots, or little. It can be deep or narrow. So to "achieve DOF" doesn't necessarily make sense. But in general, here's how you change your DOF in certain ways:

The main control you have to change your DOF is the aperture. Set your camera to Aperture Priority mode (if you have it, or else full manual mode). If you set the aperture to a smaller number (such as f/2.8, f/3.5, etc.), then you will have a smaller depth of field. This will result in the backgrounds of your images being relatively blurred, which is often considered pleasant for portraits, macros, etc.

If you set your aperture to a large number (such as f/10, f/11, etc.), then you will have a deep (large) depth of field. This is useful for landscape photos. Another useful thing to understand about large depth of fields is the idea of Hyperfocal Distance, which is the distance at which you should focus to make the best use of your depth of field. Search around here for an article about this.

I highly recommend taking the same photo several times, changing the aperture each time. Review your photos and see how the blurred background changes between them. This will help make these things much clearer!

Good luck!

[inkista]

Originally Posted by dcclark

The main control you have to change your DOF is the aperture. ...

Actually, I think that with a P&S camera like the SX10IS, aperture is kinda meaningless when it comes to DoF. Most P&S cameras have 5x or 6x crop sensor, which means at the same aperture, you'll get 5x or 6x the DoF you would with a full-frame. So, think two-three stops down the scale. f/2.8 on an SX10IS is going to give roughly the same depth of field that f/5.6 would on a crop body dSLR, and f/8 on a ful-frame dSLR.

The small sensor and tiny (actual) focal lengths makes it very difficult to get a narrow depth of field simply by opening up the aperture. You will almost always have a deep DoF, no matter what you do--this is actually a feature, not a bug, because it means you'll rarely have anything out of focus. Only a few things can eke out some background blur on a 1/2.5" sensor camera:

1). Shooting in macro mode. The closer your subject is to the camera, the more background blur you'll have.

2). Using that superzoom lens. The longer your focal length, the more background blur you'll have.

3). Moving your subject as far away from the background as you can. The more separation there is between the subject and the background, the more background blur you'll have.

[StephensGirl3]

THank you for your tips. I'll try them tonight.

What I meant by "achieving" DOF was... on my BF's camera ( he has a DSLR ) he has an actually DOF setting.. here is a pic he took using that setting...this is what I want to be able to do with my camera, which DOESN:T have that setting.

I am very new to Photography... I have always had an interest and an eye for composition, but never had a really nice camera to learn on. Bought this Canon for myself last Christmas in hopes that I can get the basics down on this Before moving into a DSLR.

[StephensGirl3]

Did I get it??!!?

[dcclark]

Yes, that photo makes use of depth of field. But again, there's not an individual thing to "get" -- DOF is just a quality, something you can manipulate to create an effect. Here, you have a fairly narrow depth of field, in which part of the rope (and pole) are in focus, while the rest is not.

Typically, DOF is used to emphasize something. If most things are blurred, but one thing is in focus, then that thing is emphasized and brought to our attention. Now you need to think about what you want to use depth of field for.