Rookie needs some help

[neubin1]

Hi Guys, im new to the fourm and I have been having lots of fun looking through all the great pictures everyone takes on here.

I have a Canon S40 I have had it for two years and I like the results I get from it. I would like to learn more about photography though and am hoping you knowledgble folks can give me some good websites where a "rookie" can learn all the different tricks to taking great pictures.

I really like the shots where the foreground is very crisp but the background is blurry. How would I do that with my camera?

Anyway, im glad their is such a cool fourm.

Cheers,

Rick

[PacAce]

Welcome to the forum. If it's learning and information you're looking for, then you've come to the right place. For starters, you might want to hit the "Small Compact Digitals By Canon" forum at the top of the index page if you haven't been there yet. I'm sure there are many there who can answer particular questions about your camera.

As for the "blurred background with sharp foreground" effect, that is achieved through the use of DOF (depth of field). Unfortunately, small compact cameras such as yours inherently have deep DOF and makes images with blurred backgrounds and sharp foreground difficult to get. But I'm sure it can be done but I personally can't tell you how. But I'm sure you'll find the answer in the "Samll Compact Digitals" forum.

[Scottes]

Sorry I don't know of any sites, but I'm sure that people here will pitch in.

But to answer your question about blurry backgrounds you want to be set to Aperture Priority mode and then set the aperture to it's largest setting. The largest aperture is actually it's smallest number since aperture is actually a ratio. So when you set it to "2.8" you're actually setting it to "f/2.8." This will give you smallest possible Depth of Field so that less of your image is in focus and sharp, thus more of the image is blurry.

This will also work better when set to wide-angle, so zoom out.

Next place your subject some distance from a background, because this camera will still have a fairly large Depth of Field even at it's largest aperture. So this might not work indoors because the wall may still be in focus. Focus on the subject and click.

If you find that the background still isn't blurry enough then focus on something halfway between you and your subject, re-compose without re-focusing, and try again. It take take a few tries to get it right, and it will take a lot of practice to get it right every time, so don't give up!

Good luck!

[RichardtheSane]

It also helps to use maximum optical zoom

[Goofup]

I don't think you can manually select a wide aperture on your camera, but you can force it to use one by using either the Portrait or Fast Shutter mode. A combo of that, and the above mentioned tricks, should get you a much fuzzyier background.

[neubin1]

Hey guys thanks for the help...After some playing this is what I came up with..not perfect..but looks not too bad for my first try....i dont quite understand the concepts yet but I would like to keep learning.

[Scottes]

Looks pretty good to me! Even though it's not as blurred as you might wish it still helps lift the bird from the background.

[toddb]

...and if you have the time, you could always Photoshop it and blur the background like that. I've had to do that a few times. It's tough on most images and I don't recomend it but just thought I'd throw that out there.