Canon A85 question

[danieltr]

Hi, I have a Canon Powershot A85 and looking to take shots with blurred background, I did try portrait mode and not so good, Is it possible with that camera? or if I have to go with a digital SLR.

Thank you
Daniel tremblay

[Jon]

Depth of Field on the lenses in most of the PowerShot cameras (and most other P&S models as well) is fairly deep. Shallowest DoF is associated with large apertures and with long lenses. So you'll need to see what you can do in Av mode (set to the widest possible aperture) with the lens at maximum telephoto (extension). This is the combination that will give you the greatest DoF. It will also help if you have a clear separation between your subject and the background. If that's not enough, you might be able to fake it out by focussing (manual focus or autofocus; manual will be easier to control) a little bit closer in to the camera than your subject is. Carefully done, the DoF will encompass your subject, but will have a better chance of throwing the background out of focus.

If this won't consistently give you what you want, you'll need to move to a DSLR (the actual focal lengths are longer; your A85's lens is really a 5.4-16.2 mm lens, which covers the same field of view as a 35-105 mm lens in 35 mm, or 22-66 on a Digital Rebel. But you'll still want to use as wide an aperture and as long a lens as you can.

[danieltr]

Thank you, I give it a try

Daniel Tremblay

[Jorgo]

"This is the combination that will give you the greatest DoF."

I hate to be picky, but did you mean it will give you the 'Smallest depth of field'?

Please correct me if I'm wrong, by all means.

[litra2]

to danieltr,
did you figure it out(A85, DOF- blurry background)? i want that effect too! (dof). any advice? thanks....

[Don Schaeffer]

These digital cameras have very wide depth of field becuase they use short focal length lenses (even for normal views). Most of the time people used to 35 mm cameras are not happy with the results. Of course the telephoto depth of field is narrower but usually still not narrow enough for those used to film. The best approach is to use software techniques to blur backgrounds. There are many such techniques.

[Moppie]

Iv had some success with getting a shallow DOF in portraint shots, but they have to be very tight portraits, and you run right on the limits of the cameras focus ablities.

These little camera produce a suitably shallow DOF and some very nice (at least I think so) bokeh when used in Macro mode.
The downside is maximum focus ranges becomes very soft, depending your zoom level anywhere from a few centimeters to a meter (about 3 feet).

Try putting the camera in Macro mode and use wide (no zoom). Get as close as you can to your subject while still being able to frame thier face, you should just be able to focus on thier eyes useing the centre point focus.

[Moppie]

Heres an example:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v31/Moppie/dad.jpg

The level of blur in the background is not as good as what you might get from a nice 85mm portrait lens on a DSLR, but the DOF is shallow enough to provide nice subject seperation.

[Pixel9ine]

I've had good results taking protraits with my A95 at full telephoto with the TC-DC52 (274mm focal length/ 7.2x total zoom).. not a whole lot of bokeh, but see for yourself..
(the lighting is off in these pictures, but they show the DoF capabilities pretty well)
Since (I believe) the A80/85/95 share the same lens, you should have at least similar results. Shoot with your aperture wide open).

[litra2]

hello... WCDC52, is it a lens converter? the one that you attached to the camera? nice shots! so if i buy and attach one to my cam, it will affect the aperture? i know nothing about cams... im still in the beginning of exploring digicams.....

[Pixel9ine]

hello... WCDC52, is it a lens converter? the one that you attached to the camera? nice shots! so if i buy and attach one to my cam, it will affect the aperture? i know nothing about cams... im still in the beginning of exploring digicams.....Yes, it's a teleconverter for the A70/75/85 line of cameras. I made a mistake, it's not the WC-DC52, but the TC-DC52.. I've also edited my original post to correct this.
Generally as the focal length of a lens increases, depth-of-field is reduced. That's what throws the background out-of-focus and makes for nice 'bokeh.' By placing this converter in front of the built-in lens, you are effectively multiplying its focal length by 2.4x. As you step fruther away from your subject, you can create a half-decent portait effect.

But keep in mind, P&S cameras are very limited when it comes to fancy stuff like this.. (plus they look kinda funny with such a 'large' lens attached :)) the examples above are, imho, about as good as it can get.