Shooting in short focus with S3 IS?

[burnthisnow]

Hi all, I'm trying to figure out how to take portraits and other shots where the subject is sharp focus but the background is blurred and out of focus. Not rocket science, but I can't figure out how to do it on my S3 IS. I'm pretty sure I ought to be able to achieve it in Av mode by setting the aperture as wide as possible, at F2.8. But that does nothing. The entire area, foregrouond and background, in the viewfinder is perfectly in focus, as are the resulting photos. I've tried this with a hundred different photos in a hundred different locations, but still no joy. What am I doing wrong? Many thanks.

[gofer]

Not so easy to get a good bokeh (blurred background) on an S3 due to the size of the sensor (or any other point & shoot for that matter). Other than shoot with the lens wide open, about the only other thing you can do (other than buy an dSLR of course) is to separate the subject from the background and get in closer to your subject.

..........and welcome to POTN

[JeffreyG]

What you are looking for is a shallow depth of field (DOF). Unfortunately, this is very hard to achieve with any digital P&S camera.

DOF gets shallower with a closer subject, faster aperture and longer focal length. It is this last one that is your problem. Your lens has really short focal length range because the sensor is tiny. It is probably something like 6mm to 72mm or so.

The best you can do:
Take a head and shoulders portrait with very tight framing
Wide open aperture
Long end of the zoom range
Background as far back as possible

[burnthisnow]

Aha, I rather suspected it might be something like that. It's too bad, too, because otherwise it's a great camera. In any event, thanks all.

[symes]

Hi all, I'm trying to figure out how to take portraits and other shots where the subject is sharp focus but the background is blurred and out of focus. Not rocket science, but I can't figure out how to do it on my S3 IS. I'm pretty sure I ought to be able to achieve it in Av mode by setting the aperture as wide as possible, at F2.8. But that does nothing. The entire area, foregrouond and background, in the viewfinder is perfectly in focus, as are the resulting photos. I've tried this with a hundred different photos in a hundred different locations, but still no joy. What am I doing wrong? Many thanks.

you need that Aperature Value and a longer focal length...something that is very difficult with the S3

Cheers,