how to shoot subject with blur background

[Romeo26222]

Hello
I am new here and i have a canon A580 camera
now i want to shoot a subject with a blur background like this photo for example..
http://www.wikihow.com/images/e/e8/Squirrel-small.jpg

thanks in advance

[watt100]

Hello
I am new here and i have a canon A580 camera
now i want to shoot a subject with a blur background like this photo for example..



just do what you did for that photo,

or do it the Photoshop way, such as -

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3043/2787446570_003e5f9361_m.jpg


for P&S type cameras it's not that easy, (zooming in at distance)

[Pete]

It's possible to do this with the camera, but you need to be careful with framing.

Put the camera into Macro mode and then zoom in as far as you can. This has the effect of decreasing the depth of field, giving you a blurred background.

Example (taken with G9 with no post processing to get the blur):-
http://www.the-aperture.com/EE/photos/normal/20080406_IMG_0161_Edit.jpg

The further back the background, the more blurred it will be. Also, go into Av mode (if possible) and choose the widest aperture you can (lowest f number).

Depth of field is tricky in P&S cameras (especialliy getting so close to swans!!), but it can yeild good results.

[Romeo26222]

choose the widest aperture

how can i do that in this camera
it doesn't have av mode!!!

[Big Hands]

how can i do that in this camera
it doesn't have av mode!!!

Even 'Camera M' (manual) mode on this camera will not let you control the aperture. :(

I would try portrait mode first and see if it tries to keep the aperture opened (review the camera's settings in playback mode). Try some of the other modes and see how they react.

Try to get as close to your subject as possible and have the background as far away as possible to give yourself the best chance at OOF backgrounds.

camera-------subject-------------------------------------------------------------background

[n1as]

The short answer is to get a DSLR and a fast (low f/ number) prime (non-zoom) lens. If you want blurry backgrounds with a P&S, shoot at your telephoto setting with the lens wide open (low f/ number). Then get into Photoshop, select the background and blur it.

The physics of the point & shoot cameras (small sensors, short focal length lenses) dictate that they all have very wide depth of field and tend to render both foreground and background in focus. To get shallow depth of field you need a larger sensor and a longer focal length lens.

[low orbit]

Gidday new person.

Most of this has been answered, but for the benefit of others you can also throw the background a little out of focus with the superzoom compacts (example s5IS) if you take them to maximum zoom and distance the subject from the background.

Sensor size is the biggy here - for example on my A75, f2.8 is roughly equivalent to f8 to f11 on a 1.6 crop camera (XXXD or XXD series DLSRs).

Short answer is to get a DSLR. A quick short lens (f1.8 50mm) to a quick zoom (f2.8 70 - 200) will achieve desireable background blur.

You *can* get the background out of focus with a p+s but it requires workarounds and you're very limited on where your subjects are in relation to the camera.

Cheers.