New camera pics

[kate08]

Just started getting into photography and got my first digital slr for Christmas - Canon XS. I'm playing around with the aperture settings, trying to get the shallow depth of focus. I love that in portrait shots but I can't seem to get the effect I want yet. They've either been coming out blurry or the background and foreground are all in focus (I just have the lens that came with the camera). Here are some attempts I made with random objects around the house. Any advice or feedback for the newbie? Thanks!

[Walczak Photo]

Just started getting into photography and got my first digital slr for Christmas - Canon XS. I'm playing around with the aperture settings, trying to get the shallow depth of focus. I love that in portrait shots but I can't seem to get the effect I want yet. They've either been coming out blurry or the background and foreground are all in focus (I just have the lens that came with the camera). Here are some attempts I made with random objects around the house. Any advice or feedback for the newbie? Thanks!


A great many newbies, once they discover this thing called "Depth Of Field" (or DOF) fall under the impression that the Aperture is the only thing that effects it. In addition to aperture, there are other things that also effect your DOF...distance to the subject (the closer you are to a subject, the less DOF you're going to have and the further away, the more DOF) and even the lens you are using will play a role. My suggestion to you would be to look up Depth Of Field on Google as there's A LOT of useful information out there...it's really just not as simple as just changing the lens aperture.

That said, I would like to add that for a newbie, I think you did a good with the color and exposure on both of these shots. I would read up a little on stuff like DOF as well as composition and then get out there and start shooting with the new camera!

Just my $.02 worth,
Jim

[joedlh]

Both shots have very narrow depth of field, as you intended, with the background out of focus. I read Walczak's comment quickly, so don't recall if he mentioned that distance of the subject from the background, in addition to overall distance, are factors affecting how clear the background will be. The wine cap looks fine, although I think you should have turned it so that the print was not upside down. In the second one, you no doubt realize that when you have a narrow depth of field, the subject should be in the plane perpendicular to the camera. If not, some parts will be out of focus.

[MattMoore]

Read this : http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=414088

And try again.

[kate08]

Thanks, that's a great article. I think it's making better sense to me now. Appreciate everyone's feedback and info.