A710is - Help with Aperture

I’m trying to learn the fundamentals of digital photography before I buy a DSLR, so I’m starting with the A710is. I’ve done a fair bit of reading on aperture and shutter speed and thought I was ready for some experimentation. Remember I’m a newbie (former point & shoot only).

My goal was to create some portrait shots with blurred backgrounds. I set the camera in Av (and then later in manual), and started playing with the aperture. I had my subject ~8’ from the backdrop and I was about ~8’ from the subject. The room had ambient lighting and the flash was firing. The AF was set to center, and I was using no zoom.


Apart from slightly different exposures, I could not get the background to blur whatsoever. Am I doing something wrong? Any pointers?

Nothing aside from hoping for the unobtainable (at least with what you've got). Depth of filed is dependent on three things; the distance to the focus point, the aperture and the focal length of the lens. Short focal length lenses have very large DoF even at wide apertures, so you're limited in what you can expect because of your A710's 5.8-34.8 mm lens. For best results in getting a shallow DoF, use you absolute widest aperture and zoom the lens to maximum telephoto. Then get as much distance as you can between your subject and the background - outdoors is good. But indoors, you'l be luchky if you can see this except in the very close-up range (subject about a foot or less away).

Thanks Jon. I'm a little disappointed that it can't be done easier on the point and shoot, but guess that's what makes the dslr worth its money. Photoshop to the rescue!

Your info does help me to understand the concept a little better though. I didn't think the concepts would be as difficult to grasp as they are, but I'll keep reading and trying things out.

Thanks!

TheSkySpy wrote in post #2551082
I'm a little disappointed that it can't be done easier on the point and shoot.

Though I compensate one way or another, not being to obtain a shallow depth of field, even with a wide apeture was also one of my biggest disappointments with my S2.

JustShootin wrote in post #2551580
=JustShootin';2551580]​Though I compensate one way or another, not being to obtain a shallow depth of field, even with a wide apeture was also one of my biggest disappointments with my S2.

I've had good luck with my S2 with the TC-DC58B on, getting a blurred background shooting with the same techniques Jon just described. Here is a shot from a few minutes ago out my backyard in the snow...

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As pretty much alreday covered, shallow DoF (Depth of Field) with a P&S/Compact is hard... but not impossible.

With my camera, at f/3.2 and the shortest focal lengh the DoF is as wide as at f/8 when the subject is <10m away. >10m away then I do get a difference, especially with Macro (>2m away) though.

But, at the longest focal lengh and at any aperture value the DoF is very shallow when the subject is >20m away. Less so the further the subject from me.

Try this:

Use Aperture Priority Mode, and select the smallest value (widest aperture)

And set-up as shown below... if you follow?

You ---------[Short distance]---------------> subject ---------------[long distance]--------------- Background

You'll see the results.

Well I tried it and it works - at least it's showing signs of working! I can't put enough distance between my subject and the backdrop in my house (and it's too dark and cold outside now), but I can see that the background is starting to blur.

More trial and error (playing) will help. I still need to get a better understanding of the physics behind what's happening and how the three factors affect on another, but it's coming slowly.

Thanks to everyone for the input. It helps.

Take a look at the Online Depth of Field Calculator. It even has the A710 as one of the camera models listed, so no messy calculating the size of the "circle of confusion".