Digital cameras 101

[timinator]

Hi, my Olympus Stylus 600 has a fixed aperture. I would still like to achieve some less depth-of-field shots. Is this possible?

Tim

[ShutterbugGail]

Hi timinator and welcome to the Q&A Board!

Yes, I think you can still get less depth of field but you should experiment a little.

When taking a photo have the lens fully zoomed to 3X. Place your subject fairly close to the camera and make sure there is some distance beteen the subject and the background.

You can also try your cameras Portait mode or Landscape + Portrait mode using the suggestions in the previous paragraph.

btw, your screen name makes me chuckle.  

Related reading:
Depth of field

http://www.digicamhelp.com/what-is-depth-of-field/index.htm

[Deb]

You're zippy Shutterbug. Your reply posted as I was typing.  

Hi there! Do you happen to know what aperture your camera is "fixed" at?

If your camera has an optical zoom feature (and your aperture isn't too tiny), you can get some depth-of-field variation by zooming in towards your subject.  

[Deb]

I took a peak at your camera's specs. It doesn't appear to have a "fixed" aperture. Rather, it does not have a shooting mode that permits manual selection of aperture or shutterspeed. So, as ShutterbugGail mentioned in her post, give some of your preset modes (Portrait, etc.) a whirl and see how these adjust depth-of-field. You should be able to get some nice results. Have fun!

[timinator]

Thanks guys (girls) for the quick response and advice. I'll give that stuff a try. Am I able to post pictures to this board?

Tim

[ShutterbugGail]

Am I able to post pictures to this board?

Tim

Yes, but we ask that you keep them fairly small sized. There are instructions here:

http://www.digicamhelp.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=errors;action=display;num=1089641725

Alternatively, if you have them posted online at a photo hosting service such as Flickr or Pbase, give us a link to each image  and we will take a look.

[timinator]

Test image

[ShutterbugGail]

Either email me an image or two and I will link it for you, or open a free account such as Flickr. www.flickr.com. This is an example of a linked image from flickr.

[timinator]

How is this?

[ShutterbugGail]

What a lovely photo. I really like the composition and interesting juxtaposition of lines! The lighting is great.

As to depth-of-field, it is deeper than you had hoped for? There is so blur to the background and I'm not sure you can expect much more. In my experience, it's difficult to get shallow depth of field in a photo with that type of subject matter.

[Deb]

If you focus on the decking nearest your position, you should see a shallower depth-of-field assuming you're using the "portrait" mode (or one similar that uses a wider aperture).  

[timinator]

Actually that's just a test picture to get the links working. I'll post some depth-of-field attempts next.

Thanks

[Deb]

We look forward to seeing your DOF tests.   Let us know what settings (modes) you use (EXIF data would be great) if you can.

[timinator]

Did some DOF tests at lunch today. Not so good.

First image: About 8 feet away - full zoom - Portrait Mode

Second image: About 2 feet away - no zoom - Portrait Mode - flash fired

Third image: Back to 8 feet - full zoom - Portrait/Landscape

Fourth image: 6 inches away - Macro mode










I got the EXIF info on the images through a program called ExifReader but there is a ton of info. Let me know what you might need.

Tim

[bdery]

Timinator,

I really like Turning leaf (is that the correct name of that wine?). You have just experimented the limits to DOF control with a pocket camera. Given the size of the sensor, the DOF will always be somewhat large. A thing you can do to increase it is to keep shooting atthe longest zoom, but get closer to your subject. Then you will begin to see differences, as you did with the macro shot.

[timinator]

Yes, it is Turning Leaf - Merlot. I'll try to compose a few more shots and see what I come up with.

Thanks
Tim