A80 DOF questions

[wainism]

hi guys,
i am using an A80.
question is how do i achieve pictures with DOF?

i know its abt the aperture setting
what does greater DOF mean? the more blur the back grd is it?

F2.8 has greater DOF or F8.0?

i did some test shots, seems that the foreground is blurred, background quite sharp.

how do i achieve the foreground(subject) being in focus and the back ground blurred(like those macro shots)
and
how do i achieve the other way round, blurred foreground, sharp back ground(like shooting thru a crowd)

also how far does my camera need to be if i m taking close ups?(maybe A80 users can help)

any tips? :dunno:
thanks!!!

 

[wainism]

any one????

 

[tunster]

trust me or not.....better to forget about getting shallow DOF effect from A80. It can only gives you a very very minimum shallow DOF for normal shots. You can only achieve a decent one with Macro mode. To achieve a very shallow DOF, zoom in (tele end) all the way + wider aperture (lower F stop...for A80, lowest is 2.8....but it will go up to 4.9 at the tele end). In the end, it can't really achieve what you want. For myself, I've given up the idea and concentrate on composition with deeper DOF....

 

[wainism]

anyone can further explain how to get those blurred backgrounds or foregrounds?
or explain the concept of DOF?

 

[The_Cheat]

Here is a simple read from www.photozone.de

Anyway, you can literally forget about playing with DOF on you A80. Compact digicam are known to have large DOF, even at wide-open aperture!

 

[nightwolf75]

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/bokeh.shtml
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/dof.shtml

try reading these 2 articles on bokeh and DOF.

 

[megaweb]

try to do a search, there are many discussion over this similar topic

or try these links
http://forums.clubsnap.org/showthread.php?t=94406
http://forums.clubsnap.org/showthread.php?t=88099
http://forums.clubsnap.org/showthread.php?t=3571
http://forums.clubsnap.org/showthread.php?t=65101
http://forums.clubsnap.org/showthread.php?t=61248
http://forums.clubsnap.org/showthread.php?t=51608

 

[yanyewkay]

It is possible to get a little (only a little) of background blur with the A80 but not much.

The DOF on these compacts are almost infinite.

First, as mentioned earlier, use a long lens (meaning full telephoto) and stand further away.
Seperate background from subject as far as possible.
Use smallest available aperture (4.9)
Use manual focus and focus at a distance nearer than the subject.
I will experiment with the focus distance until i get the subject reasonably sharp with the background only a bit blur (dun expect too much)

Lastly, there's always the PS to blur the bg even more.

 

[uris1982]

Actually I personally own a A80 and using the Aperture to attain shallow DOF is almost impossible. However, if your subject is near enough (macro mode), you can use the Manual Focus function (its on the right of the a80 screen) available on the camera to set the focusing distance of the subject you wish to take. The background will then be blurred while getting a sharp subject.

This is probably the best manner in which I have managed to get that kind of shallow DOF effect in my pictures. Hope this helps.

 

[wainism]

thanks guys!!
will go try out once i m done with my exams...

looking for Latmo to advise, seen some of his Macro shots... pretty good!

 

[alechim]

if ya seriously wanna see some results from a A80, personally I choose an object - say flower with leaves or greeneries as background, the background's colours has to be uniform and not distracting (multiple contrasting colour). Have a macro lens fix on, switch to macro mode and Tele to full 3X, then manually move the A80 towards and away from the flower till ya get a sharp image on the LCD....snap!...

Its tough to achieve DOF with A80 but not impossible, just not enough DOF thats all... :cry:

Happy playing with your A80....

 

[megaweb]

say flower with leaves or greeneries as background, the background's colours has to be uniform and not distracting (multiple contrasting colour).

possible ... but very difficult to achieve it if you are using wide angle (no zoom) macro. You need a very plain background with green trees and plants.

other way is to zoom in as long as possble and use a closeup filter .. your coverage angle of shot will be narrower , thus eliminate distacting in the background

 

[ykgen]

i used A80, in order to achieve the effect u wanted, use the lowest aperture f4.9 at tele (Aperture Priority mode, dun use portrait mode!) look for a good distance between your subject n the background. focus very accurately on the subject (use single focus point)... try n c... hope u'll get what u want

 

[wainism]

erm, so for those shots that ppl take of spoons or objects on a table are not possible with the A80?

cos if i m taking a picture of an object on the table, the table(background) is very near the object?

is that correct?

 

[stingraytan]

:cry:

i have the same problem with my A80..

tried using the manual focus, but maybe i "pa jiao", dont really know how to focus using the little square box that appear on the LCD.

 

[latmo]

to have shallow DOF you will need long focus length and big aperture
so why the A80 cant do this ....
because 1st. the A80 focus length is only 7.8-23.4mm in 35mm format which is very short
2nd. the A80 aperture is also very small ... yes its has F2.8 ... but it is not a real F2.8 in 35mm format (hm dun really know how to explain this but in simple and as what i understand the F2.8 in A80 is around F14 in 35mm format, but you can get F2.8 of light but not the shallow DOF effect hope you get what i mean)
so to have shallow DOF you can only .... use marco mode and take close object like what ppl said or ... get a DSLR ...

 

[wainism]

thanks Latmo...