My new 500D

[maxpersg]

Hi CS!

I just got my canon EOS 500D Kit 1 3 days ago through the canon privilege purchase. Its certainly a good camera which take sharp and quality images.

Im new to DSLR photography btw and do guide me along!

Recently i was taking picture in birthday parties with the kit lens. The shooting condition is as below, aperture is set to the widest available in the zoom range and the auto focus was manually selected to focus a spot. However i couldn't get much of a background blur effect. BTW the shoot is night and indoor.

So i was wondering if the problem lies with my techniques or the limitations of the kit 1 lens?

 

[coolin]

to get the most background blur , shoot at the widest aperture , zoom in to the max and have your subject as close to your camera as possible. some blur is possible with your kit lens but it would obviously be much better with a f2.8 zoom lens or a prime. the 50mm f1.8 will do great especially for parties at night where lighting isn't good. the blur from it shooting at f1.8 is great , and its cheap too! about $110 second hand if im not wrong. hope that helped maxpersg!

 

[luntut]

with kit lens,background blur is possible, but harder.

if your distance to the subject is smaller then the distance of the subject from the background, then background blur is possible.

if your distance to the subject is greater then the distance of the subject to the background, then background blur is very hard to do so.

if you are gonna be standing 3m away from the person you are shooting, and the person is juz 1m away from the background, then dun be expecting fantastic bokeh..

 

[maxpersg]

Thanks Coolin!

May i ask how about the shutter speed, is a high shutter speed with a higher ISO setting better or vice versa?

The 50mm lens was one of the next lens im getting. Is there a lens review on it?

 

[ZerocoolAstra]

Take note your 50mm lens on a cropped body (1.6x) means that it's like using an 80mm lens on a full-frame or film SLR.
Use that at a birthday party and you might only be able to fit in the birthday celebrant and the cake, unless maybe you stand at the far end of the room.
Cheap.... it may be,
Of little value to you, it may as well.