Disappointed, need guidance!

white · Jan 12, 2011

You can achieve narrow depth of field at f/8 if you wanted to. The problem with the image you posted is that the stand is close to the wall, and so they occupy nearly the same plane of focus. Think of a plane of focus as a sheet of glass. Things in front of and behind that plane of focus will have varying degrees of sharpness.

Your camera has a minimum focus number. Probably a couple feet. Try putting an object close to the camera, and put the focus as close as possible -- like 3 ft. Even at f/8 you will see depth of field.

I shot this around f/2 with a 40mm lens. Smaller focal lengths (40-35-28mm, etc) tend to produce images with sharpness throughout the frame. The blurred face in the foreground was closer than my camera could focus.

OrionsByte · Jan 12, 2011

To add to what others are saying and perhaps clarify something for you - if you threw away your camera and bought something else, even if it was much more expensive, and used the exact same settings you would get a similar result.

The subject you're using for this experiment is not ideal. When people here say that all the bottles are on the same "focal plane" what that means is that they're all relatively the same distance away from the camera. If you insist on making this the subject of your tests, then at least position yourself to the left of the shelves and shoot down the length of it towards the right side of the shelves (so that some bottles are very close to the lens and some are farther). That would get the bottle you're focusing on out of the same focal plane with everything else.

If you want to really see what your camera can do though, take one of those bottles outside and set it on a table or a car, and choose an angle where the background is pretty far away - say, across the street. Now zoom your lens out as far as it will go. At that focal length your camera will have trouble focusing, so you'll have to back up until you can focus. Set your mode dial to Av, open up the aperture as much as possible (smallest f-number), and shoot. Voila, DOF.

After that, experiment more. What happens when you zoom out, but get closer? What happens when you stand in the same place with the same zoom setting, but you decrease the aperture? Learn by doing.

Anisha Kaul · Jan 13, 2011

I am thankful to everyone for posting useful advices, I have also read the last 3 replies and will follow them in the next shoot!

But currently I have canceled my plan of throwing away the camera

I took the camera to my office and my team leader showed off his skills on my camera.
I didn't know my camera was capable of the following photos! Thanks to him.

I'll not be able to put any technical info about these photos since I don't have a decent photo viewer showing exif info.

misstwinklytoes · Jan 13, 2011

Congrats on your learning!

EXIF Data Viewer can give you the info.

BuS_RiDeR · Jan 13, 2011

Green grass and flowere! Grrrrr.... I hate winter!

Anisha Kaul · Jan 14, 2011

Well, both of you didn't comment on the photograph's quality?? What's lacking in them?

enzodm · Jan 14, 2011

Anisha Kaul said:
Well, both of you didn't comment on the photograph's quality?? What's lacking in them?

mmm... composition. All mostly centered except the last, where a perfect centering would have given some good symmetry. Take a look here: 10 Top Photography Composition Rules | PhotographyMad.com .
However, now you know how to achieve blurred backgrounds (and please consider the difference between these pictures and your initial attempts).

Here you have apertures from f/5 to f/5.9 but with focal lengths on the long side (considering you are using a P&S), and subject very far from background (and close to you).

3bayjunkie · Jan 14, 2011

OK I would say set your camera on something stable and use the timer method. keep it on AV mode and set the f stop as low as it will go to get the most depth of field.

Unfortunately for point and shoot cameras like the Powershot, you are not going to get a real noticeable depth of field unless you have it on macro mode. This is because your lens is so small. however you can get the depth of field effect in macro mode. try hitting the button with the flower on it. =)