HI... Newbie here!!

[thinkinchair]

Hello everyone! My name is Amanda and I just got a new camera. It is a Canon Powershot SX10 IS w/ 20x's Zoom. I am a real newbie when it comes to these types of cameras. Loving the camera but need some tips and tricks to take great photo's!

I'd love to learn how to get it to focus on your subject while making the background blurred out??.... and other great tips! I know it's probably the oldest one on the book but like I said... I'm a real newbie.... LOL

I love to take pictures of my two kids and since Christmas is coming very shortly I'd love to take some great pictures for the season. Can anyone spare some tips and tricks for me??

Thanks so much!

 

[Big Mike]

Welcome to the forum Amanda.

To blur out the background, you will want to achieve a 'shallow Depth of Field' (DOF). The DOF is mainly controlled by the aperture of the lens but is also affected by the focal length of the lens the distance to the subject (and background) and the size of the sensor.

Unfortunately, your camera (just like most digital cameras) has a very small sensor, which makes it harder to get a shallow DOF. However, there ways you can make it as small as possible.

The first is to use a larger aperture (small F number). I'm not sure what modes you camera has, but if it has 'Aperture Priority', that would be the one to use. Dial in the lowest F number that you can (it will probably vary with the zoom position of the lens).
Then you will want to zoom the lens out as much as you can, while still being as close to your subject as you can. Lastly, you will want the background to be as far behind the subject as possible.

 

[inTempus]

Hello Amanda, I'm a fellow newbie. I just got into the hobby myself because of my 3 month old son. Funny how kids will do that to ya!

Big Mike, thanks for the tip! Now I just need to study the manual for my 40D and figure out how to adjust the aperture priority. I do recall glancing over that in the manual last night (I bought my camera yesterday).

I really like photo's such as the one Amanda is trying to take.