need some help pleaase

[thebeginning]

Allright, im a complete beginner, with a beginner's kit. I have a kodak dx 7630 (6.1 mp, 3x optical). There are some things that arent completely manual with this camera, like the depth of field. its always sorta small, like the middle of the screen, even though i tried different focus settings. I dont have enough money to go for a nice camera, or any other camera really. I'd just like some suggestions on if i should just press on with this or look at some add on lenses or what.

 

[Big Mike]

The DOF will look very shallow while focusing becuase the aperture is kept at fully open until you snap the shot. Take the shot and check to see what your actual DOF is. I don't know if your camera has a DOF preview button or not...probably not.

If you mean that your photos have a short DOF...use aperture priority mode and set a smaller aperture (bigger F number).

 

[walter23]

The DOF will look very shallow while focusing becuase the aperture is kept at fully open until you snap the shot. Take the shot and check to see what your actual DOF is. I don't know if your camera has a DOF preview button or not...probably not.

If you mean that your photos have a short DOF...use aperture priority mode and set a smaller aperture (bigger F number).

Actually it's pretty hard to get shallow DOF with a small digital point and shoot camera. Nothing like a film SLR, or a large format sensor digital SLR. The only way you can probably do it (ie, get a bit of background blurring) is to set the camera on macro or close-up mode (if it has one) and get really close to your subject. Of course this won't work with larger subjects.

Despite the limitations of your camera, you can probably learn a lot with it. Make sure you actually understand the basics of photography (exposure, aperture, shutter speed, depth of field, camera shake, motion freeze, lighting, composition, sensor noise & ISO, etc) by reading some tutorials or asking in this kind of forum... then go nuts, experiment. Even if you don't have a fancy (or even old fashioned manual focus) SLR with manual control and interchangable lenses you can still learn with what you have. Just understand its limitations.

 

[thebeginning]

most of my problem is too much blurring and just a center focus. so you say if i up the f-stop then it will deepen the DOF? Usually that just makes the aperture smaller and underexposed. I'll try it with settings shutter speed settings and see.

 

[thebeginning]

wow, this is old. i was searching through my old threads and stumbled on this. I literally almost just left a comment to myself to help 'me' out. funny funny.