Producing quality portraits with a P&s?

[lmnop]

Hello all! I found this forum through google. A lifelong friend of mine has asked me to do his engagement pics tomorrow. Due to budgetary restraints I do not own a DSLR yet. I have a Canon G9.Do you have any advice for producing nice portraits? I'm mainly concerned about producing a nice depth of field and separating subject from background which I have found difficult to do, probably due to the small sensor size. I've also heard its good practice to zoom in a bit so there is no distortion on the face for portraiture. I don't want to let my friend down, any advice is greatly appreciated. (I'll have a tripod available)

 

[Vtec44]

Tomorrow?? Yikes! You can try to rent a DSLR or just explain to your friend not to expect a lot from the pictures. DOF can be done with a P&S, just need to have the background really far far away from your subject. It won't be as shallow but it can be done if you set up the shoot right.

Good luck.

 

[Judobreaker]

You'll have to think a bit about your set up.
You can achieve some of the nicest results by using a lot of zoom/macro.
If you use your longest zoom and then focus as close as you can (these cameras usually have some sort of zoom macro setting) you will create the smallest DOF which will give you the blurry background you want.
Like Vtec said, make sure your subject is far away from the actual background to make sure it is well out of focus.

Basically you should find a good open spot with lots of room to make sure you can create distance between subject/background and camera/subject.

Good luck!


Ps. If you have a tripod, use it! If not, put your camera on top of something. You'll be using zoom so it's really easy to get a motion blur.

 

[KmH]

It's all about the light, and having the light come from somewhere off the camera produces the highest quality portraits.

Tomorrow! Do the best you can, but you're not going to see a significant difference in what you shoot tomorrow over what you had been doing previously.