Question about aparture and lenses

Lizocain · Sep 20, 2010

Hello there!
Atm im using an Olympus Sp560uz Olympus SP-560 UZ: Digital Photography Review which has an aperture of F2.8 - F8.0. When i shoot,even on the biggest aperture F 2.8 i still cant get an isolation exposure.There is almost no blur around ,everything is very clear.I have read on Bryan Peterson's book that fixed lens cameras dont really allow you to create a singular theme?! I dont have experience on lenses but i know that u can set the aperture on the lens and on the body as well?So what lens i should look for which will allow me good isolation theme?

Any clarifications are welcome cause im really confused :lol:

Gaerek · Sep 20, 2010

First off, I'm having trouble fully understanding what it is you want. I'm going to guess that it's a language barrier problem seeing as though it says you're from Greece.

So, my understanding is you want to use your camera to take a shot where only the subject is in focus, and the rest is out of focus?

If that's the case, the problem is your camera. Point and Shoot camera's (like the one you have) have small sensors. I won't get into the technical details of this, but because of the sensor size, it's very difficult to get that narrow depth of field that you're looking at trying to get, even shooting wide open (at f/2.8, as you were). Unfortuantely, there's not much you can do about this. You can try standing far away from your subject, zooming in, and this might give you close to the effect you want, but again, it's very difficult to get this kind of affect with point and shoot cameras.

If that's something that you want to do, my suggestion would be to purchase a DSLR. Even the cropped sensor camera's have sensors that are a lot larger than the sensor you're using. It's very easy to get that narrow depth of field you're looking for with one.

Sorry if I couldn't be much more help. Unfortuantely, it's an equipment problem, not a technique problem, and the only real fix is to upgrade equipment.

ann · Sep 20, 2010

this is a bridge camera and you can't change the lens to something else to allow you to isolate something as it seems your describing.

As Garek has mentioned this is an equipment issues.

hartz · Sep 20, 2010

Something I just learned recently is that the smaller the sensor, the larger the Depth of Field. In fact it has got a much more sever effect than I imagined.

The sensor size on that camera is 6.16 x 4.62 mm, which will give it a large DoF.

Lizocain · Sep 20, 2010

My english is pretty fine considering i do have a proficiency degree by Cambridge university..:blushing: However,what i forogt to mention is that im buying a new camera,i think im gonna go for the new Nikon D7000 as I've heard only good words so far but Ill keep an eye on it till its released.So a lense of 18-105mm for example can give a good isolation?

Gaerek · Sep 20, 2010

You should easily be able to get what you're looking for with that. Might I also recommend a 50mm f/1.8 or f/1.4 as well? With that, you can get some very narrow depth of field. You should be able to find the 1.8 for around $100 US, and the 1.4 for around $350 US.

KmH · Sep 20, 2010

Four factors control depth-of-field (DOF), which is what you are wanting to do:

lens focal length
lens aperture
subject to image sensor distance
subject to background distance.

The size of the image sensor in your camera has a large bearing on the DOF your camera/lens can produce with smaller image sensors, like yours, being the least capable of producing a blurred background.

Additionally, your Olympus camera uses a 4/3 image sensor (see study materials below) and has a 2x crop factor. That means your lens is actually 27 mm - 486 mm, 35 mm equivilent, and focal length is one of the 4 factors effecting DOF.

Compounding the problem is the lens on your camera has a variable aperture. As you zoom out the maximum aperture gets smaller (f/2.8-4.5) relative to the focal length.

You can explore how different settings on your camera affect the actual DOF you will get with as subject to camera and subject to background distance vary by using this online DOF calculator: Online Depth of Field Calculator

I'm not sure I understand your questions because your post is so poorly written; being a mishmash of texting abbreviations, mis-spelled words, lack of proper spaces, capitalization, syntax, punctuation, etc. If your approach to photography is the same, forget about it.