Troubles with depth of field:::

[enigma82]

I have been trying to achieve the effect of having an object in focus with the background blurred. From what I've read, a large part of this depends on using a shallow depth of field, by using a large aperture. I set my camera to f2.8. I haven't been able to achieve this blurred background - perhaps my background isn't far enough from the subject that i'm trying to have in focus.

But the question is (just to make sure I'm not attempting the impossible), can I achieve this at all with a point and shoot camera? That is what I'm using - a Fuji Finepix S1500. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, as I'd really like to achieve this effect. Thanks.

[arthurking83]

It's much harder to separate background from foreground as the sensor size gets smaller and smaller.
This is due to the smaller focal length required to counter the small size of the sensor, whilst maintaining a reasonable field of view as well(usually for wide angled people shots or landscapes, and so forth).

The only thing you can really do is to get closer to your subject.
I think from memory and just using rough figures, to get a similar field of view and DOF as for example a full frame 35mm camera(using your figure of f/2.8), you need an equivalent lens speed of about f/1.4 or f/1.0.... or so... it's about 2 - 3 stops of aperture.

while compacts have their strengths against DSLR's thin DOF is definitely not one of them, in fact deeper DOF(for a given field of view) is one of the main advantages over a DSLR!

with your compact, you need to try to get as close as you can while maintaining your framing. Then your only real option is to add some processed gaussian blur into the mix.

Gaussian blur is pseudo background separation, and if done well.. can look OK

[enigma82]

Thanks for the help Arthur.

[swifty]

Give this a go.
Zoom to your maximum that ur Digital Camera will go optically, use the largest aperture at that zoom, get as close to your subject as it will focus and have the background as far back from your subject as possible.
You should then most likely get the most isolation possible with your camera.

[ving]

as stated its hard to do with a sensor that size. use maximum aperture and get in close is the only way to go about it me thinks.

g/luck :)
show us how you go.

[mongo]

What Swifty said.