 David Boyd |
Sports and Blurred Backgrounds Hi. I have a Canon A40, with an AIAF mode. I'm not sure, but has this anything to do with blurred backgrounds? I want to take following shots: Football match - closer shots, but I only have x3 optical. Kids with blurred backgrounds - would love to do this, since pictures look really nice like this. Panning water - to get a picture of water running over rocks/pebbles at my local river.
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Jon Close |
Closer shots at a football match: If the long end of your zoom lens doesn't get you close enough, you need to get closer yourself. There might be a 1.4x or 2x tele-extender to fit the A40, but it will give you a much smaller effective aperture requiring either longer shutter speeds (too long to freeze action or camera-shake) or setting a higher/noisier ISO. You can use the digital zoom feature as a last resort, realizing that you lose pixels/resolution when digitally zooming. Blurred background: Shoot in M (manual), and set the largest aperture (smallest f-number) available on your camera. Getting closer to your subject will also help. You will be limited by the camera's very short focal length lens, which has a very deep depth of field even at widest aperture. As an alternative, you can blur the background by panning with action - set a slower shutter speed and follow a runner with the camera while pressing the shutter. This takes some practice. "Panning water" - You actually don't want to pan the scene. You want to mount the camera on a tripod and set a slow shutter speed in M mode. Depending on the water's speed and your distance from it the optimal effect may be at a shutter speed from 1/15 to several seconds.
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David Boyd |
Hi Jon: Thanks for your response, the f numbers on my camera are 2.8 and 8.0 only, so I will try it on 2.8. Ideally I would definitely like a bigger zoom. Thanks for your reply.
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