I have a Nikon Coolpix S3300 which is great for everyday pictures but I want to experiment with depth of field - I didn't see anything on that in the manual and I've played with all the settings and I simply don't know what I'm doing. Is it even possible to achieve DOF with a point and shoot digital camera?
Best answer:
Answer by Miranda
Well, you really can't when you don't control the aperture setting and you can't do that with a point and shoot. What you can do is play with distance from the subject and objects behind by moving yourself with respect to the subject, that would give you the closes proximation. Essentially you can't do much except change your position with respect to the subject. If you move closer to the subject, objects behind will go out of focus. If you move farther away from the subject, objects behind will be in focus. That's about the best you can do. You need to have a camera with adjustable aperture settings to do anything more.
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It's not really possible, your best bet is to set it to macro (little flower picture usually) if your camera has it, and photograph something as close to your camera as it will allow you to focus on, and have the background as far away from the subject as you can manage.
ReplyDeleteI presume you are trying for shallow depth of field.
It's sometimes possible.
ReplyDeleteCompact cameras are designed to keep everything in focus to stop the person holding it from taking a bad picture.
If it as an aperture priority mode, turn that on and pick the lowest aperture (probably 3.5/4) and start shooting close up to things.
Macro settings might also help you achieve depth of field.
If you can't do any of that, try dropping the ISO to it's minimum and use the zoom at full. You might need a tripod to do this, but it will probably force the camera to use a low aperture. Though it could just use a low shutter speed and then everything will be blurry.
That sort of camera isn't made to do that so you'll have a hard time getting anywhere.
It is possible, kind of, but it usually involves just being pretty close to your subject, and focussing on it.
ReplyDeleteSince your camera doesn't have manual controls it's not possible to increase the aperture manually - which would be the usual way of reducing the depth of field.
Point and shoot cameras aren't actually designed to take shots like that - they are designed to be easy to use - hence "point and shoot" - so all the settings are made automatically. Most people want to take photos with everything in focus, so these types of camera are setup to do just that.