Picture This: The Next Level

This post is for all the people out there who take pretty good pictures, but feel like they could be doing better. Maybe some of your photos have been worthy of blowing up to poster size and putting on the wall. If they are photos of your children (or someone else’s children) and everyone is in focus and has a nice expression on their face – well then you’re in a class above the rest.

However, you may have had the experience of seeing a photo someone else has taken (someone who read their camera’s manual and understood it), and you get that sinking feeling when you think “oh, why can’t I take THAT kind of picture?”

Well, to be honest with you, I didn’t understand the camera manual either. Thank goodness I have a patient husband who explained a lot of it to me. I think that the real secret many of us overlook is: depth of field. When I figured this part out, a whole new world opened up for me.

Let’s take this example. This picture of a rose (example 1) is nice. This photo was taken with one of the automatic settings on our point and shoot camera (Canon PowerShot A710 IS). However, the image looks fairly flat and uninteresting.

Example 1: Automatic Setting

Then, let’s look at this picture (example 2) of this orange flower taken with our nicer camera (Canon EOS 450D). Better, right? The background is soft, letting the flower really stand out and looks more like a piece of art than the photo on top. It would be easy to say that the picture is better because it’s taken with a more sophisticated camera, but I’ve seen lots of people walking around with expensive equipment and not really getting better pictures. So let’s look at some of the other differences here, and then talk about how you might be able to get that soft focus to your photos even if you don’t have an SLR.

Example 2: Aperture Priority Mode

The key to getting that soft blur in the background is switching your camera to Aperture Priority so that you get a very narrow depth of field.  (For the most blur, you want the lowest possible aperture setting.)

• With a point and shoot: Many point and shoot cameras allow you to shoot in aperture mode. Turn the setting all the way down (the A710 will go down to 2.8, for example). Zoom in so that your lens is fully extended. Make sure your camera is focused on the object in the foreground. If there is not enough natural contrast for your camera to focus on the object, you might need to switch to manual focus mode. (On the A710, a small window pops up in the center of the screen and then you can adjust it until the object is in focus.) Here’s an example taken with our point and shoot (example 3). It’s not the most thrilling picture, but you can see the blurring I’m talking about.

Example 3: Aperture Mode w/ Point and Shoot Camera

• With an SLR: You are still using aperture priority, but now you have the benefit of different lenses. You can get a narrow depth of field with just about any of your lenses as long as your lens is fully zoomed in and you’re in aperture mode. However, a prime lens (such as a 50mm) is built specifically for this type of photo. It’s great for portrait photography and it’s the one I reach for when I want to take “beauty” shots of fabrics, crafts, and treasures. The glass lets in tons of light so it’s ideal for low light situations. The downside is flexibility. You wouldn’t be able to get a wide shot of a building, for example.

I’m going to write a bit more about selecting a camera, but I thought we would start here. If you have any questions or comments, please chime in. I’m hoping this all makes sense and isn’t boring anyone to tears. ;-)