Depth of Field with a Bridge Camera!
Today I would like to share with you a few techniques that took me quite some time to realise on my own. We all love those photographs where the object is in focus with a nice blurry background. Just like this image below:
Well, this photo technique or effect is called depth of field. This can be produced for the majority of the time with a DSLR camera with special lenses that's got a big F-stop. I am not going to elaborate on this, because this specific article is aimed at people that do not have any fancy cameras with fancy lenses, but rather a standard bridge camera or even a standard point and shoot. There is one catch to this, your camera should have at least a 10x optical zoom.
This chart below describes how one can produce a depth of field using a large F-stop:
Then again, how can we produce these images without special lenses or even software. This can easily be achieved with bridge cameras using only two simple techniques. Please refer to the diagram I drew to explain these techniques.
Before we look at these different techniques, it's important to have a good distance between the subject and the background in order for these techniques to work.
A) Shows the normal or average way people take photos, just get the photo in the frame and take the shot. B) Shows how one can increase the distance between the camera and the subject, this will give you an average depth of field and can even be done using a smartphone. This is a good technique but somewhat limits you to achieve a constant depth of field for all your photos using point and shoot cameras. C) This is the technique I prefer to use when I'm taking pictures. this will give you a good depth of field. the trick is to go to the full extent of your cameras optical zoom (whether it's 10x or 50x).
I took some photos with my bridge camera the 'Canon sx540hs' with 50x optical zoom. These photos where taken exactly as the diagram implies:
Example of A
Example of B
Example of C
I know that some photographers might get other results or even much better results than what I did, but i really hope that these techniques will help you in the near future when taking pictures. Even if you don't have the necessary expensive cameras and gear.
Enjoy!
