Friday, August 7, 2009

Trial and Error ( lotsa errors !)

Just playing around with my camera an Olympus 8080
Not really knowing what I am doing most of the time.
Getting some interesting results and some not so interesting results.
I've pulled out my camera manual, and have tried some experimentations.

I’m trying to fade out the background but only have success occasionally.
Guess it’s time to take a class.

Can anyone tell me how to get a nicely in focused foreground and have the back ground blurry ?

From Blogger Pictures


From Blogger Pictures

7 comments:

nikkipolani said...

For blurry backgrounds, you need to set your camera on aperture priority (Av) and open the aperture to the widest possible (lowest number). These look like nice shots.

Unknown said...

Yes, depth of field (how big a range is in focus) is controlled by the aperature (opening in the lense).

The numbers for aperature might be thought of as the bottom number of a fraction, so the bigger the number the smaller the aperature (lense opening) it represents.

So:

Big aperature (small number)= narrow depth of field;

small aperature (big number) = wide depth of field.

Unknown said...

If your camera has an automatic setting for closeups you could try that. Great shots though. I rather like the texture of the bark in the background in contrast to the white.

Deviant Deziner, aka Michelle said...

Nikki and Michael, thank you so VERY much for the articulate description. Your 'to the point' descriptions were exactly perfect .

Today is a day of experimentation. The battery is powered up and I'm ready to go !

Kathy, thanks for your tip too. I've been using the automatic setting but I don't always get the result that I was looking for.
All too often everything is in focus in the automatic closeup setting, and I was looking for a little bit more manual control.

Thank you for all your help.

Michelle

Caroline said...

Manual control is the way to go! The more you use and play around with your camera, the more you will find yourself looking for those manual settings. Lovely shot, by the way - my white passaflora vine died last summer. I was heartbroken when it didn't return in the spring.

KIMBERLEY CYR said...

Try the 'portrait' setting -- on my Nikon the icon is a woman's head wearing a hat. It's the no-brainer method, which serves me well. If your subject is tiny, such as grains of pollen, use the macro setting -- looks like a tulip on the dial. This setting is less forgiving, however. Good luck.

healingmagichands said...

You may be experimenting, but there is not a thing wrong with the picture, in my book. A very beautiful flower which I'm sure is not hardy in my zone, worse luck.