Lumix DMC-TZ4 depth of focus

[Tamsin08]

I want to take portrait shots with a blurred background. I cannot find any way of changing the depth of field and my Leica lens puts everything into focus. Would welcome some advice!

[Canuck935]

This a tough thing to do with compact camera's.

The best you can do is to zoom in, get as physically close to your subject as you can, and make sure the background behind them is far away. Use the camera's portrait mode and it'll select a wide aperture, or if it has aperture priority use that and select widest aperture.

[A.M.D.A.]

This a tough thing to do with compact camera's.

Actually, with my Lumix FZ7K it is very easy to alter the depth of field. I can also change settings manually to suit different subjects.
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Tamsin08,

You can try the following: (Basically what Canuck935 reccomended).


It would be better if you could use a mode like “aperture priority”, but I don’t think that the TZ4 has that mode.

~Set the mode dial of the camera to SCN 1 or SCN 2. Then select “Portrait mode”. This should hopefully give you the maximun lens aperture available.

~When taking the portrait, try to leave much distance between person and background.

~Get in close to the subject, or use the zoom setting to fill the frame. The more you zoom in, the less depth of field will be, which translates to a blurry background.

[Photo-John]

A.M.D.A.s description is excellent. But the fact is, compact digital cameras have much more depth-of-field than DSLRs. So portraits with a soft background are tough. The Portrait Mode" should help as will getting back and zooming in. But if this is a really important thing to you, then you might consider getting a digital SLR.