Well I got it - now what?!

Well the Canon Powershot A720 got here today.

I have been playing with it all day, and I have to say I am disappointed - not sure what I expected exactly what I thought it would be.

I cant seem to, no matter what I do - get the background blurry to make the main picture pop - and tonight, under low inside light, getting it to shoot is not fun, and every time no matter what I do the red hand that tells me I need a tripod is blinking in my face.

Granted, I know it's a point and shoot, but that's one of the main reasons I got this - was for inside lighting, since that's where we are mostly - especially in winter.

I am not sure if it's me, or if really I am expecting to much - I know I am new to all of this manual, but even in Auto, I cant get a good indoor picture of the kids, forget about the "blurry" just a good not shaken img would be nice.

:mad2: I dont know what to do, return it, and keep researching or keep playing with it

I think you will have a very difficult time getting the shallow depth of field you want with any P&S camera. My wife has an A series Canon and I get the tripod warning all the time too. I ignore it and I haven't noticed an problems with camera shake. I'm not sure how well any P&S will do in low light. Most of them compensate by boosting the ISO witch increases the noise in the photos.

You can get a plausible facsimile of a shallow depth of field under certain circumstances. The best bet is shooting outdoors, in daylight, with background objects (trees, bushes, buildings, etc.) somewhat behind the subject. Set the ISO to 100 or 200. Set the mode to Aperture priority (Av), and set the aperture number to as low as it will go. Press the shutter button halfway down, and make sure the selected shutter speed is faster than about 1/10, preferably faster than 1/100, or use a tripod. Try some shots like this. The key here is to use a wide aperture (low number). Using Av forces the camera not to change that setting, but to compensate with the shutter speed. Still, you'll find the depth of field will never be as shallow as really expensive lenses on dSLRs. Personally, I like LARGE depth of field. I read somewhere that a famous photographer, Ansel Adams, I think, always used only the smallest aperture (highest number) for his shots. But then... he was shooting landscapes.

Here's a meager example...

http://rsvp.smugmug.com/photos/156708825-L.jpg

Thanks - that helps - and I will give it a try! I am becomming less frustrated with it though - getting better images the more I play - today I did not have much time, I had to work LOL - darn that work! But I plan to get out a little tomorrow and play more with it, and it's settings! :) Thank you for giving me some idea's on what to use to see what I can find! :)

That camera does have IS. Be sure that it is "ON". That will help the camera shake. And use the optical viewfinder, not the LCD. Holding the camera close allows you to hold it much steadier. As far as indoors, forget shallow DOF. NEVER happen with any P&S of any brand. Don't go above ISO 400, 200 much better, and use flash when you need it. That is, after all, a mid-range compact camera and it sounds like you may be expecting way too much from it.

But play with it some and always remember;

RTFM

:thumbsup:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Glasstream15

...As far as indoors, forget shallow DOF. NEVER happen with any P&S of any brand...

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Well, I wouldn't be all that pessimistic. It is not usually going to happen, but you can "stage" a shot, though it isn't easy, and you probably need plenty of light. Another trick to throw in is to stand quite a ways back from the subject and use the zoom. Of course, I find on my camera that reduces how wide you can open the aperture, so there are some compromises. You can also--if you have the patience-- attempt what I call synthetic DOF reduction, or, perhaps "fake" is a better description. This is in post processing where you select out the forgeround and blur the background. I've had only modest success with this, and only one or two shots that were really helped by it, and it takes a painfully long time to carefully select the foreground, and FORGET about if your subject has a lot of hair.