Aperture control in Elph 300 HS

[BigAl199]

Hey Guys/Gals- I'm 91, right hand half frozen, left hand OK, arthritis all over, so I can just zoom around in my power wheelchair shooting flowers. Can no longer manage the DSLR of old days. Settled on the wonderful Elph 300-HS. Trying to avoid buying Elph 500 HS to get aperture priority.  How can I manipulate the features in the 300 to give me the least wide open aperture for greatest possible depth of field  on close-up flower shots?  Maybe one of the pre-ordained formats, like beach or snow shots, or what else?

Thanks in advance.

Big Al

[BigAl199]

Curious as to why no responses to my previous post.  I assume there’s some kind of artificial brain power that operates in the Elph 300 HS camera, and wonder if it’s somehow unexplainable by those with expert knowledge.

To restate and elaborate my question, I’m shooting flowers, close-ups from a distance around 1½ or 2 feet, camera on tripod.  I would like tor aim for smallest possible aperture, hopefully f5.9.  Stay at 100 or at most 200 ISO. Shutter speed irrelevant, due to using tripod and/or image stabilization.  My preferred lighting conditions are cloudy daylight, or if sunshine, I sometimes block the direct sunlight off the subject with a piece of cardboard.

In the absence of an aperture priority setting in the camera, is there any way I can manipulate the camera’s settings to get the smallest aperture, for maximum depth of field?

Al

[Mykolas]

Hi BigAl199!,

Thank you for posting to our forum.  Portrait is the only preset mode I can see directly manipulating the depth of field for a more blurred background.  Usually, when shooting close-ups of flowers, the more shallow depth of field is desired.  I recommend shooting in Macro by pressing the LEFT button, then selecting the Macro setting (icon looks like a flower).  This allows the camera to focus very close up on the flower and you will see a much more shallow depth of field.

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