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canon powershot s95, s100 and s110 how to make background blur using portrait scene?

guardianwill
Apprentice

Greetings everyone,

 

hope all are having a truly amazing Wednesday!  I am the proud owner of powershot s95, s100 and s110 and really enjoy the shots I receive.  Only one perplexing issue where I hope someone could help this old man take a perfect picture using the portrait scene with blurred background, for the life of me even in portrait the background comes out super crystal clear.  Any help with this would greatly reduce any anxiety I may have trying my hardest to figure this out.  Would love to take even in landscape or just a focal point of interest and the rest kind of blurry.  Thank you all for your time in advance...

 

Sincerely,

 

Guardianwill

5 REPLIES 5

smack53
Mentor

I would set the camera to the portrait scene mode, and zoom in to the person, making sure they are not too close to the background. If you use Av mode, set the aperture to the smallest number when zoomed in, and again be sure the subject is not too close to the background. Also, make sure the subject (person) fills most of the frame to ensure the camera is not trying to obtain additional focus points. If you can set the camera to manual focus, you would have better control over what stays in focus. Only thing is manual focusing on the PowerShots is a little painful to do.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Steve M.

Thank you,

 

Been trying that but each time it looks crystal clear, the background that is.  I'll keep trying maybe they are too close, but I have them about 2 feet away from the back ground.  Maybe further?  I'll get this and hopefully wonder how I had this much trouble.

 

Thank you again!

Two feet is much too close. If you were to have say 10 feet to the background, you would start to notice a difference. Even at the widest aperture, the S95/100/110 needs to further since there is an equivalence that needs to be taken into account. One trick that some people try is to use the "flower" or macro mode when shooting a portrait, but I prefer the results when I keep more distance to the background and have the subject (person) closer to the camera.

 

Steve M.

Thank you again Sir,

 

I will definately give this a try.  House rooms are not that big but I will try outside tomorrow.  Excited to see this and then to perfect!  One last question for you.  I have the s95, s100 and s110, if you were to only be able to have one, which one would you keep?

 

Thanks,

 

Guardianwill

I'm afraid my answer wouldn't be valid as I have big hands and do not like the small size of these cameras. I'm more of a G12 person, but based on what I read on the forums, the S100 is the most reliable, with the fewest issues, but the 110 has more features. I'm told the S95 is a solid camera as well, so any one would be a good choice.

 

Steve M.

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