[AngelCherry]

For people who do not know what a bokeh shot is, it's basically a picture taken with a focussed subject and a blurred background.

Anyways, can someone tell me a simple way how to do it? I looked on google, but most people uses lens to do the shot. I'm pretty I don't need the lens to do it, but that's why I'm asking how I can do it without it?

Thanks for helping!

[awdark]

I don't know the specifics for your camera but set it to manual mode, if it has an Av mode thats even better. Then just adjust the aperture until its the smallest number possible, for example F2.8, if you don't zoom usually you can go a little lower. Then just focus on something relatively close and it should give you the bokeh you seek.

[AngelCherry]

Ok I changed the aperture, but for some reason the focussed subject looks blurry and not the background wtheck?

[awdark]

I know you have a AV mode on the top try messign with the dial on the back. I honestly don't know, on the Canon XT I just turn the knob at the top near the shutter and I can tweak the aperture all I want.

[AngelCherry]

Ah darn it, I must be still doing something wrong. I changed it to AV and then changed the aperture to 4.5, but it still doesn't blur the background, is there something else I am missing?

[spixder]

The further your subject from the background the better the background blur. U want the lowest aperture possible for good bokehs, thats usually around 2.8 unless u have prime lens

[[HyuNi]]

like awdark said, set the aperture to the lowest possible number, zoom as much as you can on the subject you want to shoot or get as close to the subject you can to 'seperate' the subject from the background as much as you can.
The 'bokeh shot' you speak of is not necessarily the correct term. You're actually playing around with Depth of Field. If you want to make your subject sharp, but the background blury, you want a 'shallow' (little) DoF. The depends on 3 major factors, aperture should be wide open (smallest aperture number available), the distance from the lens on your camera to your sensor (that's why *optical* zooming gives you the most bokeh) and the distance from your lens to the subject you want to shoot. (the closer you are, the more seperation from the background you get)

Working a camera is almost exactly how your eyes work.
If you're having a problem with the background being focused and your subject being out of focus, I bet it's because your camera is TOO close to the subject. All lenses, or as a matter of fact, all optics, have a maximum focal point. The focal point is where you'll get maximum clarity. For example, take your hand and put it one inch from your face. You can see that it's impossible to see your hand clearly and if you look through your fingers, the background is in focus. I think that's what your camera is doing. The subject is too close, so the camera's computer is telling it to focus on the background. If you slowly bring your hand away from your face, you can see that your hand starts to get in focus. That's because your hand is at it's focal point.

Hold your hand close to your face. You can see that your hand is in focus and the 'background' is quite blurry. I'm not going to get really technical, but it's because the focal point intersects very close to your eye. That means, after it intersects, the line of sight gets a LOT wider (like a sideways V) and everything behind gets blurry. Now go outside and look at a sign or post about 100 ft away with something less than 10 ft away fromt he sign or post. No matthew HOW hard you try, your eye won't be able to blur that 'something else' from that sign or post, because your focal point is longer and makes a lot more things sharper.

Adjusting aperture is like how our pupils dialate in dark rooms and get smaller in the sunshine. It regulates how much light enters our eyes, or in the camera's case, the sensor. If you've ever tried reading small print, you'll see that you squint your eyes. It's the same with the camera and aperture. The smaller the hole is, the more in focus things will be.

--

All this is probably too much information and I don't know if it even made any sense.
It's a difficult concept to wrap your head around, but here's a website that really helped me understand aperture a lot better:
http://digital-photography-school.com/aperture-101

good luck!

[AngelCherry]

^ Hi thanks for your response, I totally understood what you meant. I guess I just need more practice and need to play around more on the camera. I'll keep in mind what you said though. Thanks again, your post was very helpful!

[erure]

Easiest way to get bokeh with a point and shoot is to do macro shots (the little flower icon) -- aka close-up photos. This limits the photos to usually just items and things rather than people but you should try it out.

[AngelCherry]

I tried Macro and when I went close up to the item, nothing much happened. Background was just the same. Man I wish I knew a photographer to help me with this lol.

[AngelCherry]

Whooo I freakin did it! Haha thanks guys. Man I am such a newb sometimes.

[yimster900]

I dont know for the specific Canon G10 (sorry) but if you wanted a fast/amateur way you could just use the blur tool on photoshop to blur the background, you can change the size and choose to blur wherever you want. My camera does bokeh shots almost automatically but usually only close ups (but i have a Nikon D70 not Canon).

[CaramelSweetie]

no help from me, but just wondering how do you pronounce "bokeh"?

[erure]

no help from me, but just wondering how do you pronounce "bokeh"?

Boh-keh.

[CaramelSweetie]

^
thankyou very much!