For me, a great portrait photo is all about the person you put inside that camera frame. I feel that the photo will look particularly excellent if the subject is active. The S95, with its quick and smooth start-up, allows me to basically point and shoot whenever and wherever I see someone doing interesting things. Full with tourists, Cambodia is certainly a place where you have a lot of subjects to shoot. Its unique culture is also something you shouldn't miss beside the famous temples.
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| Interested by the cultural paintings. |
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| The unique cultural Apsara Dance at a well-known restaurant. |
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| A hardworking mother at work. |
Of course, shallow Depth of Field (the amount of your shot in focus) in portrait photography is a great way to highlight your main subject and get rid of any distractions in the background. Getting a soft blurry background (soft focus) in portrait shots is certainly very limited with a point and shoot like the S95, but there are some tips for this that are worth trying out:
- Try to position the subject you want to photograph as far away from any objects behind them as possible
- Using Portrait Mode, which chooses a large aperture, making the Depth of Field smaller
- Switch to Aperture Priority Mode and choose a large Aperture
- Try shooting at the end of the lens (maximum zoom), but note that the Aperture will be narrowed down to f4.9
- Try out some shots with the Macro or Manual Focus Mode (might distort the faces if taken at wide angle)
Here is one sample photo I took on our tour guide (looked more like a Macro shot):
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| Our friendly tour guide in action (Shutter 1/640s and Aperture f2.8) |
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