How’d they do that? Fuji HS10 Owl Portrait

In this post we’ll look how David got such a wonderful Owl portrait with his Fuji HS10…

Settings

• Photographer: David Brown (Photostream)
• Camera: Fuji HS10
• Shooting mode: Program (P)
• ISO: 100
• Aperture: f/4.5
• Shutter speed: 1/300
• Focal length: Telephoto

This shot was taken in Program mode (P). The HS10 selected the lowest available aperture and matched it with a fast enough shutter speed to get an accurate exposure. While this may work in many situations, for portraits I recommend shooting in Aperture priority (A).

Aperture priority will allow you to control depth of field. Depth of field is basically the area in focus. Lower f/numbers will give you isolated subjects with blurry backgrounds (also called “bokeh”), while higher f/numbers will put your subject and everything around it into focus (good for landscapes).

To exaggerate background blur or “bokeh”, try taking a few steps back and zooming into your subject.

If you’re shooting stationary subjects, I suggest enabling AF-S (page 51 of the HS10 manual) along with the center focus point (page 50 of the manual). AF-S will allow you to lock focus by half pressing the shutter button, while the center focus point can be used to hone in on the most important part of your subject…like the eyes.

Hope you enjoyed this HS10 tip-torial…Happy shooting!