Hey all!

I have bought a trv950 and i was wondering how to focus on an object while background is out of focus? The camera is moving.

I am in manual focus mode but when i turn the focusring then everything is out of focus (or in focus)

did i miss something overhere? thx!

(i have to film around a person and the background has to be out of focus)

euh this can't be that difficult right??

Open up the iris, zoom in from 10X, focus your subject. If that doesn't work, use a cam with 1/2" CCDs.

Yup, Frank is right. It's called DOF (depth of field), and to get a shallow DOF with a camera with such a small surface area on the sensor(s) is nearly impossible, unless your at the long end of the lens with a fully opened Iris.

Read up on it.

If you have control over the set a lot could be done with lighting, colours and choice of environment. A light fog will usually make near objects stand out dramatically against a dim background. Also, you might be able to find a filter that softens or blurs all but the central area. (Or even make one by smearing butter on a regular UV filter.)

This might solve your problem.

http://www.fiercely-independent.com/SoftScreenClips.html

Try using the Program AE mode : Portrait.

In this mode, the cam will try to use biggest iris (F1.6 for 950) and control the shutter speed for exposure. This'll give you the shallowest DOF.

thx all guys, it's allready working ;-)

The short answer Tom is to choose some or all of the following if you want blurry backgrounds.

1) Use full telephoto
2) Use maximum aperture
3) use closest focus.
4) have the background as far away as possible.

It's as simple as that and applies whatever your chip size, focal length, frame rate, lighting conditions.

tom.

Those are the rules, and they will help you get the shallowest depth of field and softest background possible under the given circumstances.

However, it should be noted that in a lot of situations it will be simply impossible to get any sort of out-of-focus background with today's video cameras, using these rules alone. For example, using a 1/4" CCD video camera in an indoors interview situation, the camera will be optically incapable of making the background soft.

For these circumstances, I've developed a product that lets you get the shallow-depth-of-field look and soft focus backgrounds. You can see it at www.softscreen.us.