Quote Originally Posted by YugenM View Post
I find that a lot of it has to do with how far you are from the subject.

EDIT: i.e. closer = better
bang on the money...it all has to do with F/stop and the distance between you and the subject. with my Nehalem photo above, that is with a 100MM lens and i am only 2 inches away from the CPU (love macro lenses). the same goes with 300MM lenses. here are a couple football photos of mine from ages ago, but they are a good example of the difference in distance from the subject.

this first one is of action on the other side of the field. the background is barely blurred out and the subject isn't very isolated. the background is also really close to the subject which doesn't help.



this second photo is on the sideline that i am shooting from. the background is all blurred out, even the players relatively close to the subject.



both of these photos are with a 20D and 300mm lens at F/4, i don't know how P&S cameras work but if it truly is at F/2.8, getting a shallow depth of field shouldn't be hard. just get as close as the lens can focus and go from there. HTH