You can use the aperture setting to blur out the background. Does your camera have that? "Set your camera at "A" or Aperture priority mode. The basic rule here is the wider your aperture or the lower your f-number is, the shallower the depth of field. This will result in a very blurred background, but a sharp subject. In most cameras, the lens aperture range from f/1.8 to f/22. Set your aperture to f/1.8 for the most blurred background effect. Check your shutter speed if this will yield favorable results. If you find that the image will be over-exposed due to such a wide aperture, adjust accordingly. You will find that up to an aperture setting of f/5.6, you can still achieve a blurred background. It may be a little sharper than images taken with an f/1.8 aperture, but you will still get the results you prefer." Here is a link that might be useful: info from this site

I love that! I sent to everyone at school plus family and friends! Thanks! Cynthia

Yes, it will cost a small fortune, but worth having the professional photo years from now. I still treasure DD's communion picture. The church had a photographer that shot for everyone, but I took her to a professional photographer whose work I admired. He usually shoots with very light or white backgrounds. I told him straight away that the white-light photos were not what I was looking for. I wanted more of an old fashioned-type photograph, think old time library, victorian style. He shot her with a brown-taupey backdrop, sitting in a Queen Anne style chair. Stunning. Actually put her portrait in the brochures for communions as he was so well known for doing the lighter settings. He wanted to show that he could do something a bit different. So, let the photographer know what your expectations of the photo are. You are spending alot of money, so you want the photos to have a certain style or look. With the digital age, professional photographers shoot digitally. I've never heard of a photographer who will sell you negatives even back in the day of film. The photographer will arrange an appointment for you to view the digital pics or "proofs". It is a PIA and tough to make decisions on pics that way, but unless you are hiring someone to do a wedding or something on that scale, that's how the photographers in my area do it. You may be able to find someone who still shoots film? But I don't think they will sell you the negatives. That's the way they make their money - by selling prints of their negatives. We just returned from a beach vacation. Our house is at the end of the island where there are alot of jettys (sp?) and big rock formations just beyond the dunes. Every night there were oodles of families on the beach taking pics at sunset. It was fun to watch, they were all dressed in khaki and white or denim and white. DH commented that alot had their own equipment as opposed to hiring the "beach photographers" advertising in the shore community. Much cheaper, but surely not the same result. I don't know where you are located, but you may want to ask a friend or someone whose had a beach photo professionally done for a referral.

@cindy-6b/7a VA...noooooooooooooooooo. It's a hobby. But I see so much photography I don't like and people that think they're good...and they aren't. They don't understand the 3 C's. :0) For instance: Here's one of my night shots. Hubby looked up dark sky areas, which night had no moon, then we drove 2.5 hours to find this site in the day time. Then came back at 1am in the middle of the night, with an intense HUGE flashlight we shone on the building. This all takes a LOT of work. :0)