How do I take forced perspective photographs with a point & shoot camera?

Question

My teenage son needs to take some forced perspective shots this weekend as part of a camping/hiking trip. He has a Panasonic DMC-FX01 point and shoot camera.

He wants to be able to hold up something like a plastic dinosaur toy close enough to the lens that it looks kind of like it's attacking his friends standing a distance away.

We've tried a number of the presets, but the toy is always out of focus, I'm really no expert on this kind of thing but I know you can do this with manual DSLR. So my question is do you have any suggestions of how to trick this little P&S camera into letting him take this kind of shot please?

Answer

It is actually easier to do so with a small camera because the can produce a much greater-depth-of-field.

The only catch is that yours is a point-and-shoot, so you have no direct controls. Instead, you must trick it using a small aperture.

You can try landscape mode which often selects a small aperture. If that does not do it, you can increase the ISO too. That will reduce the quality of your images though.

Of course, you may be trying something impossible and it would probably be impossible with a DSLR unless equipped with a tilt-shift lens. Try to shoot at the widest angle and create as much distance between the camera and the closest object.

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