Canon EOS 40D: Portrait Mode

"OK, we're talking about the basic shooting modes here, and now we're moving on to portrait mode with the 40D. To set the camera to portrait mode, what you're going to do is, take this mode dial here, on the left side of the back side of the camera, and I'm just going to spin it, from fully automatic mode to portrait mode. And portrait mode just has this little icon of a woman's face to represent portraits. And when you're in this mode, the camera will automatically help to compensate with aperture. It will try to give you the largest aperture setting, in order to make the background blur out a lot, and it will help to make your subject or your portrait individual stand out from the background. When you're taking portraits, it's a really good idea to make the background as far away from the subject, as possible, in order to make them stick out from the background. But, this mode will help to soften the skin tones on your subject. And if you have a telephoto lens, that will also help to blur the background, as much as possible."