Why doesn’t it work that way on digital cameras? To oversimplify the matter, it is because the sensor in a compact digital camera is only a fraction of the size of a 35mm frame and when sensor size and lens diameter work together in a digicam there is greater inherent depth of field and therefore the background is more nearly in focus even with the zoom at the long end and the aperture wide open.

Here is one way to produce attractive bokeh (it is a Japanese word for the effect, pronounced bo-keh, and it literally means fuzziness or dizziness) in Photoshop…

1. Open the image in Photoshop
2. Size, crop etc
3. Do the usual Levels, Curves, Sharpness corrections
4. Create Layer/Duplicate Layer
5. Go Filter/Blur and choose a Blur effect. In Photoshop CS there is a Lens option that mimics the effect of a long lens. In earlier versions of Photoshop try Gaussian and vary the radius slider to get the right effect
6. Select the Eraser tool from the Toolbox, set opacity to 100%
7. At this stage it can help if you reduce the opacity of the top layer in the Layers palette using the opacity slider to better see the object you want in focus on the bottom layer
8. Erase the area that is to be in sharp focus from the top layer, uncovering the bottom layer as you do so, taking care around the sharp edges of the in-focus object
9. Flatten the image

[This photo was taken with the Olympus C7070]