Background Blur

[barich16cmu]

Im fairly new to photography and I cant seem to get my background to blur like the rest of you. What are the appropriate settings to achieve this?

[dsmgirl]

Aperture is the setting that controls depth of field, or how blurry or sharp the background is in a photo. Put your camera in Av mode and set it to 4 or 5.6 and take a picture of a subject with a busy background (like your back yard). The lower the aperture NUMBER, the less depth of field you'll have. (So when shooting landscapes where you want greater dof, you'd set the aperture to a higher number.)

Beware of this confusing detail when reading about aperture, though. What people call a "large aperture" is a small number (like 4.0), they call it "large" because aperture actually refers to how far open the shutter goes on the camera. It's a technical detail you don't have to worry about, but the larger the opening, the smaller the aperture number, and the less depth of field you get.

[SloNeZ600]

If your using P and S camera you won't get the extreme DOF you see here on the forum from the many high end DSLR's. Also many are post processed.

[cool_dude07]

Quote:
"because aperture actually refers to how far open the shutter goes on the camera"

Just to clarify, aperture refers to the size of the opening in the lens that let's light onto the film or sensor

[dsmgirl]

If you're using a point and shoot, set the mode dial to "portrait" (the icon should be a woman's head). I get good blur on my cheap little Olympus P&S in portrait mode...

[RossW]

If you're using a point and shoot, set the mode dial to "portrait" (the icon should be a woman's head). I get good blur on my cheap little Olympus P&S in portrait mode...

That's a pretty good suggestion, since the "portrait" mode does set the camera for wider apertures. (Your first suggestion about using as wide an aperture [smaller number f-stop] is generally correct if you don't have such a pre-set function.) But there are other factors to get shallow depth of focus/blurred backgrounds, such as using as large a zoom value (focal length) as possible, and putting more distance between your subject and the background if possible.

[Stefan A]

There have been several good threads on this lately. If you do a search, you will find them. You will see that even with a P&S, it is possible to get very good background blur. What I learned is that I have to keep the aperture open as wide as possible. The subject should be far away from the background if possible. And if you can stand far away from your subject and zoom in, even better. Those 3 things will get you what you are looking for - aperture, background distance, zoom in.

Stefan

[jfrancho]

I have a little Powershot S500 - no aperture controls - but I can get a decent blur by setting it to "manual" mode, setting ISO 50, and using either portrait or macr mode. The next part to success is speration of the subject from the background, at least a few feet is necessary.

[ba15ck]

A quick and easy way to turn any photo into that DOF masterpiece--(shouldn't take more than 5 min. to do)

photoshop or elements:

open a photo and make a new layer of the background (original layer)
-either double click the background layer to do this or drag the background layer to the new layer icon.

With either the pen tool or the polygonal lasso tool cut out the subject you wish to leave sharp and in focus.--make the selection and then inverse the selection
--you should now see a dashed (selection) line bordering the photo.

Now select filter>>>blur>>>gaussian blur.
--Play around with the settings and see what works for you--somewhere in the balpark of 6 usually works best (if you are shooting for a realistic result).

any questions, just post.

here are example pics--the first is left unprocessed and the second I blurred the background--the gaussian blur was set to 9.2--and I did an extremely poor job cutting out the subject--for mere test purposes.
no blur:

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c10/ba15ck/blurtestunblured.jpg

blur:

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c10/ba15ck/blurtest.jpg

[ba15ck]

here is a sample pic i took just messin around.
Shot in AV mode
f 3.5
1/25
full zoom
iso 400 (i think)--ran through neat image---A MUST FOR EVERYONE W/OUT DSLR
only about 2' away from subject, and the subject is only about 2.5' in front of the background. (Oh ya, I shot with a canon s2)

Blurred background seems quite good to me for this camera, considering the background is just a few feet behind the subject. The further the background is from the subject, the better the blur.

The second image has been processed in photoshot--the same way I explain just a post before. (again, poor cutout, just did quick job for test purposes)

[ba15ck]

I anticipate that the effect of the second image of the previous post can be obtained with more distance between the subject and the background--without post-processing

[ba15ck]

oh and a polarizor would take care of that glare real nice like

[Gary W. Graley]

ba15ck, very good tip, one I'm sure I'll put to use on images that lack that additional
Pop to them, thanks!
G2

[DavidW]

Gaussian Blur will work. However, if you have Photoshop CS2 (I think it's new in CS2, but maybe not), create the selection as a alpha channel and use the Lens Blur filter.

With Lens Blur, you don't have to worry about edges of foreground detail being blurred into your fake bokeh if you use the Lens Blur filter. Lens Blur also has various creative controls, such as support for a depth map (which you may be able to use by creating a selection, making it into an alpha channel, and applying a few gradient and possibly linear fills).



David

[XBGM3R]

I borrowed my son's toys and I took those by PowerShot: A610

You can see background blur behind toy car and motorcycle:

http://img278.imageshack.us/img278/5792/img22085ax.jpg
http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/4812/img21888il.jpg
http://img278.imageshack.us/img278/32/img22356bo.jpg

Am I passed test?? (Heh, heh)...

[ba15ck]

lens blur filter is new to CS (i have)--i have not tried this method but will and will see what i like--will report

[skcarl]

What if I'm using a IXUS 50, can I do this? Sorry I'm just a newbie. Thanks!

[ba15ck]

Well I am not all that familiar with that particular model camera and all of its functions, however AV (apeture priority) setting is best. Lets you control the apeture and the camera sets the shutter speed. However, I don't think your camera has that setting. If you can adjust this function in manual mode then use that. You want to set it to the largest apeture possible (smallest number--probably 2.8 ). Then you want to zoom in as much as possible--if you can stand just a little bit further away to allow you to zoom in fully then you should, otherwise zoom in as much as you can. Then you are going to want to make sure there is some significant distance between your subject and your background.

Your portrait mode on you camera also sets the apeture as large as possible so that is a decent function to try and use--

This first shot was with a kodak v550 (essentially a fully automatic PnS camera)
The second was shot with a canon s2 (which does a better job than my kodak with this, however is far from the capabilities of a dslr)


hope this helps--do a search for 'background blur' or 'bokah' if you want more information

[skcarl]

Well I am not all that familiar with that particular model camera and all of its functions, however AV (apeture priority) setting is best. Lets you control the apeture and the camera sets the shutter speed. However, I don't think your camera has that setting. If you can adjust this function in manual mode then use that. You want to set it to the largest apeture possible (smallest number--probably 2.8 ). Then you want to zoom in as much as possible--if you can stand just a little bit further away to allow you to zoom in fully then you should, otherwise zoom in as much as you can. Then you are going to want to make sure there is some significant distance between your subject and your background.

Your portrait mode on you camera also sets the apeture as large as possible so that is a decent function to try and use--

This first shot was with a kodak v550 (essentially a fully automatic PnS camera)
The second was shot with a canon s2 (which does a better job than my kodak with this, however is far from the capabilities of a dslr)


hope this helps--do a search for 'background blur' or 'bokah' if you want more information

THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR HELP. I WILL TRY THIS NOW, THEN I'LL UPDATE YOU..