Blurred Background Filming

Hello,

I have a Canon EOS 70D + EF-S 18 55 IS STM

I'm trying to film myself with a blurred background (a wall about 2-3 feet behind me). I'm a total newb, so I was just wondering if someone could help me with some settings to make that happen?

Thank you

You cant do it with that combo. Try zooming to 55 and using the largest aperture you can. F5.6 on your lens. You get over 2 feet of depth of field at a distance of 10ft. To achieve that effect you need a prime lens with a large maximum aperture. Go to www.dofmaster.com to see the effects of aperture, focal length, and distwmce on depth of field. Background blur is slightly different but no way are you blurring a wall 3ft behind you with that gear.

MelbsManic wrote in post #17737125
Hello,

I have a Canon EOS 70D + EF-S 18 55 IS STM

I'm trying to film myself with a blurred background (a wall about 2-3 feet behind me). I'm a total newb, so I was just wondering if someone could help me with some settings to make that happen?

Thank you

Heya,

So what you're trying to do is to control depth of field. There are several ways to influence the appearance of depth of field.

1. Focus a subject very closely (ie the distance between camera & subject is small) and you get thin depth of field (leaving a blurry background to an extent).
2. Increase aperture (ie, a F-stop number, like F2.8, F2, F1.4).
3. Increase focal length relative to wide aperture, to get even more separation.
4. Simply have a distance background, not 2~3 feet away, more like 20+ feet away, and you can get blurry backgrounds at smaller apertures still.

Combine some of those, and you can do it. Otherwise, wisely invest in something that has really wide aperture at telephoto focal length (50mm or more) and you can easily get thin depth of field for this. The same concepts in photography apply to video as they're one in the same in terms of depth of field.

The 18-55 for example will get the blurry background when used at it's longest focal length (55mm) at F5.6 (as wide as it will allow at the focal length) when closely focused to the subject (for example, fill the frame with your head and shoulders which should be about 5 feet from the camera to do this at 55mm on APS-C, instead of full body or full torso with room to spare) with a distant background, say, 12feet or more. It will have a blurry background like that, if you combine a few of those things to get the effect. If you want to get better results, increase the background distance (ie, don't use a tiny room, setup in the biggest room and put the most distance between the subject and the background that you can, and it will blur if you closely focus on the subject). It will not be as pronounced as something with really wide aperture and longer focal length, but it is a free method you can play around with.

Alternatively, simply get a 50mm or 85mm lens with F1.4, F1.8 or F2 and you can quickly get isolation due to thin depth of field.

I do a lot of my video work on an APS-C, with old manual vintage primes, like a Takumar 50mm F1.4 or Helios 44-2 (58mm F2).

But you can get a cheap Yongnuo 50mm F1.8 for $50 these days (Ebay), or you could get a simple Canon 50mm F1.8 STM and be really good to go for video and narrow depth of field.

Note, if you have no option to increase your background distance, and telephoto is too long for the room to get the framing you want, your alternative option is to use a very fast aperture wide angle, like a 28 F1.8 or 35 F1.4. These are costly. So it comes down to how dedicated you are to video.

Very best,

MelbsManic wrote in post #17737125
...(a wall about 2-3 feet behind me).

Why 2-3'? Why not 6'? If the room is too small to get farther away, get farther away & shoot through a doorway. Or find a bigger room. Or use a garage. Or go outside. Or...

PhotosGuy wrote in post #17737194
Why 2-3'? Why not 6'? If the room is too small to get farther away, get farther away & shoot through a doorway. Or find a bigger room. Or use a garage. Or go outside. Or...

yup. if it is possible do the above.

also bringing the camera closer to the subject helps push the background OOF. Of course, you don't have much choice if you need a certain amount of your body in the shot.

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