 Andrea Jawor |
How to Blur the Background Help out there. A mother of 6 kids and a harpist, I love to take pics and bought a Canon Rebel. I am trying to grasp, in what little time I have, how to blur the background like I see everyone else do. I am trying to understand photo basics and not getting very far. Could somebody who owns a Rebel tell me how to accomplish the blur?? I am clueless. I read the manual, but still clueless.
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Terry L. Long |
Hello Andrea. It's quite simple. It's not the camera that matters, but, rather, the lens. You need to open up the f/stops quite a bit. The lower the number on the f/stop the less the depth of field will be. An example would be: f/2.8 will have a shorter depth of field than f/16 and, f/16 will have a shorter depth of field than f/22 ... and so on. If you have a large enough telephoto lens, the effect of the depth of field will be even greater. An example would be: A 50mm lens at f/2.8 will have a greater depth of field than a 200mm lens at f/2.8. The drawback to lenses with large f/stops is money ... they cost more. A lens that has a constant f/2.8 will cost considerably more than a lens with a constant or variable f/3.5. A possible way to circumvent the cost is to buy a used lens. For your situation - i.e., taking photos of your kids with a blurred (out of focus) background as in an outdoor portrait - you'd be better off to use a telephoto of somewhere around 135mm or greater with an f/stop of f/4 or smaller (f/3.5 or f/2.8). I hope this helps and good luck.
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Dave Cross |
Hi Andrea. Loads of information and some free tools here:- http://dfleming.ameranet.com/articles.html Enjoy.
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Peter K. Burian |
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Peter K. Burian |
Andrea: Yeah, I think you'll want to buy a 70-200mm or similar lens and use it at longer focal lengths at around f/5.6. (f/2.8 is even better for blurring a background but lenses with f/2.8 are very expensive.) Cheers! Peter Burian
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Bob Cammarata |
You can also accomplish what you are trying to do by getting closer. Even with a standard to medium-telephoto lens (50 to 100mm), you can get a blurred background by moving forward toward your subject a little. (You will definitely need a wide aperture, though.)
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Andrea Jawor |
WOW! That was fast and most appreciated! I tried it again outside before church and got some good results using the kit lens with its maximum aperature - it said 5.6 (I am struggling to understand all of this). I found the 2.8 lenses are costly, there is a Sigma for about 420, is this worth the investment? I take ALOT of pics and and would like to expand a bit for the effects. You guys are great, thanks a bunch! Can you help me transpose Mozart for harp????
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Terry L. Long |
$420.00 for which Sigma? I got a Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 EX/DF for $400.00 brand new from a camera store about two years ago (hint...that's a bargain). I was so impressed with it's performance I bought a Sigma 28-70mm f/2.8 EX/DF but I don't remember how much I paid for it. I recommend if you get a Sigma lens you get the "EX" variety. The "DF" stands for Dual Focus...meaning that by a pull or push of the focusing collar I can either have it autofocus or manual focus. Sigma's "EX" variety of lenses are their top of the line. Tokina make excellent lenses too. The third party lenses cost a lot less than Canon lenses and I've never had a problem with their performance or results. Good luck.
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Brian A. Fotheringham |
I too have recently bought a Digital Rebel. I purchased it from Wolf Camera with a 2 piece Sigma lens kit, a 28-90 mm with a Macro setting and a 70-300 mm telephoto, also with a Macro setting. The entire package was less than $1300, including tax, and both lenses do what you are trying to do quite well. Both lenses have the same aperture setting of 3.5-5.6 and work unbelievably well close up in Macro mode. It was a package deal but I do believe that the lenses can be purchased separately from the camera for less than $400 for both through wolcamera.com. It might be something for you to check into. Good Luck and Happy Shooting.
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Brian A. Fotheringham |
One more thing. In the Manual mode on the camera you can set the aperture. The smaller the number the more your background will be blurred. You are going to have to consult the manual on this one. I'm afraid that it will do a better job of explaining than I can on how to accomplish this. It starts on pg.70 and continues through pg. 72 in the users manual. Hope this helps.
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Peter K. Burian |
In truth, there is no need to switch to manual mode to set the aperture. (e.g. Set f/5.6 to blur away the background, instead of f/16.) Simply select the AV mode. Now, you can set a desired aperture with the input dial and the camera will automatically set the appropriate shutter speed. Cheers! Peter Burian
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Andrea Jawor |
OK you guys, you have helped me immensely, however, I'M NOT DONE YET! If anybody lives in Chicago area, I will PAY YOU to teach me how to work this camera! I wanted to purchase some filters and the woman who sold me the camera tried on the soft focus (thought it would be fun right? cute kid pics)she the said the camera was too "smart" as it just picked up a circle and that you can never use filters with the Canon Rebel. Is this true or is there some way to go around this? thanks, I love you guys out there.
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Peter K. Burian |
Andrea: Sure you can use filters. We generally do not, since we can achieve most of the same effects in Photoshop, but that does take some expertise. I would suggest that you get a Polarizing filter for your lens. Why? See The "can't-live-without" filter at http://photos.msn.com/Editorial/Article.phpx?aid=MustHaveDigitalCameraFilters&sec=NewsGear Cheers! Peter Burian (I live near Toronto, Canada - not Chicago.)
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Terry L. Long |
Andrea, As Peter B. says, you CAN use filters with this camera. My suggestion...do not go back to that camera store. It seems they don't know the products they're selling. Also, until you get the hang of the camera and/or lens(es), I'd shy away from using filters. You might want to visit a book store and see if there's a book out for your camera. Look for one titled "Magic Lantern Guide - Canon Rebel". It gets very in-depth on how to use your camera...much more than the owner's manual that came with the camera. I own a "Magic Lantern Guide" for each of my Canon cameras and am constantly referring back to it. If I lived in the Chicago area I'd help you out...for FREE! But alas, I'm in Nevada. Also, you might want to do a search for other photography forums and seek advice there, once you've joined. Good luck and have fun learning your camera. Remember, it takes time to learn the camera and get the hang of the techniques.
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Andrea Jawor |
Thank you Peter and Terry - I am learning slowly...I love my Olympus Digital, everything is so sharp and easy, but I do want to take it further. I have Photoshop 7 and have done quite a few things with it, mostly trial and error. - I am getting that book! Thanks for the help, I took a beautiful picture of my iris flowers and have a lovely blur in several pictures. I think my mind has a ceiling as I can't absorb too much at one time, I shall overcome! Thanks for the help!
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Victor J. |
Do you mean blured or out of focus? I strongly suggest you enroll in a photo course either here at BP or at a local Community College. Vic
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John A. Lind |
Andrea, I'd open up to about f/4 for photos of people and focus carefully on their eyes. As for depth of field differences between lens focal lengths, there is great misunderstanding about this. If you change from a 50mm to a 200mm lens and back up 4X the distance from the subject to keep it the same size in the film frame, depth of field about the subject will not change (provided you're using the same lens aperture)! It will be the same. Depth of field is determined by subject magnification in the film frame, lens aperture and focus distance, and not by lens focal length. Reason for this widespread misconception? It presumes camera-to-subject distance (and focus distance) does not change as focal length is increased . . . which increases size of subject in the film frame (increases magnification). At f/5.6, the background must be very distant and subject relatively close for the background to become blurred. It's an aperture I use quite frequently indoors for on-location wedding portraits and background behind the altar even at twice the subject distance is still in decent focus . . . unless I'm working very close for tight head-shoulders shots. -- John Lind
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Shan Po |
Hi Andrea, I am an amateur photographer too, and I would like to know this answer once. Following is the suggestion from one of my professional photographers, I use it and it works making blury back ground, Please try: f/11 - Speed 60 f/8 - speed 125 f/5.6 - Speed 250 f/4 - speed 500 and so on. He also suggests me to buy at least 70- 210 mm Tele lens to get better results.
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John A. Lind |
Po, that looks like an exposure recommendation under the "Sunny-16" rule for ISO 25 film . . . or perhaps for a higher speed film in shade or under some amount of overcast sky. Shutter speed has no effect on depth of field . . . except that it forces changing lens aperture (which does affect depth of field) to maintain the same exposure. Apparent depth of field in a photograph is determined by: If you rearrange the equations for the near and far boundaries, a part of it closely approximates the image magnification equation. The farther the focus distance, the closer the approximation. Magnification is actual object size at the focus distance as compared to its size on the film (not in the print!). This is why I stated that increasing focal length *and* moving the camera to keep the subect you are focusing on the same size in the film frame doesn't change depth of field. More accurately, it doesn't change it noticeably at focus distances used in general photography. When making higher magnification macros at extremely close focusing distances (less than about 7X or 8X the lens focal length) the depth of field shift that occurs if focal length is changed and camera moved to keep magnification on film the same becomes detectable. The higher the magnification macro, the more it changes and it's a consideration for higher magnification macros . . . but *not* for general photography. Again, shutter speed has no effect on depth of field. -- John Lind
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