A nice blurry background in our photos (also known as Bokeh) separates our subject from its/his/her background. By choosing a specific focal point in the frame, a photographer can guide us and help us see what he/she saw when they took the shot.
So how DO you get a nice soft blurry background in your pictures?
Well now days even smartphone cameras will give you a decent-ish Bokeh as long as you take the picture from up close enough. (That's key, you have to get close, but I'll explain more in a sec...)
The only problem with smartphones (most) is that you can't control those functions that allow you to get the shot YOU want and not what your robot phone thinks the shot should be.
So if you really want to be able to get the Bokeh you'll need a camera that allows you to control and change your settings.
Example- DSLR or a Mirrorless camera (as powerful as a DSLR but its smaller)(that's another subject) but yea, you'll need one of those cameras.
Got one? Good...OK.
First things first...You have to separate your person or object from your background, meaning, they can't be standing 3 feet away from a wall or another type of background. The further out their background is the more Bokeh we will have.
So RULE 1- Step away from the wall
Next, You'll have to get in close to your subject. You can do this two different ways. You can zoom in if you have a zoom lens or you can just move in closer yourself. The closer you are the more Bokeh you'll have. Keep in mind you don't wanna get too close and cut anything important out of the frame..just have fun with it and compose(frame) the shot however YOU want to compose it. You're the artist!
So RULE 2- Get in close.
Probably one of the most important settings to get familiar with is your Aperture.
You're Aperture, also known as your F stop, is nothing more than your Lens' Eye. An F stop of F1.8 means your Lens is open all the way (not all lenses open that wide, I'll write another post about Lenses, follow me). THE LOWER the f stop number, the wider your lens opens up, and the more background blur you'll get. Keep in mind that if you use an F stop of say f1.8 for a close up shot, or even for group photos most of your image will probably be blurry because your lens is wide open. For group shots I keep it at around f5.6, and for close up shots f4 works like magic. But youll find what works best for you and your style.
So RULE 3- The LOWER that f stop number the more of that blurry goodness you'll get. The LARGER that f stop number the sharper the images will be all around.
All that being said...
Here's what will happen when you play around with your Aperture:
You're images will get darker or brighter.....why? Because again, when you shoot at f1.8 your lens eye is wide open remember? So more light enters your camera which makes your pictures brighter.
If you were to want more of your frame in focus, you would shoot at something like f8 (depending what your shooting) , but the downside is because the a larger F stop number means a smaller lens opening, less light enters your camera...you get darker images.
SOo how do I fix this??? And why am I getting burry shots of people and stuff at night and indoors? Red-eye???
Follow me, 😉I'll write more posts...stay tuned.