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We have all seen beautiful photos where the object is perfectly focused while the background is blurred. Such a photo can be very dramatic and might seem to be hard to shoot. In this article we will give you a few tips on how to shoot blurry background photos that will impress your friends and family. You will also understand what Depth of Field is and how to control it.

Depth of field (also known as DOF for short) is the most important thing to understand before shooting a blurry background photo. Depth of field is defined as the range in which the photo is in focus. For example an infinite depth of field means that the photo will be in focus from a certain distance from the camera and up to infinity. When taking a blurry photo the goal is to set the depth of field just around the object. In this way the object is in focus while the background behind it is not.

How do you control the depth of field? After all there is no “depth of field” menu in the camera (wouldn’t that be nice). Depth of field is an optical figure that is influenced by a few factors:

After understanding the theory it is best to go to the field an experiment. You will get a sense of how your photo will look like and how blurry the background will be after playing with different lenses, different apertures and different distances from your object. If you own zoom lenses start with taking photos of a relatively close object while using your zoom lenses. You will find out that it is extremely easy to get a blurry background photo using this method even without setting the aperture. Once you feel comfortable with that setup start changing the aperture and also change to your normal 18mm-55mm or similar lenses.

Most cameras allow to manually change the aperture by putting the camera in “A” mode - while you are changing the aperture the camera will automatically set the shutter speed accordingly. Some cameras allow you to manually set both aperture and shutter speed.

In conclusion shooting dramatic blurry background photos is easy with some minimal understanding of depth of field and some experimenting.

Ziv Haparnas is a technology veteran and writes about practical technology and science issues. This article can be reprinted and used as long as the resource box including the backlink is included. You can find more information about photo album printing and photography in general on http://www.printrates.com - a site dedicated to digital photo printing.

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Digital cameras support many photo shooting modes - from automatic point and shoot to manual where the camera does nothing for you. One of those modes is Aperture Priority. Aperture priority is useful in many situations and deserves a short explanation of what it is and how to use it.

You set the Aperture priority mode by using the camera menus on its LCD in which case you need to browse and choose Aperture priority from the menus or by rotating a modes dial in which case you choose Aperture priority by its symbolic icon (in most cases Aperture priority is symbolized by a capital ‘A’).

In Aperture priority mode you manually set the aperture value. The camera takes care of everything else - for example it sets the optimal shutter speed for the aperture you chose. There are physical limitations and not every aperture value that you choose can be matched by other settings that will result in a good photo. The camera will let you know by flashing a green LED or in some other way (check its manual for more details) if it found the optimal settings that work with your chosen aperture value.

So why bother setting the aperture value manually when you can have the camera set it for you? One good reason is to control the depth of field. Depth of field is defined as the range in which the photo is in focus. For example an infinite depth of field means that the photo is in focus from a certain distance from the camera and up to infinity. A narrow (also known as shallow) depth of field on the other hand means that the photo is in focus only from a certain distance from the camera to another distance which is not further away (or in other words the photo is in focus just around a certain object that is being photographed). The rest of the objects in the photo are out of focus appearing as blurred objects.

The wider the aperture value (the f number decreases) the narrower (shallower) the depth of field and vice versa: the narrower the aperture value (the f number increases) the deeper the depth of field. Just remember that the depth of field changes along with the f number: when the f number increases the depth of field increases and vice versa. A common use for manually controlling the aperture value and achieving a narrow depth of field is when taking portrait photos and trying to blur the background behind of the portrait object.

As always the best way to understand what you can do with different aperture settings is to experiment. In this way you will get a feeling of what aperture values translate to what depth of field. It is important to understand though that the depth of field depends not only on the aperture value but also on the object distance from the camera and the lenses that are used. With digital camera experimenting is free and immediate as there is no film development cost and you can review your photos instantaneously.

Ziv Haparnas is a technology veteran and writes about practical technology and science issues. This article can be reprinted and used as long as the resource box including the backlink is included. You can find more information about photo album printing and photography in general on http://www.printrates.com - a site dedicated to photo printing.

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So much of the writing and discussion about photography is concerned with this acronym. To the technician it stands for “depth of field” for the artist it is “depth of feeling”.

“A great photograph is a full expression of what one feels about what is being photographed in the deepest sense, and is, thereby, a true expression of what one feels about life in its entirety. ” ~Ansel Adams

Depth of field basically means that part of the picture that is in sharp focus. When a photograph is approached with this criterion in mind, the totality of image is ignored. The photograph is rendered mute either by the photographer when this is their primary concern or the viewer who can only see the obvious. It is akin to trying to look at an impressionist painting through the eyes of a super realist.

To make a great photograph, the photographer must be part of the photograph. They must have an opinion about, an attitude towards what they are trying to capture and they must allow this to shine through their work. If the photographer isn’t part of the action, the photograph will be sterile, it will be reportage not art. This is fine for the nightly news or to illustrate the stories with your ham and eggs. But when hung upon your wall will it engage when the event is forgotten?

When depth of feeling is an integral part of the image, it becomes a chatter box. With each viewing it opens up a little more. It ceases to be wall paper and becomes an important member of the family, the wise relative, the raconteur who knows the best values come through entertainment. Almost through osmosis it will impart its secrets to those with an open mind.

“Every time someone tells me how sharp my photos are, I assume that it isn’t a very interesting photograph. If it were, they would have more to say.” ~Author Unknown

Henry Bateman is an artist/photographer. His work can be seen at http://www.pissedpoet.com and this article with pictures at http://www.pissedpoet.com/dof.html

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