How to Blur Background

Very Beautiful. I am still learning this.. I seem not to be able to get the blury background down..Like many others can. It's driving me nuts.. But I digress.. This your thread.. lol very very pretty

Originally Posted by DWPhotos

150mm F/2.8D, ISO 500, f=13 @ 1/320


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Hi Megan
What lens are you using and what f-stop is it set at? The "blur" is totally a function of aperture, the more open the aperture (smaller number) the more "blur" you'll get behind your focus target.

I've tried with 5.6 and and smaller.. I just can't seem to get it right. I know SS has something to do with it. I even tried doing it in Aperture Priority. Does it matter what Focus setting you have it on?

No, the focus priority shouldn't have any effect on the bokeh. What lens are you using?

It is a AF-S 18-105MM LENS 1:3.5-5.6G

moved to it's own thread...

Hi Megan.

As the 18-105 is a fairly slow (but still excellent) lens - for this experiment go outside or somewhere with excellent available light. Set your camera in aperture priority, choose the widest aperture available (which I believe is 3.5). In aperture priority the camera will select the shutter speed for you.

Okay, say you want to focus on a flower and blur the background now. With the 18-105 in A mode, set at f/3.5 and a MAX. zoom of 105mm: experiment with getting a blurred background by standing at various distances from your subject. Also try to have your subject moved forward away from any wall or background just to emphasize this effect. So try standing say away from your subject about 10 feet, use MAXIMUM zoom (i.e. extend your lens all the way out to 105mm) and focus and shoot on your subject. Try doing this at varying distances from your subject with the same settings. I think you'll have some results that are closer to what you are looking for.

Megan - Check out the free Digital Photography book that Phillydog posted. It has a very good chapter on DOF and achieving a pleasing background blur.

http://nikonites.com/general-photogr...ndle-book.html

Awesome, Thanks ya'll

Sometimes, you not only wanted to play with background in your pictures. Do that with the foreground too, just for fun:

They are both taken with glass wide opened and OOC images.