One question that I get asked the most is how to get that cool blurry background photo? If you are a budding photographer and are going to use an actual camera to get this type of photo, here are some quick tips and tricks on how to get that cool blurry background photo.
If you do not know what the buttons and dials on your camera are for than you need to find the manual to answer these next questions. Look to see if you are able to use your camera in manual settings. If so, find out which button puts your camera on manual, which button or dial makes your Aperture (also referred to as F Stop) number move and which button or dial makes your Shutter Speed move.
“How wide the shutter is opening”
Remember this phrase… βthe smaller the number, the bigger the opening.β Depending on your lens, is depending on how large of an opening you can have. Most standard lenses start at 3.5-5.6. This means you cannot get the opening any larger than 3.5 with this lens.
The larger the opening, the more ‘depth of field‘ you have.’ Depth of field’ means… cool blurry background and foreground. So if you have a low number (bigger opening), your camera will only be totally focused on wherever your point of focus is (that little dot in the center of your screen that tells your camera where to focus) and everything else will be out of focus – blurry.
We are not going to get into shutter speeds in this blog post. However I want you to know that the shutter speed is HOW FAST the shutter opens and closes. We will talk about shutter speeds in a later blog post. π
Let’s choose a quick way to start using what you just learned about aperture. Look in your manual to see where you can set your camera to “Aperture priority mode.” This means that YOU CHOOSE your aperture and your camera will compensate and choose the shutter speed. Thus, still getting a properly exposed image.
After you get comfortable using the aperture priority mode, than you can start experimenting using the manual mode which is normally marked as an “M.” Then you can choose the shutter and the aperture.
If you want to see a really big difference, use a zoom lens on your camera and set it to it’s lowest number aperture (F-Stop), stand back from your subject and zoom in on them. OR, purchase a 1.8 or 2.8 fixed lens. Fixed means it will not zoom at all. You are the zoom with a fixed lens. It is the most inexpensive way to get that ‘cool blurry effect’ without having to purchase the really expensive lenses that have multiple zoom options and low F-Stops.
A word of warning… If you are photographing a big group, (or anything at more than one distance) you need to take into consideration the depth of the group. There will be distance in each row. You don’t want to have a wide aperture like 3.5 or only one row of your subjects will be in focus. With a group like this, the widest you want to go is f8.
These were all taken with a wide aperture/f-stop. So set your camera at a low number.
Well, there yah have it! Now you know how to get that cool blurry background photo! I challenge you to set your camera to aperture priority setting and go out and practice what I just taught you. Please comment with any questions and I’ll try to answer them for you. I’d love for you to post some of your photos in the comment section below! Happy picture taking!
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