My first study about photography was about: how to get a blurrier background. In this tutorial I will show you which possibilities you have and what are the advantages and disadvantages it brings. At my first year of learning photography I only did know two possibilities: 1) More distance to the background 2) Bigger aperture-hole.. After years of learning and learning by doing I know there are 3 more ways to realize a blurrier background. I will present you these 5 possibilities in this tutorial.
But at first I want to explain “the field of depth” This is the field which isn’t blurry on the picture. If our Object is in the field of depth it will be completely sharp. Everything in Front and in the Background gets blurry the higher the distance from the field of depth..
Did you don’t know what wide-aperture lens and aperture is? Dann Then I suggest you to read first the tutorial:
Basics – The Aperture. .
Did you also want to know how to use the manual mode of the camera ? Then I suggest to read the second photography tutorial:
Basics – The Exposure Time and the third tutorial: Basics – The ISO
Let’s start with the 5 tips for a blurrier background:
1) Bigger aperture-hole.
Advantage : Blurrier back- and foreground without changing image composition (except the brightness)
Disadvantage: Good wide-aperture lenses are very expensive.
2) Longer focal length.
Advantage: You will have a great blurry background for a low price.
Disadvantage: Objects looks thicker. (this is not recommended for people and portrait photography) you will also see less of the background.
3) More distance to the background.
Advantage: You don’t have to change the camera or the lens.
Disadvantage: You will need a lot of free space and you will see more of the background on the picture.
4) Less distance to the object or model.
Advantage: It’s really easy and you don’t need to change the camera or lens.
Disadvantage: You will not always have the possibility to reduce the distance.
5) Bigger camera sensor. (Full frame cameras make a background blurrier as a small format camera)
Advantage: : At the same f-number (size of aperture-hole) you will get a blurrier background.
Disadvantage: Full frame cameras costs a lot more.
Next week: Perspective distortion
XX
Nico Treeman
