blured background/dof-help-i'm new with digital

[jennifer_ecker]

<p>I'm new to photo.net and have really enjoyed reading all the forums! About me-I've been taking photo's of my son and anyone else I can for the past 13 years or so. I was given a Canon AE1 film camera with a 50mm & 135mm lens a very long time ago... I learned so much on that camera just by using it. I've taken lots of bad pictures and lots of great pictures!<br>

I recently decided to do something about my love for photography and start a business. My main focus will be children. I bought last week a Canon Rebel XS in a kit with a 18-55 lens & a 75-300 lens. Oh my... what a different world digital is...<br>

Okay, my question is- well first please look at this gal's blog: <a href="http://melissacorcoranphoto.com/blog/">http://melissacorcoranphoto.com/blog/</a> The 3rd set of pics down, the family with the 2 little kids. I am in love with these photo's and I NEED to know how she did it. I do realize the sun setting has a lot to do with the lighting but my main question is how did she get the back ground so blured? Is it photo shop? Is it a certain lens? What setting did she use on her camera?<br>

Any feedback would be wonderful!!<br>

Thank you!!!</p>

[SCL]

<p>It looks like good lighting, reflectors, perhaps use of flash fill lighting, relatively large aperture...but you will note the DOF generally encompasses the full depth of each body. She may have used studio backgrounds (preprinted muslin) rather than on location shots, as well. Have you tried contacting the photographer directly? We can only speculate about the specifics, she can, if she desires, give you the actual details.</p>

[andrewg_ny]

<p>Background blur could also be increased digitally, though I don't know whether or not that was done here--you'd have to ask. Note that your current lenses are not particularly fast--only offer moderate maximum apertures. Furthermore, the smaller-than-film sensor on your Rebel XS further limits the ability to limit depth-of-field by about 1 stop when compared to a 35mm film camera.</p>

[mike_hollander]

<p>I don't think it's a studio backdrop. The little boy is handling the straws of hay in one picture and the straws and vegetation seem to extend continuously from the foreground into the blurry background in the last picture. It would take some serious doing to stage that in a studio.</p>

<p>I'm guessing that simply the focal length is longer than one might guess. In the last photo, the whole family is in focus, but the perspective is pretty flat. I'd say the lens is simply long enough to throw the background out of focus.</p>

<p>It looks to me like the hazy daylight comes from behind the subjects and the photographer has then used reflectors or flashes to fill in, and done quite a bit of post-processing. Especially the third picture (the little boy with the hat) makes me think that the backlight is not a flash.</p>

[accystan]

<p>Jennifer: I think with your eqpt. you will probably only be able to get part-way to the degree of 'out-of-focus' background she's achieved. However the things you need to do to approach the pics you referred to would be to open your lens up (f/5.6 I think?) and shoot into the sun (i.e. with the sun off at about 45deg to your left or right). That way you'll get some rim lighting. I'd also use a reflector in front of and below the subjects. Don't forget the lens hood!<br />Because your lens won't open up enough to give that quantity/quality of blur (bokeh seems to be the latest buzz word) you need to choose a b/g that's further away. You could, if you have P/shop, always enhance it later.<br />Sometimes you can download a pic. you're curious about, load it into Photoshop and find out the details, (f/stop, shutter speed, lens length etc.) but I don't think so here. Asking is probably your best route<br />Good luck, Dave D</p>

[jennifer_ecker]

<p>I love the responses! Thank you.<br>

Dave-What lens should I buy to help me out with these kinds of shots?</p>

[picturesque]

<p>Telephoto lenses (mostly) with wide apertures. Use your 50mm lens at f1.8 or whatever you need for the right Depth of Field. Research DOF. Read the thread below called "Bokeh". These do not look like Photoshop blur enhancements. Your kit lens and the 70-300mm will not give you the same kind of effect because the don't open up as wide (aperture).</p>

[Matt Laur]

<p>Definitely give your 50/1.8 a try, so you can understand the mechanics of the technique. But fair warning: while any 50mm lens, used at a wide aperture from the same distance will throw the background equally out of focus, <em>not</em> all 50mm lenses will produce the same <em>quality</em> of background blur. It's in that context that you usually hear the term "bokeh" (as in, lens X has better bokeh than lens Y).<br /><br />Unfortunately, you need the combination of a fast lens and a lens that's been built in a way that renders the background in that pleasing, buttery way - rather than as a jarring, edgy sort of way. The lenses with the creamy, appealing bokeh tend to be more expensive, and some are downright famous for it. If you start digging through these forums for "portrait lens" and "bokeh" you'll come across many discussions on the subject, along with specific comparisons.<br /><br />It the look you linked to is really calling to you, you're going to want to start thinking about a lens or two in the $400+ (emphasis on the "+" part) neighborhood.</p>

[jim_momary]

<p>Jennifer -<br>

Here's a shot with the 50mm 1.8, @ F5.6 with on-camera flash and one off camera strobe. Tried to match the scene brightness with fill flash. The Camera is the D200, with smaller sensor, so my field of view is ~75mm. For me and my squirmy granddaughter, that's a pretty good fit. Just takes a lot of practice, and digital gives you that 'Polaroid" instant feedback.<br>

Good luck.<br>

Jim</p><div></div>

[john_a5]

<p>To be honest, the blur in those shots don't look totally in camera effects. There is something else going on. But you can get a great deal of blur with a very long fast lens. Fashion photographers routinely use 300mm f2.8 lenses wide open. These might be done in a similar manner, but I still think there is something else going on, it is just the nature of the blur that doesn't look organic.</p>

[tommyinca]

<p>My guess, EF200/1.8 full frame near f2</p>

[scott_murphy_photography]

<p>Using something like a 180mm f/2.8 lens (on a 35mm or FX camera) and setting the aperture to f/4 and using weak (-1.5 stops) fill flash on or off the camera would duplicate these shots perfectly. The only trick is balancing ISO and shutter speed so you can stay under your max flash synch speed.</p>

[henricus]

<p>No need to guess. It doesn't matter how he did it. Learn to shoot shallow <a href="http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/fototech/htmls/depth.html">depth of field</a> with your existing lenses. There is a ton of stuff online that can help you do this now. When you get confident at doing that, look into <a href="http://www.lensbaby.com/">Lensbaby's</a>. These lenses use an old idea in a modern way to get really small and customizable depths of field (DOF). Using digital blur works too, but IMHO doesn't look as good as the real thing.</p><div></div>