Photography confusion, putting the background is in soft focus

[JDC]

I know there are a few camera hobbyists on here, what's the best way to take those pictures where the background in soft focus but the subject is still sharp and clear?

I've read having a tiny f/stop number helps as is being close to the subject. Not sure what else helps, one site suggested the size of sensor makes a difference, I'm guessing this has a far bit of truth to it given that I did some test shots with a cheap point and shoot at f3.5 (I think) and the results were not that great. I know I'll need to buy something new to do shots like this unless I attempt to fake it in photoshop.

Are high end point and shoot cameras good at this or is this something that really needs an SLR?

[FELINEGUITARS]

 A DSLR will give you the ability to set the f stop - some compacts will also do this
 A small f-stop number gives you the aperture wide open and this results in a shallow depth of field
If you focus on the subject in the foreground then the background will fall away
However you can find that sometimes you can get too shallow a depth of field - so a models nose is in focus but their hair is not , so some experimenting is useful.

If you light the subject in the foreground nicely you can also get the background to fade into shadows too if the background is more than a metre or two behind the subject

I have gone the opposite direction for photographing guitars - I flood the subject with light and use the smallest aperture available  giving me more depth of field - my recent pix have been more in focus than those I took over a year ago before I got the more powerful lighting.

[_tom_]

Jonathan summed it up nicely :)

[Frank]

I'm terrible at photography but I did manage to snap one good pic of the transit of Venus yesterday.

[Philly Q]

I'm terrible at photography but I did manage to snap one good pic of the transit of Venus yesterday.

 :lol:  I heard that joke on Nicky Campbell's radio show this morning.... but he had (or was sent) a picture of Venus Williams in said vehicle.

[hunter]

If you have an iPhone, there is an app called Tadaa! which simulates depth blur very nicely. You can adjust the field of sharpness in all kinds of ways dragging the focus lines on the screen.

[38thBeatle]

Just to add to what has been said- the depth of field is important. This is dependent upon the "f" setting and a setting of, say f16 will give you a greater depth of field than a setting of, say, f 5. This means that more things will be in focus with the f16 setting than if you'd have used the f5 setting.

[Andrew W]

All of what has been written is true but I will chuck one other notion into the pot. Lenses are designed to work optimally at a certain f-stop, usually toward the middle of their range (say f8 on a lens that goes from f1.8-f22). If you use the lens wide open (to get a shallow depth of field and throw the background out of focus) your whole image, even the bits that "in focus", might actually be a bit soft. Same goes for the other extreme, maximum depth of field may not actually mean that anything is particularly sharp. This may not bother you but if you start shooting at the extreme ends of a lens's aperture range and nothing looks that sharp, this may be the reason for it. Some lenses behave better in this regard, others, like my 28mm f1.8 Canon lens are pretty awful once you get away from the sweet spot.

There's a pretty comprehensive article on depth of field on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depth_of_field

[JDC]

Thanks for all the info! I've had a massive youtube binge on photography/photoshop, it's all really interesting. Makes me want a really nice camera, did a test shoot with an old point and shoot and got a slightly out of focus background, in the end I resorted to photoshop, my results were decent for a rather rushed first attempt.

If you have an iPhone, there is an app called Tadaa!

I don't have an iphone but that app looks awesome!!!

I have gone the opposite direction for photographing guitars - I flood the subject with light and use the smallest aperture available  giving me more depth of field - my recent pix have been more in focus than those I took over a year ago before I got the more powerful lighting.

What kind of light set up are you using?

I get the impression that a key part of good photography basically comes down to trying to manipulate light so that the camera doesn't have to compensate; as shown in a youtube video of a professional shoot performed with an iphone 3GS

[Andrew W]

I get the impression that a key part of good photography basically comes down to trying to manipulate light so that the camera doesn't have to compensate; as shown in a youtube video of a professional shoot performed with an iphone 3GS

It also depends what kind of light you like. I don't really like flash very much and just use natural light for everything I shoot. I am lucky in that I have tall windows in my flat which makes for a nice soft directional light on overcast days and that works for me. This does mean I am limited a bit in what set-ups I can do but it's a look I like. A couple of examples of photos taken in just daylight in the flat:

[Roobubba]

Nice photos there, Andrew (expect of course the horrible telecaster :P)!

JDC - in addition to playing with the aperture (which is most powerfully done with an SLR, I'm afraid!), using a relatively high power zoom lens and separating the subject from the background will lead to compression that has a similar effect to the out-of-focus blur from using a very wide aperture. Used in combination (ie a 200-400mm zoom lens with f/4.0 or wider aperture) can get you some astonishing shots, but this really doesn't help you specifically I'm afraid!!

While you'll struggle to achieve some of these with a compact camera, getting the subject as close as possible and separating from the background is probably your best bet.

Good luck!

Roo

[FELINEGUITARS]

I have gone the opposite direction for photographing guitars - I flood the subject with light and use the smallest aperture available  giving me more depth of field - my recent pix have been more in focus than those I took over a year ago before I got the more powerful lighting.

What kind of light set up are you using?

I get the impression that a key part of good photography basically comes down to trying to manipulate light so that the camera doesn't have to compensate; as shown in a youtube video of a professional shoot performed with an iphone 3GS

http://www.profoto.com/d1/

[JDC]

Nice light! I can't believe it costs more than a budget DSLR

[ethanmorries]

This was insightful indeed.I appreciate your enthusiasm.This is so cool and impressive .



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