I am VERY new at all of this. Honestly, I just ordered a book for "Dummies" on how to use my camera (Canon T3). Being so new, I am experimenting a lot. I wanted to take a pic of my kids watching something on tv. They were both on bean bags, at the same height. My son was closer but I wanted the focus to be my daughter (further away). How do I blurr the foreground without doing it in editing?
Thanks.
Hi Sarah, I'm sure some one will explain this better than I can but ... to blur any part of the shot, you want to put that part outside the depth of field (that being the part of the shot that is in focus). The higher the f-stop number the bigger/wider the depth of field.
Try putting your camera on Av mode and selecting the lowest f-stop available on your lens (e.g. f/5.6 or smaller) and focus on the part of the shot you want in focus.
Depending on the lens and f-stop/aperture you have available to you, you might want to try getting closer to the subject.
HH - i think with your suggestions, you have to focus manually, right? so you'd have to take it off the autofocus setting...
if i'm right, then i think the other thing you can do is leave it on autofocus, but adjust your points of focus to just 1, use that one point to focus on your daughter by clicking part way, then hold the shutter button half-way down while you compose the shot the way you want it and then click all the way down... i think this would get the effect you are after (but you still need to do what HH is suggesting in terms of using aperture priority at lowest f stop number)...
@humphreyhippo@northy ...Thank you so much. Im going to try this. I feel like I'm going into all this blind. Wish me luck and fingers crossed. Thank you again!
I found this site very informative. Don't worry if it doesn't make sense the first time around, I keep rereading and rereading and rereading, I find something new to try every time, and to understand. http://www.fredparker.com/ultexp1.htm
@northy@serramom this should work with either manual or auto-focus, but I'd go with @northy 's suggestion of single point auto-focus in this case.
Good luck!
Write a Reply
Sign up for a free account or Sign in to post a comment.
Tweets ahoy!
Join the Group
Pin With Me
Try putting your camera on Av mode and selecting the lowest f-stop available on your lens (e.g. f/5.6 or smaller) and focus on the part of the shot you want in focus.
Depending on the lens and f-stop/aperture you have available to you, you might want to try getting closer to the subject.
HH - i think with your suggestions, you have to focus manually, right? so you'd have to take it off the autofocus setting...
if i'm right, then i think the other thing you can do is leave it on autofocus, but adjust your points of focus to just 1, use that one point to focus on your daughter by clicking part way, then hold the shutter button half-way down while you compose the shot the way you want it and then click all the way down... i think this would get the effect you are after (but you still need to do what HH is suggesting in terms of using aperture priority at lowest f stop number)...
http://www.fredparker.com/ultexp1.htm
(I am not associated with that site.)
Good luck!