How to blur city lights

[Nessy024]

does anyone know how to blur city lights when take a picture? Lowering the apeture is not enough to make it loke the following picture....Like this......Google Images

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[Twisted]

Looks like its a focus technique to me.

[Nessy024]

So if i wanted to put a person in front will i be able to focus on them and still make the background like that?

[Twisted]

So if i wanted to put a person in front will i be able to focus on them and still make the background like that?

That question is above my ability. Some more experienced guys should chime in shortly.

[analog.universe]

In your example, nothing is in focus, which would lead me to believe the lens was focused close up, and the lights were a decent distance away. The aperture also looks like it was wide open, since the circles are completely round, with no traces of iris blades.

If you wanted a person in focus with this type of background, you need a lens with a large aperture (low minimum f-stop). You should also place the subject relatively close to the camera, and the background lights relatively far away. Even if you don't have a large aperture lens, experiment with subject and background distances to see if you get the effect you're looking for.

[Schwettylens]

Just like video I did

[bigtwinky]

Those lights are simply out of focus, not blurry. It has nothing to do with aperture.
If you were to throw a person in there, they would be out of focus as well.

You could put a person in there and shoot at a very wide aperture, have lots of distance between them and the lights in back, and they would be a different blurry, the typical bokeh blurry from what you are doing.

[that1guy]

a apeture aroun 1.8 is good... and manual focus i do it all the time might want to include a tripod to reduce motion blur

[JustinL]

your describing bokeh, its done by shooting at a larger aperture usually around 1.4-2.8

i shot this real quick in front of a stand of chrismas lights...