Focus question

kingsizex · Jan 2, 2012

Hey i'm a beginner and i need to know how to focus on something and blur the background , something like this - http://fotkidepo.ru/photo/238174/2114Z4SmkzNfvr/YIvRfiUNH2/125821.jpg
Thank you

Annerotica · Jan 2, 2012

A great place to start would be a google search for Depth Of Field. It is a very expansive subject and in no way could adequately be covered here in a few lines

. Look forward to seeing some shots from you in the future!

MTVision · Jan 2, 2012

kingsizex said:
Hey i'm a beginner and i need to know how to focus on something and blur the background , something like this - http://fotkidepo.ru/photo/238174/2114Z4SmkzNfvr/YIvRfiUNH2/125821.jpg
Thank you

What kind of camera do you have? Its called depth of field. A shallow depth of field will blur out of the background. You get a shallow depth of field based on your aperture and the distance between you and your subject.

SCraig · Jan 2, 2012

You will have to learn how to use the aperture on your camera to do it, and to do that you'll have to learn about exposure. There is no switch or anything like that. The lower the aperture number (the wider the actual opening) the shorter the depth of field (the portion of the view that is in acceptable focus). The amount of unfocused "Bokeh" depends on the depth of field and where the subject is within it. Sorry, but there is no short answer to your question.

Buckster · Jan 2, 2012

SCraig said:
You will have to learn how to use the aperture on your camera to do it, and to do that you'll have to learn about exposure. There is no switch or anything like that. The lower the aperture number (the wider the actual opening) the shorter the depth of field (the portion of the view that is in acceptable focus). The amount of unfocused "Bokeh" depends on the depth of field and where the subject is within it. Sorry, but there is no short answer to your question.

It can be confusing to a lot of newcomers, but it's actually: "the higher the aperture number, the wider the actual opening, the shorter the depth of field".

What you have to realize is that aperture is given in f stops as a fraction, written like this f/4, f/11, f/32, etc. Now, replace the f with a number and you see it's a fraction. Just for giggles, let's replace it with a "1" to make it easy to understand. Now we have 1/4, 1/11, 1/32, etc. 1/4 is a higher (bigger) number than 1/32, just as a 1/4th of a dollar is more than a 1/32nd of a dollar. :thumbup:

MLeeK · Jan 2, 2012

What do you have for a camera and a lens?

kingsizex · Jan 2, 2012

It's not a very good one... A sony dsc-h3 ... thank you anyways

MLeeK · Jan 2, 2012

Your camera's not a bad one, but achieving what you are wanting is going to be more difficult with it. The sensor size in a point and shoot camera makes it much harder to achieve that shallow depth of field than one in a DSLR. Because the sensor is so small it causes the field of focus to be much larger than it is in a larger sensor camera.
I don't believe you have an aperture priority mode, but you do have manual mode. You are going to need to use manual mode in AMPLE light. Your most important setting is going to be the aperture which you will have to set at 3.5. You cannot use any zoom for the aperture to remain at 3.5. You will also need to be as close to your subject as you can get to it while your subject is a greater distance from the background than the distance between you and the subject. Quite a bit greater.
When your meter or image tells you that you are incredibly over or underexposed you then have to adjust the shutter and the ISO to get proper exposure. If you increase the ISO it's more sensitive to light and you can shoot in lower light situation. If you decrease the shutter speed you can shoot in lower light, but you will also run the chance of blurring the image through movement if you drop below about 1/125 for a live subject.

KmH · Jan 2, 2012

kingsizex said:
It's not a very good one... A sony dsc-h3 ... thank you anyways

Even top-of-the-line professional grade cameras have limitations. Maybe fewer limitations than what your Sony has, but limitiations none the less.

Beginning and unskilled photographers think about cameras. Intermediate photographers think about composition. Advanced photographers think about light.