hopenfox Posted October 30, 2007 Share Posted October 30, 2007 I love the way professional photos have blurry backgrounds - like this one taken of Fox; My macro setting does it nicely for photos of little things, but how do I get the same effect in photos of my dogs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*Bella* Posted October 30, 2007 Share Posted October 30, 2007 (edited) My camera does it for me on auto mode. I find the closer you are (or are zoomed) and focused on the object, the blurrier the background gets. Here's a couple of mine Edited October 30, 2007 by *Bella* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
persephone Posted October 30, 2007 Share Posted October 30, 2007 (edited) Maybe try having a larger aperture opening? From memory, the smaller the aperture opening, the more is included in the focus. With a larger opening, the 'depth of field' is a lot narrower, so the main object is all that is in focus. This opening has numbers , preceded by an F..eg F3.2 (widest opening), F22(narrowest opening) If you do reduce the aperture to a 5.6 or 3.2..you will need to INCREASE the shutter speed, or there will be way too much light coming in to 'overexpose ' the pic. practise on something ouside... play with the aperture numbers... and the exposure times/shutter speeds! take a couple of pics on each setting..then have a look on your puter, and see which ones give you the effect you like most :D also..having an F stop of F8 or higher usually gives a crisper,clearer photo.. altho you get more background. *Bella* GREAT pics Edited October 30, 2007 by persephone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wagsalot Posted October 30, 2007 Share Posted October 30, 2007 What type of camera do you have hopenfox? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
persephone Posted October 30, 2007 Share Posted October 30, 2007 What type of camera do you have hopenfox? see what happens when one THINKS? they ask sensible questions!! *tries to put brain in gear* :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Purple Julie Posted October 30, 2007 Share Posted October 30, 2007 On behalf of Hopenfox, I believe she has an excellent Ricoh point and shoot camera and won't be able to adjust aperture. Hopenfox, you need to do what I did and buy a digital SLR camera to get blurry background shots , then follow Persephone's instructions on aperture. My Ricoh P&S takes excellent macro photos with blurry backgrounds, but I couldn't get normal pictures with a blurry background. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
persephone Posted October 30, 2007 Share Posted October 30, 2007 I don't have a DSLR , but my finepix S5600 does have manual options, as well as an excellent auto function! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wagsalot Posted October 30, 2007 Share Posted October 30, 2007 I had a panasonic lumix which is a point and shoot before I got the SLR and that automatically blurred my backgrounds. Im not sure if I changed anything to get it like that though (it was a while ago!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hopenfox Posted October 31, 2007 Author Share Posted October 31, 2007 On behalf of Hopenfox, I believe she has an excellent Ricoh point and shoot camera and won't be able to adjust aperture.Hopenfox, you need to do what I did and buy a digital SLR camera to get blurry background shots , then follow Persephone's instructions on aperture. My Ricoh P&S takes excellent macro photos with blurry backgrounds, but I couldn't get normal pictures with a blurry background. How disappointing Purple Julie! I was so hoping there would be a way (using the different focus options maybe) for me to blur the backgrounds using my camera (it's a Ricoh Caplio R30). Hopefully one day I can afford a digital SLR... Thanks for that info persephone, I'm sure it will come in handy for me one day (and for others here). Really nice photos *Bella* - that's exactly what I would like mine to look like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freckles Posted October 31, 2007 Share Posted October 31, 2007 hopenfox, the only other thing to do is edit your photos once on your computer. This is not a good shot but works well to show how editing can be your friend before (raw shot) after (edited to blur back ground) Good luck with your search to finding what you want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Purple Julie Posted October 31, 2007 Share Posted October 31, 2007 I was so hoping there would be a way (using the different focus options maybe) for me to blur the backgrounds using my camera (it's a Ricoh Caplio R30). My Ricoh Caplio G4 doesn't have focus options, so I don't know about them. Maybe there is something that you could do with them and still have hope that you will get nice blurry backgrounds. Otherwise, take macro photos of your dogs body parts, eg. eye, ear, paw, blade of fur, etc! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hopenfox Posted November 3, 2007 Author Share Posted November 3, 2007 Freckles - How did you go about blurring the background by editing? (Step-by-step instructions would be great!) Purple Julie - It's not the same! I actually tried taking a macro photo of Fox's head in the hope the background would blur. It did a bit, but not enough... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hopenfox Posted November 3, 2007 Author Share Posted November 3, 2007 This is the one I took with the macro setting; Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAG Posted November 7, 2007 Share Posted November 7, 2007 Does your camera have a portrait setting? The picture of a head on the dial. This setting blurs the background. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freckles Posted November 7, 2007 Share Posted November 7, 2007 (edited) Ok it was very easy to do that picture and here how I did. With this photo I used Photoshop elements. On the raw picture I used the lasso to pick out the flower and cut the flower out. I then use the filter option and blur. You can try out a few different types of blur to pick which effect you like most. I used Gaussian Blur there, then paste the flower back over the top. So the back ground was blurred and the flower stays nice and clear. I did reduce the size of the background a touch so the flower went back on without having cut edges showing, but only enough so it still looks natural. Then merge the layers and you're done. Was that clear enough? Oh this same method works in a number of editing programs, Also when using the lasso use the magnetic lasso it picks out the edges almost automatically and neater than I can doing it by tracing free hand Good luck Edited November 7, 2007 by Freckles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*Bella* Posted November 8, 2007 Share Posted November 8, 2007 (edited) This is the one I took with the macro setting; Is this the sort of effect you are looking for? This was two levels of blurring, you can keep going until its undefinable mush if you want I did it in Photoshop CS using the blur tool, very easy, just selected the blur tool and brushed it over the background avoiding the dog. ETA - only problem is to buy Photoshop CS3 it costs nearly as much as my camera did, so you'd be better putting the $$ on a Digital SLR Edited November 8, 2007 by *Bella* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsD Posted November 14, 2007 Share Posted November 14, 2007 Bella, what sort of camera have you got? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*Bella* Posted November 14, 2007 Share Posted November 14, 2007 Bella, what sort of camera have you got? Canon 400D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rainey Posted November 14, 2007 Share Posted November 14, 2007 (edited) To get this effect you really need to be shooting with a very fast shutter speed and a low F-stop setting (wide aperture). I have a fixed focus 50mm lens that stops down to F1.8 which is great for the depth of field effect. It always helps to be physically closer to the subject you would like in-focus as well. If you are miles away, the effect will be reduced. Edited November 15, 2007 by Rainey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vickie Posted November 15, 2007 Share Posted November 15, 2007 What beautiful shots Rainey! I have been trying to get a 50mm on Ebay for a while, but they always go over my price range. After seeing these I'm going back to look. The lowest F-Stop I can get on either of my lenses is 4.5. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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