 Tam B. Howland |
blur background I am trying to blur the background but seem to be confused, first do I put the camera on Manual? I changed the f Stop to 4, but my pictures come out white....what am I doing wrong. These are outside pictures.
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- Carlton Ward Contact Carlton Ward Carlton Ward's Gallery |
Hi Tam, there are few things to consider here. What shutter speed & ISO were you using ? Even on a bright sunny day, with ISO 100, adjust your shutter speed until the camera meter is centered. If it is a bright day you will need a really fast shutter speed. You also need to consider the distance from your subject and the distance of the background and the specific lens you are using. There are variables between the way the lenses interpret DOF in relation to subject & background. This will take some practice (and maybe a few notes) as you learn the characteristics of a specific lens. Stating that your picture came out white tells me your capture is over-exposed. Do you have a meter displayed in your viewfinder ? This is what you will need to shoot in manual mode so that you can adjust your shutter speed accordingly. There are also techniques in Photoshop that can easily create a blurred background. I use a technique where I duplicate the image and create another layer, paste image and apply "gaussian blur". I then use a paint brush to remove the blur from the image by brushing over the subject which makes the subject sharp again but leaves the background blurred. I would highly recommend taking a "Proper Exposure" type class here at Better Photo. Learning to get proper exposure is fundamental and the most important thing to know & understand about photography.
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Tam B. Howland |
I have a Nikon D80, I have been taking a photo class. From my understanding we were told to set the fstop to 3 or 4 (the lowest I can get my camera to go with this lense 70/300 is 4.5) So if the day is pretty bright what do you think the shutter speed should be? I tried it at 100 and 200.
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Tam B. Howland |
and yes I do have a meter display on my viewfinder
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- Carlton Ward Contact Carlton Ward Carlton Ward's Gallery |
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Bob Cammarata |
1) Zoom out to 300 mm. 2) Set your aperture to a wide setting. 3) Set you shutter speed to correspond with that setting to get proper exposure of a neutral object. 4) ...What Carlton suggested:
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R K Stephenson |
Hi, Tam, To add to what Carlton and Bob said, here is a simple technique for blurring the background: When working with a telephoto or long lens, set your camera to aperture priority and select the widest (or close to the widest) aperture possible. (e.g., f/2.8, f/4.0, etc) Select a focus point to ensure you focus only on the subject. Use ISO (increase as needed) to ensure an appropriate shutter speed, e.g., 1/250s for a 200 mm lens. Unless your subject is very close to the background, you will reliably get a blurred background using this technique. Cheers, RK
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W. |
"1) Zoom out to 300 mm." I take it you mean: zoom IN to 300 mm!
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- Carlton Ward Contact Carlton Ward Carlton Ward's Gallery |
Hi Tam, you can also select AV mode to select your aperture f/4 and the camera will decide the shutter speed and will also compensate for which ISO setting you have selected. You may also use spot focus or manual focus to ensure your subject is sharp. When I started out shooting manual, I would often use auto/AV/TV just as a guide to see what settings the camera selected and then I would use this info for shooting in manual mode, but if you are using the meter as a guide, this is really not necessary. There was a very nice sunrise this morning and I snapped off a few shots of the brilliant sky behind Mt. Si (near Snoqualmie, Wa). Wednesday 02/20 will be a lunar eclipse @ 7pm Pacific time.
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Bob Cammarata |
I guess I'm not familiar with the proper zoom lens nomenclature. I've always thought that one zooms (or extends) the lens OUT to pull IN distant subjects.
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