{"id":403,"date":"2025-03-26T06:56:54","date_gmt":"2025-03-26T06:56:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lumefind.com\/?p=403"},"modified":"2022-07-01T14:54:52","modified_gmt":"2022-07-01T14:54:52","slug":"the-secret-photography-ingredients-to-getting-blurred-backgrounds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lumefind.com\/?p=403","title":{"rendered":"The Secret Photography Ingredients to Getting Blurred Backgrounds"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the things I see many photographers ask each other is, \u201cHow do I get that blurry background? \u00a0That bokeh I see everywhere? \u00a0What lens does that?\u201d \u00a0While we may not always want a blurred background, it can really help in situations where you want to provide a distinct separation between your subject(s) and the background. \u00a0Well, it\u2019s not just a specific lens, and there are a number of factors that can play into a blurred background. \u00a0This may sound complicated, but once you understand all the factors, it\u2019s really easy to start getting beautifully blurred backgrounds in your photos when you would like to have them.<\/p>\n

Hot tip: \u00a0All photos in this blog will have settings below the photo. \u00a0Each photo was edited with MCP Lightroom Presets from a variety of sets and all were formatted for this blog using the Display It For Web set for Lightroom.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Secret Ingredient 1: Depth of field<\/h4>\n

The first thing to understand when learning about getting a blurry background is depth of field. \u00a0There are other factors, but depth of field (DOF) is a big one. \u00a0Depth of field is the name for the depth (front to back) of your focal plane. \u00a0What exactly is a focal plane? \u00a0A focal plane is the amount of your photo that is in focus, and it is parallel to your camera\u2019s sensor (and essentially the front \u00a0of your lens). \u00a0It theoretically goes up and down and side to side to infinity, but its front to back width, or depth, is finite based on the factors below. \u00a0Think of it as a large sheet of glass that has a varying front to back depth depending on the factors below. \u00a0All of the factors combine to create the depth of field of each shot. \u00a0Can you actually see it? \u00a0Well, you\u2019re obviously not going to see a pane of glass through your photo but in some instances you can see the focal plane run right through the photo, like in the example below. \u00a0It\u2019s just a slice of focus.<\/p>\n

\"focal-plane-example<\/p>\n

<\/h4>\n

Secret Ingredient 2:\u00a0Aperture<\/h4>\n

Aperture is one of the factors that impacts depth of field. \u00a0The wider your aperture (smaller f number), the narrower your depth of field. \u00a0This means you will have a very small area from front to back in focus. \u00a0Conversely, the narrower your aperture (larger f number), the wider your depth of field will be. \u00a0You will have a much wider focal plane from front to back. \u00a0So a lens at f8 will have a much wider DOF than at f2.<\/p>\n

Secret Ingredient 3:\u00a0Focal length<\/h4>\n

The longer the focal length of your lens at a given aperture, the wider your depth of field will be. \u00a0The shorter\u00a0your focal length, the narrower your depth of field. \u00a0So a lens at 24mm will have a wider depth of field than a lens at 70mm, given all other factors are equal.<\/p>\n

Secret Ingredient 4:\u00a0Distance from subject<\/h4>\n

The closer you are to your subject, the narrower your depth of field will be. \u00a0The farther away you are, the wider it will be. \u00a0If you are at f4 at 70mm and are 4 feet away from your subject, your depth of field will be much narrower than if you were at f4 and 70mm and 15 feet away from your subject. \u00a0This is also the reason why, with macro lenses, the depth of field is extremely thin, even with narrower apertures: \u00a0because you are so very close to your subject. \u00a0In the example below, I was at 70mm (a somewhat long focal length) and 2.8 (a fairly wide aperture; it was sundown and I opened my lens as wide as I could so as not to raise the ISO super high). \u00a0These two factors point towards a narrow depth of field much of the time. \u00a0However, my subjects that I focused on, those little surfers out in the water, were a good 50 yards away from me, so my depth of field was actually quite deep and there is relatively little blur or out of focus area in the photo except for a bit in the foreground.<\/p>\n

\"wide-dof<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Some of the best advice I can give you is to play around with these three factors to get an understanding of depth of field. \u00a0Take the same photo at the same focal length and the same aperture but get farther from your subject each time and see how your focal plane depth changes. \u00a0Or, take the same photo with the same focal length and same distance from subject and narrow your aperture with each photo. \u00a0You will be able to see how there is more in focus each time.<\/p>\n

So how does this help me and how does this relate to a blurred background?<\/h3>\n

Well, first of all, understanding depth of field will allow you to understand what settings you need in getting your desired subject(s) in focus. \u00a0You need to understand that if your focal plane is only 6 inches wide and you have three rows of people that are four feet deep total, your subjects are not all going to be in focus. \u00a0This is a very important concept to understand. \u00a0But also, since everything that is not in the plane of focus won\u2019t actually BE in focus, it will be blurred. \u00a0so, everything behind your focal plane (and sometimes in front, depending on how you frame and how wide your DOF is) will be blurred. \u00a0The wider your aperture\/longer your focal length\/closer your distance to subject (or a combination of the three), the more blur there will be.<\/p>\n

So, it\u2019s that easy? \u00a0There\u2019s nothing else I need to knowWell, there is one more piece. \u00a0And with blur, this is probably the most important part. \u00a0That piece is\u00a0the distance of your subject from the background.<\/strong> \u00a0You could be shooting at a wide aperture and a moderately long focal length and be quite close to your subject, but if your subject is right up against a wall or bush or any background item, there is going to be little to none of that blur you\u2019re looking for. \u00a0You need to pull them as far away from the background as you can for the most blur.<\/p>\n

In this example, I had two of the three factors that set me up for a narrow depth of field and set the stage for good blur: \u00a0wide aperture and long focal length. \u00a0I wasn\u2019t extremely close to her but given my focal length I wasn\u2019t too far either. \u00a0What really dialed in that great background blur was how far she was from the background, though; approximately 200 yards. \u00a0The long focal length makes it appear closer but all the other factors still give a nice blur.<\/p>\n

\"distance-from-background-1<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t always need to have a wide aperture or super long focal length for a blurry background, though. \u00a0In my next example, which is actually straight from the camera, my focal length is shorter than in my last example, and my aperture is all the way up at 7.1. \u00a0So how do I get such a blur to the background? \u00a0Two factors: \u00a0one is that my subjects (my nail polish bottles!) are quite a distance from the green background. \u00a0The other reason is that I shot relatively close to my subjects, only about three feet away. \u00a0You can see in this photo, like the original photo in the post, the focal plane running right across the photo, on the deck board.<\/p>\n

\"distance-from-background-2<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Once you learn all the factors that come into play to get a nice background blur, it becomes second nature. \u00a0You can truly get blur with any lens, even kit lenses, so play around with all the factors mentioned above and see what you can do!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the things I see many photographers ask each other is,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":404,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-photography-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lumefind.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lumefind.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lumefind.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lumefind.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lumefind.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=403"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lumefind.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":553,"href":"https:\/\/www.lumefind.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403\/revisions\/553"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lumefind.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lumefind.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lumefind.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lumefind.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}