3 Ways To Blur The Background Of A Photograph

The aperture setting is identified by an “A” and sometimes an “Av” on certain Canon models. Aperture is the size of the hole in the lens through which light travels, similar to the pupil of an eye. [2] X Research source Aperture is measured in f-numbers (Ex: f/1. 4), known as “f-stops”. And while it may sound confusing, the larger the f-stop, the smaller the f-stop. So a f/1. 4 will have a larger aperture (hole) than a f/2. A smaller f-stop will create a larger depth of field and be able to separate the foreground and background better, blurring the background. Use the lowest F-stop number that your camera allows. [3] X Expert Source Cory RyanProfessional Wedding Photographer Expert Interview. 3 April 2020.

To better blur the background of your photograph you want to create enough distance between the camera and the subject so that you can zoom on your camera to better focus it on your foreground. In addition, the further your subject is from the background, the easier it will be to get a nice blurred look. Depending on your lens, play with this distance having your subject stand 5, 10, or 15 feet away from the background.

Focus directly on the eyes. Note: The nose, ears and hair will be in varying degrees of focus. At smaller apertures, the background of a shot will be in focus. At larger apertures, the background will be blurred.

If you have a very long lens, this might still be quite far away from your subject. If you only have the lens your camera came with, you may have to stand closer to the subject. You should still try and get a fair amount of zoom on your camera, and in general, you will be closer to your subject than your subject is from the background. Play around with zoom and snap a couple of test photos to see if you’re getting close to the desired results.

Try different shutter speeds to balance the background blur you want against the subject blur you don’t want. Try a 1/125 second shutter speed to begin. Keep your body and the camera as steady as possible. Track the subject through the viewfinder and ensure your camera is focusing properly on the subject. Take the photo with confidence. This technique uses the blurred background to highlight the motion of the subject, whereas background blurred solely through a shallow depth of field is used to make the subject stand out from its surroundings.

The portrait mode is found on the dial usually under the “P” or the little image of a woman. Switch your dial to Portrait mode to have your camera automatically adjust your aperture and shutter speed.

Move your cursor to fill in one of the other boxes that will be closest to where your subject’s eyes are. This will allow the camera to automatically focus the most on your selected area, blurring the rest out the further away from the focus area an object is.

If you are taking a photo of your subject in front of say, a wall, then try and move them 10 or so feet away from the wall. With your portrait mode set, your camera should be able to blur the background on its own.

You’ll have to play with distance here depending on how far your lens can zoom. You want to be able to zoom in as far as possible while still getting both your subject and some background in the shot. [6] X Research source This method will mean that there will be less background in your photo, but it will help you get the desired effect. Your subject will remain the same and only the background will shrink if you zoom correctly. But it will help to blur the background.

At the top of your screen will see options for brush size, and strength of your stroke. You can adjust these to your liking. For a portrait style photo with a fair amount of background you can select a larger brush size. Hold down your mouse and move it over the background of your photo to blur it. Keep in mind that this technique does not create true depth - it blurs everything in the background uniformly rather than independently based on distance from the lens. An image blurred “in camera” collects visual information from a scene that a Photoshop blurred image can never obtain because the data is not there in a Photoshop file. The “in camera” image is a much truer and organic image/record.

Now your entire image will be blurred out. But because you have the original image as a layer under this one, you can use the erase tool to erase the blur over the part of your photo you want in focus. Once you have done that, go to Layer > Flatten Image. This will flatten the two layers into one, with your blurred background.

In your Layers panel right-click on your background layer, the image, and select “Convert to Smart Object”. From your top menu click Filter > Blur Gallery > Iris Blur. Now drag your iris over your subject. You can adjust the size and shape of the iris by clicking and dragging on the different boxes you see. You can also hold shift while you drag to convert the rectangular iris into a circle, adjusting it to the proper size.

Hold and drag it around your subject that you want to remain in focus. This tool uses distinctive edges to select your image, and is much easier to use if you were able to blur your background on your camera even slightly when taking your photo. Use the Refine Edge button in the “Options” bar to further refine your selection to make sure everything you want is selected. [8] X Research source From your top bar menu go to Select > Inverse. Now everything that is not your subject will be selected. From here you want to go to Filter > Gaussian Blur. Simply adjust the Radius slider to your preferred blur setting and click “OK”.