New to photography? Read this.

jambomakaveli

Ok... here’s just a quick one... lol....

So like I’m sure pretty much most new people interested in photography... the subject of Bokeh, blurring parts of an image etc is a hot topic lol.

I have a Nikon 3400 dslr with the 18-55mm kit lense, but am also awaiting delivery of a 50mm prime lense, which will allow F1.8, to better help with Bokeh, background blur etc.


One thing i can’t quite grasp is....

I have seen pictures where it’s the opposite.. front/mid is blurred but background is in focus.

How is this achieved? Like you can actually choose what’s blurred? Or I suppose rather what’s in focus.


With the lcd liveview screen on my Nikon... there’s a moveable square, I can move this around with the d-pad. So is it a case of just putting that on the part I want in focus?

snerkler

There is always a critical area of sharpness in any picture, but then around this is an area that it still perceived as acceptably sharp, this is what called the depth of field (DOF). DOF is controlled by subject distance, aperture, focal length, and as an indirect result the sensor size.

Depending on the scene and the above factors it is possible to have the foreground subject in focus and everything behind blurred, foreground blurred mid ground in focus and background blurred, or foreground blurred with background in focus.

shotokan101

Well that's the first thing needed of course - you will also need to choose a suitably wide aperture for the effect you want to see.

Also have a look at your camera manual and see where/if it has a DOF Preview button and use that to make sure that you see the image as it will appear with the aperture closed down/opened up since most cameras these days will keep the lens aperture wide open while yoy set up and only close it down when the shutter is released to take the shot.

Might also be a good idea to  have a look at a DOF calculator and a DOF simulator ?

A Flexible Depth of Field Calculator

Depth of Field (DoF) calculator | PhotoPills

DOF simulator - Camera depth of field calculator with visual background blur and bokeh simulation.

jambomakaveli

Many thanks to both of you!

More than enough there to look into, keep me busy!

Cheers guys [emoji1303]

shotokan101

Are you running the latest version and when does the error happen?

Jim

Thug

Just realised that Photobucket has now totally ruined my photos by blurring them all.
I am going to try and host them elsewhere and update this thread in the next week or 2.
Sorry about that.