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Out Of Focus Background


hopenfox
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I have the same two kit lenses, this is what my camera bag looks like.

Canon 75-300mm that I use for motorsports. eg. a Ferrari club event (I got a ride in this one):

Ferrari_575_Maranello_by_rainey06au.jpg

Canon 18-55mm is a walkaround all-purpose. eg. this is my friends Lotus:

Lotus_340R_by_rainey06au.jpg

Canon 50mm useful for low light situations (has a wide aperture, letting more light in), portraits, depth of field effects etc. Here's a portrait of my niece:

Camilla_Skye_by_rainey06au.jpg

Sigma 10-20mm 'Wideangle' which I use for architectural, and sometimes landscape. eg. beautiful Tassie:

Wineglass_Bay_Lookout_by_rainey06au.jpg

...I also have a circular polariser, which I don't use often but is awesome in the right situation, it can basically remove glare, and surface reflections. Some examples would be to let the sky look like a lovely rich blue, instead of being overexposed. To take a photo through the surface of the water, or even to capture the expression on a drivers face through a car window. This next one is a little test I did on the day I got my circ. polariser, just to show how amazing it really is:

polarizedwater.jpg

Pretty cool huh? :D

Edited by Rainey
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Awesome shots Rainey. I want to get further into photography, got the good camera, now need to learn how to use it. It's good to see what lens suit what purpose, as I'd like to add to my collection when I have the $$

So jealous of you getting a ride in the ferrari. Sportiest car I've had a ride in is a Nissan 350Z.

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  • 1 month later...
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)

Picture032.jpg

after (edited to blur back ground)

Picture0322.jpg

Good luck with your search to finding what you want.

Hi Freckles,

How did you blur/edit the background on the flower photo? Did you use photoshop? How did you do it?

Thanks

Edited by Collie_lover
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yes I did the blur in photoshop. That was just a very rough quick job to demonstrate how it could be done.

I used the magnetic lasso to out line the flower and then cut the flower out. With the remaining back ground I used Gaussian blur sliding the blur effect till you get the amount of blur you are happy with.

because I did a rush job I reduced the size of the back ground pic just a touch (by 5 pixels from memory?) so when the flower was pasted back on I didn't have an outline from cutting it out.

As I said this was quick and a basic job. You could take a few more steps to soften the clear flower to make it blend into the picture better rather than looking like it is sitting on top.

Hope that helps you collie_lover

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Basically as explained you can either

1- Take the subject relatively close and have the background well in teh distance (say a dog sitting in front of the camera a one edge of an oval that has trees WAY over the other side - dog will be focussed (say head shot) and background will be blurry - aperture up to F8 will do it but obviously lower the aperture number more blurry the background as your focus depth shrinks.

2- photoshop as described

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  • 4 weeks later...
post-1359-1193742036_thumb.jpg

I don't have a DSLR :thumbsup: , but my finepix S5600 does have manual options, as well as an excellent auto function!

i have to say i agree (thought i aim to own a slr and do agree it's easier for mastering great pics) it's not always the equipment but also the knowledge of the user.. as i've been taught.

here are some images i achieved playing on my digital 3.2 mpixel camera just by adjusting the manual settings that i do have on it.

oh my camera is a minolta

this is not using macro setting either

xmastree.jpg

flower1.jpg

florencerose.jpg

now one with macro

orbspider.jpg

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Yeah you probably can puggles. I might have to go and have a look see. I'll let you know in a tick

Ok just had a tinker doing it the way you suggested puggles and the only thing I can see that I wouldn't continue using it that way is if you don't have a completly stead hand and miss the lining you get bits that should be blurred that aren't and bits that shouldn't be blurred are. makes it a bit harder to clean up. Doing it in 2 layers gives me a bit more controll to clean up the different layers when I bring them back together, but thats just me :thumbsup:

Edited by Freckles
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one question tho about lasso.. how do you conrtol the bugger to go where u want it to and not in the areas it's not meant to???

practise, practise, practise and a very steady hand :rolleyes: If you have an object that has very clean lines you could try the magnetic lasso which picks out the edges of an object as you trace around it. But practise is the only way to get better control no matter which way you go

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