Quick photography tip: background blur with any camera

by Jatin Valabjee

Have you ever wondered how to get those nice blurry backgrounds, while keeping the foreground in focus? The good news is, no matter how cheap or expensive your camera is, you can achieve this effect, as long as your camera has the ability to zoom with the lens (i.e. optical zoom).

Try this:

1. Next time you’ve got your camera out find an interesting flower, insect or other small object.
2. Take a step back from it and zoom in, making sure to keep the subject in the center.
3. Hold down the shutter button half way and look through the viewfinder or at your LCD screen. Make sure the subject is in focus.
4. Take the picture. Notice how the background becomes a nice mottled blur, while the subject stays in focus.

It’s that simple! Using background blur when appropriate has the effect of isolating the subject so that the viewer’s eye is not distracted. This is a well-known feature of photography known as depth of field.

This technique is used in all styles of photography, most prominently:

• Food photography
• Portrait / fashion photography
• Macro / close-up photography
• Wildlife photography (often because the photographer has no choice but to zoom because they can’t get close to their subject for fear of losing a hand!)

Notice how in this photo of an exotic Amazonian flower I zoomed in to throw the background out of focus. Even though the background is just a bunch of green and pink blotches, it gives the flower context of its surroundings.

Use of background blur enhances the shot of this butterfly on a flower I took in Iguazu Falls, Argentina.