While we are sailing the blue seas, I have asked my friend Kelly, a fantastic photographer who lives in New York and a dear friend of mine I met through blogging years ago, to guest post for me. Kelly is exceedingly talented. I have had the distinct privilege of being mentored by her over the [...]

Back in the Dark Ages, when I shot with a film camera, I used to be obsessed with black and white photographs. I swore I’d “never go digital” and that black and whites would always be my favorite. Well, I went digital and now I prefer bright photographs whose intense colors make your teeth itch. [...]

I blogged for quite a while, happily uploading ginormous quanties of photographs to my blog, before I realized I had more options than I realized. Oh, sure. I knew I had some options. What size photo to upload. Which photo from my archives to use. And what orientation (right, left, center) I wanted. Those options [...]

Since I finally addressed your oft-asked question of “How do you get the backgrounds in your photos to be blurry?” a litany of new photography questions have been posed of me. Of all the questions you have asked me lately, one of the more repeated is “How do you make the eyes pop in your [...]

Do you know what I lie awake at night thinking about sometimes? I mean, besides the obvious question that forever plagues me: How on earth did I get the best blog readers on the whole, entire planet!? I lie awake thinking about how nice it would be to live in the olden days. You know, [...]

To be completely honest with you, I’ve been a bit hesitant to post this How the heck do you get the backgrounds in your photos so blurry, MckMama? post. You see, if the number of times I’ve been asked that question is any indication, blurry backgrounds are the Holy MckGrail. More times than I can count on all the fingers and toes in our household, I’ve been asked about blurry backgrounds in the comments on my blog, via Twitter, in emails and on the street (Okay, okay, no one has asked me on the street. Mostly on the street people say, “Are all those kids yours?” or “Excuse me, Ma’am, I think one of your children dropped some…what is that? Woodland creature food!?”). And with all the times I’ve been asked, I can’t help but to have wondered to myself, “Self, if you actually post how you get those backgrounds, will people even come back for more? Once they’ve acquired the Holy MckGrail, what will make them return to your blog?”

Actually, that entire paragraph is a total lie. I haven’t really been hesitant for that reason. But it sounded good, didn’t it? To be honest, I’ve been dragging my feet with this post because I wanted to really do it justice. And that took research and time, screen shots and links. And between posting other drivel on my blog, rearing four children shorter than our bookcase, researching what it would take to powerwash and stain our deck ourselves this summer, coming up with baby names to push on suggest to my sister and creating a variety of culinary concoctions out of couscous, beans and cilantro…I just plain haven’t had time.

But, since you all are daily gifts to me, I thought the least I could do was offer a small Memorial Day gift to all of you lovely people. I present to you the long awaited, multi faceted blurry background post. I love blurry backgrounds. The blurrier the better. Seriously.

I have broken down this explanation about getting blurry backgrounds into three parts. Depending on your camera and editing software, you can use just one of these techniques, or more than one.

Or you can just admire this photograph of my flower boxes.

But first, if you want to understand blurry backgrounds and how they even come to be, you’ll want to understand aperture. For an excellent explanation of aperture and depth of field, an understanding of which can help you create blurry backgrounds in your photos, read this excellent bit.

And now, the three techniques I was talking about earlier. You know, five seconds ago.

Getting a blurry background using the settings on your camera.

You can skip this section if you have a point and shoot camera. I don’t think achieving a truly blurred background is possible by just adjusting the settings on that kind of camera. Or, if it is, I don’t know how. Sorry. Feel free to skip ahead, unless you do see the Av/A modes I’ll mention below on your camera. If you do, go ahead and give this a shot. I just can’t promise results with this technique using a point and shoot.

If you have an SLR (digital or film) and you want the background of your photograph to be just a blur, you’re in luck. Just set your camera (using the dial on the top) to Av (for Canon) or A (for Nikon) mode. The Av/A mode determines how much, in depth, of your photograph will be in focus. While shooting in this mode, your camera, smart thing that it is, will adjust itself in other ways, such as shutter speed, to help this be achieved.

Once you are in Av/A mode, you’ll want to adjust the f number. The f number is how aperture is indicated on SLR cameras. The higher the f number, the more of your photo that will be in focus. So, for example, if you were taking a photo of your two children in the yard and one was closer to you than the other, chances are you’d want them both to be sharp and in focus. In that instance, you’d want to set your camera’s f number, or aperture, to a large number like f/11 or something.

On the other hand, if you are wanting an artsy shot the likes of which I prefer to take, with some part of the photo in crisp, sensational focus while other parts fade into a lovely blur of color, you will want to set your f value to something much lower, say f/4. Depending on which lens you have on your camera, you may be able to get to a lower f value. How low you can go depends on the specific lens you are using, not on your camera. More on lenses later. For now, whatever lens you are using, try going to the lowest f value possible for a blurred background.

I took this photograph of Big Mac at the farm on Saturday with my Canon 40D (I also have a Canon Rebel XTi that I shot with exclusively for ages before I upgraded. My Rebel serves me well as a backup camera now. I highly, highly recommend both cameras). For this shot, I set my camera, while in Av mode, to f/2.5 and had an exposure time of 1/3,200.

But, MckMama, how exactly do I change the f value on my camera? I’m so very glad you asked.

Once you are in Av/A mode, you can change the f number with the dial above the shutter button. At least this is how it works for Canon digital cameras. You may need to refer to your manual to find out how to change the f stop for your specific brand of camera. By rotating the dial to the left, the f value will get smaller. This is what you want for a blurred background photo.

You can see what aperture your digital camera is set at by looking at the back LCD screen for an f number. You’ll probably see a “/” after the f and then a number. That is the f value, or aperture, your camera is currently set at.

When the f number is small, the inside of the lens is actually wide open. So if I were to get really bossy and tell you that you need to open your lens more, what I would want for you to do would be to lower your aperture or f number. Alternatively, if your aperture is a large number like f/22, then the inside of your lens is smaller or more closed. This often causes much confusion with beginning photographers. And with women who have had four children in the past four years and are trying to keep up with a blog while caring for said children and putting steel cut oats on the table each morning while washing her hands with goat milk soap, not forgetting to buy groceries and tending to her lumberjack husband.

Not like I’d know anything about all that.

In summary, opening your lens more happens when you lower the f number. A higher f number is a more closed lens.

Clear as mud? Good. I aim to please.

And now, shoot away! Focus on something close up, and let the background fade away. Or just let me and I my incessant talk about cameras and f stops fade away. Whichever you’d prefer. Really.

Getting a blurry background using specific lenses.

If you are not able to get a dramatic enough effect for your taste using that first technique, you may want to invest in a new lens that will help you achieve the oh so coveted blurry backgrounds. Again, this is for SLR shooters only. You can’t change the lens on a point and shoot. And if you tried, I am fairly certain your camera wouldn’t work after that.

Far and away the best bang for your buck, in my humble opinion, is going to come from the petite, lightweight, and relatively affordable Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II lens. You can get your hands on one for under $100 and you will not be sorry with what you get. It’s a small lens that packs a big punch. It’s aperture capabilities go all the way down to f/1.8, meaning you can get a crisp focus plus a nicely blurred background. Even in low light! I use this lens for many of my photographs, especially the ones I take indoors.

Use the same directions above for lowering your f value while in Av/A mode. The use of this lens, as opposed to just using the standard one that probably came with your camera, will give you some spectacular results. Be warned, however. This is a prime lens. It’s focal length is fixed and you can not zoom in or out. You’ll have to physically move your body closer to or farther away from the subject. But you’ll get used to it and find your rhythm.

If you really want to bring in the big guns, you could always look up a place online that rents lenses and have a Canon EF 85mm f/1.2 II USM lens sent to you for a week. You will cry tears of agony and despair when you have to return it, but you’ll have a week’s worth of rock solid photos to hold onto for a lifetime. This lens is much bigger and bulkier than the 50mm, but it is well worth toting around. The premier portrait lens, in my opinion, it can take the aperture down to f/1.2, meaning you’ll get better shooting in lower light, an ability to capture action shots like children jumping on a trampoline, and a sensational capacity for blurring the heck out of the background.

After yearning and saving for literally over a year, I finally shopped around for the best deal and then purchased this lens for myself. I rent it no longer. It was well worth the wait and most of the photographs of our MSC’s faces on my blog since the end of February were taken using this phenomenal lens. Oh, and I also use it in my professional photo shoots. You know, the ones that really justified spending that kind of dough on photography equipment.

Using a Canon lens like one of these with your SLR and shooting in Av/A mode like I described above will give you stellar results! And Canon isn’t even giving me one red cent to say that. Actually, as far as I know, Canon doesn’t know I exist. I just worship Canon from afar. Though I really think they ought to sponsor my blog. If they sponsored things like blogs. Which they probably don’t.

I digress.

Getting a blurry background in post production via photo editing software.

If you have a point and shoot camera and can’t get blurred backgrounds with it, or if you have an SLR but still want to pump up the blurriness or even achieve a selected blurriness, then post production is for you.

I use Photoshop (although, as I mentioned, I did get Adobe Lightroom as a gift recently and someday, when my life slows down, I am going to use it because I hear that it is Photoshop on crack) and Photoshop Elements for editing. They come highly recommend by me (Again, not getting paid to say that. Darn!!), but perhaps your photo editing software has similar features.

I will, however, show you how to get a blurred background look using Photoshop Elements.

You’re welcome. Again, don’t forget that my door mailbox is always open to receive gifts of gratitude (Hint. Cheesecake. Cough.) for sharing my photographic, ahem, prowess with you. Actually, I just taught Photoshop to myself. All of the people out there who actually teach Photoshop at local community colleges are probably rolling over in their graves at my explanation of Photoshop. You know, if they were dead. Which they probably aren’t. Since they are teaching college courses and all. Although some of my professors back in the day…

Okay. Mercy! I’ll stop.

Open a photo in Photoshop. If you don’t know how to do this, you’re probably not going to know how to do the rest of what I’m about to tell you. So why don’t you just turn off your computer and go have a glass of lemonade and a brownie. Have some for me while you’re at it.

For the rest of you? Look at your photo and decide which part(s) you’d like to be blurred. I chose this photo of me about to parafly off a mountain in Austria the year before I got married because a) why not, it’s kind of a fun photo and b) it is mostly in focus from the foreground to the background, making it a good example for me to illustrate this technique on.

Wasn’t I cute? About to plummet to my certain doom. I was petrified, although the look on my face here belies that. I am afraid of heights and if it weren’t for the fact that all my friends were doing it, I would not have gone paraflying that day. Turns out that it rocked my free world, though, and I was really glad that I did it.

What’s that? This post is not about me? Nor should I be partaking in a walk down memory lane? Sorry, Charlie. My blog. My rules.

I also had a pet guinea pig named Chipper when I was little. So there. Me, me, me.

Ahem. Back to blurry backgrounds. Use the lasso selection tool to select the part of the photograph that you want to keep in focus. It will be best to set the feather value to between 50 and 100.

After you have selected it, click on inverse, in the select drop down menu. Like this:

Presto! The opposite of what you selected is now selected. Is your brain bleeding yet? This is the selection that you want to make blurry. So go to filter at the top menu and drop down to blur. Then over to gaussian blur.

You’ll get a little box with a tab that you can drag to the right or the left to make the background as blurry as you choose.

When you have reached your desired level of blurriness, hit ok and voila!

Blurry background! Okay, so this photo actually looks kind of silly with the blur around me evenly. I was just trying to teach you the technique. You’ll have to play around with which parts of your own photos to blur to get the look you want.

But while you play around, I’m outta here. That post took more work than I bet it did to write War and Peace. I even went to the effort of creating a discussion about blurry backgrounds in my community. Now I’m exhausted, and I swear (except I really don’t) that I am not going to do another photography post for 47 more years.

So, I hope you liked this one.

It’s been simply ages since I posted a photography lesson (Since I was 26 weeks pregnant with MckMuffin to be exact…and today is my due date, meaning I’d be 40 weeks today! You know, if he hadn’t already been born three weeks ago.). If you would like to read my other photography posts, you can click on the thus-named label in my left sidebar. I figured tonight was as good a night as any to offer up some more tips finally. I know, I know. You’re welcome. I’d let you thank me in the form of apple crisp, but now that I’m no longer pregnant, I can’t stand the stuff.

Ahem. We forge ahead.

With the hope that this encourages you, please know that I am most largely a self-taught photographer. I did major in Studio Art in college (I triple majored, actually, along with Bible and Education.) and attended my share of photography classes. But nearly all of what I know about digital photography, I learned on my own, starting after Big Mac was born. I’ve scoured the internet, talked with folks at camera stores, picked the brains of photographer friends and checked out books from the library.

If I can do it, so can you!

Regardless of where you are at along the road with your own photography, and regardless of what kind of a camera you shoot with, there is always something to learn and something to be inspired by. I know that’s true for me.

So, if you’d like to take better photographs, buckle up and hold on tight because here we go again!

Today, we’ll talk a bit about ISO and the issue of noise in photographs. And boy, oh boy, with a house full of kids…I know about noise!

At this point, I shoot with a Canon 40D, with a Canon Rebel xTi as my backup camera. It goes without saying that digital cameras are certainly par for the course nowadays. The cameras I shoot with are not point and shoots, like some of you perhaps use. Mine are called SLR’s they are the kind of cameras with big lenses on the front of them that one can take on and off. With the price of digital SLR’s plummeting, they have become affordable for more and more people and I highly recommend one if you are interested in photography. But know this, an expensive (or even semi-expensive) camera is not a prerequisite for taking great photographs; trust me, even pricey cameras can take bad pictures! Stuffing a few tips up your sleeve and getting to know the camera you do have, even if it is a point and shoot, can often take you further than just purchasing a fancy new camera could!

No matter what kind of a camera you have, the ISO is something you can control. Well, except on some cell phone cameras. Of course.

“Hold it right there, MckMama,” you’re thinking. “What the heck is ISO!?” Why, I’m so very glad you asked.

ISO is a number letting the photographer know how sensitive to light the camera is. You can adjust the ISO of your camera based on the factors involved in where you are photographing. The higher the ISO is set, the higher sensitivity to light the camera will have, therefore the less light will be needed to expose your photograph properly. Unfortunately, the higher the ISO number you have your camera set to, the more noise your photographs will have. (We’ll get to that in a minute.)

Back in the Dark Ages when people used film cameras, film came (still does) in a variety of speeds. ISO is the measure of film speed: sensitivity to light. Lower ISO numbers indicate slow films, which are less sensitive to light. Higher ISO numbers are more sensitive to light. It’s pretty typical to shoot with ISO 100 or 200 on a sunny day and use 400 film when shooting in lower light. Super nice cameras can handle super fast ISOs up to 1600 and way beyond!

“And why on earth should I care about all this!?” Because using an appropriate ISO for your shots can help make a world of difference in your photographs, especially if you are shooting digitally, which I am willing to bet most of you are.

Lucky for us, we can control the sensitivity of our digital camera’s light sensors by changing the ISO setting. Most digital cameras have a default ISO setting around 100. If you need a faster film speed because there isn’t great light where you are shooting, just set your camera to have a higher ISO. Look for an ISO button on your camera. When you press it, you’ll be able to the ISO to where you need it to be, like 100, 200, 400, etc. By increasing the ISO, something you can usually not do in your camera’s automatic mode but rather only in the other modes, you can sometimes avoid using your flash and still be able to capture crisp photos in low light that you otherwise wouldn’t have been able to capture well.

That sounds great, right? And I know what you’re thinking: “MckMama, if higher ISO film is more light sensitive, why not always use a high ISO number?” After all, then you could shoot in lower light with better results. But keeping your ISO on a higher setting is not always the best idea. Why not?

I’ll tell you why not.

While using a higher ISO will allow you to get less blurry photographs in low light, fast film speeds are notorious for producing grainy images. That goes for film and digital photography. Making a camera more sensitive to light increases noise into the picture. Like the film grain of days of yore, noise is a smattering of random pixels of color on your photograph.

Realize that noise in your photographs may not be easily seen from a distance. But it’s there, lurking, waiting for you to print the photograph through Shutterfly before the grainy noise rears its ugly head. Noise gets worse as the ISO goes up. But sometimes, I find I must use a high ISO to take photographs in low light.

You’ll simply have to decide if the payoff is worth if for you: A higher ISO will mean you can take clearer photos in lower light without a flash (Straight flashes from your camera can be downright evil and I highly recommend steering clear of using your camera’s flash if you can get away with it.), but it will also mean your photos will have more noise.

Play around with it and see where your happy medium is!

A rule of thumb to sum things up? Shoot at the lowest possible ISO you can get away with. On a regular day with decent light, just use your camera’s default ISO setting, garnering the least amount of noise for your pictures. However, if you are shooting in low light and your photos aren’t as crisp as you’d like, skip using a flash and try a higher ISO first.

Let’s begin.

I am going to take a stab in the dark and say that most of you will find a white balance setting on your camera. Look for where it says “WB.” That stands for white balance. Ingenious, no?

Here are the white balance settings:

Sunlight setting–image of a sun
Cloudy setting–image of a cloud
Auto White Balance setting–AWB
Fluorescent setting–image of a long, rectangular fluorescent light
Custom White Balance setting–the word “custom” or CWB…not all cameras may have this setting
Tungsten setting–image of a tungsten….just kidding! Did I have you there for a second? Thinking, “What the heck is a tungsten!?” Okay, this setting is denoted by an image of a regular light bulb

Your camera is possibly just set to AWB, which is fine! But, to turn things up a notch, try playing around with the different settings.

“Whoahhh! Wait a minute, MckMama. What in tarnation is white balance, anyway!?”

Oh, sorry. Good question. Let me back up a bit.

Without getting too boring technical, let me explain it like this: All light, no matter where it comes from, has a temperature–a color–to it. Early morning and late afternoon light outdoors causes everything in sight to have a golden glow. An normal old indoor house light or lamp often causes photographs taken indoors to have a sickly orange glow. Light at and around noon is usually the closest to pure white light, highlighting existing colors but not adding much of its own. However, during the middle of a sunny day is a very difficult time to take pictures because dramatic and unflattering shadows often fall on faces.

At the end of the day, it’s a preference thing. I, for one, happen to love very late afternoon light. Yum!

The trick is (in my fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants opinion) is to play around–without using your flash–with light at different times of day, in different locations, and with different white balance settings.

If you are not able to get the light looking the way you want with the available light you have, just twist the dial on your camera to a new white balance setting.

There is no right or wrong in my photography book. It is a subjective art form…as all forms of art are. That’s one of the most glorious things about art in the first place! So, just play around with your white balance settings until you are creating photos that you like.

Have fun!

After spending a long, sunny afternoon at a new (bigger and badder than any we had yet visited) waterpark this afternoon with my MSC and my friend Shanel, I figured I would round out the night by putting the finishing touches on a few of my photography lesson posts–the first of which I present for [...]