The simple secret to taking Stunning portraits with a blurry background
Have you ever wondered how professional photographers capture portraits that really make the subject stand out?
It’s actually not that difficult once you get the hang of it.
It all comes down to simply creating a blurry background.
Blurring out your background is a creative composition technique that can be used to create amazing portrait photography.
With my easy steps, you’ll be straight on your way to taking professional-looking portraits.
The blurred effect, also known as shallow depth of field, means that only the subject is in focus, and what’s ever in the background is progressively out of focus. Just like these photos:
This is the opposite of a deep depth of field which shows everything, including your subject and the background, sharply in focus. This is usually used for architecture photography.
Creating a professional portrait on your own DSLR camera is pretty simple. Just follow my steps below and you’ll soon be taking pro like portraits in no time:
Set your camera to Aperture Priority Mode. This can be done by turning the mode dial to ‘A’ or on Canon models ‘Av’.
Make sure your camera's Aperture is wide. In other words, choose a low f-stop number such as f/1.4, f/2.8.
This will open up the size of your lens opening, aka aperture, which creates the beautiful blurry backgrounds we want.
Keep in mind that the f-stop numbers work backward - the lower the number, the larger the opening
Moving on, be sure to set focus on your model’s eyes.
This for me is a personal trick with the aim of gaining the most perfect portrait effect.
A portrait with the eyes in focus will not only have much more impact but will be more appealing as the eyes help draw the viewer to the image.
If your model is standing towards you at an angle, make sure you set focus on the eye closest to you.
And lastly - Shooooot!! Click on that trigger button and VOILA you’re done!
See how easy it is to create professional-looking portraits!
I encourage you to go out and use these simple steps to take your stunning and pro-like portrait photos.
And let me know your feedback in the comments.
Love,
Benaz (Nomad Habits)