Are you going to take your photos indoors or outside? The background of this portrait is out of focus, but still sharp enough for the viewer to tell what it is. You may want to render the background slightly out of focus, so it is still recognizable but not so sharp it competes with the model for attention. You’ll just need to move your model further away from the background, and get as close to her as you can (try taking a simple head and shoulders shot) to make it work.ĭon’t forget there’s a middle ground between these two extremes. But you can still make it work, even with an 18-55mm kit lens (which typically have maximum aperture settings of f/5.6). This technique works best with prime lenses because of their wider maximum apertures. Then all you need to do is to use a short telephoto lens with a wide aperture, and if the model is far enough from the background it will go out of focus. The important thing is that you need to be able to position your model some distance from the background. It will be out of focus, so nobody will be able to tell what it is. If you want to take photos with a completely blurred background, then the background itself isn’t so important. With such a wide-angle lens f/4 was sufficient to ensure the entire background was relatively sharp. I used a 24mm lens at f/4 for this portrait. You should be careful not to get too close to the subject (avoiding distortion) and to include lots of background. The easiest way to take a portrait with the background in focus is to use a wide-angle lens with a smallish aperture (f/8 is ideal). A good example of this is taking a portrait of somebody on a beach, where the environment becomes an important part of the composition. On the other hand, if your aim is simply to take a pretty portrait of somebody, then the background may not be so relevant, but it must be complementary. For instance, if you are taking a portrait of a performing musician, then perhaps it would be nice to take a photo in a venue where they perform, including the background to show the environment. If you want the background to be in focus, then this suggests that the background is in some way relevant to your subject. This is an important question because the answer dictates your entire approach to the portrait shoot. Do you want your background to be sharp or blurred? Here are some things to think about in your search for the perfect background for your portraits. My article How to Plan the Perfect Portrait Shoot will help you with the other aspects of putting together a portrait shoot, but today I thought it would be interesting to delve deeper into the subject of backgrounds for portraits. With this technique, the background itself isn’t so important as no-one can tell what it is, but it must still complement the subject.įinding great backgrounds that complement the subject is an essential part of the process of creating beautiful portraits. I used a short telephoto lens at a wide aperture to throw the cliff in the background out of focus in this photo.
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