How to take pictures where the background is blurry?

Question

My friend just got a Nikon Coolpix P80 camera. She is trying to figure out how to take a picture where the background is blurry and the closest object is clear.

Can someone explain how to do this? I don't know if it is the same with all cameras.

She has read her manual but can't seem to figure it out.

I would like to know too because I may get a camera like this also. Neither of us are very knowledgeable about cameras/camera lingo.

Thanks! :)

Answer 1

A point and shoot camera doesn't always do this very well, but the farther you are away from the subject and the more you zoom in, the more the subject will be isolated from the background.  An SLR camera does this better.

Also telephoto lens will do this as you zoom in on a subject farther away.

Another way to make the background disappear is having a lens that allows you to take a picture with a wide "aperture" or the hole in the lens that allows light to come through to the camera's sensor.  The wider the aperture is (or larger the hole), the less of the background is in focus.  The smaller the aperture is (or the hole in the lens), the more the background is in focus.

Switch your camera to "Aperture priority mode" and make the "f number" as low as it will go.  This will make the background more blurry. Your shutter will automatically go faster to compensate for the extra light coming through.    Check your manual for how to switch to aperture priority.

Lenses with wide aperture capabilities are usually professional lenses, but you can buy a SLR camera (approx. $400-500) with a cheap 50mm f/1.8 lens (approx. $85-100) and achieve this effect very easily.  

Answer 2

I don't know anything about that camera... but I do know how to do it! Use a wide aperture (5.6 or below). If your camera has aperture priority, that may be the easiest way to do this.

Answer 3

Just use your focus ring to bring the foreground in.

For added background blur make your aperture LARGE, remember the larger the aperture the smaller the depth of field.

Answer 4

You either needs to use a  f/stop of around 2.8 if your camera has manual settings. You can also use the macro mode and zoom in all the way on the subject to blur the background!!

Answer 5

You need a lens - like a telephoto one - that has a short depth of field. Focus on the foreground subject and the background will automatically be soft. The wider you open the aperture, the more pronounced the effect will be. You can achieve this by added neutral density filters to the front of the lens.

Obviously this isn't something you can do easily with a point-and-shoot camera like the Coolpix P80. The best you'll be able to do is to zoom in and step back to frame the shot the way you want it. You'll have to override the automatic focus to make sure it doesn't switch to the background instead. Kind of tricky.

That's why professional equipment costs so much. It gives you the creative freedom to make the pictures look how you want them to - not how the camera thinks they should appear.

Of course you can always create this effect after the photo has been taken by using Photoshop.

Good luck.

Answer 6

Use aperture priority mode (AV) and select the smallest f-number. Then shoot at the longest possible focal length. That will give you the most out-of-focus background possible, but I don't know how well this will work on the P80. In general, point&shoot cameras don't have enough aperture to produce a fully out-of-focus background. SLRs can do it because they have larger sensors, and therefore use larger lenses.