When taking a picture, and the foreground is focused, but the background has like, streaks, how do you do that

Question

Like, a blur in the background, I.e. People walking by, but it appears as a blur. But the main focus is clear. How is that done and what is it called?

Answer 1

There are several techniques used to achieve that sort of look. One is dragging the shutter. Expose for the ambient light and freeze the subject with a flash. This is used in low light situations.
You can do 2nd curtain synch, on a moving subject this will make trails behind them.
You can pan with your subject. (This takes some practice to get it right.) Subject focused and background renders as streaks.
You can use a very slow shutter speed on a tripod. Anything moving will be blurs while the stationary objects and the background will be sharp. (I think this is what you described in your question)
You can use a wide aperture for selective focus.
You can zoom the lens while snapping the picture.
Hope this helps.

Answer 2

It's the depth of field, which is controlled by your f-stop/aperture. The bigger the aperture (lens opening, f/2) equals less depth of field (blurry), the smaller the aperture (f/16) equals more depth of field (everything is in focus).

Also you can experiment with shutter speed; for example, if you focus your camera on a stationary item (street sign or something...), set you shutter speed to a setting lower than 1/125, set the timer, and your background should be blurred out.

Go out and just shoot some pictures to experiment, and once you get the hang of it it's second nature.

Have fun!

Answer 3

This has nothing to do with digital macro. It's simply motion blur. Move with the subject and a relatively slow shutter speed and capture the image. If your hand is steady, you'll get the shot you want. An easier alternative would be to use the motion blur plug-in with Photoshop. Good luck.

Answer 4

Use tripod, set camera in lowest aperture, use high speed film and shutter speed, pen the camera horizontally, shot and focus only on the walker. Do several try.

Answer 5

this is a motion shot but your have to be correctly aligned with the object to make the object appear still and the background streaked. a good photo book can teach you this. I did this shot once when I was on a swing beside someone who was on a swing swinging next to me. it turned out if we exactly aligned.

Answer 6

its called digital macro.
found on most digital cameras, normally denoted as a flower symbol with a 'd' in it. its fun to use.