Blur background in iphoto?

Question

Hi! I'v seen someone do this once and have been trying to figure out how? is there an option? or is it done with the retouch tool?

Thanks!

Answer 1

This is related to a concept known as "depth of field". Depth of Field is therange of distance in the image which is acceptably sharp, or focused. A shallow depth of field means that only a narrow range of the the photo will be focused and the rest of the image will be out of focus. This is achieved using a lens with a very wide aperture (low f-stop value) or with a telephoto lens.

See here for a deeper explanation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depth_of_field

Another option is in photoshop or another photo editing program (GIMP is a free alternative at http://www.gimp.org ) that supports layers. You use the selection tool to outline the part of the image that you want to remain sharp, then copy that and paste it back on to the image as another layer. Then you can blur the bottom layer of the image (such as a guassian blur) without affecting the top layer. When you are through, you then merge the images together and save.

The best way to do it is while you are taking the photo, but the photoshop method is another alternative.

Answer 2

Two ways to do this and it is done during shooting.

1. The focus is entirely on the subject and the background is left very out of focus, a faster shutter speed and small aperture value will to this.

2. Panning the camera during an action shot will acheive this affect. The faster the shutter speed, the less blurred the background will be, but too slow a shutter speed and your subject wil be blurred too.

Answer 3

I can't tell you that, but I can tell you that if you use your macro button on your digital camera and take a pic of something up close, it will blur the background.

Answer 4

u shud use high flash to avoid this problem.