Wanna see my new bokeh demo?

Question

We get so many questions about how to "defocus the background" using digital cameras that I decided to make a new demo. Most of the time, our asker is using a small sensored point and shoot camera and they will have a tough time getting the effect that they are looking for. I made a demo that compares 3 different sensor sizes at roughly the same focal length. I added a 4th image using a great macro lens, just for comparison.

Go to this link and click on the first image, called "Fake Flowers 1." Then you can just click on each successive image in the set. You can read the comments to see what is going on and then you can just page through the demo left-to-right (1 to 4) and back again to compare the effects of the larger sensor or better lens.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/sets/72157603455598439/

I'll have to do this outside with real flowers when spring arrives. I can have a more "interesting" natural background and it can be more than 4 feet away!

ANTONI - Yes, "interesting" is a good word for the white balance. There is only one "fluorescent" setting on the 4600. It DOES offer a custom WB, though, and in fairness to the camera, maybe I should have used that to set it properly. I doubt too many users of the 4600 would do that, though.

VIENNA - I'd say to sit your mother-in-law about ten feet behind the rest of the family, but I think she'd suspect that you were up to something. Maybe this is something best done in Photoshop.

In fact, see http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/923587227/ for a specific example. The blurry lady in this image is MY mother-in-law! YOU can do this, too. Just select the "blur" tool, set it to 100% and "rub" it over her face until you get the desired effect. I'll never tell!

Kristina, I "hardly" recognized you. Yes, I have a big fuzzy bokeh.

Answer 1

Dr Sam nice pictures.

I was expecting some nice self portrait nudes, please don't disapoint me again!! It's very nice of you to contribute so much for so many! So you have a big bokeh then, are you bragging?

Answer 2

The first white balance is interesting. Excellent examples Dr, the macro is a bit out of place maybe?

Yes nice work, and will be great examples for the questions about depth et cetera. I like it.

EDIT: i would do the "custom" setting with a neutral (white is good) just to be fair, thats just me..........NOW the serious part - how can Vienna achieve his goal?


EDIT2: Vienna the Dr is not helping, you must be suttle. I would "dab" some vaseline on the frount element where she appears in the frame. Or when shes not expecting it smear her all over with vaseline.

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Answer 3

Interesting I always white balance also to get a clearer picture and sometimes take my camera off auto focus to get a clearer picture of the details of the object and the detail in the background.Awesome pic.

I took some pictures of the beach at dawn when the sun rose to get this effect...so the palm trees were in focus just as everything that was behind and in front of them.

Answer 4

Very nicely done, Dr.

Care to bet how many hours it will be before the "how do i get my background all blurry" question will be asked yet again?

Answer 5

Thanks for putting this together. Good stuff. I understand better from this and some of your other answers/questions what effect sensor size has on the capability/limitations of a camera.

Answer 6

I think it's great how you do visuals of what a bunch of us know in our heads and just assume others know.

Answer 7

Aw so that what you were doing with so many copies lol

Answer 8

Ahh. Thank you for sharing these.

Answer 9

Nice demo, Dr.

Now please tell me how can I take the family Xmas portrait so that my mother-in-law is blurry?