Sunday, September 29, 2013

Sony DSLR - how to achieve out of focus background in portraits?

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Q. So I just got a Sony A380 14.2 megapixel DSLR camera with a 18-55mm with f3.5-5.9 kit lens. I am having a little bit of trouble getting the desired "out of focus" background that I would like to achieve. Does anyone have any tips that could help me with this? Thanks.


Answer
DOF - Depth Of Field
DOF is the area (plane) of the photo that is in sharp focus. For landscapes, we usually want a a very deep DOF, so that everything in it is in focus. For portraits, we usually like to have the person in focus, while the background is blurred.
So you have a plane that is in focus - and it can be either in the foreground (so the background is blurry) or in the background (so the foreground is blurry).

For the most part, this is achieved via a lens with a large aperture (that's the small f/stop number), but a longer focal length - i.e. zoom - increases the effect. Often people ask how to achieve with a small P&S camera, but unfortunately that is not something those little things are very good at.

If you have manual controls, use the biggest aperture. If you don't, try setting it to the portrait setting which makes the camera choose the biggest aperture it is capable of. Make sure there is some distance between you, the subject, and the background. You can also attempt it on Macro setting - that may work to a certain extent.

For further reading, check out this Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depth_of_field

How does a mirrorless interchangeable lens camera work?




Jeffrey


When you remove the lens from an SLR, the mirror prevents light from exposing the film. I've never seen a DSLR, but I assume the mirror performs a similar function in them.

What blocks the light in a mirrorless interchangeable lens camera when the camera is off?

If you can include a link to a crosssectional diagram, that would be great. I couldn't find one with an image search.



Answer
I think you'll find that the mirrorless system has an electronic shutter and an electronic viewfinder as well. The mirror in a DSLR has nothing to do with the shutter... It flips up out of the light path just before the shutter opens. Most DSLR cameras (not all!) these days have focal plane (curtain) shutters - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focal-plane_shutter




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