Great Escape Publishing

Posted March 28th, 2013 by Bonnie Caton & filed under Travel Photography.

Sometimes blurry is good. Take a look at these two photos, taken just seconds apart: See how the background is distracting in the first photo, but nicely blurred in the second? Here’s another example: Blurring out the background in your photos is an important skill to have in your photographer’s “bag of tricks.” It brings the viewer’s attention to the subject of your photo, making your images more compelling… and in the end, much more professional-looking. We’re going to practice doing this hands-on at The Ultimate Money-Making Photo Workshop, coming up this April in Miami. Until then, here’s how I did it: I simply changed my f-stop to a smaller number. In the first photos, those on the left, my f-stop was around f/11. And in the second photos, the ones with the blurred backgrounds, my f-stop was around 2.8. Remember it this way: The larger your f-stop number, the more things in your photo that will be in focus, and the smaller your f-stop number, the fewer things in your photo that will be in focus. Easy! The difference between a snapshot and a professional-looking photo sometimes boils down to the simplest little camera trick. Stay tuned for more… I’ll show you another easy peasy photo trick tomorrow.