Did a little photo shoot before one the local proms last week. There were seven couples that wanted pictures and we met at a nearby college campus that has some nice photo spots and was convenient to their prom location. It was a lot of fun and I got some great shots. The shot below is one of my favorites. We were shooting around 5:30 pm and in this shot I wanted to use the sun as a backlight to give the image a glow and get some depth in the picture.
The camera I used was the Canon t2i and I shot it with my Canon 24-105mm lens at a focal length of 55mm. Aperture was f4 and shutter speed was 1/160 with fill flash.
The image below is without any edits.
Well we are two episodes into Game of Thrones Season III and so far it has been just blah. I guess they have moved the plot along a little, but it has been weak on action and tension. The episodes haven’t been horrible, but just kind of ho hum..
Here’s what I’ve gotten out of them so far:
- Jon Snow is still separated from the Watch and working with or acting as a double agent with the Wildlings, or Firstmen or whoever they are. Zombies are on the loose too. (Funny that his name is snow and he is in the snow a lot).
- Arya and her two amigos have encountered some soldiers, mercenaries or some group of tough guys. Don’t know if they are good or bad.
- Dragon lady is buying some soldiers and dragons like sushi.
- Joffrey’s new interest (Renly’s former wife) Margaery is not very interesting and we don’t know if she is good or bad.
- King Slayer is in need of a shower (big time) and got beat up by a girl.
- Rob Stark still has his mother in chains and wears a lot of fur.
- Bran can see things through the eyes of animals. Having him on your side would be like having aerial drones.
- Davos survived the fire during the battle of Kings Landing but is now in jail. Thanks a lot Stannis.
Some other stuff has happened, but not much. We need some battles and bold moves. Everyone is just scared and indecisive at this point. Bleh.
Blurring the background in photos is one of the most effective things you can to do to enhance your photos of people (or action figures). Blurring the background makes your photos look less flat you gives you a nice 3D effect and. Also, an added benefit is that you don’t have to worry so much about what is in the background. I know sometimes when I’m taking pictures of my family, they will ask, where should we stand? What do you want in the background? However, the background is not that important and I’m more concerned about the lighting.
So the big question is: How do you blur the background in your photos? If you have a DSLR this is pretty easy. (DSLR stands for digital single lens reflect – this is just a fancy name for the type cameras that let you swap out lenses – your typical Canon Rebel or Nikon etc). All you need to do is shoot the photo in aperture priority mode. You’ll turn the dial on the camera to “Av” on Canons and “A” on Nikons). You’ll then want to adjust this to at least 5.6. The 5.6 is known as an f-stop and a smaller number means more blur in the background. (The video at the end of this post walks you through this).
The type lens you have will dictate how low you can go. Most lenses will allow you to go to at least 5.6 which will give you pretty good blur. I have a Canon EF-50mm lens that goes down to f1.8 and is great a blurring the background. The lower f-stop, the more light the camera lets in, so when you are in aperture priority mode you camera automatically adjust the shutter speed (how long the aperture stays open when you take a shot) to match up with the aperture setting you’re dialed in on.
This video gives a little more detail and shows you how to change the camera settings to aperture priority mode.
