Stop blurry photos from looking flat, and start learning to capture a professional photo with background blurred! Read here the insider’s guide to capturing maximum bokeh.
1. Introduction:
In today’s digital age, professionals strive to capture viewers’ attention, and to do so, they must address numerous aspects to achieve high aesthetic quality. This requires them to invest a significant amount of time in building their skill set and learning to use their camera equipment.
One of the skills they have to absolutely master is how to increase the aesthetic appeal by bringing focus to the subject rather than the unwanted areas in the frame. This is where blur, also known as bokeh, and depth of field come into play, which will be the prime focus of this article.
2. What is Blur/Bokeh in a Photo?
Most people don’t know that blur and bokeh are essentially the same thing. The word "bokeh" is a Japanese term meaning "haze" and is a concept commonly used across all photography niches. Here, it doesn’t necessarily define a literal “blur” in a photo (as if it‘s not clear), but rather the measure of the surrounding haze around the subject in an image. A photo with a background blurred helps draw attention to the main subject in the frame and surrounds it, making it pleasing to the eye.
When this bokeh is less “creamy” and “softer”, it is referred to as less pronounced bokeh in a photo. The subtler and softer it becomes, the more pronounced the bokeh in the image. This is related to the shallow depth of field, a distance at which only a limited part of the image is sharp, while the rest is blurred by circles of confusion. The opposite is a shallow depth of field, where only a small portion of the frame is sharp.
Smooth, creamy bokeh with defined edges on the subject is a highly desirable technical feature in portrait photography and professional videography. This is why learning how to control bokeh has to be your priority.
3. Core Techniques of Capturing Blurred Effect
Capturing a subject in a photo with a blurred background is an art of blending knowledge, good hardware, and framing the subject properly before you press the shutter button. You have to take these four factors into account to achieve the best bokeh results.
3.1 Mind Distance between Object and Background
The distance behind a subject greatly influences your final results when dealing with bokeh. This is because your lens can focus on objects at one distance into “perfect focus” at a time, leaving others outside that plane of focus. This means that when your lens optics attempt to focus on your subject, they leave the background out of focus, thereby creating a shallow depth of field.
3.2 By Tweaking Your Aperture Settings
A rule of thumb here: more light is required to create a shallower depth of field (more bokeh), for which wider lenses do the best job, such as f1.8. This is why you will see many professionals using such focal ranges for portrait photography, where bokeh is most desired. Select your aperture to adjust the amount of bokeh in your frame.
3.3 Use Your Focal Length
Even if you are using a narrow aperture range, a proper focal length, such as 85 mm or 135 mm, can still bring in bokeh. Such focal lengths produce a shallower depth of field because they can provide higher magnification and narrow the field of view. The result is much stronger bokeh in a photo with a background blurred and the subject clearly isolated.
3.4 A Professional Lens Saves The Day
To achieve professional-level bokeh, you must opt for professional prime or zoom lenses, both of which have a wide maximum aperture. These lenses are designed with advanced optics, which minimize distortions and chromatic aberrations within the frame and deliver extremely smooth bokeh around a subject.
4. Recommended Lens for Smooth Bokeh
One such example of a professional lens designed to punch in extreme bokeh is the SIRUI AURORA Series 35mm F1.4 Full-frame Autofocus Lens. This compact prime lens features next-generation optics and is built with a lightweight construction that keeps it durable and functional.
The real star of the show here is its advanced optics tuned at 35mm focal length that deliver extreme sharpness in the images with minimal distortion while creating narrative shots. It renders pleasing bokeh to isolate subjects in close-ups thanks to its f1.4 and 13-blade construction in the aperture, which is also wide enough to keep up in low-light environments.
The Aurora is equipped with new, improved STM motors, which provide quiet and fast focusing around the subject, rivaling benchmarks of lenses priced as high as three times its price. Such a profile for an inexpensive lens makes it a highly recommended upgrade, especially if you are into portraits and bokeh.
5. Wrapping Up:
Capturing a photo with a background blurred requires an understanding of how distance, aperture, and focal length affect bokeh. The SIRUI Aurora lens kit is the easiest way to create images with professional-grade bokeh and consistently stand out.
