hi guys welcome or welcome back thanks so much for joining me today
we're going to talk about how to make blurry backgrounds
so before we jump in if you haven't already please do remember to press the subscribe button and hit
the bell icon the bell icon will help you out because it gives you a notification every single
time I upload a video I upload every week and sometimes more than that if I feel like it okay
so today I wanted to go into our garden to talk to you guys about how to make blurry backgrounds
and to do this we're going to use Alfie Alfie is here and we're going to use a tripod and some
lenses so we're going to talk through this from start to finish about all the things that affect
blurry backgrounds the first thing that we're going to discuss is aperture now if you haven't
already please do go ahead and watch the exposure triangle video the exposure triangle video
should talk you through exactly what aperture is essentially it's the size of the hole in
the middle of the lens the smaller the f number the bigger the hole and the smaller the f number
the blurrier the background but there's more to it than that so let's jump straight in with the first
lens so what we're going to do is we're going to start with 24mm okay every single time we change
something on this this particular video we're going to be staying at f2.8 throughout so the
aperture is never going to change and what we're looking for is the blurriness of the background
so you're currently watching me at 24mm f4 we're going to switch around so that you can see what I
see through the camera okiecoke so on the screen right now you can see the settings that we've
got going on so we've got one 250th of a second, f 2.8, iso1000 we'll switch through that that's just
a custom preset that I have on normal settings for everything so you can see that we're too
bright let's bang our histogram up on here so you can see that we've got a peak at the side of the
frame so we're too bright so we're going to just whiz sorry keeping that at 2.8 we're just going to
where's our shutter speed up to compensate for it I'm not going to go much further than that
just there should be absolutely fine so at this aperture we can't get too much lower down than we
are now but you guys can see everything that we've got in the background so it's quite a wide field
of view what I'm going to do is I'm going to do a very brief demonstration about what we're going
to do today essentially there's multiple different things that affect the blurriness of a background
as it were so one of the main things is the distance from the subject to you and the subject
to whatever is behind them so the background over here is actually about 40 metres away
so it's quite a long way so it's 40 metres to the hedge line over here not going to go all
the way there but it's quite far so on a 24mm lens on a full frame camera which is what we've
got set up over there there's quite a big gap between you and there and if we want Alfie to
be sat there's a headshot a portrait as it were then we need him to actually be quite close
to the camera so what we'll do is we'll bring Alf over here and set him up at headshot level
come here sit wait that is a headshot put the focus void on him
and you can see the background there if you look at how far away he is from the lens
you'll be able to see that actually compared to how far away the background is there is a massive
massive difference in the relative ratio but we're at 24mm so there's no background compression and
actually there is lateral distortion so Alfie's head looks a little bit longer than it actually is
in real life because he's at this level so what we're going to do is we're going to do a headshot
again we're going to keep the camera in the exact same place and we're going to move the
focal length to be at 50mm so the focal length has switched to 50mm we'll put him so that he's the
same size ish in the frame good boy puppy where's your ball so for about the same size in the frame
at 50mm he needs to be a little bit further back from the camera so the relative distance between
the camera and him and him and the background is actually still quite a big difference there's
a substantial difference in that ratio so the background is still quite blurry I mean it's not
I wouldn't say that we had beautiful bokeh um but it is quite blurry so let's see what happens if
we go to 70mm keeping the camera in the same place so again a rough estimation here of the distances
you can see that actually the background has come in quite a lot it looks a lot closer than it did
when we were at 24mm and that's one of the main differences as you increasing the focal length
so Alf just decided to go for a wander which is fine because he's cute so he's allowed but
the background looks like it's moved in a lot closer we've got none of our side fence in here
there's just the back line so the difference in how many distractions you have in shot
changes dramatically and the background looks blurrier even though I've moved him further
away from the camera it's a little bit closer now go back you put them up can you put them up
wow so what we're going to do now is we're going to switch so we've got the
70mm to 200mm lens on and repeat and you'll see a massive change happen when we do this okie cookie
so we've popped on the 70mm to 200mm so the 7200 is on there now it is sat at 70mm
don't worry too much about what the histogram and the settings are saying at the moment
you can just see obviously at the moment it's focused on the tree line in the background and
not on anything in front but the focal length was exactly the same so let's set them up to a
similar profile and then start to increase the focal length the sun has just come out
gloriously bright sunshine there that's kind of worked back up get sit sit good that's pretty
much where we were last time so super bright we'll bring the uh shutter speed up sorry
and we can get a pretty good understanding goodbye waiting so let's go ahead and move in it to 135mm
and we'll set him back you can see now the complete change that we've just had and the
distance, wait, between the camera and him and him and the background is still a massive difference
there there's still a huge difference but we've got a completely non-distracted background now
we've got complete separation from the background and it looks like a pretty good shot
what we'll do is we'll go into 200mm reset and we'll see what difference that's made good boy
waiting so at 200mm I guess you guys can maybe see why I like this focal length so much now
it's a beautiful rendition in the background there if there was light coming through those
trees it would be huge big bokeh circles and Alfie is doing such a fab job good boy,
waiting, so he's sat waiting there like an absolute little legend and you can see the
difference the separation that we've got there so if you compare that to 24mm you can see the
massive difference that focal length has and the distance that he is from the background is still
huge so what we're going to do is we're going to stay at 200mm but we're going to move a lot
closer to the background we're going to try and frame it the same way and see the difference
so if you just take note of how far Alfie is away from the background now he's maybe 25
metres now away from the background so we're going to close that gap and see the difference it makes
so you can see we've closed down the gap, wait, so he is about halfway between the camera and
the background and you can see that we've lost the fluffiness of the background here it's still good
separation we're at 2.8 it's okay let's close it a bit more and you'll see why the distance from
the background is vital so we've lost the nice background now the background looks rubbish and
the reason for that guys is the distance between him and the background in relation to me and him
so there's much bigger gap between me and him than him and the background and that relative
distance is so important so he can be this far away from the camera up at that end of our paddock
and it'll be absolutely fine because the distance between the but him and the background is massive
and that really is how to get blurry backgrounds it's all to do with the relative distances so
whatever the focal length you just need to have a big relative distance but the longer the focal
length the better your backgrounds realistically speaking so that's it guys I hope this video has
been helpful for you if it has please do remember to drop a note in the comments below please do
press the subscribe button and click the bell icon the bell icon will give you a notification
every single time I upload a video I upload every week and sometimes more than if I feel like it
you will hopefully think that Alfie's behaviour has been exceptional today this is my little
onion aren't you my little onion thank you just remember when you're thinking about your distances
to ensure that there is a big distance between the subject and the background compared to the
distance between you and the subject if you do that then you'll be absolutely fine if you
haven't already please do remember to join us on Instagram because we're on Instagram
are we we are get a hand wow good boy okay and we'll see you again really really soon