How to Get Shallow Depth of Field in Your Digital Photos
I’ve been taking a lot of portrait shots of our kids lately with my husband’s DSLR (Canon EOS 20D) and I’ve noticed that on some shots that I take the backgrounds is all soft and out of focus while in others it is completely clear. I’d like the soft background more but as I’ve been shooting in Auto mode I don’t know how the camera did it before. Can you give any suggestions? - submitted by DPS reader Sandra
Thanks for the question Sandra. You’re right about the soft blurry backgrounds in portraits - in most cases they are a great way to highlight your main subject and get rid of any distractions in the background.
There are a number of things you might like to try. I’ll start with the easy ones:
Positioning of Subject
One of the easiest things you can do is position the subject you’re wanting to photograph as far away from any objects behind them as possible. If they are standing right in front of a wall you’ll probably end up with it in focus no matter what else you do - but if they’re standing 100 meters in front of that same wall it’s going to be a lot more blurry. Of course this will only get you so far - you’ll need to do some of what’s coming next as well.
Portrait Mode
The Canon EOS 20D has a little wheel on top of it (on the left) with lots of little icons on it. One of those icons is a little head. This icon is the symbol for portrait mode and if you’re not confident with changing apertures (we’ll discuss this below) it’s a good mode to switch to as it will do some of the work for you. Portrait mode chooses a large aperture (a small ‘f’ number) which will make the depth of field (the amount of your shot in focus) smaller.
Aperture Priority Mode
Aperture Priority Mode is a great way to control depth of field as it will ensure your images are well exposed.
If you’re feeling a little more adventurous switch the wheel to ‘A’ which is Aperture Priority Mode (go on, you can do it). I’ve written on this mode before but to recap - this mode lets you choose the Aperture (the size of the hole in your lens) and tells the camera to choose all the other settings. This semi-auto mode is a great way to control depth of field as it will ensure your images are well exposed. For shallow depth of field and nice blurry backgrounds choose a large Aperture (the smaller the number the larger the aperture). Try taking a few shots at different apertures and see how it affects the background of your shots - this is the best way to learn how to get more creative control in your shots.
Zoom Lenses
I’m not sure what lens you have on your 20D but if you’re like most people these days it will be a zoom lens with different focal lengths. Many zooms will have different maximum apertures at different points along the focal length spectrum. For example if it’s an 18-55mm kit lens it will have a maximum aperture of f3.5 at 18mm and a maximum aperture of f5.6 at 55mm. Many see the bigger aperture at the 18mm end of the range and think that that would be the best focal length for blurry backgrounds. The problem with this is that 18mm is a very wide angle and for portraits it can mean you need to get in really close to your subject and it could distort their facial features (not really desirable).
Instead I find that shooting at the 55mm end of the lens is best. This means you can stand further back (making your subject more at ease and pushing your background even further away from your camera). You’ll probably still get nice blurry backgrounds if you use the fastest aperture available.
The other good thing about zooms is that they enable you to really fill up your frame with your subject which can give it more prominence and your background less.
Get a New Lens
This is an ‘easy’ solution in some ways, but hard if you don’t have the budget. Different lenses have different maximum apertures. Those with larger ones are called ‘faster’ and one of the impacts of having a fast lens is that you can make your depth of field smaller (another is that you can shoot in lower light situations without needing the flash). A good option for Canon DSLRs is the Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens. It’s very fast, it’s a good focal length for portraits and it is one of the most affordable lenses Canon make.
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December 13th, 2006 at 1:47 pm
Great entry, but seems like a lot of info for a very simple concept. :-)
Depth of field is controlled by 2 things: aperture (F stop) and focal length. Shallow DoF (blurry backgrounds) = low F stop, long focal length (telephoto). Deep DoF = high F stop, short focal length (wide angle).
Also, using a telephoto lens (anything above 50mm) won’t push the background away–it’ll bring it closer. Telephoto lenses compress the depth of the image; wide angle lenses expand the depth of the image.
December 15th, 2006 at 10:23 am
Some of us appreciate the detail. I’m learning from the ground up, and the more detail the better; it helps me learn not only what to do, but *why* - and knowing the ‘why’ makes it easier to understand, and thus easier to remember when I’m out in the field and don’t have a computer handy to reread the blog ;)
December 15th, 2006 at 11:30 am
Very useful tips simply explained in relation to SDOF. All tips are welcome ; this one is very good
December 15th, 2006 at 11:59 am
Very simply explained, easily understood. Thank you so much :-)
December 15th, 2006 at 12:24 pm
Good post… I’ll second the recommendation for the Canon 50mm. It’s amazing what an improvement it is over the kit lens. I took two sets of pictures in the same room with both the kit lens and the 50mm, and all the pictures with the 50mm had much better exposure, were sharper, and generally had the subject more in focus than the background.
December 15th, 2006 at 12:55 pm
It may be true that a telephoto lens will compress the apparent distance between images. This effect isn’t as apparent if the focused image is close and the background far away because the limited depth of field/focus will make the background softer. My 12x zoom handles this nicely for tightly cropped head shots. You may have trouble trying to achieve this effect with the 3x zooms found on the most basic of digital cameras.
December 15th, 2006 at 5:05 pm
designosaur, but have we not been taught that a zoom lens makes the background blurred when used with a large aperture and the camera to subject distance is kept as short as possible? pls enlighten me?
thanks,
krish
December 15th, 2006 at 5:06 pm
i meant by zoom lens, a lens with focal length over 100 mm.
thanks,
krish
December 15th, 2006 at 10:14 pm
I relly like your letter’s they are very usrfull indeed
thank you. I look forward to reading them every week.
December 16th, 2006 at 2:21 am
I have and love the Canon 50mm f/1.8. Everyone suggests it to me all of the time.
December 16th, 2006 at 4:04 am
Great articles. I’m still rethinking the leaf taped to the window idea and am eager to try it. I started photography with the Nikon Nikormatic and then the F2 almost 40 years ago, but these type of tips knock my socks off..Thanks
December 18th, 2006 at 3:47 am
My Canon Digital Rebel XT also has a setting called A-dep. Can someone explaing that, I think it has something to do with what we’re talking about.
December 19th, 2006 at 11:51 am
simple explanation yet very basic and useful. nice way to explain these things.. :)
December 27th, 2006 at 1:35 pm
Great tips, many thanks.
sorry if this is a bit off topic but does anyone know of any good tips on how to hold a camera steadily to avoid any camera shake when not using a tripod.
thanks again.
December 28th, 2006 at 8:49 pm
Been looking @ at number of photo sites lately. Yours is def’ the best. Cheers.
December 31st, 2006 at 6:28 pm
To John.
There are techniques, but none have really helped me, now I’m not a professional by any means. I have a small camera, so its operable with one hand, i find i can steady the shot holding the wrist. However this can still be somewhat awkward. Also leaning on something (if there is the option to) this can help greatly and as long as your comfortable, this method is almost guaranteed to work, but there is not always something to lean on something because of where the shot takes place. You should try holding your wrist and see how it helps first, if you find that you can steady yourself enough to take clear pictures, then it may seem pointless to try other methods that may be difficult etc.
Hope this helps.
January 18th, 2007 at 2:15 am
This site helped me a lot just by reading the answers of others!! Great job I Love it.
January 20th, 2007 at 8:35 pm
To John,
I have a Sony DSCH2 with 12x zoom, I had problems holding the camera steady - not helped by my arthritis. The solution was to use a miniature tripod with the legs folded, which then became a handle for me to both hold and stabilise the camera, it works a treat !
bob wiseman.
January 25th, 2007 at 9:03 pm
John–> Leaning your elbows on something steady is the best way but if that is not an option then try to get down on one knee and leaning one elbow on the other knee. I’ve managed to get some decent exposures this way. Bear in mind though that a tripod really makes ALL the difference. As soon as the lighting is bad or if you are zooming in on something in the distance there is no technique that will match a tripod.
February 21st, 2007 at 4:45 pm
Greate tips guys…go on…
I have a basic digicam, sony cybershot 5 Megapixel, would like to hear anything about portriat photography feature of this cam.
Cheers
Kunal
March 1st, 2007 at 10:00 am
i think this foto is fantastic.the amount of volume and prestivious attitude towars the lense is amazing!
March 4th, 2007 at 3:00 pm
To prevent camera shaking….hold your elbows in close to your body.
April 13th, 2007 at 3:27 pm
Gr8 Tip…Useful,basic nd pretty simple 2 understand!!
April 23rd, 2007 at 4:24 pm
Hi
“Locking the focus” is not explained, Which is very relevent for potraits.
Ref: Kodak Top 10 Tips
http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=2/3/38/39/317&pq-locale=en_US
May 4th, 2007 at 12:37 am
Dear Friends,
I want to buy a Sony DSC-H2 or Canon-S3. My primary goat is to get a very shallow depth of field in my photos. Will I be able to get a good Shallow depth of field in H2 or S3.
Evan
May 22nd, 2007 at 1:10 pm
The H2 is indeed capable of some very impressive shots, including “blurred” background images. I bought mine several weeks ago and just today figured out how to achieve this effect. Here’s an example shot of this effect in action:
http://img63.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ensignpl4.jpg
It’s possible to further increase the effect as this wasn’t the ideal situation for it.
May 26th, 2007 at 5:55 pm
I’ve recently purchased a Canon 400D and just started getting more interested improving my photgraphy. This is an excellent website and I have found the tips to be a great help to my understanding of the basics. Everything is very clearly and simply explained and I feel encouraged to go out and try the techniques for myself. Thanks again for such a great website
June 4th, 2007 at 10:07 am
Thanks for the tips…But you just recommended the Canon 50mm for better learning shots. What do you recommend for Nikon 40X etc.. products. I currently have just started SLR photography (Nikon 40x, 18-55mm Kit) and having problem obtaining the blurry background with a good clear focal point.
July 21st, 2007 at 2:37 am
I had the same problem. I purchased the Nikkor Zoom lens 55-200 mm and that works fine. The lens in the kit doesn’t work too well re: shallow of depth of field for headshot type photos. However there is a smaller lens (about $300 or so) that does a great job, but you would have to be good at focusing the camera yourself (especially if you have a Nikon D40 - not sure about the D40X..probably the same.) If you have the Nikon D80 you’re in luck. Hope helps, (even tho I see Jacob’s post was back in June!)
July 26th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
To Douglas Porter: The “A-dep” setting on your Canon Rebel XT is short for “automatic depth of field”. On this setting, the camera will survey the auto-focusing points, and make sure to select an exposure (aperture + shutter speed) which will keep multiple subjects in focus. E.g., if you have a group of people who are at different distances from the lens, the camera won’t select one focus point and keep that person in focus while throwing the other individuals out of focus.
To Evan: I currently have a Canon S3 and have a difficult time getting shallow depth of field, despite the fact that the camera’s aperture can go as low as f/2.7. After reading up on it a bit, I learned that the tiny size of the sensor meant that my effective focal length was very low, thereby increasing my DOF in general. (The 35-432mm zoom range is really 6-72mm in 35mm terms.)
Depth of field is affected by: 1) distance from the subject (the closer you are the shallower the DOF), 2) focal length (the more you are zoomed in the shallower the DOF), and 3) aperture (the lower the aperture the shallower the DOF). What I wasn’t realizing, is that although I could achieve a low aperture, it was being offset by the fact that the focal length was short, and unfortunately there’s not much I can do about it.
August 11th, 2007 at 10:11 am
Hi,
Just got a nikon d40x, will the 50mm Af lens work with this camera? I have the kit lens 18-55 and I can’t seem to blur the background at all =(
August 22nd, 2007 at 8:17 am
I am new to photography and shooting with the D40X. I Bought the 200mm lens but this effect just WILL NOT WORK for me no matter what i do, I have the camera on fully Manual, but it will not let me lower the FSto below 5.6. What am I doing wrong?
August 23rd, 2007 at 5:10 am
To Jemma: The only reason the 50mm lens might work better than your 18-55mm lens, is if it has a larger maximum aperture. The lens barrel and the box will both list the maximum aperture: it’s labeled as “f/5.6″, “f/1.8″, or something similar. The lower the number, the larger the aperture. So if the 50mm lens has a lower number than your 18-55mm, it will be better for shallow depth of field. You may want to take your camera to shop, test it out the 50mm lens, and see what results it gives you.
To Cedric: The maximum aperture you can use is usually limited by the lens itself, not the camera body. And when the lens is zoomed all the way in, the maximum aperture (a.k.a. f/stop) will not be as wide as when zoomed all the way out (however, zooming in is better for achieving shallow depth of field). To experiment, I would try setting your camera to Aperture Priority (usually marked as “Av” on the setting dial), zooming all the way in, finding a subject in your viewfinder that has nothing behind it, make the aperture number as low as it will go (sounds like f/5.6 in this case), focus, snap a picture, and see what happens. This basically puts all the factors in your corner, and should work.
May 8th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
Cedric, I have the same kit lens as you are and I can achieve the bokeh effect (blurred background) by either being quite close to the subject with f1.8 or zoomed to the subject as much as possible with f5.6.
The maximum you can set with ur kit lens when zoomed is f5.6.