What Went Wrong :(

[wrdm]

Yesterday morning was a beautiful day in Perth, Scotland - 6 or 7 inches of snow fall led me to get out my bed at 6am for a walk.

For the below shot I wanted to keep the sign in Focus with the background blurred



Camera: Nikon D5000
Exposure: 0.167 sec (1/6)
Aperture: f/4.0
Focal Length: 22 mm
ISO Speed: 800
Exposure Bias: 0 EV

I have no idea what I done wrong tho, my lens was the 18-55mm kit lens.

[RubyT]

The wider your angle, the greater your dof. If you were to reshoot at 85 mm (and you'd have to stand much farther away to fit the sign into the frame), you would see the blurry background you seek. Even 55 will give you more of the blur you are looking for. HTH!

[wrdm]

Following on from your response, can blur be achieved at wide angles like 18mm??

[Skyyton]

Originally Posted by wrdm

Following on from your response, can blur be achieved at wide angles like 18mm??

It can. Please refer to this DOF chart for the required distances:

Online Depth of Field Calculator

[dcclark]

Originally Posted by wrdm

Following on from your response, can blur be achieved at wide angles like 18mm??

It can, but it's much harder. On my 10mm ultrawide lens, for example, getting a narrow depth of field is very tricky. The best ways to get it are to shoot at your widest aperture (in my case, f/3.5), and focus very very close. Otherwise, almost everything is in focus!

[gnownad]

Originally Posted by wrdm

Camera: Nikon D5000
Exposure: 0.167 sec (1/6)
Aperture: f/4.0
Focal Length: 22 mm
ISO Speed: 800
Exposure Bias: 0 EV

I have no idea what I done wrong tho, my lens was the 18-55mm kit lens.

Woohoo, another D5000 user!! Are you using the AS-F 18-55mm lend that came with the camera? I hope you're not using the snow mode for your snow pictures, as that kind of sucks! For this shot though, you'd want to zoom all the way to 55, open that aperture as wide as you can and shoot a bit fast!

[mkriel]

Gotta tell you, I love this shot just the way it is. Do the background blur in photo editing program like Adobe or something?