How to Blur a Background Using the Aperture

Isolate your subject by blurring the background of a photograph.

If you want to shoot a portrait shot of a friend while walking down the street of a busy city, you'll likely end up with a ton of distracting elements in the background. To blur the background into a creamy, subtly colorful backdrop, you'll need to widen your lens' opening, or aperture, to achieve a shallow range of focus, or depth of field. The advanced controls of digital cameras make professional quality portraits a reality for even the novice photographer.

Instructions

1. • 1
     Rotate the mode dial on the top right of your camera body to "Av" or "A" to engage aperture priority shooting mode. This mode lets you select your desired aperture while the camera selects a shutter speed that will provide proper exposure.
   • 2
     Turn the knob on the backside of the camera's hand grip to the left to widen your aperture. On most lenses, the background will begin to blur smoothly at f/4. For a completely blurred background, use a very wide aperture of f/1.7 or f/2. This will also soften the facial features of your subject for a flattering portrait.
   • 3
     Look through your viewfinder and compose your shot. Depress the shutter button halfway to automatically focus on your subject. While working at very wide apertures, you may also consider using manual focus instead of autofocus.
   • 4
     Stabilize the camera and press the shutter button all the way down to take your picture. Review your shot in the LCD screen and reshoot if necessary.