Hi again!

Back in 2012 I was certainly busy to get to know my camera, so I often took it to the streets of Lahti and tried shooting inconspicuously at different subjects. It was a bit difficult because I didn't want to disturb people.

Anyway, I found some nice buckets of Bell Heathers in front of an entrance to a building. They were so appealing I decided to take the photo.

In the city – Behind the Heathers (Erica gracilis)

Now here's the question. Notice the person next to the car?

See how the sun gives a cool backlight on their hair, making it almost look like an aura?

Although the photo is shot with the Canon EFS 18 – 55 mm kit lens, it still retains some level of bokeh, meaning that it has a relatively shallow depth of field that renders what would normally be clutter, into a somewhat decent blur. And in that blur we have a point of interest that adds a story to the image.

Now I must admit I didn't notice the person in the background when I was shooting the picture. It's a good thing though, as I would probably have consciously tried to avoid the shot altogether and would've missed the moment.

Now – to replicate this image, you'll need to get relatively close to whatever you want to be in focus, and then use an aperture as wide as possible (keep the F-value on your camera as small as possible, lower number means shallower focus). This way your subject stays sharp, and whatever is in the background will get blurred. Leave some room for the background to fill the negative space.

If you are shooting into the light, the backlighting can definitely help give some character to the subject, or like in the case of my photo here, to the person in the background.

If you got it right, you will have obscured the otherwise possibly distracting background into a beautiful blur that adds to the picture instead of taking away from the appeal of the resulting image.

Ok, you can now go out and shoot your own beautiful photos with a creamy bokeh. :)

If you follow this advice, please link your resulting photos here so we can all see them, vote on them, and perhaps give pointers on how to improve on them! :)

See you with another photo lesson soon!