Focus/Blur

[DangerouslyMoody]

Ok, I am having a brain fart...I know how to focus on something close and the background be blurred out...how do you do the opposite so something far away is focused but the foreground is blurred??

[12stones]

Well, first it depends on how the foreground is laid out for this to work. If it's not distinct, it won't work as well, but normally you would open your aperture up (smaller numbers) and focus on what's in the background. Depending on the layout, you may need to compose the pic without the foreground, use your focus lock, then recompose with the foreground. Not sure if I'm explaining it in a way that makes sense, but I hope this helps.

[JPalmer]

The technique is called Depth of Field and it relates to the distance that is in focus around what you are focusing on...

A Shallow DOF (smaller number f-stop) means that very little distance in front of and behind what you are focusing on will be sharp.

[kenw]

maybe I'm missing something in the question, but it seems that to focus on the background and have the foreground out of focus, you simply have the selected AF point hit the background? or manually focus on said background?

Assuming of course a proper aperture has been selected to prevent both the foreground and background being in focus. In most cases, whatever aperture works to get the foreground IN focus and the background OUT of focus should work for the reverse.

Thousands of pics are taken this way every day, most by accident....

[DangerouslyMoody]

Thanks guys, this helps a little...
I saw a pic of 2 people...at a wedding...the little girl in the back ground was sharp...the bride looking at her in the foreground was blurred...does that help at all??

[12stones]

If you want specifics, use your largest aperture (i.e. f/2.8 or larger), expose for that, and focus on the subject in the background. This should automatically blur the person in the foreground. You can play with this depending on how blurred your want the person in the foreground to be. The larger the aperture, the more blurred they'll be. I don't think you'd want to go any smaller than f/5.6, but the composition and distance between subject and foreground will influence the final result. You'll have to play with it to see what you want.

[DangerouslyMoody]

awesome!! thanks!

[Matt_G]

If you know how to control the DOF in the background then you also know how to do it in the foreground, simply change your focus to the subject you want in focus.

This will probably rewuire a single focus point rather than letting the camera choose.

Also, I feel this is seldom the best looking image, its just distracting to me to have a large out of focus subject in the foreground ...JMO

[johnastovall]

If you really want control of DOF and the Focal Plane look to a view camera or a Tilt and Shift lens.

[12stones]

Originally Posted by johnastovall

If you really want control of DOF and the Focal Plane look to a view camera or a Tilt and Shift lens.

I disagree. While those things will help you control your focal plane focus and will help to make a clearer pic when you want extreme DOF (when you want large image prints), I don't think they're necessary to control DOF. No need to spend the money on more equipment for such a basic photog technique unless you're going to be doing large prints with extreme DOF requirements. Even the article tells you that.

[johnastovall]

Well then don't use one if you really want simple radical DOF get some f/1.0 lenses then.

T/S adds more control of the vision one may want.