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Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ50

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37th of 63 in Extended Zoom
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margherita t (margherita) 0 pts

November 19, 2007 10:50 AM

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how can i take pictures with a soft focus background using panasonic dmc-z50?

i tried setting it to the lowest aperture value, 2.8 but i still can't achieve a soft focus background!

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by James DeRuvo (byjamesderuvo) 58446 pts

November 19, 2007 5:26 PM

Well, that's how you do it. You open the lens up ALL the way. You can also widen the distance between the subject and the background. Also, using a larger zoom lens which enables you to compress the distance between the subject in the foreground and what's in the background also helps.

From the-digital-picture.com:

First, open the aperture wide. All other factors being identical, a wider the aperture yields a shorter depth of field. How wide? Experience is the best teacher here. The above picture was taken at f/2.8. Experiment!

In conjunction with using a wide aperture setting comes using a lens that has a very wide aperture such as the Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 Lens. It can create a blurred background much more easily than a slow lens (such as the Canon EF 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5 lens). The fast lens has much more latitude on the wide end of the aperture than the slow lens.

Monster Buck Picture

Another way to get a more diffusely blurred background is to use a lens with a long focal length such as the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS Lens used for the above Monster Buck picture. It will be much more difficult to blur a background with the Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 L Lens. All focal lengths yield the same depth of field when used at the same aperture setting and subject framing. But, the image compression a telephoto focal length provides magnifies the already blurred background. The result is a background that appears more diffusely blurred.

Using a higher focal length has the additional advantage of including less background in your picture. A higher focal length lens has a smaller angle of view. Pretty simple - less background in your picture leaves less room for distraction. This may be a reason to choose the Canon EF 180mm L USM Macro Lens over the Canon EF 100mm USM Macro Lens. Again, less background in the picture reduces the chance of distractions.

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margherita t (margherita) 0 pts

November 20, 2007 12:35 AM

yes, i opened it up all the way to 2.8 (aperture) but i can't still achieve a soft focus background with my lumix dmc-z750. what seems to be the problem? help!

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by James DeRuvo (byjamesderuvo) 58446 pts

November 20, 2007 5:26 PM

It's all about the depth of field. Sadly, you're camera does have its limits as for as aperture settings. Therefore, for you, the farther away your subject is from the background, the more fuzzy the background will be.

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Larry (logcabiny) 4897 pts

December 18, 2007 10:58 PM

The only other item to check is the auto-focus setting. This camera has a setting for up to 9 points of focus. You want to try it on 1 point or even Spot focus to make certain that the camera is only focusing on the subject. That plus the 2.8 aperture is about all you can do to minimize the depth of field and thereby soften the background.
Larry

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Craig. 22 pts

February 29, 2008 12:32 AM

At f2.8, you are practically using no zoom and in my experience you will not get a soft background. What you have to do is zoom in on the subject. How much? In most cases enough to fill the frame of the shot. From most of the pics that I've taken, it seems like 6x-8x zoom set at f3.6 is the sweet spot. Also ensure that there's a decent distance between the subject and the background. Follow these steps and with a lil' practice you should be able to get a nice soft background.

P.S. I've also found that's it's better to use 1-area or spot focusing to give better results when it comes to soft backgrounds.

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how can i take pictures with a soft focus background using panasonic dmc-z50?

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