How to take baby picture with blur surrounding in same layer?

[barochia]

Dear friends, Need your help. I have 70 D and 18-135 mm IS STM lens. Can you please let me know how can I take baby picture with blur surrounding when baby sleeping on bed ( same layer ) ? Which settings I should use. I tried to find in manual but I couldn't find it. 

Thanks for for your help.

[diverhank]

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@barochia wrote:

Dear friends, Need your help. I have 70 D and 18-135 mm IS STM lens. Can you please let me know how can I take baby picture with blur surrounding when baby sleeping on bed ( same layer ) ? Which settings I should use. I tried to find in manual but I couldn't find it. 

Thanks for for your help.

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Hi, 

When you say blur surrounding I assume you mean the area behind and in front of the baby?  There isn't anything that can be done on camera for areas on the same plane as the baby.  You can blur them in photoshop I suppose.

There are a few ground rules to get the foreground and background to blur:

1. set your aperture Av to the lowest setting of the lens (either 3.5 or 5.6)

2. set your focal length (FL) to the highest value possible (towards 135mm).  For FL 18 to 50mm, blurring is minimal.

3. set the camera as close to the baby as possible

4. set the baby as far from the background as possible

The 4 factors above contribute to how much the foreground and background will blur.  Shooting indoors will present a problem because often you do not have room to position the camera.For instructions you are better off reading basic photography books and videos from youtube...you won't find too much  of this on the manual.  You should search for bokeh and depth of field.  

There are free phone and tablet apps that will calculate the depth of field (blurriness) when varying the four factors above.  The apps will tell you the distance range that your object will be clear.

[barochia]

Thank you Diverhank for your response. very helpful.your understanding is correct.  I am looking for same plane area/same level ( distance between object and background very very minimal), baby is sleeping on bed in this situation. Based on your post, using camera and 18-135 lens, I understand that we cannot blur back ground if distance is very minimal. I will go through the youtube videos. Thanks again for helping me out.

[cicopo]

If I understand your question correctly you need a lens with a wider aperture than what you have. The wider the aperture the shallower the depth of field. Using a full frame camera instead of your crop body camera also gives a shallower depth of field at the same aperture than the crop body does. Take a few moments to read this & see if you understand what it's all about.

http://www.canonoutsideofauto.ca/

You can also do something similar to what a wide aperture lens does in Photoshop but that's not just a simple thing to learn & it requires having Photoshop available.

[barochia]

Thank you Cicopo for your response and time. I am looking to blur picture in this sitatuion when distance between object and background is very very very minimal. based on your response, I am getting understanding that it is not possible using 18-135 lens and camera. I wil go through this site --> http://www.canonoutsideofauto.ca/. It seems very helpful and comprehensive. Thanks again.

[kvbarkley]

You can use a Depth of Field Calculator to determine what will be in focus and what won't.

[Waddizzle]

How much of the baby's body should be in the picture?  A "macro" shot of the baby's face might achieve what you want, too.  Use a longer focal length, a wide aperture [small f/stop number], and a fairly close focusing distance, about 2-3 feet.

http://www.dofmaster.com/doftable.html

Use the above table to estimate DOF.

[docusync]

This one is more fun to use: http://dofsimulator.net/en/

If you can't control background and light, then Photoshop is your best friend  https://www.flickr.com/photos/maximenco/14394737773/in/dateposted/ 🙂

[TTMartin]

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@barochia wrote:

Dear friends, Need your help. I have 70 D and 18-135 mm IS STM lens. Can you please let me know how can I take baby picture with blur surrounding when baby sleeping on bed ( same layer ) ? Which settings I should use. I tried to find in manual but I couldn't find it. 

Thanks for for your help.

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In addition to DiverHank's suggestions, that can also be added in post processing using software. 

Simple reverse vignette. 

[barochia]

Thank you TTMartin for posting a cure baby example photo. It gives me some idea. Thanks again.