Great pictures!
How would I go about getting the effect with the blurred background like you have done with the peace and love signs? I am trying to expand on my knowledge a bit, really trying to push my photography at present.
That's 'Bokeh' if I understand the term correctly :smiley:
If you shoot with the lens aperture wide open (so a low F number - either f1.2, f1.4 or f1.8 if it's one of the Canon 50mm lenses, depending on which one you have) you get less depth of field - i.e. the depth of field (i.e. the depth of the area of focus) is shallower, so objects will be in focus while the background isn't - like the picture above :smile:
If you shot the same picture with a high F number (say F8 to F11) the depth of field (area of focus) is deeper and you will have both the subject and the background in focus. (Although it's likely that you'll still have some bokeh in this instance because of how far away the background is.)
Best thing to do to learn how it works is either buy a tripod and set the camera up on it (or put it on something solid) then put something in the middle of the frame you can focus easily on. Then take pictures at all the F-stop numbers from low to high - when you cycle through them, you will see how more and more becomes in focus :smile:
As a side note, you will get a more shallow depth of field (DoF) when shooting with a low F-number (wide aperture) as the length of the lens increases. So an 8mm super-wide-angle lens will have a very deep DoF at F3.5 (as in pretty much everything is in focus regardless of how far it is from the lens) but a 200mm lens is likely to have a depth of field that you can measure in inches or even less.
I recall someone shooting African wild cats (or similar) on here with something like a 300mm lens on a 2x convertor (giving a 600mm lens equivalent) - IIRC the depth of field was so shallow that while the eye was in focus, the eyebrows weren't!
Grand Central by Simon Nicholls, on Flickr
Empire State Building by Simon Nicholls, on Flickr
I love NY! by Simon Nicholls, on Flickr
New York Skyline by Simon Nicholls, on Flickr
Statue of Liberty by Simon Nicholls, on Flickr
Peace .. by Simon Nicholls, on Flickr
New York Skyline from the Empire State by Simon Nicholls, on Flickr
A rose for her birthday by Simon Nicholls, on Flickr
