Atherton & District Amateur Photographic Society

My friend, who is fairly new to photography, is trying to photograph her daughter’s pregnancy bump. She wants only the bump sharp and blurring everything else out. She has seen an online article which says to use an aperture of f1.2. This is not possible with the lenses that she has got. She has tried several times and failed and is getting quite despondent about it. I don’t know enough about aperture to be able to advise her. She hasn’t got a clue how to use any photo manipulation programs so does not want to go down that route, she wants to achieve the blur with the camera. Please can somebody help and give us some tips.
Thank you.

The widest aperture on whatever lens she is using (lowest f number available, such as f/2.8, maybe f/3.5, etc.) will give the smallest depth of field, but the real trick is to have a bland background as well so that the bump stands out.

Try this for an explanation of DOF:

http://www.photodo.com/topic_122.html

PS by all means bring your friend round and I'll show her how to do what she wants.

Thanks John, I will pass your message on