Sharp image with blurry background

Here are a few tips to help you photograph a single kiddo and get the image sharp and leave the background a bit blurry. A blurry background, when created with a camera lens, is called bokeh. I’m sure there’s an actual definition for bokeh, but for now, I’ll give you a couple of tips as to how to achieve it. This is my friend Max. I photographed him outdoors during the afternoon of a Fall day. I had big trees filtering out the strong sunlight so it was a bit softer and not quite as harsh. The sun was coming from the back right corner of my image. I set my focus point to the center focus point and I focused on Max’s eyes. My 35mm lens is pretty fast and sharp so as long as I got the focus point truly on his eyes (or even just one eye) and if he wasn’t jumping up and down, then I should be golden. The open aperture setting (F 2.8) allows the background to be creamy and a bit blurry while Max’s cute little face is in focus.

My camera settings on this shot below:

ISO: 200
shutter speed: 1/250
aperture: F 2.8
lens: canon 35mm 1.4L
body: canon 5D mark III