Shallow Depth of Field

Have you wondered why you like wildlife portraits and the way they pop! Have you looked at the background? It’s a beautiful soft blur which makes the subject stand out. Eliminating a distracting background with a shallow depth of field can really make your photos stand out from the crowd. You will need to use an aperture mode such as A or AV on your camera and select a large aperture (small f/stop number) such as F/2.8, F/4, F/5.6. 

A nice clean background will also help with creating that pop we all love so much.  You can also achieve this on your smart phones. Place your camera in portrait mode and tap on the face of your subject and you will create a beautiful shallow depth of field in the background.

Lens: 400 f/2.8

Camera Mode: AV

Shutter Speed: 1/640th

Aperture: F/4

ISO: 500

Lens: 400 f/2.8

Camera Mode: AV

Shutter Speed: 1/250th

Aperture: F/2.8

ISO: 1600

Lens: 400 f/2.8

Camera Mode: AV

Shutter Speed: 1/1000th

Aperture: F/4.5

ISO: 400