Why aren't my backgrounds blurred?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/from_the_john/2331651959/

I took the above picture with the following settings:

Nikon D300
Nikkor 18-200 VR Lens at 52 mm
Aperture Priority at F4
ISO Auto at 200
RAW

I expected the background to be completely blurred with that low of an aperture value. Was my focal distance not long enough?

You need to move closer to the subject so the range of focus drops off faster.
--
Larry Berman
http://BermanGraphics.com

...and make sure the background is a little further away, plus zooming in to a longer telephoto setting on the lens also helps.

--

UMAX AstraCam (Urgh!), Nikon 21OO (Mediocre), 54OO (Better), 84OO (Even better), Canon A51O (Expendable), Sony Ericsson P91Oi (O.3MP, for Pete's sake!), Nikon D1 (Very fast AF but too few MPs), Panasonic FZ2OK (Sharp & Noisy), Fujifilm F7OO (...), F2O (Eye-Popping!), D4O (Love-Love Relationship), AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6G ED (sharp images and very plastic), AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-300 mm f/4.5-5.6G ED-IF (what more can you ask for?).

Move in closer? As in stepping in closer and decreasing the focal mm, or zooming in closer and increasing the focal mm? Wouldn't stepping in closer cause me to use a shorter focal mm, which means wide angle all in focus image?

As for making sure the background is further away, it is actually several miles apart from my foreground subject already.
--
Nikon D300
Nikkor 18-200 VR

Hi

To maximise the background blur, use the lens at its maximum focal length i.e. 200m and set the aperture to wide open.

If the result does not satisfy, you will have to think about buying more expensive lens(es) with 2.8 or even lower numbered maximum apertures.

Another way would be to buy e.g. a 50mm 1.4 or 1.8 prime lens, or even an 85mm 1.8 which I like, you have the disadvantage(?) of a fixed focal length, but a much more satisfactory maximum aperture to create 'background blur'

Good luck

Al

subferno said:

Move in closer? As in stepping in closer and decreasing the focal mm,
or zooming in closer and increasing the focal mm? Wouldn't stepping
in closer cause me to use a shorter focal mm, which means wide angle
all in focus image?

Click to expand...

It depends, if you're at 18mm and you focus at 0.3 meters, and your aperture is 3.5, then it's possible that your background will be completely blurred because the range of focus drops off faster in the near distances.

Another option is to step back and then zoom in. Whichever works.

subferno said:

As for making sure the background is further away, it is actually
several miles apart from my foreground subject already.
--
Nikon D300
Nikkor 18-200 VR

Click to expand...

You say your background is several miles further back. That's basically quite close to infinity on your lens. Your foreground is much closer - I hazard a guess, about 20 metres? That is, of course, much closer, but it's also fairly close on your focus ring to infinity. I can see from your shot that the background IS out of focus, but not in a pronounced way. A more expensive lens with a larger max aperture would help. In this case, your most effective solution to achieve the effect you desire would be to concentrate on the two bhuddas on the right and move forward a few metres to allow you to pronounce the focal disparity between the bhuddas and infinity...