Photography: Taking Unfocused Shots

orginal post by dps blog

We all have heard out there that they key to good photography has always been to get those perfectly sharp and in focus shots, specially when it comes to portraits.

However purposely leaving your main subject (or the whole shot) out of focus can also create a stunningly dreamy images also.

1. You might choose to focus on a seemingly unimportant element of the scene (do this by choosing a wide aperture which will give a narrow depth of field and focus on something in front of or behind your main subject).

2. The other option is to make your full image out of focus but choosing to focus well beyond or in front of your main subject. Again, a wide aperture will help here and you will probably need to switch your camera to manual focusing mode or it will attempt to find something to focus upon.

This second option will take a little experimentation. Get things too unfocused and you’ll end up with a completely unrecognizable subject - the key is to have enough focus for it to be recognizable but out of focus enough to create a wonderful dreamy mood.

Below are two more examples of unfocused images for a little inspiration.