Hi...I just bought a point and shoot Nikon 2200 a few weeks ago. But as a point and shoot, it has less than stellar background/artistic blurring in the back (I don't know what the official name is but I saw it called "boke"? on the Luminous website). The bg blur is excellent with MACRO shots of 2 or so inches away...but how can I get good artistic blur with shots NOT on macro setting, or farther away shots? The portrait mode on the cam supposedly blurs the background when doing portrait shots, but I haven't seen great results. Can s'one with experience with the Nikon coolpix 2000 or 3000 series cams point me to the best settings to maximize artistic blur and focus? I've been doing some bg blurring in photoshop...it's turned out pretty well, but it takes a while and I'd like something a little more natural looking that is internal in the cam. Thanks.
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looking for ways to emphasize blur/boke in my nikon coolpix 2200
- Thread starter mdude85
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agentzero9
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Simple answer: you can't.
The sensor is too small to give you good DOF. You can only get acceptable DOF when your subject is very close to the lens. Hence, you get shallow DOF in macro shots. The so called "portrait" modes on these cameras are somewhat useless. They just choose the largest aperture possible but even the largest aperture won't do you any good on a P&S camera.
There are sometimes ways to "cheat" by using moderate zooming, while still keeping the subject close but the result is nowhere near what you can get with an SLR.
The sensor is too small to give you good DOF. You can only get acceptable DOF when your subject is very close to the lens. Hence, you get shallow DOF in macro shots. The so called "portrait" modes on these cameras are somewhat useless. They just choose the largest aperture possible but even the largest aperture won't do you any good on a P&S camera.
There are sometimes ways to "cheat" by using moderate zooming, while still keeping the subject close but the result is nowhere near what you can get with an SLR.
Well there is one way.... PhotoShop. Seriously, I've turned a few impromptu, background sharp pictures of people into portraits in PS through some strategic useage of the blur tools and a bit of creative layer masking with decent results.
Anyway, I know you've tried it before but you may be using less efficient means of doing it than you have to. I'd look into using a technique that is sometimes called pixel painting.
Essentially what you do is make a copy of the image and apply a blur to it. Paste that image copy over your image and apply a concealing mask to it. Then use the pen tool (generally at a very low flow rate say 30%) to "paint" holes in the mask allowing the blur to show through. I find that using this method makes doing background work very easy and efficient, especially if you are at all good at precision work with a mouse or a tablet.
It won't look quite as good as it would if you used a SLR or a DSLR but it serves in a pinch.
Anyhooo... if anyone is interested I could type up a quick tutorial to show how it's done.
Anyway, I know you've tried it before but you may be using less efficient means of doing it than you have to. I'd look into using a technique that is sometimes called pixel painting.
Essentially what you do is make a copy of the image and apply a blur to it. Paste that image copy over your image and apply a concealing mask to it. Then use the pen tool (generally at a very low flow rate say 30%) to "paint" holes in the mask allowing the blur to show through. I find that using this method makes doing background work very easy and efficient, especially if you are at all good at precision work with a mouse or a tablet.
It won't look quite as good as it would if you used a SLR or a DSLR but it serves in a pinch.
Anyhooo... if anyone is interested I could type up a quick tutorial to show how it's done.
I think I've tried a technique similar to pixel painting but with mixed results (I've tried cutting out the image I want to be sharp, blurring the entire image, and repasting the cut out image. The blurred out portions of the sharp image show through, though, on the outsides.) No rush to type a tutorial unless others ask for it.
I've found though that Photoshop does a good job, but it takes a lot of time and patience. I am just very careful especially around borders. Someone suggested zooming in on the image, moving back, and framing the subject in the viewfinder. I think that works a little better than normal, but still no extreme blur.
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ya ive added bokeh using alpha layers in photoshop, works quite well imo