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Post Processed Blur

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(Portrait with digital blurring effect)

What is a digitally blurred background in a portrait really like? I just bumped into some portraits done with a G10 in which the photographer blurred the background by post processing. So, let's further the discussion on compacts for portraits a bit with some more examples.

In the second part of the post on portraits, the advantage and disadvantage of extensive DOF with small sensors for doing portraits were discussed. Advantage: Great for quick candid portrait (and images with razor sharp eyes which are important for portraits; I should have mentioned it). Disadvantage: not really possible to blur the background; but it can be achieved in post processing or turning on the Marco focus.


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(PP blurs: What do you think?)



Digitally Blurred versus Marco On

For the digitally blurred background in the above photos, the photographer must have meticulously done the PP work. To my eyes, however, the blurred background lacks the sense of transition in an optically blurred image. The results appear too artificially engineered.
Hampered by this limitation of small sensors, photographers have to be even more careful in choosing a shooting location to do outdoor portraits with compacts. Although it is not really possible to blur unwanted background, the option of trimming it by composition is yours.

Otherwise, turn Marco to ON in case a blurred background is necessary, and stand closer to your model. But beware of distorted images if you stand too close, in which case you may zoom to a longer end and re-orientate the position of your camera or the model to smoothen out the effect.

marco_portrait (Medium)
(Portrait with Marco focus on: taken with GX200)

Two Examples

Take for example, the above photo was shot in 35mm with the Marco focus on. Click open the photo and there I blurred the background by means of Marco focus. The camera was turned to one side to smoothen out the effect of distorted face due to standing too close to the model. A frontal portrait would look less pleasing because of the distortion.
(Studio look: post proceeded )
marco_portrait_pp (Medium)

Another example is the photo titled "Break Even" in the first post on compacts for portraits. I also did that portrait with Marco focus left to ON, which was in fact meant for other photos in the series. There is not much background to see but actually, the bars between the boys are blurred. The image is not really distorted, probably because the lens was zoomed to 50mm.


The link to the captured portraits is here.

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