This question seems to come up multiple times a day. "I want to blur the background on my photos so i need a new lens, what do you suggest? I'm using a kit lens right now".
I decided to make this video since I've noticed that when people try to explain some of these elements of getting blur, the new photographer gets more lost than before. So here we go!
To get blur, there's a few things you need to understand.
1) Kit lens or not, you can blur the background.
2) Distance between subject and background will increase or decrease the blur.
3) Lens compression (distance between you, the subject and the background, coupled with zoom amount (if you're using a Prime lens, then forget about the zoom part).
What lens specs were used in this video?
Pentax DA 18-135 WR (limited to 50mm for this video) F/3.5-5.6 (same aperture range that all kit lenses come with).
I took all shots at F/5.6 to minimize the amount of blur to show that you can still do it by using separation and lens compression.
