Thank you William for setting up this challenge! This thread has helped me to focus on improving the background of my photos which was my #1 photography goal for this year.
Since getting my new macro lens this year, I've become quite comfortable with setting the aperture and depth of field. I'm now able to routinely blur out the background and have a sharper foreground which is what I've been wanting to do with my rose photography for quite sometime. I usually set the f-stop at f/4 for a soft background. Here's an example: I have roses planted along a ginger gravel and gray slate pathway which always looked so texturized and harsh in the background, distracting from the roses when I took a photo. Now I can create a smooth backdrop for my pathway roses!
I have a Fujifilm X-T3 that has a cropped sensor so my 80mm macro lens would be a 120mm on a full frame camera. I set my ISO and shutter speed on auto and manually set the aperture. Here's another example using f/4 but where the background is more distinct yet hopefully doesn't overwhelm the roses in the foreground.
Any kind of technical skill isn't easy for me to acquire so I just wanted to say thanks!
Ann
love em both!
