18mm-55mm lens

heyriah14

I have downloaded the cheat cards, and I am trying to get that "bokeh" look am I able to achieve that with this lens? I am also new to using a DSLR, so I am trying to do outdoor and indoor photo shoot of my child/children with a blurred background. I even tried to do A priority setting and still get a very clear vivid all around picture. Please help.

WelliesNBrellas

Good news, you can get decent bokeh with this lens.

Aperture is one factor, and you want it to be as wide (smallest number) as you can get. The bummer is that with this lens, as your focal length increases (also helps with bokeh), the aperture narrows. But don't be discouraged, because other factors come into play that will help you.

Position your subject away from the background. Position yourself close to the subject.

So even with a 5.6 aperture and a 55mm length on this lens, if you bring your subject away from the background and your camera close to the subject, you can get some respectable bokeh.

I am not much help on using A mode, as I shoot in manual mode. I'm a closet control freak, I guess! But in A mode, if you open up the aperture to the smallest number you can (5.6 at 55mm, smaller still at closer focal lengths, but then you lose the contribution of the longer focal distance to the bokeh), you probably accomplish the same result.

If you find you want to get heavily into the bokeh scene, I recommend investing in a 50mm 1.8 lens. They aren't horribly expensive and produce beautiful bokeh. You can get fixed (non-zoom) lenses that open even wider but the cost goes up considerably. In the meantime, you can use the non-aperture strategies to make your current lens work pretty well.

Good luck and have fun with it!