DaveC1 Loc: South East US

Along with stopping down the lens which will lower the shutter speed, figure on using a good tripod to prevent blur from camera shake.

windshoppe Loc: Arizona

Did you not mean to say , "get further away from the subject?"

Dr Photo

Lynette -

Check out "DOFMASTER.COM" - you can download their app for cell or tablet. It is an invaluable guide to Depth-of-Field and can be tailored to specific lenses and camera bodies. I use it in my photography classes to give students a "feel" for DoF at various distances with various apertures. I also will call on it in studio situations where I want an exact DoF around a group or wedding couple.

John Keller
AKA "Dr. Photo"

TomV Loc: Annapolis, Maryland

Hyperfocal distance

https://www.picturecorrect.com/tips/hyperfocal-focusing-photography-tips/

DaveC1 Loc: South East US

Good informative website.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

What you are looking for is greater Depth of Field (DoF).... more of the image from near to far in sharper focus.

There are three factors effecting DoF: the size of the lens aperture, the focal length of the lens and distance relationships.

The LARGER your lens aperture and the LONGER your lens focal length and the CLOSER you are to the subject with GREATER distance from the background, the shallower the DoF and stronger background blur will be.

Conversely, the SMALLER your lens aperture and the SHORTER your lens focal length and more DISTANT you and your camera are from subject AND closer the subject is to the background, the greater DoF will be and the less background will be blurred.

You can use one or more of these factors to control background blur... up to a certain point. The most obvious and the easiest is to simply stop your lens down to a smaller aperture. That automatically increases DoF.... But there are various limits.... Too small an aperture causes an effect called "diffraction" which robs images of fine detail. Smaller apertures also allow less light to pass through, so will require slower shutter speeds and/or higher ISOs. And stopping down a longer focal length telephoto lens will have less effect than stopping down a short focal length wide angle.

There also is a technique using "Hyperfocal Focusing Distance" which can be used. With this, rather than focusing right on the subject, depending upon what you are tying to do you focus on a point either closer or farther away from the primary subject, such that the subject still is within the plane of focus but you move that plane to cover other portions of the image. To decrease background blur specifically, you'd focus a bit beyond the subject. Of course you have to be careful not to overdo this to the point you lose sufficiently sharp focus on the primary subject. There are markings on some lenses to help with this (though usually not on zoom lenses).
Alternatively, there are Depth of Field and Hyperfocal Distance calculators (analog devices AND apps that can be used on smart phones).

Your camera also might have a Depth of Field preview button that allows you to see what the effect will be with the aperture you've chosen and the distance you've focused upon. If your camera has DoF preview, it might be useful whether you try working with Hyperfocal Distance focusing or not. However DoF preview can be difficult to see using the smaller image in a camera's viewfinder.... Live View on the rear LCD may be better and might even be possible to magnify to see the DoF more clearly.

In spite of all you do with the aperture and focusing techniques, longer focal length lenses will still make for shallower DoF and more strongly blurred background... Especially when focused on a very close subject with a more distant background. There's only so much you can do. With digital cameras there's a technique called Focus Stacking that can help. This involves taking a series of images, each focused slightly differently, and then combining them into a single image that has far greater DoF than is optically possible. Specialized software is usually used to combine the images (Helicon Focus is one that comes to mind).

Most techniques to maximize DoF are done using the camera and lens on a tripod. You'll often see landscape photogrphers using a tripod, for example... to steady everything and eliminate risk of camera shake blur with longer exposures and/or multiple, sequential shots... and because it's a fairly slow shooting process setting Hyperfocal Distances and precise focusing.

For more info I'd suggest you pick up a copy of Bryan Peterson's "Understanding Exposure" and read it carefully. Obviously that book deals with exposure... but it also gets extensively into closely related things like lens selection, Depth of Field, etc.

OddJobber Loc: Portland, OR

I understand what you're saying. I want a shot of a city skyline and it's reflection in the river both in focus. Should I move the river?

tenny52 Loc: San Francisco

You move yourself further away from the river.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

I suspect most of the technical terms and jargon used in our responses in this thread is way over the OP's head at this point. I looked at her 14 previous posts and she is a complete newbie coming from a point and shoot. I'm guessing the concept of DoF while familiar to all of us is just a completely foreign concept to her. I believe our responses need to be shorter and jargon free to help her understand the reasons for the results she's getting, and why they may be appropriate . She should also post an image or two. I've found that some newbies, and not so newbie, are averse to background blur 100% of the time and expect the whole image to be in sharp focus.

tenny52 Loc: San Francisco

Too much explanation!!
Just take a picture and check the result, if you want more focus on background and foreground, do either one of all of the followings.
. use a smaller aperture(larger F number)
. use a wider angle
. move further away from the scene
. use focus stacking method

drklrd Loc: Cincinnati Ohio

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

I doubt she has a clue about DoF much less an understanding of focus stacking and how to use it..

Yourstruly43

All the advice you are getting here is all good, but you might consider getting a wide angle lens. The reason is that f-stops are not the same diameter on different focal length lenses — f11 is smaller on a wide angle lens because the optical center is closer to the film plane. F-stops are determined by dividing the focal length by the aperture size. For example a f2 on a 100mm lens is 50mm and 25mm on 50mm lens. Smaller apertures give greater depth of field because the light reflecting off of objects at different distances will form single points on your film plane or sensor plain.

Also, changing distances changes the perspective in your picture. Staying in one place and zooming in and out maintains perspective while using the same lens and changing distances changes perspective. Maintaining perspective is the maintaining the size relationships of objects as you move from a wide angle to a telephoto lens.

Gemeader Loc: NW WA state ( upper left hand corner)

You've gotten some good advice here. My suggestion is to visit 'Camera Simulator.com' and use it on your computer to learn what you need. It's simple, free, and should help a lot. I even use it in teaching my advanced classes. Good luck.

Bullfrog Bill Loc: CT

Photography is all about trade offs. You may want to research the “exposure triangle”.