Create Great iPhone Photos

Blur, Selective Focus, and Fake Miniature Effects

Professional photographers often use big lenses—and their significant know-how—to capture an image with the subject in focus and the rest of the image blurred. If there’s a photographic look suggesting the photographer’s expertise (and equipment), then this is it. There’s even a term for this type of blur, bokeh, from the Japanese word for blur. With SLRs that have interchangeable lenses and manual controls, a blur is typically achieved by narrowing the depth of field—the area of an image that’s in focus. Techniques vary for doing this, but it’s often accomplished by having a wide aperture (or lens ...