aiya...for you own reference only la just some personal exercise...and DONT just go Copy and Publish hence declare it's yours...we'll kill you over here...LOL   

slow² yo play with the camera.. if suddenly enter the world of flash.. all screwed up..
u can try search the different between direct flash and bounce flash.. then decide which u prefer..

ur body can use high iso.. why not utilize it first..

those are higher stops aperture lens...something like value from 2.8, 1.8 or 1.4 ...kit lens i think is 3.5 something....you can do the trick too...try to separate your subject and the background even further...like 50meters...lol

to blur the background you need either large aperture lens or long telephoto lens then zoom to the max

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Added on February 28, 2011, 9:12 amuse the 55-200 then zoom to 200mm and see the background blur

that's why ppl hunting for wide aperture lenses..
ie: F2.8

kit lens start with F3.5 and zoom.. become F5.6 edy.. that's why bokeh not obvious..

either u come very close to the subject or use telephoto for portraits..
infact alot of photog use tele to create better bokeh.. 

emptyball, u got 55-200 lens right, try to use that lens to make background blur

wah u want the whole body sharp and background blurred..
there's a price u need to pay.. haha..

yes yes... otherwise PP la better 

ur 55-200 is ok.. set it 55mm and get the F4..
and move backward for the whole body..
make sure the background far² away..

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Added on February 28, 2011, 9:23 am

post processing.. meant using software 

Gogo take some photo and show us your improvements..otherwise someone will mock you for spamming later...LOL

Many factors affect background blur (they call it "bokeh"). The first 2 factors you already know from other members, which is focal length & aperture. Generally speaking, the longer your focal length, the more bokeh you will be able to generate in your photo. In the case of aperture, the bigger the aperture (smaller f-number), the more bokeh you will generate. So in your case, you will generate the maximum bokeh from your current gear line-up if you use your 55-200 lens, zoomed all the way to 200mm and aperture set to f5.6. This is pretty straight forward and cannot miss. Lens set to 200mm and camera set to A-mode to fix the aperture at f5.6 and you are good to go. 

The next factor is a bit more tricky and subjective to judge. This is what is called camera-to-subject distance & subject-to-background distance. Generally, the shorter the camera-to-subject distance is, the more the bokeh. and the longer the subject-to-background distance is, the more the bokeh. Take for example the photo below:


Sony A850 & SAL85F14Z. 1/320s, F1.4, 85mm, ISO200. AWB.

My focal length is 85mm so that is in the telephoto range already. The aperture is massively big at F1.4. These are all equipment related and easy to nail. However, what you might not had noticed is that I am about 3 meters away from my subject (short camera-to-subject distance) and a good 10 to 15 meters away from the background (long subject-to-background distance). This combination gives me the bokeh that I wanted and it literally pops the subjects out from the background.

Hope this helps you.
Wow! I think I had written too much for the morning..... time for coffee break liao.... 

@empty-ball
all Minolta AF mount lens, all Sony Alpha mount lens, 3rd party like Sigma/Tamron/Tokina Alpha mount (some have some don't)

and of course, if with adapter also can..

time for new thread..

all should can.. maybe some old lenses not compatible with SLT..

don't get used to the screen
it might look good there but will look different on the computer
that's what i've found out

canon, nikon, sony, pentax & olympus all have their own mount design. a "mount" is the connecting portion between your lens & your camera body.

so basically a lens designed for the canon mount will only fit canon's cameras and not the rest of the brands. the same goes for nikon, pentax & olympus. sony is a bit more peculiar because it originates from a company called MINOLTA. hence sony cameras will accept lenses made by sony AND minolta (as long as it is a minolta AF lens). these are what we called manufacturer's lenses (i.e. canon lens for canon body, etc.). there are companies which makes lenses for different camera brands. these are called THIRD PARTY LENS manufacturer. example companies that does this are SIGMA, TAMRON & TOKINA. they will design a lens and make it available for different cameras. for example, TAMRON had produced a 70-200mm F2.8 zoom lens and made it available in canon mount, nikon mount, sony mount & pentax mount. so if you are going to buy a tamron 70-200 f2.8 lens, make sure you tell the seller you want a SONY MOUNT TAMRON 70-200 F2.8 lens! there is no way to change the mount from nikon to sony (for example) in these lenses. they are built that way.

hope that helps clear your mind on this matter.