Keep backdrops clean

A wide aperture to big up the bokeh is not enough if you want to be rid of all distractions Keep an eye on what is going on in the background. It is easy to concentrate on the subject of your shot, and not realise that there is something behind it that is ruining what you thought was a perfectly composed scene.

With their longer-than-ever focal lengths and superwide maximum apertures, modern lenses have helped make blurred ‘bokeh’ backgrounds very popular with photographers – but limiting depth of field is not always enough. A blurred tourist wearing a purple cagoule will still provide a nasty background distraction, even if you use f/1.4 with your beautiful 85mm prime; and that branch sticking out of the kingfisher’s head will haunt you in your otherwise perfect shot, even if you did shoot it wide-open with the big end of a 150-600mm zoom.

With a DSLR the eyepiece doesn’t preview the blur for you, so you need to compose in Live View, or shoot an image and check it on-screen. With CSCs, you get a more accurate viewfinder preview. But either way, scour the background carefully, and adjust your camera position if you need to ensure the backdrop is clean: a slight change in camera angle is often all you need.