Thanks Rich.
To answer your question: Yes I shoot in manual but not to control blurring. Since I seldom shoot in the middle third of the day (and when I do, I'm usually zoomed in to something with a medium to dark background), my first thought is to select a shutter speed fast enough to minimize softness due to camera shake but slow enough for adequate light onto the sensor. Then I check what the camera has chosen for aperture, and I typically adjust lower. This usually results in a nicely blurred background. In processing, I almost never apply a blur, and I usually apply a selective USM to the COI.
To answer your question: Yes I shoot in manual but not to control blurring. Since I seldom shoot in the middle third of the day (and when I do, I'm usually zoomed in to something with a medium to dark background), my first thought is to select a shutter speed fast enough to minimize softness due to camera shake but slow enough for adequate light onto the sensor. Then I check what the camera has chosen for aperture, and I typically adjust lower. This usually results in a nicely blurred background. In processing, I almost never apply a blur, and I usually apply a selective USM to the COI.
Don't blame me - I didn't vote for him!
Nikon D7500 with Nikkor 18-300 mm; PSE2021, PSCS5
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