...I bet Alpha can tell you the right way, the easy way and the hard way. And many other ways to do it. (not how to do IT, you perverts!) But basically, you gotta use very narrow focusing point. Try different aperures, bigger the number, more blurry back- & foreground. (..or was it smaller the number? Damn, guys help me.) I'm using that closeup lens of mine. Lens optics is 'poor', so area where pic is sharp is really narrow. I dont consider it a fault, I try to get blurry backgrounds. ...libraries contains many intresting manuals and you can also find really good tutorials from net. Worth of reading. Optics, blaah, sounds boring, but when you are holding your cam in your hands and trying to figure out how different lenses works, its not boring at all. Really useful information, opens many new doors. .n