Can we talk about Bokeh?
- Thread starter hulagirl
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Jeff Fillmore
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A fast lens wide open usually helps- this one is from the Sigma 50mm f/1.4
What kind of camera are you using?
What kind of camera are you using?
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"hulagirl" said:
Use one of Nikon's DC lenses, or Canon's 135 Softfocus lenses. ; They allow you to change the bokeh on purpose.
Otherwise, it varies from lens to lens, focal length to focal length. ; Some "fast" lenses have horrible bokeh wide open. ; Others do not.
As mentioned...low light lenses with nice big apertures are the easiest path to shallow depth-of-field and out of focus bokeh backgrounds (or foregrounds). ; The shallower the focus area, the quicker and more drastic the out of focus area goes blurry....though lens architecture can make a difference in the bokeh (out of focus blur doesn't mean good bokeh - some lenses don't look so nice when out of focus, others are creamy smooth or perfectly circular).
Another factor is distance between the camera and the subject, and the subject and the background. ; The farther the distances, the better for out of focus blur and generally the better for the bokeh. ; Stand far away from a subject, and zoom all the way in with a big zoom lens, and you get a much shallower depth of field, yielding nicer blur of backgrounds. ; The farther that background is from the subject, the nicer the blur (I deal with this a lot when i shoot birds - I don't have a particularly big aperture lens, but I'm using 500mm on a 1.5 crop body, and often the birds are on a branch with the background several feet or dozens of feet behind them, well out of the focal depth...so i still get nice soft blur despite being at F5.6-8 or so).
Another factor is distance between the camera and the subject, and the subject and the background. ; The farther the distances, the better for out of focus blur and generally the better for the bokeh. ; Stand far away from a subject, and zoom all the way in with a big zoom lens, and you get a much shallower depth of field, yielding nicer blur of backgrounds. ; The farther that background is from the subject, the nicer the blur (I deal with this a lot when i shoot birds - I don't have a particularly big aperture lens, but I'm using 500mm on a 1.5 crop body, and often the birds are on a branch with the background several feet or dozens of feet behind them, well out of the focal depth...so i still get nice soft blur despite being at F5.6-8 or so).
As Justin said. ; The longer the focal length the shallower depth of field, leading to more out of focus parts of the image.
But to be clear, bokeh/depth of field has nothing to do with a crop factor. ; While the "reach" is different, the DOF on the A550 and the A900 on the same subject, focal length, and distance to subject would be the same.
"zackiedawg" said:
But to be clear, bokeh/depth of field has nothing to do with a crop factor. ; While the "reach" is different, the DOF on the A550 and the A900 on the same subject, focal length, and distance to subject would be the same.
True...just wanted to point out what I was using! ; The 500mm is what is providing that shallow DOF.
Okay...I SO appreciate the help. ; I took a little bit of everyone's advice and just decided to shoot a ton of photos today. ; Tim..."wide open aperture and get close to the subject". ; I totally got that 
(thanks for getting that I need simple right now), so that is what I spent most of my time doing. ; To all the rest of you, thank you so ; much for everything you said. ; I will read, re-read and read it yet again, until I get it. ; In some ways, I feel like I am learning another language, but you guys are great teachers. ; I have long found forums to be the best way to learn. ; So here goes. ; I'll put up some here and then more in other posts.
I'm really sorry but I don't have a flickr account or anything, so for now, I shrunk them to 50% and pulled 'em off my desktop. ; I know it's kinda messy and I apologize. ; I just hope I shrunk them enough. ; I was really focusing on bokeh today, but adjusted the exposure if I thought it looked over or underexposed..and I used 3 different lenses, the 50mm, the 18-200 and the 55-250. ; It was fun!
; Please tell me what I can do to improve in any respect. ; Also...one thing that really eludes me is the ability to get a truly tack sharp photo. ; It drives me nuts! ; What can I do about that?? ; Jeff, that rubix cube looks like it's jumping off the page at me. ; How do I DO that?? (ps...guess what kinda camera I use? ;D)
[attachments posted prior to 4/27/2010 have been deleted by admin. be sure to link images to make sure they don't get removed]
(thanks for getting that I need simple right now), so that is what I spent most of my time doing. ; To all the rest of you, thank you so ; much for everything you said. ; I will read, re-read and read it yet again, until I get it. ; In some ways, I feel like I am learning another language, but you guys are great teachers. ; I have long found forums to be the best way to learn. ; So here goes. ; I'll put up some here and then more in other posts.I'm really sorry but I don't have a flickr account or anything, so for now, I shrunk them to 50% and pulled 'em off my desktop. ; I know it's kinda messy and I apologize. ; I just hope I shrunk them enough. ; I was really focusing on bokeh today, but adjusted the exposure if I thought it looked over or underexposed..and I used 3 different lenses, the 50mm, the 18-200 and the 55-250. ; It was fun!
; Please tell me what I can do to improve in any respect. ; Also...one thing that really eludes me is the ability to get a truly tack sharp photo. ; It drives me nuts! ; What can I do about that?? ; Jeff, that rubix cube looks like it's jumping off the page at me. ; How do I DO that?? (ps...guess what kinda camera I use? ;D)[attachments posted prior to 4/27/2010 have been deleted by admin. be sure to link images to make sure they don't get removed]
I'm sorry guys...I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get the exif data to you. ; Neither can my husband. ; Can anyone help? ; It's in the photos I exported but it seems to be gone from the forum posts. ; I uploaded to flickr but can't seem to see it there either. ; Here's the link to all the photos I took today. ; I have Aperture 1..not 2. ; Don't know if that makes a difference. 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47219696@N07/?donelayout=1
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47219696@N07/?donelayout=1