I love shallow DOF
September 2, 2008
I recently reacquired my 50mm f/1.4 lens. I wanted it for a portrait shoot coming up tomorrow, but I also wanted it back in my bag, because I love the shallow DOF it provides.
I simply wrote “I love shallow DOF” on a page in my Moleskine, and when I focus on the “F” in “DOF,” the rest is so beautifully out of focus as to be illegible!
Posted in Gear
September 2nd, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Yeah, I do too, and I just got my first real lens an hour ago. (The 50mm f/1.8.) Unfortunately, I still can’t quite control it very well. If I could impose to ask you for some tips, I have two questions: Do you accomplish this effect simply by shooting in Av mode and setting the aperture higher? And then, do you end up having to use manual focus all the time to make sure you’re getting exactly what you want in focus?
September 2nd, 2008 at 8:21 pm
Happy to oblige!
I shoot in Av mode about 95% of the time. I do make use of the different focus points on my camera though (sometimes I’ll use Center point, and recompose, but often I will simply select the point closest to what I want to focus on. With an aperture of 1.8 or 1.4, you’ve got very little margin for error, and recomposing can backfire some times)…
One of the benefits of the 1.4 over the 1.8 is the USM focusing ring, which allows you to manually focus at any point. I’ll use the AF to lock on, and then use the focusing ring to make a small adjustment if needed. Does that help?
September 3rd, 2008 at 7:26 am
It sure does! You are talking Legend of Zelda, right?
September 3rd, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Hey cowboy… I’m blogging again. Please adjust your life accordingly!
September 3rd, 2008 at 4:48 pm
It does help, thanks. Except now I have to figure out how to shoot well in Av mode, ha. Specifically, I’ll need to spend some time figuring out how much I can push the aperture and still get usable images… but I suppose that’s what it’s about, huh?
Thanks for replying!
September 5th, 2008 at 10:02 am
I agree…this lens is one of my FAVORITE in my lens arsenal!
September 5th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
I love my 50mm f/1.8 and the shallow depth of field you can get with it. Definitely try shooting in Aperture Priority mode for awhile, and cranking it down to f/1.8. For many things, that’s way too shallow - only a few mm of a person’s face will be in focus if you’re close enough to them when you take the photo - but with enough trial and error you’ll get the hang of it.
Here’s a candid photo I took of a coworker a couple of weeks ago. I usually leave my XT in Program mode (the P icon on the wheel) so it auto-adjusted the aperture on me to deal with the low light, settling on f/2.2 for this one.