Wednesday 22 July 2015

portrait - What aperture should I use to photograph people and why?


What f/# do you use to photograph people, and why? I know this varies from shot to shot.


Let's suppose that you are photographing either a single person or a couple, that it it outside on a somewhat overcast day. What depth of field do you prefer to use, and why?


What about indoors in a more-controlled setting — what is typically used in studio photography?



What about in other conditions?



Answer



Totally depends on your goal. Think background first. What story do you want to tell? Epic background, big mountains. Looking to deliver a sense of grandeur with your subject. Go big! f/22 or higher if you have it. If you want to really isolate your subject and use the background as simple tone, a splash of delightful color, open up to f/1.4. Be careful here as you may have parts of the face go out of focus. Step back with a long lens and you'll eliminate that problem (by increasing the over all dof).


Save bet though, f/2.8 - f/5.6. This will give you moderate depth (keeping person in focus and throughing background softly out.)


Good luck!


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