technique - Would a 85mm lens have allowed me to blur the background better in this photo of a DJ in action?

This is the picture I took:

I had a Nikon-D610 and a 24-70mm f 2.8 lens on it and I used it on Manual mode and metering was f:2.8, Shutter speed: 1/20 sec and Focal length: 62mm. Also I was as close to him as possible, about 2 meters away and the background at his back was about one meter behind him.

I will be happy to know as many issues and suggestions you have on the photo but my main question is this: Notice the background is not blurred enough, not to be fully blurred but still some more blurring that makes the background less distracting. So do I need a 85mm lens to achieve this? or I should be able to do it with this lens too and need more practice? or is it just that with this distance of me and him and he and the back, it is not just possible?

Answer

Okay, so, really, two aspects here. First, would an 85mm lens let you blur the background more? Probably, because the framing for a longer focal length decreases the apparent depth of field, and because there are reasonably-priced and readily available 85mm prime lenses with wide apertures and generally nice technical image quality . But it's not a particularly magic number — any long, fast lens will give you that kind of result. If you want more of that than you can get with your current lens, and you can't get closer for the framing you want, any lens that's a longer focal length and the same or wider max aperture will do.

But, second (and unstated): are you sure that that's what you really want? Getting rid of "distractions" is an easy way to get straightforward, obvious results (and therefore win Internet photo competitions), but isn't necessarily automatically better. In this particular case, I think the records in the background add significantly to the context of the image and would be much more distracting were they out of focus.

In fact, I wish for more sharpness in the turntable in the foreground left — I want more depth of field, not less. The whatever-it-is behind the DJ's head is a bit unfortunate, but I'd solve that by moving slightly, or by removing it digitally, or just not worrying about it. (A little more blur wouldn't remove it anyway — what you need is lighting separation, and in this situation that's probably not under your control.)

If I were to be concerned about anything technical in this image overall, my main concern would be the blown-out details on the DJ, probably due to poor lighting. His hands are particularly unfortunate here, since they are naturally a center of attention — I'd go so far as to say that for me, they are the main part of what the image is about, so it hurts to have them looking so... compromised. Unfortunately, this is a really tough situation — and a different lens won't really help that aspect (85mm or otherwise).