Saturday, August 22, 2009

Imposing limits . . .

I made a quick stop at the farmers' market this morning and limited myself to a 50mm lens and an aperture of f/1.8. Shallow depth of field is great, but it can often bite me in the butt. I see some of the photos later and think, maybe I should have stopped down to f/3.5 for just a hair more in focus . . . But I'm loving the way the tomatoes blurred out yet kept their little soft shapes in the background. ©Carol Leigh

2 comments:

Diane Miller said...

Love the dropoff of focus! The sharp parts are more than I would expect, with such a 3D subject, although shorter focal lengths give more depth of field. Is this the new Canon 50mm that everyone is raving about?

Carol Leigh said...

Diane, the lens I'm using is the Canon f/1.8 and I've had it for maybe a year or two (cost $79 at the time). I think the one photographers are swooning over is the $370 f/1.4 lens. I THINK; I could be wrong. I bought this one specifically for the shallow DOF and because it was relatively cheap. In a pinch I can put an extension tube on it for close-up work and it's still fast enough to hand-hold.

I've not used it to best advantage, but where it did look pretty cool was in this shot http://carolleighdailyphoto.blogspot.com/2009/07/botanical-study.html with all the out-of-focus water droplets.

Oh, man, why do you ask me such things? Because NOW I just got an idea for something ELSE to shoot! If it works, I'll post it.

Thanks (I think!) for stopping by. -- Carol Leigh (who really should be working on critiques in her online class, but who is easily distracted)