man & nature # 248 ~ DOF
Over the past month or so I have been pondering a picturing approach that now, due to viewing this interesting work, has got me to thinking it's time to do something my pondering. To be specific, what have been thinking about is the joy, picturing-wise, of out-of-focus backgrounds or, to be even more specific, narrow DOF.
Narrow DOF with a normal-ish lens - 45-55mm (35mm equiv.) - is usually obtained by picturing at a wide-open aperture - an aperture in the f1.4-2.0 range. Long story short, I don't have lens that meets than requirement.
So, as luck would have it, I'm off to Albany to see the Asylum Street Spankers tonight and then off to NYC to attend a lecture by Stephen Hawking. And, as more luck has it, where I will also pay a visit B&H Photo to check out a Sigma 30mm f1.4 lens that just might be the bee's knees for narrow DOF.
Reader Comments (3)
I thought that you were going to see "Richard Dawkins"?
For me, the fun of narrow DOF photography strikes at one of the key elements that differentiates good photographers from snapshooters: the ability to see things right in front of everyone that nobody else "sees". The narrow DOF seems to isolate one thing that your brain sees (the subject) from something else (the background) that your brain sees at the same time, but your cerebral cortex, or photographer's intuition, knows should be separated out.
It was a spanking good time Saturday night!