Nikon 105mm f 2.0 DC
Image "borrowed" from www.nikonusa.com
Lenses define image quality.
This Nikon lens is the 105mm f 2.0 DC lens which is often said to be one of the finest portrait lenses in the world. It has a "defocusing" control which allows the user to determine what areas of the image will be "out of focus." For portraits, keeping the subject in focus and throwing the other non-essential background or foreground out of focus really makes the subject "pop" in the image.
Sure, a lens like this is not cheap. But to offer my clients the best images possible, it's worth every penny.
Here is an example of an image with low depth of field. It was taken with a Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 VR lens. If both persons in the image were in focus, the emphasis of the man in the front would not be as strong. Having the man in the background out of focus pushes the interest to the man in the front.
2 comments:
Mmm, but irrelevant subjects too out of focus can be distracting ... although perhaps that's because I'm consciously analysing the image. As a matter of curiosity would you think it might be better if the man in the background was a tad sharper (still out of focus but not as blur)?
Yes, John. I think if the man in the background was slightly more in focus, it probably would be better. Or, it would also have been better had he been extremely out of focus that you can't tell it's even a person. Good point.
This image was shot at f 3.5 at 200mm, and the man in the background is actually a little bit of a distance from the man in the front... so he went quite a lot out of focus. Sometimes when you take fast "sniper" shots like this one, 200mm is going to be needed and a lot of light needed as well (hence the f 3.5 setting.) Both of these things combined along with the distance of where the man in the background was at helped to add up to him being quite a lot out of focus.
Sometimes it's just lucky to get the shot itself!
Thanks for your observations!
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