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Archive 2014 · Percentage of Keepers that use Shallow DoF

  
 
millsart
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p.3 #1 · p.3 #1 · Percentage of Keepers that use Shallow DoF


I think it really comes down to something of an unbalanced question because, at least for me, landscape keepers, are much harder to come by, because they are compositions where I really need to have just the right light etc, so I can visit a place many times, but often come away with no keepers because of cloud cover etc when I went.

I may shoot an equal number of WO (portraits and around town things like cars etc, or even landscape details) as I try with f11 "grand" landscape shots but its easier to find something really cool. Not to say light doesn't matter, because it still does, but its just not that make of break variable the way it is with landscapes.

So essentially, to say that only a small percent of f11 shots I take are keepers and correlate that with DoF wouldn't be too accurate, because most of my f11 shots aren't keepers because of other environmental factors.

Maybe if I lived in Hawaii and I had amazing sunsets, awesome looking storms (instead of just boring gray Midwest skies) et al., I'd have a much higher number of landscape keepers, and as such, much more stopped down keepers.


In contrast, I think its also possible that more WO shots could be keepers with regards to portraiture simply because it allows more natural light work.

Does one like a shot because of the subject isolation alone, or does one like the shot because the way the natural light lit the subject, and it could only be shot wide open due to shutter speed ?

Its a bit of a reach for me to break my photography down to just deep or narrow DoF and associate that with the ONLY variable that went into what makes images I consider keepers








Apr 16, 2014 at 08:25 AM
schlotz
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p.3 #2 · p.3 #2 · Percentage of Keepers that use Shallow DoF


Really depends on what I shoot. Landscape, I'm rarely below f/8, but with soccer I'm usually at f/2.8. So, does that call for 50%



Apr 16, 2014 at 11:32 AM
freaklikeme
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p.3 #3 · p.3 #3 · Percentage of Keepers that use Shallow DoF


The way I understand the question, Jae just wants us to look at our collections of keepers and determine how many were shot with limited depth of field and how many have everything in focus (or at least appear so at web-sizes) to arrive at the percentage. The question itself isn't about how or why you shoot what you shoot, but it's lead to some interesting (if a bit defensive) discussion.

With a few exceptions, the most obvious to me being macro where, unless everything you shoot is fairly flat, you have to fight for every millimeter, how much depth you have is a choice you make, be it practical (I need shutter speed x and don't want to go over ISO y or change lenses) or artistic (I want the fall foliage to swirl around my subject in a Technicolor blob). Either way, playing with limited depth is probably the most natural aspect of photography in relation to how we see the world. Rare is the scenario in which your eyes get to infinity across your entire field of vision, even if you don't count the periphery, and it's a big part of how we perceive relational distance. Why wouldn't it be an element in an expression of how we view the world?



Apr 16, 2014 at 04:25 PM
millsart
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p.3 #4 · p.3 #4 · Percentage of Keepers that use Shallow DoF


freaklikeme wrote:
The way I understand the question, Jae just wants us to look at our collections of keepers and determine how many were shot with limited depth of field and how many have everything in focus (or at least appear so at web-sizes) to arrive at the percentage. The question itself isn't about how or why you shoot what you shoot, but it's lead to some interesting (if a bit defensive) discussion.




Without a proper context though wouldn't it be kind of a meaningless statistic ?

I could say that only 5% of my keepers are shallow DoF, but what does that mean on its own ?

a) that shallow DoF makes me miss lots of shots because I couldn't focus accurately even though I call myself a portrait shooter ?

or...

b) that I shoot nearly nothing but stopped down "grand landscapes" and nearly my entire body of work is at f11 or greater ?







Apr 16, 2014 at 04:46 PM
freaklikeme
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p.3 #5 · p.3 #5 · Percentage of Keepers that use Shallow DoF


millsart wrote:
Without a proper context though wouldn't it be kind of a meaningless statistic ?

I could say that only 5% of my keepers are shallow DoF, but what does that mean on its own ?

a) that shallow DoF makes me miss lots of shots because I couldn't focus accurately even though I call myself a portrait shooter ?

or...

b) that I shoot nearly nothing but stopped down "grand landscapes" and nearly my entire body of work is at f11 or greater ?


Not being the OP, I have no idea why he asked the question. If I had to guess, I'd say it's because some mundane questions can be asked in such a way that lead to easy misinterpretation and will provoke some interesting and/or impassioned responses.

Or maybe Jae's a member of a cabal of actuaries who are trying to correlate the preference of limited DoF among photographers to shorter life expectancies.

Or maybe he was bored and decided to broaden his navel-gazing to a larger audience. I really have no idea.



Apr 16, 2014 at 05:02 PM
FlyPenFly
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p.3 #6 · p.3 #6 · Percentage of Keepers that use Shallow DoF


Moreso the last.

I think it's interesting to reflect on your past work to look at new areas to explore or realize what kind of aesthetic you prefer or want to improve on.



Apr 16, 2014 at 05:28 PM
Spyro P.
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p.3 #7 · p.3 #7 · Percentage of Keepers that use Shallow DoF


http://googleresearch.blogspot.com.au/2014/04/lens-blur-in-new-google-camera-app.html




Apr 17, 2014 at 12:27 AM
Coltrane
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p.3 #8 · p.3 #8 · Percentage of Keepers that use Shallow DoF


When using a 50mm lens, I used to lose a lot of shots when I shot wide open. About 2 years ago, I decided to use f2 aperture and nothing larger when using a 50mm. At f2 I was able to isolate my subject quite well and still get a nice background blur, and my percentage of keepers went way up.


Apr 17, 2014 at 05:31 AM
JohnLL
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p.3 #9 · p.3 #9 · Percentage of Keepers that use Shallow DoF


There are two situations where I use wide apertures (and I think this probably applies to most non-specialist photogs): portraits of people, animals etc. where you wish to blur the environment to focus attention on the main subject, and low-light shots where you don't want to or cannot use flash or other extra lighting. In the first case I would expect a rather high percentage of technically competent shots - not necessarily great pictures. In the second case I'd say my technical (and so also artistic) success rate is much lower, because I'd usually be working faster and hand-held. To discover the actual percentages would require a rather laborious analysis, and might not be accurate anyway as I generally cull my failures. It would be somewhat easier to figure out the inverse percentage of shallow DOF that are keepers.


Apr 17, 2014 at 10:28 AM
Peire
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p.3 #10 · p.3 #10 · Percentage of Keepers that use Shallow DoF


DOF used depends on subject and what is aimed to draw attention to in a picture.

The tendency nowadays is that shallow DOF,arty-farty pictures are in fashion.



Apr 17, 2014 at 11:55 AM
Jeffrey
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p.3 #11 · p.3 #11 · Percentage of Keepers that use Shallow DoF


What an odd thread. I couldn't figure out what the OP was actually taking about.


Apr 17, 2014 at 02:54 PM
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