One other thing that Jason didn't mention is that large apertures are good for blurring out foreground elements, like fences. If there's a fence between you and the subject, get as close as you can to the fence and open the aperture. You can often make the fence "disappear".
@@careylymanjones yeah the fence definitely dissappears. I shoot those kinds with my 100-400 5-6.3, and you can't see the fence at all in the foreground. But, since you're adding another shape to the bokeh by having the fence so close, you don't really get circle bokeh anymore. You get circle with a diamond etched into it, which is cool, but not always desirable. Definitely a worthy tradeoff though
I shoot mainly sports and wildlife. Having the ability to open up the aperture wide as possible gives a better ability to keep your speed up and ISO down as as much as possible when you can’t use flash.
As someone that shoots 99% extreme low light (concert photography), I have a tendency to completely forget that aperture exists outside of wide open. It's definitely something I need to improve in my photography.
Honestly, technology for digital photography has advanced so much that your best bet is to shoot everything at your lens's sharpest F-stop (often around F8) and then just let your digital darkroom/Photoshop software handle the depth of field and lens blur later. For concerts you usually don't have to shoot entirely wide open to get the performers (unless the lighting people suck) but yeah, if you hope to get halfway decent shots that include the crowd and surroundings you probably shouldn't push it unless you have a flagship body that can do extremely high ISO settings. Again, denoising software has come such a long way you really can afford to crank up the ISO and fix it later.
@@stevenleonmusicLightroom has a decent ability to do this now but it isn’t perfect yet. However, I’m a beta tester for upcoming improvements, and let me tell ya, it’s quickly getting much much better. I think after another year or two your advice will be spot on.
@@l.e.phillips Well the closer it is to perfect out of the camera, the less work you have to do in post, so usually I do recommend attempting to get it right in camera if you can. That said, it really just depends on the context. I think focus correction is currently at a good spot for social media and self-promotion. If you're making money off your photography, then you might want to wait for the tech to improve slightly. For low-resolution work though, what we have is more than enough and even what we had before the AI stuff was too.
@@stevenleonmusic I respect your take, but I disagree with you here. My principle is that the better it is straight out of the camera, the better it will be after editing, and as we’re on the topic of concert photography (or low-light event photography in general), the best thing to do, in my opinion, is move around and figure out the settings, which is not that difficult, and you’ll end up with much cleaner images, which doesn’t hurt even if you’re images will be viewed through social media most of the time.
Ive lately been a big fan of higher f-stop numbers like f8 or f11. 1. I shoot a lot of weddings and I feel like clients choose their venue because they like how it looks a lot so I want to show how the environment and location looks in the photo clearly along with the people in it. 2. Higher F stops allows me to use Photoshop to easily to remove unwanted artifacts in the background. 3. Bokeh has become so popular that every beginner of Photographer uses it now that it’s not a unique look anymore.
@@RogerC yeah, when everything is in focus it’s a lot easier to make selections and then remove. Whereas when it’s blurred out, the selection is less perfect and content aware ,generated fill, spot fill or patch tools has a much harder time getting it right.
The most important thing to emphasize is practicing with your camera and lenses is important. I learn new things every wedding I work. I actually realized I could drop the f stop and still get blurry backgrounds one day when I forgot my VND i usually use on my 50mm 1.4 and had to shoot outside. I had to go to 5.6 to get usable exposure for my video, but the closer i got for intimate shots I realized the background was still a bit bokeh (granted, not as much as I would have preferred but still good). Plus lots of lenses are sharper stopped down than wide open.
My dad did a good job of explaining this to me in1960. I had to learn "sunny 16" back then because I shot with a manual camera, no light meter, and by the seat of my pants. Man those days were fun! Yes, I have several new cameras, but I also shoot an Argus C-3 .... a true manual, manual camera. You did a great tutorial video here... great info for those of us with 60 years of photography behind us. I say that because I'll never say I've learned it all!
Great video! I really liked the demonstration on the iPad with the focus leeway. Low f-stop is such a beginner trap - I say this as someone who just picked up photography earlier this year and has had this revelation myself in the last month or so. I think every beginner photographer naturally wants to play with bokeh, because in their eyes it's what makes their photos stand out against a photo taken say on a phone (although many phones can fake bokeh these days). As you mature as a photographer, you start to realise: a) bokeh can be achieved in several ways without a super low f-stop, and b) you don't always need bokeh. if you're relying on bokeh for good photos, you need to learn more about what makes a good photo i.e interesting compositions, subjects and lighting.
Hello, I'd like to point out that it's not 'larger the number smaller the hole and vice versa.' Even my teacher at uni gets this wrong. It's not f 16 or f 1.4; it is f/16 or f/1.4 -- meaning f 1/16 or f 1/1.4. Now we know with the numerator same, if the denominator is bigger the number is smaller. Like ½ is 0.5 and ¼ is 0.25. So 1/1.4 > 1/16 and technically 'bigger the number bigger the hole.'
The technical correctness isn’t always the best way to learn, being that what a first time photographer would see in their settings (on screen) is how Jason presented it.
bruh, as much as I would want to say you are technically correct, you cannot discredit what he was saying. You need to listen to what he is saying in the proper “context” he was presenting it. And that context is that he is pertaining and presenting it in the context of the lens aperture ring itself which is given by the value of denominators. He presented it in both the actual lens as well as with the actual written fraction. So if you really listen, he is correct. Stop discrediting people to show you know something. Your professor might be correct and it’s just that you prefer not to listen to understand - At the end of the day, he won’t be just one smart ass guy trying to look smart, your professor got his degree and credentials to teach so he ain’t stupid.
This really helped me understand that distance from the object really matters. As a noob, I've been looking at it as "getting the person or the object in focus is the only thing I can control." But now i see that distance plays a big role in hiw the background looks. Thanks.
Great video! Two things that have ruined modern photography are pixel peepers and bokeh worshippers. Typically neither one of these groups has any skill either. They wouldn't know a quality photograph if it bit them, they are too busy zooming into 400% and sitting an inch from their huge monitor looking for imperfections. Its been fueled by RUclipsrs playing photographer who push the latest 1.2 lens and absurdly overpriced "flagship" FULL FRAME camera as the only thing you need to get great photos 🤣 Ive been a professional fashion/portrait shooter almost 20 years and have shot with tons of gear from all manufacturers. You can get awesome shallow DOF in a portrait with an Olympus 75 1.8 on a tiny little M43 sensor camera. Ive done it and had shots published in magazines. No one would ever go hey wait a minute, thats a M43 sensor camera! What makes a great photograph is lighting and composition, not how blurry the background is or how creamy the bokeh balls are 😂
This is the tutorial that I'm looking for so longggg time. Others are just explaining the meaning of Aperture but thank you for creating this in depth teachings
At 0:05 - Blurry background is not bokeh. Bokeh is the qualitative rendition of out-of focus pinpoints of light: the roundness, the edges, the evenness of illumination of the blobs. Wiki: "the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light". Differences in lens aberrations and aperture shape cause very different bokeh effects.
THANK YOU!!! You’re the first person I’ve seen talk about aperture outside of the basic wide for low light as well as how distance affects depth of field and the need for narrow apertures for nightscapes. You’ve saved every beginner who watches this the maddening frustration I went through when I first started simply because so many tutorials left out this vital info.
For low light, instead of opening up the lens, my first thought is "how can I best stabilize the camera to allow me to lower the shutter speed without inducing excess blur?" I don't always come up with the answer, but finding the steadiest mount I can is always first and foremost in my mind. I shoot a lot in dimly lit clubs where I never have the luxury of lots of light.
@@chuckschillingvideos what do you use in place of a tripod? Not only are some places and even types of shots not conducive to a tripod, but I’m currently using my Sony RX10 as the autofocus quit on my A7. The biggest downside is the weight. I’m not comfortable putting it on either of the tripods I have even when I can use them. I’d considered getting one of those bag things, but they’re ridiculously expensive, especially considering they don’t even come filled. Also, do you turn off your IS for lower shutter speeds? Even stabilized I’m still getting blur in night cityscapes.
@@BecomingLizzyBlue In place of a tripod I left behind? I'll find a corner to lean against - or a stair railing. Sometimes if possible I'll just sit on the ground and brace the camera against my knees. I'll do whatever I can to hold the camera steady since I've never use a camera body with built-in IS. I've never disabled IS on my lenses, so I have no experience with whether that would produce a better result or not. One thing I do that many/most other photographers don't is hike the ISO if need be. The way I look at it is this - there are things I can do in post to moderate or crop out the noise. But a shaky shot will ALWAYS be a shaky shot. As far as the Sony-specific stuff, I really don't have a clue. I've always used Canon.
I wish so badly I learned this 2 year ago. I was so surface level and didn't go to school for it. Its like learning the little caveats came up only when I challenged myself with different type of photography.
The THICC DOF simulation on the tablet with camera and pencil is such a good visual presentation. This is very key idea on why shooting widest may lead to out of focus shots more often. A mistake I made for years. I think what could be improved is to visualise in this same manner what you said for the wedding photos: with constant aperture, DOF gets more thicc with distance.
One thing I'd like to mention about shallow dof. Look at lots of famous photos and paintings and see if many have shallow dof. It has its place but...another option is maximum dof and have the foreground, subject and background working together. It can be a crutch to blur the background to isolate a subject when you aren't trying hard enough to make a more sophisticated composition.
Horses for courses and all of that. In principle, it's all about starting with the composition and how you wish to render it and setting the aperture, shutter speed and ISO adjustments accordingly.
@@chuckschillingvideos Sure but that is just what is required to make a photo. You use the settings that give the affect you want. Many times I see images with shallow dof and enthusiasm for the "nice" bokeh...and that's all there is.
You do an excellent job explaining these items/concepts. I have a degree from RIT and almost 50 years of experience as a cimmercial photographer. So you can trust me when I compliment you.
This is probably the best series of explanations on aperature and bokeh background blur, I have seen. The last scene with church photo and large group, I would go F8, but you are right some 2.8 shooters will have to move all the way back. For large groups F8 is better, just run up the ISO to 1000 or 1200iso in a church as today's cameras are still sharp and vivid and low noise in high iso, provided it is a full frame sensor. A touch of flash fill in a church would also help so with flash fill you won't need to go to 2500 iso in a dim church and it adds a touch of sparkle to eyes. I regularly shoot churches and halls at F8 and ISO 1200 (vary to ISO 800 in closer range) with fill flash with a small dome on flash at weddings and it looks great.
One of the best You tuber who has a great command of speech, voice style, body language and overall great, you could be a good actor. Ma sha Allah. No evil eye.
As someone who taught photography for over 20 years I never met any beginner who shot wide open. I met a lot of beginners who didn't understand what aperture was and never knew when to change it if anything. Just saying.
It was one of the first things I learned as a beginner. Someone explained to me about shooting in aperture priority and that to get the nice blurry effect around a subject, use the smallest aperture number available and if I wanted to get everything into focus, use a higher aperture number like f/8 or f/11. I didn't understand why a smaller number means more bokeh or larger number means less but I didn't worry about it at the time. And I did like the look so I did shoot wide open often, too often sometimes.
What's amazing is I have already been doing some of the stuff you have mentioned here just by taking photo after photo after photo. But still, thanks for breaking everything for us in this video. 😎 Everything we do (and learn) on the fly makes a lot more sense now. 😁
Very good to know, considering I'm still somewhat a beginner. I'm always open to learning. My thing is that I shoot mostly concerts and I need something with good low light performance. That's why I'm debating between an ef 70-200mm f/2.8 vs the 70-200mm f/4
Nice video! With deliberate "blurring" being the easiest thing to add in post just shoot the smallest hole you can without sacrifing (a) a fast enough shutter speed for the moving subject or (b) a sufficiently low enough ISO. Never sacrifice your shutter speed and know your camera's ISO limitations. Start from there.
This was a crazy helpful video. Any newbie like myself should watch this I have been struggling to take not just clear pictures but low light as well as as someone said in the comment buying all these lenses without knowing how they work is a newbie trap. I have been gotten
Excellent explanation. Personally, I learned about background blur (bokeh) at a very early age (4 years old). That's because I was born with vision issues and spent much of my early life with ophthalmologists. And I developed a little game to pass the time during my many examination sessions. The game was focusing on something close to me to see how my eyes could blur the background and vice versa. This little game became VERY helpful when I started into photography, and this video was a reminder. Thanks. It was both informative and enjoyable.👍
As a photography veteran, my tip. Find out what the sharpest aperture for your specific lens is. Use distance if you can for blur, but keeping your subject as sharp as possible. If in low light you have to open up, but sacrifice ISO first. The big advantage that photographers nowadays have is current developments in editing software. ISO noise can be easily removed, you can even do background blur (bokeh) in software now. Play around, find out on what ISO setting of you camera you can still edit it out later, set that as a new max. Understand how a focus plane works and use distance to create blur, if you cannot, use software.
That was an amazing, crystal-clear explanation! Thanks for that! The shallow vs deep depth of field makes much more sense to me now! You didn't mention the influence in low-light environments, though. Is having the lowest aperture always the best in low-light cases?
You were right when you said people first starting out only know the basics. After I got my first proper zoom lens I discovered the zoom bokeh effect accidentally. Then I looked up portrait photography techniques and found that most of them use longer than usual lenses for it and only then did it start to make sense.
Actually depth of field only depends on two things: Aperture and image ratio. Focal length is only related to depth of field in conjunction with the distance to your subject. If you fill your frame with a subject and use the same aperture it doesn't matter what focal length you use.
beware using to small an aperture, as many lenses loose resolution after f/8 or f/11 due to diffusion, so that expensive glass may not perform where you would expect it too
Like most things (and ai too) Always helps to have an intent before you start creating. Then you’re making the tool deliver your idea, not hoping for happy accidents.
I love your videos and how relevant and accessible you make information. This would have been really handy six or seven years ago. When I was starting out the professional side
Lol I've been shooting casually for 6 yrs now and I just realized why they call it Wider and Narrower. Thought to myself this whole time "Why would they call it wider when the number/f stop is low? Isn't wider supposed to mean a larger number" something like that hahaha Thank you for the refresher!
I appreciate this Jason! I just got into photography and I was thinking exactly what you were talking about, low f-stops every time 😭, which is not always a good thing
Back in 2013 I was visiting Porsche Museum in Stuttgart, Germany. I forgot my main lens in the hotel, and took accidentally my canon 70-300mm f/4-5.6 is usm lens instead, and you can imagine how hard it was to take shots with this lens in a museum! since that date, I figured out i don’t need larger f stop to get nice shots! 😅
I learned photography with film, both in high school and college. We never used or heard the term "bokeh" in the 1990's, and we were taught that aperture decides how much light the lens lets in, and how deep the depth of field is. I like this video though. Good explanations, and much better than a lot of YT "photography" I've seen lately that is really just influencers peddling stuff to people.
Great tips and all correct. You missed one of the biggest tips. That tip is to Practice, Practice, Practice because the more you shoot the more chances you have to learn and improve.
Great stuff. This is definitely critical for beginners. I've learned the hard way. I've done group photo shoots for corporate clients. Three or four people in the photos doing work, etc., and I wanted some blurry background. I was using between f2.8 and f4. I couldn't tell in my camera screen that one person was in focus while others were out of focus. I got home to review the photos on my computer and nearly all the photos were ruined because half of the people were badly out of focus. I should have definitely used f8 or higher. Hopefully others learn from my mistake which is why I wanted to share. Cheers!
Nice use of the Motion vfx Podcast presets! Also this is a great explanation of depth of field, vieiwng it as a line which is bigger or smaller based on aperture is really smart.
One more thing, this video doesn’t mention diffraction at all. This is a very important element especially when shooting macro photos. Basically, when you use a smaller hole, such as f/16, the light has to bend more to get through it. Therefore, fancy light physics happen, and it becomes somewhat blurry- hard to describe without example photos. However, shooting wider means the light hardly has to bend, and is thus sharper. I will now try to explain what diffraction looks like the best i can: Have you ever seen those mosaic filters, that make images into a bunch of triangles? Now, imagine you set the number of triangles really really high, but just enough to still be noticeable. This is kinda what it looks like. This is why all good macro photographers choose to focus stack photos instead of simply setting the f/stop higher. No, it’s not really because of light, many flashes get plenty bright enough to shoot f/10 and above comfortably. Source: I’m a macro photographer.
If you know how it works, then all depends on your creative selection. For instance, when I take photos of fungus, I like to shot with pretty low aperture to get some information from the environment rather than just focusing only on the fungus itself. Same can apply to any kind of photo, as long as it's required for the wanted result.
If you want to understand depth of field, take a picture of your dog (if he has a long snout). If his eyes are in focus, his nose will be blurry, and if his nose is in focus, his eyes will be blurry.
instead of thinking of it as level of blur, think of it as depth of field. Once you get the DoF down, you can get amazing bokeh even with the kit lens - taking into the account camera to subject to background distance relationships.
One other thing to consider: the sharpest aperture of a lens is seldom the widest aperture setting. Most lenses will actually be sharper stopped down a few times. The difference between shooting f1.4 and f2.8 can easily be adjusted by distance to the subject to get the same blur effect...yet the sharpness at 2.8 will be much more on an f1.4 lens than at f1.4.
I use 50mm nifty fifty f1.8 but i use f1.8 mostly around night. Even f3.5 are good at night but then have to adjust shutter speed and iso to best quality that camera can handle.
I’m a dentist and I’m looking for the sharpest and largest depth of field possible. Should I search for 70mm macro lens or 100mm? I generally shoot at f22 or f26. What gives better sharpness and bigger DoF if shooting at the same distance and cropping in? Should I look for a asp-c or full frame sensor?
Seriously? Better subject lighting is what makes everything possible. Photography is all about light. if you want to maximize your depth of field, the more light on your subject (within reason), the better.
Seriously? Better subject lighting is what makes everything possible. Photography is all about light. if you want to maximize your depth of field, the more light on your subject (within reason), the better.
I wish there were more detail explained in the first section. The reasoning behind the aperture numbers is that they represent the ratio of the diameter of the hole to the focal length of the lens which directly relates to how much light is allowed to pass through. This is why an huge, 18-inch zoom lens can have the same numbers as a tiny little pancake lens and you still know exactly how much light is getting through since the ratio is proportional to the size of the lens. Also your distance discussion is a bit unfinished too. You don't simply have to get closer to your subject, the amount of background blur is actually far more related to the distance between your subject and the background. It's just that when you get very close to your subject you pull the focal point closer to you and the background is more likely to be outside of the focal area. If you want a blurry background you simply need to separate the subject from the background with as much physical distance as possible. If that's not possible then your only recourse is to either change your position so that the background elements are physically outside of the focal area or change your aperture size so that the in-focus area (AKA Depth of Field) is smaller, thus excluding more of the background. If you want blurry background at F8 it's entirely possible but the most likely scenario would be extreme macro with a diopter or a long-distance shot where your subject is pretty far away and the background behind them is EXTREMELY far away (much like that Sakura shot you used).
Why when an alleged professional someone explains aperture nobody explains that what we see as “f/1.8” is actually an equation where “f” stands in place of whatever your focal length is, say 85mm, so then 85/1.8, the result is your aperture’s diameter. Also because light falls off over a distance, doesn’t matter that you have a 47mm aperture on an 85mm lens but a 1.8 on a 20mm lens is only 11mm, because you also have less distance for the light to lose intensity. Once people understand that, aperture makes sense. Aperture is a fraction so of course the higher the number after the division sign, the smaller the actual aperture is.
Thank you for the tips dude! I really learned a lot. Holy I had no idea about anything about aperature besides it being good for blurry background with a subject.
Good video. Can you make a video about low light and how that relates to aperture? I find it literally a different world than shooting in daylight. Thanks.
Great explanation! I'm still be to the scene and only doing as a hobby. I have my nice little f1.4 Sigma lens on my zv-e10 and find these points very useful! Will use these tips
Hey Jason, I love your videos and the energy you out into them 👍👍👍. I finally got my first camera ever (A7C) and have been watching hrs of videos. In the last point when you said it's better to step further back to have everybody in focus. Does that have anything to do with forcing the lens to go into infinity focus???
That is a great video.👍 I guess that could not be explained better, faster and easier. Well done my friend. (No doubt you will be inspiring the photo lessons I am planning to give in the next months.)
That statement has no sense in it. The only general thing you show know about focal length and aperture relations is that bigger the focal length means bigger background blur overall. But also you should remember to put your subject farther away from background anyway for better blur
Not quite correct. f-stop = effective focal length / diameter of _entrance_ pupil. Especially for retro-focus wide angle lenses and tele-lenses the diameter of the entrance pupil is quite different from the physical diameter of the aperture inside the lens.
One other thing that Jason didn't mention is that large apertures are good for blurring out foreground elements, like fences. If there's a fence between you and the subject, get as close as you can to the fence and open the aperture. You can often make the fence "disappear".
as an amateur photographer way back when, this blew my mind at family sporting events shooting through the fence lol
Beware, it makes your bokeh way funky. Better than having a fence in view tho
@@kai.05 If your lens is long enough, fast enough, and you can get close enough, you can make chain link fence disappear.
@@careylymanjones yeah the fence definitely dissappears. I shoot those kinds with my 100-400 5-6.3, and you can't see the fence at all in the foreground. But, since you're adding another shape to the bokeh by having the fence so close, you don't really get circle bokeh anymore. You get circle with a diamond etched into it, which is cool, but not always desirable. Definitely a worthy tradeoff though
I shoot mainly sports and wildlife. Having the ability to open up the aperture wide as possible gives a better ability to keep your speed up and ISO down as as much as possible when you can’t use flash.
As someone that shoots 99% extreme low light (concert photography), I have a tendency to completely forget that aperture exists outside of wide open. It's definitely something I need to improve in my photography.
What f stop do you use?
Honestly, technology for digital photography has advanced so much that your best bet is to shoot everything at your lens's sharpest F-stop (often around F8) and then just let your digital darkroom/Photoshop software handle the depth of field and lens blur later. For concerts you usually don't have to shoot entirely wide open to get the performers (unless the lighting people suck) but yeah, if you hope to get halfway decent shots that include the crowd and surroundings you probably shouldn't push it unless you have a flagship body that can do extremely high ISO settings. Again, denoising software has come such a long way you really can afford to crank up the ISO and fix it later.
@@stevenleonmusicLightroom has a decent ability to do this now but it isn’t perfect yet. However, I’m a beta tester for upcoming improvements, and let me tell ya, it’s quickly getting much much better. I think after another year or two your advice will be spot on.
@@l.e.phillips Well the closer it is to perfect out of the camera, the less work you have to do in post, so usually I do recommend attempting to get it right in camera if you can. That said, it really just depends on the context. I think focus correction is currently at a good spot for social media and self-promotion. If you're making money off your photography, then you might want to wait for the tech to improve slightly. For low-resolution work though, what we have is more than enough and even what we had before the AI stuff was too.
@@stevenleonmusic I respect your take, but I disagree with you here. My principle is that the better it is straight out of the camera, the better it will be after editing, and as we’re on the topic of concert photography (or low-light event photography in general), the best thing to do, in my opinion, is move around and figure out the settings, which is not that difficult, and you’ll end up with much cleaner images, which doesn’t hurt even if you’re images will be viewed through social media most of the time.
Ive lately been a big fan of higher f-stop numbers like f8 or f11.
1. I shoot a lot of weddings and I feel like clients choose their venue because they like how it looks a lot so I want to show how the environment and location looks in the photo clearly along with the people in it.
2. Higher F stops allows me to use Photoshop to easily to remove unwanted artifacts in the background.
3. Bokeh has become so popular that every beginner of Photographer uses it now that it’s not a unique look anymore.
Agree
>3
It was never a unique look.
Curious - what does higher F stop have to do with Photoshop and removing unwanted artifacts?
@@RogerC yeah, when everything is in focus it’s a lot easier to make selections and then remove. Whereas when it’s blurred out, the selection is less perfect and content aware ,generated fill, spot fill or patch tools has a much harder time getting it right.
true story bro
The most important thing to emphasize is practicing with your camera and lenses is important. I learn new things every wedding I work. I actually realized I could drop the f stop and still get blurry backgrounds one day when I forgot my VND i usually use on my 50mm 1.4 and had to shoot outside. I had to go to 5.6 to get usable exposure for my video, but the closer i got for intimate shots I realized the background was still a bit bokeh (granted, not as much as I would have preferred but still good). Plus lots of lenses are sharper stopped down than wide open.
My dad did a good job of explaining this to me in1960. I had to learn "sunny 16" back then because I shot with a manual camera, no light meter, and by the seat of my pants. Man those days were fun! Yes, I have several new cameras, but I also shoot an Argus C-3 .... a true manual, manual camera. You did a great tutorial video here... great info for those of us with 60 years of photography behind us. I say that because I'll never say I've learned it all!
Great comment.
Always nice to get a primer in the basics. Nothing wrong with some review.
Great video! I really liked the demonstration on the iPad with the focus leeway.
Low f-stop is such a beginner trap - I say this as someone who just picked up photography earlier this year and has had this revelation myself in the last month or so. I think every beginner photographer naturally wants to play with bokeh, because in their eyes it's what makes their photos stand out against a photo taken say on a phone (although many phones can fake bokeh these days). As you mature as a photographer, you start to realise:
a) bokeh can be achieved in several ways without a super low f-stop, and
b) you don't always need bokeh. if you're relying on bokeh for good photos, you need to learn more about what makes a good photo i.e interesting compositions, subjects and lighting.
As an amateur photographer I have to say low apertures give you more freedom of movement, I mean you can control DoF on bigger distances
Hello, I'd like to point out that it's not 'larger the number smaller the hole and vice versa.' Even my teacher at uni gets this wrong. It's not f 16 or f 1.4; it is f/16 or f/1.4 -- meaning f 1/16 or f 1/1.4. Now we know with the numerator same, if the denominator is bigger the number is smaller. Like ½ is 0.5 and ¼ is 0.25. So 1/1.4 > 1/16 and technically 'bigger the number bigger the hole.'
I learned something today! Thanks!
The technical correctness isn’t always the best way to learn, being that what a first time photographer would see in their settings (on screen) is how Jason presented it.
🤓
bruh, as much as I would want to say you are technically correct, you cannot discredit what he was saying. You need to listen to what he is saying in the proper “context” he was presenting it. And that context is that he is pertaining and presenting it in the context of the lens aperture ring itself which is given by the value of denominators. He presented it in both the actual lens as well as with the actual written fraction. So if you really listen, he is correct. Stop discrediting people to show you know something. Your professor might be correct and it’s just that you prefer not to listen to understand - At the end of the day, he won’t be just one smart ass guy trying to look smart, your professor got his degree and credentials to teach so he ain’t stupid.
k nerd
This really helped me understand that distance from the object really matters. As a noob, I've been looking at it as "getting the person or the object in focus is the only thing I can control." But now i see that distance plays a big role in hiw the background looks.
Thanks.
Yea, in regular camera mode with your phone, you can have very blurry backgrounds by shooting from very close to your subject!
Great video! Two things that have ruined modern photography are pixel peepers and bokeh worshippers. Typically neither one of these groups has any skill either. They wouldn't know a quality photograph if it bit them, they are too busy zooming into 400% and sitting an inch from their huge monitor looking for imperfections. Its been fueled by RUclipsrs playing photographer who push the latest 1.2 lens and absurdly overpriced "flagship" FULL FRAME camera as the only thing you need to get great photos 🤣 Ive been a professional fashion/portrait shooter almost 20 years and have shot with tons of gear from all manufacturers. You can get awesome shallow DOF in a portrait with an Olympus 75 1.8 on a tiny little M43 sensor camera. Ive done it and had shots published in magazines. No one would ever go hey wait a minute, thats a M43 sensor camera! What makes a great photograph is lighting and composition, not how blurry the background is or how creamy the bokeh balls are 😂
This is the tutorial that I'm looking for so longggg time. Others are just explaining the meaning of Aperture but thank you for creating this in depth teachings
Binge watching your videos cause they are the best I’ve found. Thank you, Jason. Much appreciated 😊
It was nice to hear someone say what it took me a few years to learn myself. You are a great teacher. Keep it up. Big fan.
At 0:05 - Blurry background is not bokeh. Bokeh is the qualitative rendition of out-of focus pinpoints of light: the roundness, the edges, the evenness of illumination of the blobs. Wiki: "the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light". Differences in lens aberrations and aperture shape cause very different bokeh effects.
THANK YOU!!! You’re the first person I’ve seen talk about aperture outside of the basic wide for low light as well as how distance affects depth of field and the need for narrow apertures for nightscapes. You’ve saved every beginner who watches this the maddening frustration I went through when I first started simply because so many tutorials left out this vital info.
For low light, instead of opening up the lens, my first thought is "how can I best stabilize the camera to allow me to lower the shutter speed without inducing excess blur?" I don't always come up with the answer, but finding the steadiest mount I can is always first and foremost in my mind. I shoot a lot in dimly lit clubs where I never have the luxury of lots of light.
@@chuckschillingvideos what do you use in place of a tripod? Not only are some places and even types of shots not conducive to a tripod, but I’m currently using my Sony RX10 as the autofocus quit on my A7. The biggest downside is the weight. I’m not comfortable putting it on either of the tripods I have even when I can use them. I’d considered getting one of those bag things, but they’re ridiculously expensive, especially considering they don’t even come filled. Also, do you turn off your IS for lower shutter speeds? Even stabilized I’m still getting blur in night cityscapes.
@@BecomingLizzyBlue In place of a tripod I left behind? I'll find a corner to lean against - or a stair railing. Sometimes if possible I'll just sit on the ground and brace the camera against my knees. I'll do whatever I can to hold the camera steady since I've never use a camera body with built-in IS. I've never disabled IS on my lenses, so I have no experience with whether that would produce a better result or not. One thing I do that many/most other photographers don't is hike the ISO if need be. The way I look at it is this - there are things I can do in post to moderate or crop out the noise. But a shaky shot will ALWAYS be a shaky shot. As far as the Sony-specific stuff, I really don't have a clue. I've always used Canon.
Thank you! I've been looking for a video like this for some time now and you finally delivered one covering the basic needs, helped out a lot!
I wish so badly I learned this 2 year ago. I was so surface level and didn't go to school for it. Its like learning the little caveats came up only when I challenged myself with different type of photography.
The THICC DOF simulation on the tablet with camera and pencil is such a good visual presentation. This is very key idea on why shooting widest may lead to out of focus shots more often. A mistake I made for years. I think what could be improved is to visualise in this same manner what you said for the wedding photos: with constant aperture, DOF gets more thicc with distance.
One thing I'd like to mention about shallow dof. Look at lots of famous photos and paintings and see if many have shallow dof.
It has its place but...another option is maximum dof and have the foreground, subject and background working together.
It can be a crutch to blur the background to isolate a subject when you aren't trying hard enough to make a more sophisticated composition.
Horses for courses and all of that. In principle, it's all about starting with the composition and how you wish to render it and setting the aperture, shutter speed and ISO adjustments accordingly.
@@chuckschillingvideos Sure but that is just what is required to make a photo. You use the settings that give the affect you want.
Many times I see images with shallow dof and enthusiasm for the "nice" bokeh...and that's all there is.
You do an excellent job explaining these items/concepts.
I have a degree from RIT and almost 50 years of experience as a cimmercial photographer. So you can trust me when I compliment you.
I learned more about this topic than ever. I’ve been obsessed with these low numbers, but now realize it doesn’t matter for the content I make.
As a long time photo instructor, you did a great job! High 5!
thank you!
This is probably the best series of explanations on aperature and bokeh background blur, I have seen. The last scene with church photo and large group, I would go F8, but you are right some 2.8 shooters will have to move all the way back. For large groups F8 is better, just run up the ISO to 1000 or 1200iso in a church as today's cameras are still sharp and vivid and low noise in high iso, provided it is a full frame sensor. A touch of flash fill in a church would also help so with flash fill you won't need to go to 2500 iso in a dim church and it adds a touch of sparkle to eyes. I regularly shoot churches and halls at F8 and ISO 1200 (vary to ISO 800 in closer range) with fill flash with a small dome on flash at weddings and it looks great.
One of the best You tuber who has a great command of speech, voice style, body language and overall great, you could be a good actor.
Ma sha Allah. No evil eye.
As someone who taught photography for over 20 years I never met any beginner who shot wide open. I met a lot of beginners who didn't understand what aperture was and never knew when to change it if anything. Just saying.
It was one of the first things I learned as a beginner. Someone explained to me about shooting in aperture priority and that to get the nice blurry effect around a subject, use the smallest aperture number available and if I wanted to get everything into focus, use a higher aperture number like f/8 or f/11. I didn't understand why a smaller number means more bokeh or larger number means less but I didn't worry about it at the time. And I did like the look so I did shoot wide open often, too often sometimes.
What's amazing is I have already been doing some of the stuff you have mentioned here just by taking photo after photo after photo. But still, thanks for breaking everything for us in this video. 😎 Everything we do (and learn) on the fly makes a lot more sense now. 😁
Very good to know, considering I'm still somewhat a beginner. I'm always open to learning. My thing is that I shoot mostly concerts and I need something with good low light performance. That's why I'm debating between an ef 70-200mm f/2.8 vs the 70-200mm f/4
yeah for low-light that extra stop makes a world of difference when you're not on a tripod, if you can afford it i'd recommend it.
The 2.8 will make the image brighter in the viewfinder if you use a DSLR. If you use a mirrorless, it's less relevant.
Great refresher Jason! Love the energy and enthusiasm.
Nice video!
With deliberate "blurring" being the easiest thing to add in post just shoot the smallest hole you can without sacrifing (a) a fast enough shutter speed for the moving subject or (b) a sufficiently low enough ISO.
Never sacrifice your shutter speed and know your camera's ISO limitations. Start from there.
This video spoke to my photography soul and said, "Stop it!" 👍🏾 Thanks.
Love the visuals, especially the top down view to help drive the point home!
This was a crazy helpful video. Any newbie like myself should watch this I have been struggling to take not just clear pictures but low light as well as as someone said in the comment buying all these lenses without knowing how they work is a newbie trap. I have been gotten
Banger vid Jason, I dig it - Just got my Tamron 17-70mm f 2.8 so this is good timing.
Nice man! Great lens! One of the best for APSC!!
Excellent explanation. Personally, I learned about background blur (bokeh) at a very early age (4 years old). That's because I was born with vision issues and spent much of my early life with ophthalmologists. And I developed a little game to pass the time during my many examination sessions. The game was focusing on something close to me to see how my eyes could blur the background and vice versa. This little game became VERY helpful when I started into photography, and this video was a reminder.
Thanks. It was both informative and enjoyable.👍
This helped me figure out what lens I wanna buy and reminded me of some of the stuff I had forgotten from film school, thanks so much!
finally i know what is aperture all about.. thanks for sharing such amazing information ! I learn something today!
very happy to heard that! 😁
As a photography veteran, my tip. Find out what the sharpest aperture for your specific lens is. Use distance if you can for blur, but keeping your subject as sharp as possible. If in low light you have to open up, but sacrifice ISO first. The big advantage that photographers nowadays have is current developments in editing software. ISO noise can be easily removed, you can even do background blur (bokeh) in software now. Play around, find out on what ISO setting of you camera you can still edit it out later, set that as a new max. Understand how a focus plane works and use distance to create blur, if you cannot, use software.
The thing now is with Lightroom you can set your depth of field in post so shooting at a higher f stop gives more options.
It's still not perfect
Got some lovely random street photography during our recent Europe trip by setting the 28mm lens to F1.7 without looking at the evf or lcd screen
Learning from you lately Jason … going over the basics to sharpen my skills.
That was an amazing, crystal-clear explanation! Thanks for that! The shallow vs deep depth of field makes much more sense to me now! You didn't mention the influence in low-light environments, though. Is having the lowest aperture always the best in low-light cases?
Thanks for putting this in a format most of us can understand and not making it confusing.👍
You were right when you said people first starting out only know the basics. After I got my first proper zoom lens I discovered the zoom bokeh effect accidentally. Then I looked up portrait photography techniques and found that most of them use longer than usual lenses for it and only then did it start to make sense.
Actually depth of field only depends on two things: Aperture and image ratio. Focal length is only related to depth of field in conjunction with the distance to your subject. If you fill your frame with a subject and use the same aperture it doesn't matter what focal length you use.
So many people don't understand this.
@@jerry2357 a bit of a shame that the expert in this video doesn't get the basics straight either
beware using to small an aperture, as many lenses loose resolution after f/8 or f/11 due to diffusion, so that expensive glass may not perform where you would expect it too
Like most things (and ai too) Always helps to have an intent before you start creating. Then you’re making the tool deliver your idea, not hoping for happy accidents.
Love the text overlays in this videos. Nice work Jason 🎉
Great video - I often get caught up in shooting wide open and this is a great reminder! THank you!
I love your videos and how relevant and accessible you make information. This would have been really handy six or seven years ago. When I was starting out the professional side
Lol I've been shooting casually for 6 yrs now and I just realized why they call it Wider and Narrower. Thought to myself this whole time "Why would they call it wider when the number/f stop is low? Isn't wider supposed to mean a larger number" something like that hahaha
Thank you for the refresher!
I appreciate this Jason! I just got into photography and I was thinking exactly what you were talking about, low f-stops every time 😭, which is not always a good thing
thank you for the video, hopefully more tutorial from you soon. Composition, editing process ..
Great explanation, thank you. I especially liked the "overhead" illustration.
Fantastic top level video for beginners and intermediate level. Take each chapter and go practice! So much information to unpack.
Back in 2013 I was visiting Porsche Museum in Stuttgart, Germany. I forgot my main lens in the hotel, and took accidentally my canon 70-300mm f/4-5.6 is usm lens instead, and you can imagine how hard it was to take shots with this lens in a museum! since that date, I figured out i don’t need larger f stop to get nice shots! 😅
I learned photography with film, both in high school and college.
We never used or heard the term "bokeh" in the 1990's, and we were taught that aperture decides how much light the lens lets in, and how deep the depth of field is.
I like this video though. Good explanations, and much better than a lot of YT "photography" I've seen lately that is really just influencers peddling stuff to people.
Great stuff Jason! Super well explained!
Jason, Thank you for creating this video. It was extremely helpful. I've been making many of these mistakes.
Great tips and all correct. You missed one of the biggest tips. That tip is to Practice, Practice, Practice because the more you shoot the more chances you have to learn and improve.
Great stuff. This is definitely critical for beginners. I've learned the hard way. I've done group photo shoots for corporate clients. Three or four people in the photos doing work, etc., and I wanted some blurry background. I was using between f2.8 and f4. I couldn't tell in my camera screen that one person was in focus while others were out of focus. I got home to review the photos on my computer and nearly all the photos were ruined because half of the people were badly out of focus. I should have definitely used f8 or higher. Hopefully others learn from my mistake which is why I wanted to share. Cheers!
This is the exactly what I needed!! Thanks always ❤
2:50 What is going on there? Do you have gigantic hands or did you use a scale model of the camera?
This video is really helpful and just in time for my new camera. Thanks!
Nice use of the Motion vfx Podcast presets! Also this is a great explanation of depth of field, vieiwng it as a line which is bigger or smaller based on aperture is really smart.
One more thing, this video doesn’t mention diffraction at all. This is a very important element especially when shooting macro photos. Basically, when you use a smaller hole, such as f/16, the light has to bend more to get through it. Therefore, fancy light physics happen, and it becomes somewhat blurry- hard to describe without example photos. However, shooting wider means the light hardly has to bend, and is thus sharper. I will now try to explain what diffraction looks like the best i can: Have you ever seen those mosaic filters, that make images into a bunch of triangles? Now, imagine you set the number of triangles really really high, but just enough to still be noticeable. This is kinda what it looks like. This is why all good macro photographers choose to focus stack photos instead of simply setting the f/stop higher. No, it’s not really because of light, many flashes get plenty bright enough to shoot f/10 and above comfortably.
Source: I’m a macro photographer.
I love the woman copying the puddle shot at 5:30...
If you know how it works, then all depends on your creative selection. For instance, when I take photos of fungus, I like to shot with pretty low aperture to get some information from the environment rather than just focusing only on the fungus itself.
Same can apply to any kind of photo, as long as it's required for the wanted result.
This is a great video, more tutorials please
Thank you for your work on this video.
Thanks to professor too.
Great vid mate, well edited to the point and heaps of value in it. Saving this as an example of how to make a video guide. 🔥
If you want to understand depth of field, take a picture of your dog (if he has a long snout). If his eyes are in focus, his nose will be blurry, and if his nose is in focus, his eyes will be blurry.
Thanks Jason for these crystal clear explanations !
instead of thinking of it as level of blur, think of it as depth of field. Once you get the DoF down, you can get amazing bokeh even with the kit lens - taking into the account camera to subject to background distance relationships.
One other thing to consider: the sharpest aperture of a lens is seldom the widest aperture setting. Most lenses will actually be sharper stopped down a few times. The difference between shooting f1.4 and f2.8 can easily be adjusted by distance to the subject to get the same blur effect...yet the sharpness at 2.8 will be much more on an f1.4 lens than at f1.4.
Great point. My own experience echoes this.
I use 50mm nifty fifty f1.8 but i use f1.8 mostly around night. Even f3.5 are good at night but then have to adjust shutter speed and iso to best quality that camera can handle.
Perfect explanation, keep providing content like this💪🏼🔥
I’m a dentist and I’m looking for the sharpest and largest depth of field possible. Should I search for 70mm macro lens or 100mm? I generally shoot at f22 or f26. What gives better sharpness and bigger DoF if shooting at the same distance and cropping in? Should I look for a asp-c or full frame sensor?
Seriously? Better subject lighting is what makes everything possible. Photography is all about light. if you want to maximize your depth of field, the more light on your subject (within reason), the better.
Seriously? Better subject lighting is what makes everything possible. Photography is all about light. if you want to maximize your depth of field, the more light on your subject (within reason), the better.
More of these please
Good, easy coverage on the basics 👌
This is such a great, concise video. Thank you!
This video on apertures really opened my eyes. Get it? Opened my eyes? Adjusted my aperture? Huh??
I wish there were more detail explained in the first section. The reasoning behind the aperture numbers is that they represent the ratio of the diameter of the hole to the focal length of the lens which directly relates to how much light is allowed to pass through. This is why an huge, 18-inch zoom lens can have the same numbers as a tiny little pancake lens and you still know exactly how much light is getting through since the ratio is proportional to the size of the lens. Also your distance discussion is a bit unfinished too. You don't simply have to get closer to your subject, the amount of background blur is actually far more related to the distance between your subject and the background. It's just that when you get very close to your subject you pull the focal point closer to you and the background is more likely to be outside of the focal area. If you want a blurry background you simply need to separate the subject from the background with as much physical distance as possible. If that's not possible then your only recourse is to either change your position so that the background elements are physically outside of the focal area or change your aperture size so that the in-focus area (AKA Depth of Field) is smaller, thus excluding more of the background. If you want blurry background at F8 it's entirely possible but the most likely scenario would be extreme macro with a diopter or a long-distance shot where your subject is pretty far away and the background behind them is EXTREMELY far away (much like that Sakura shot you used).
I think this video was intended for non-pros who might be newish to the DSLR thing.
thanks for the videos Jason!!❤
BIG THUMBS UP FOR THIS VIDEO! THANKS
Got the basics covered very nicely! Keep it up man!
Why when an alleged professional someone explains aperture nobody explains that what we see as “f/1.8” is actually an equation where “f” stands in place of whatever your focal length is, say 85mm, so then 85/1.8, the result is your aperture’s diameter. Also because light falls off over a distance, doesn’t matter that you have a 47mm aperture on an 85mm lens but a 1.8 on a 20mm lens is only 11mm, because you also have less distance for the light to lose intensity. Once people understand that, aperture makes sense. Aperture is a fraction so of course the higher the number after the division sign, the smaller the actual aperture is.
Best explanation on the internet!
Thank you for the tips dude! I really learned a lot. Holy I had no idea about anything about aperature besides it being good for blurry background with a subject.
Damn. The most well explained video so far! Thanks !
Good video. Can you make a video about low light and how that relates to aperture? I find it literally a different world than shooting in daylight. Thanks.
Excellent video! Thanks for the breakdown.
With the group shots, backing up won’t necessarily help if all you do is then compensate by zooming in, you’re going to get even less depth of field.
Fantastic video Jason!
Great breakdown of this topic, Jason!
Great explanation! I'm still be to the scene and only doing as a hobby. I have my nice little f1.4 Sigma lens on my zv-e10 and find these points very useful! Will use these tips
Hey Jason, I love your videos and the energy you out into them 👍👍👍. I finally got my first camera ever (A7C) and have been watching hrs of videos.
In the last point when you said it's better to step further back to have everybody in focus. Does that have anything to do with forcing the lens to go into infinity focus???
That is a great video.👍 I guess that could not be explained better, faster and easier. Well done my friend. (No doubt you will be inspiring the photo lessons I am planning to give in the next months.)
F Stop = Focal length/Aperture mentioning this would help to better understand/show relationship of how focal length impacts background blur
That statement has no sense in it. The only general thing you show know about focal length and aperture relations is that bigger the focal length means bigger background blur overall. But also you should remember to put your subject farther away from background anyway for better blur
Not quite correct. f-stop = effective focal length / diameter of _entrance_ pupil. Especially for retro-focus wide angle lenses and tele-lenses the diameter of the entrance pupil is quite different from the physical diameter of the aperture inside the lens.
wow that a very great videos
I love your approach at explaining this!
Great video Jason, mahalo!