Best nikkor bokeh lens5/29/2023 ![]() ![]() Sony A7III | Canon EF 200mm 2.0 L IS | f/2.0 Now a 35mm f/2.8 most people wouldn’t consider fast whereas a 400mm f/2.8 is considered a very fast tele lens, despite both having a maximum aperture of f/2.8. What is a fast lens? A 50mm lens with a maximum aperture of f/0.95 probably is, same goes for an 85mm f/1.4 lens. The quantity of the bokeh depends not only on the lens’ specifications or the distance relations in the scene, but also on the optical vignetting and field curvature characteristics of a given lens. ![]() The alternative is to have very distant close focus which I don’t think would make many people happy.Quantity Sony A7III | Zhong Yi 135mm 1.4 | f/1.4 This is because the focus mechanism is shortening the focal length in order to be able to focus more closely. *On many zoom lenses, when you use “close focus” on the longer end, you may actually get a shorter focal length than the lens advertises. Now you are a self taught “bokeh” expert! I think Nasim’s other bokeh article /what-is-bokeh explains more about the shape of the out of focus circles related to the shape of the aperture blades. Now that you’ve seen the differences focal length makes to your background you can play with the three other variables (one at a time!):ġ) Distance to Background: try moving the object closer to the background and then move it further away (maintain the same framing)Ģ) Focus Distance: try moving yourself closer to the subject (if possible) and then try moving further away from the subject (ignore framing)ģ) F-Stop: Maintain the same framing and adjust your f-stop (aperture priority mode ‘A’ if unfamiliar) They should meter the same, since it’s the same subject and same framing, but even a massive variation in f-stop should not have a significant impact here because we’re talking about 300mm vs. I did not tell you to worry about your f-stop or any other camera settings. I think you’ll see clearly the differences in the background. OK, got the same framing, take your photograph. ![]() The objective is to frame the object exactly the same way at both focal lengths. If you cannot frame it closely enough, because you are too close to focus, then you were too close for shot #1 and you’ll have to retake it, but back up a little bit. Now bring your lens back in to 55mm, then move close enough to your subject to get almost the EXACT same framing you had at 300mm. If the object is a real person, great, but I hope they are patient! :)Ĭrank your lens out to 300mm and move as close to the subject as you are able to focus (every lens has a minimum focus distance for each focal length*). Make sure this object is placed ten feet or more from some kind of “background”: trees, house, fence, wall… something. Go outside and find a relatively small object to photograph, no larger than a person. At a certain point, even with consumer zooms, your background will become a smooth velvet wall of subtle shades of color where those little circles just blend together and their quality no longer matters. Now, the bokeh may not be as pleasing on a slow $250 zoom as it would be on a fast $2,000 zoom or even 50mm fast prime, but you can get great results with consumer zooms if you take your time and pay attention to your focal length, focus distance, and distance to background. If I really want to throw my backgrounds out of focus, I grab my 55-200 and shoot at 200mm. For example, I love challenging myself to take pictures with my 35mm at f/1.8, but at such a short focal length background blur is very minimal (depth-of-field is also very minimal). F-stop has an impact, but much less so than focal length and focus distance. My general rule is that the amount of background blur increases more with longer focal lengths and closer focus distances (and also the further away your background). This seems to refute what this article is saying (“good bokeh can only be achieved when the aperture is set to the maximum”). At 200mm even f/8 and f/11 creates extremely out of focus backgrounds for headshots and other small subjects. Granted, I do not own the 18-200, but I do own the 55-200 and I know that I can create extremely smooth (and fairly pleasant) backgrounds by shooting at the longer end (let’s say between 100-200) and framing fairly tightly. If I came here and judged bokeh based on this test I would leave thinking the 18-200 cannot ever produce even an out of focus background. I’m not convinced this is a revealing test at all. ![]()
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