The hype about depth of field and in particularly “Shallow Depth of Field” is really killing photography in general. People are obsessed with the smooth out of focus background in photographs that any common sense are down the toilet drain.
The story that capture the people attention for a second to look at a photograph is missing from the argument about depth of field. Depth of Feelings are a better judgement of a good photograph not by the amount of “bokek” or out of focus background one can achieve with the photo during capture.
When was the last time you see an out of focus magazine front cover photo? I personally have never seen it in any front cover magazine. If you seen leave a comment below so I can check them out. The reality is magazine editor hardly rate highly of “bokek” photograph.
So when was this trend started? I don’t know. But my guess is the camera manufacturers start it. Why? Revenue and sales. The bottom line is the majority of photographs out there are totally in deep depth of field. In another word everything is in focus.
There is a price to shoot “bokek” only photos. Look at the new Sony Full Frame Mirrorless system with the G Master 50mm F1.2 lens. the price tag for such a wide opening aperture is $2000 USD. That’s a pretty expensive for an effect that you could achieve in Photoshop with a filter.
The argument for the lens is I could blurred out the unwanted background. Yes and you could do that in camera anyway with position the talents, bride and subject. What about the ability to gather more light? Why did you pay for the full frame camera? For the lower noise in your photographs at high ISO and dynamic range right? So basically if you ignorant about full frame goodness then a high price is pay.
At the end of the day the person viewing your photo and think only of the blurred background then there is a problem with your photography. Depth of feelings in photograph is cheaper and more entertaining. I am certain of it that’s why I’m not a fan of “Shallow depth of field” photo. Check out my video below if want to see me rant similar topic with different take on this blog post here.
With a post like this I have time to think about what I put out on the screen, whereas the video is usually one or two takes with the topic in question as a guide. I don’t use teleprompter in my talking head video. So it not as smooth as other youtuber out there but they not sound natural like me right?
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