Recently we had a request to include the specifics of how a picture was taken in the blog post. We hadn’t thought to do this before, but we decided that it’s a great idea; we are excited to appeal to all levels of photographers and photography appreciators on the blog. Starting now, at the end of every week we will choose a few pictures from the posts that week and reveal how we took that picture and the settings of the camera necessary to achieve the shot. All of the following pictures were shot on a Canon EOS 5D Mark II. So we begin …
The common link between the pictures below is that all of them use a shallow depth of field (also known as selective focus). Depth of field is the term used to signify how much of the picture will be in focus. With a shallow depth of field you will have the subject in focus, but the background will be out of focus (sometimes referred to as blurry or soft-focus). In order to create this look you need to use a wide open aperture like a f/2 – 2.8 (the smaller the f stop the shallower the depth of field). Another determining factor is the distance between the subject, the camera, and the background.
The picture below was taken at Delfosse Vineyards around 4:00 pm, during Liz and Eric’s Big Reveal. As you can see I used an aperture of f/2.5 in order to get Liz and Eric in focus, but the background is slightly out of focus. This is a great technique to use when you want to bring the viewer’s attention to a specific part of the picture and not have a lot of distractions from the main subject.
Lens: Canon 135mm F/2
F Stop: 2.5
Shutter Speed: 1/3200 of a second
In the picture of the rings from Liz and Eric’s wedding, I used a macro lens in order to get really close and bring out the detail of the diamonds. The aperture was a f/3.5, however the focus falls off a lot more then the in the picture above. The reason for this is because of how close the camera was to the rings (just a few inches). You can see this same technique used in more of our pictures from the recent post featuring ten of our favorite ring pictures from the past few years.
The shot was lit with a Lite Panel MicroPro Video Light.
Lens: Canon 100mm Macro F/2.8
F Stop: 5
Shutter Speed: 1/100 of a second
This picture is of the cake from Katie and Steve’s Wedding. The background is once again in soft focus while the cake and especially the flower details are in focus, which is perfect if the background isn’t very enticing.
Lens: Canon 100mm Macro F/2.8
F Stop: 2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/100 of a second
Here we have a picture of the beautiful bouquet from Maria and Adam’s wedding, taken around 1:00 pm. Again I used selective focus to bring out the detail in the bouquet, while limiting the distraction of the background.
Lens: Canon 85mm F/1.2
F Stop: 3.5
Shutter Speed: 1/6400 of a second
And rounding out the week is a picture of baby Hudson holding his mom’s hand. He wasn’t very happy at that particular moment, and I didn’t want that to distract from the cuteness of his little fingers. By using selective focus on his hands everything else fades away, allowing the viewer to appreciate how tiny his hands are in comparison to his mom’s hand.
Lens: Canon 135mm F/2
F Stop: 2.5
Shutter Speed: 1/2000 of a second
Please feel free to comment if you have any questions about how to achieve this look, or requests for future posts.
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