[johnmflores]

One really big point I haven't seen mentioned (might have missed it) is focusing distance. This has a major effect on depth of field with any speed or focal length lens.

Bingo! The distance between you and your subject compared to the distance between your subject and the background will have a greater effect on OOF than a lens that's 1 stop or even 2 stops faster than what you've got.

If you are doing soccer, for example, if you are low to the ground and you've got 20 meters between you and the action and an additional 100 meters between the action and the trees in the background, the trees will probably be OOF whether you use F2.8 or F4.0. And with sports, you'll probably want F4.0 at least to increase the chances that your moving subject is in focus.

Likewise for the street. Try it with your kit lens at F4.0 - you 3 meters from your subject and the background 10 meters or more away. The background will be OOF.

Here's an example of the kit lens producing OOF with F5.0:




Ok, now for a stupid pun..."There she was, bokeh walking down the street, singing doo wah diddy diddy dum diddy doo."

[JoepLX3]

Don't confuse bokeh with blur.

Sorry, that is why I used "blur" iso blur...
- You want a fast lens as in small F number to
- Enable fast enough shutter speed to avoid motion smearing

Blur can come from camera or subject movement (oops) or from controlling the DOF via aperture and distance.
...
The goal is to highlight the subject, to make them distinct from what's around them. How?
...
So does a well-used ultra-wide lens, by shrinking the background into insignificance.

The last one is kind of new for me. utra-wide kind of enlarges things and people "start to look ugly", or you are talking out fisheye lenses (for portraits)?

[Rondec]

He is saying that if you use an ultrawide (say 12mm), everything in the background of your photo tends to be smaller, more squeezed together, while things in the foreground tend to be large. If you take a photo of a person with an ultra wide, you will stand pretty close to them and they will look like a giant, while the background sort of "shrinks away." I personally don't really like ultrawides for portraits, because they do tend to distort features somewhat, but a lot of journalists will shoot people in their normal surrounding with one. It gives you a feel for who the person is, but the surroundings aren't over stated in the photo.

[JoepLX3]

Hmm, interesting to know they are "profesionally" used for portraits, I didn't know

[theteerex]

Here are some of my results so you can see where my problems lie.
Using the kit lens and did all kinds of walking around with max aperture. Tried using the flash, tried the 50mm f2 manual I have and still can't get it.
That's a shirt I designed by the way

[JoepLX3]

Nice shirt, nice lady, nice cars (you see their speed!!!)

But you want brokeh in the evening, you didn't tell us that...

Hmm, I am not an expert on this either, but these were all with same manual lens with aperture set at F2? Or a F2 lens, but set on other aperture?
- Looks like you have sharp lens...

[theteerex]

Nice shirt, nice lady, nice cars (you see their speed!!!)

Thanks! I don't know how I did that though. I just kept tweaking and tweaking away with the f2 lens at f2. Kept changing the shutter speeds until I had a usable pic. There are about 4 failures before this one.

But you want brokeh in the evening, you didn't tell us that...

It doesn't have to be in the evening. I kinda know I can't afford the lens that can consistently do that yet

Hmm, I am not an expert on this either, but these were all with same manual lens with aperture set at F2? Or a F2 lens, but set on other aperture?
- Looks like you have sharp lens...

I'm going to be doing some shots this afternoon to figure out what settings to use at what light levels. I also had problems setting up the k-x for manual lens use.

It would be awesome if my lens can get good bokeh on a sunny day.

[JoepLX3]

Sorry, just some nice Brokeh on other forum with Panasonic 20 mm F1.7.
- May I share?

Olivia - BW potrait - Micro Four Thirds User Forum

[JoepLX3]

My feeling is that you should go closer, full body brokeh is not realistic.
- And have something in the background with depth so you can see it "grow" with distance.

Have her stand against a long hedge (wall of leaves with sharp edges you can see clearly yourself without camera).
Then ask her to listen to the birds in the hedge.
And make a picture at only 1-2 m distance from her at a 45 degress of the hedge

Maybe just make pictures at 0.5, 1, 2, 3 and 4 meter (from close to face only to full body), then you can see the difference afterwards. Also interesting to do it with one or two different F settings to see the difference.
- Most important, she should smile to ensure you get good pictures

[JoepLX3]

One more think, in some of the pictues it looks like your are 3 meters long and see is only 1 m short. Try to keep your camera at eye level for neutral looking portraits.

[theteerex]

One more think, in some of the pictues it looks like your are 3 meters long and see is only 1 m short. Try to keep your camera at eye level for neutral looking portraits.

Lol, I am almost a foot taller than her so yeah. I'll keep that in my mind though, thanks for the advice!!

[Sakura]

The pictures above are all stripped of there Exif info.
Could you post some pictures with the Exif info still intact, so we can see what settings you used?

[theteerex]

The pictures above are all stripped of there Exif info.
Could you post some pictures with the Exif info still intact, so we can see what settings you used?

How would you go about inserting exif info?

[Sakura]

Exif info is default in every picture made. If you didn't remove it on purpose, i guess the program you use to convert/resize them strips the Exif info.

[theteerex]

Cool, I might be able to get it in an hour when I'm home then.
Do you just right click the picture or what?