[7-08] “Missing”
Every so often, I miss a shot.
It’s not a big deal, except when it’s the shot that we want. Worse, if the client thinks it’s the only acceptable shot.
Using a large aperture, the margin for error are intensely small.
For instance, with the 105mm at f1.4 (the largest aperture), the depth of field happens to be very shallow.
DOFsimulator.com estimated a DOF of approximately 0.6-1cm (front and back), at a distance of around 1.5-2m away. As we all know, the closer the photographer stands to the sitter, the shallower the depth-of-field effect. So often I am standing as close as possible to the subject.
I want this shallow DOF, because in reality the bokeh/fuzz is going to be very minimal if the image size is very small. If the image is used at a profile picture on Facebook, LinkedIn, or anywhere else (350px wide), any image taken at f2.8 and smaller, pretty much will capture a perfectly sharp picture. I don’t want this, really, and I will do anything to get the 1.4 to give the effect of the eyes coming out from a much deeper feeling of a head (hair blurred out).
To this end, I have incidentally photographed without (in horizontal aspect ratio) without their full head of hair or scalp. I was approached by the wife of one client, who seems a little irked about this style. I realized I should never do this again, but provide a short response indicating, with reason, that I could always add more forehead to somebody’s head (in this particularly case, he was bald, so the addition of more skin was foreseeably less troublesome).
And so the main reason I opted for a Sigma 105mm 1.4 is because it will get the shallow DOF for what I want.
The 135mm f1.8 is not a bad contender, and would probably perform more or less the same (the 1.4 does not shallow DOF).
Even at 1.4, the bokeh is hardly noticeable, and the alternative to use a mosaic composition with many smaller images as a composite (the camera is closer to the subject).
With a mirrorless body, I miss less often because the focus is extremely accurate (sensor-plane focusing). With the DSLR, I get more misses, but the autofocus feels more alert, as with the rest of the camera itself.
