Too much Bokeh

[peepeedog]

Hi guys,

When any of you shoot indoors at events or parties (low light), what aperture do you shoot at? If i shoot wide open, the smallest difference in focal length from subjects (let's say people standing in a row, some stand further back some stand further front) will cause undesired bokeh on the people behind (or in front depending on who i focus on).

If i use f/8 on aperture priority, shutterspeed becomes too long and handshake starts to come in. If i bump the ISO, noise will come in.

D200 at ISO800 is quite bad IMO so i maxed it out there, handshake is barely manageable but still uncomfortable.

any tips?

[elmzarcega]

Use external flash and Manual mode should do the trick...

[ExplorerZ]

don really need f8... you can save a stop or 2 by using f5.6 or even f4 if the focal length is pretty wide..

[CYRN]

Time to get a DOF calculator and understand DOF tables.

[hacknet]

well, i thing, in these situations, you are better of with a wide angle. the long the lens, the more dof problems you are going to have, on top blured shots from the handshake.

[schon]

this is an area where cameras with smaller sensors shine. with smaller sensors, you get relatively more dof at the same aperture as compared to a camera with a larger aperture.

but then again, this works against such cameras when you require less dof.

[GodSp33d]

[quote=peepeedog;3540758]Hi guys,

When any of you shoot indoors at events or parties (low light), what aperture do you shoot at? If i shoot wide open, the smallest difference in focal length from subjects (let's say people standing in a row, some stand further back some stand further front) will cause undesired bokeh on the people behind (or in front depending on who i focus on).

I had the same problems in a recent conference I attended. Don't max to F8, try going to F5.6 which is pretty safe most of the time. I understand you that you don't want to use the flash as it will disrupt the ambience/lighting of the scene.

[Lumiere]

Go manual...1/30 - 1/50 between f4 - f5.6 and ISO8000 and haf ur flash direct at ur subject...

if u can handle ur flash well it'll not be a problem...use a diffuser if haf problems with direct flash

[lsisaxon]

Originally Posted by peepeedog Hi guys, When any of you shoot indoors at events or parties (low light), what aperture do you shoot at? If i shoot wide open, the smallest difference in focal length from subjects (let's say people standing in a row, some stand further back some stand further front) will cause undesired bokeh on the people behind (or in front depending on who i focus on). If i use f/8 on aperture priority, shutterspeed becomes too long and handshake starts to come in. If i bump the ISO, noise will come in. D200 at ISO800 is quite bad IMO so i maxed it out there, handshake is barely manageable but still uncomfortable. any tips?

I think bokeh has been too loosely used. OOF is just OOF. Bokeh describes the aesthetics of the blur. Background/foreground OOF due to shallow DoF is not described as bokeh, but rather bokeh describes how nice the OOF is. So there should not be too much bokeh or too little bokeh, just good bokeh or bad bokeh.

What you have described is just insufficient DoF to cover the people behind.

[peapilot]

Shooting at f4 or f5.6 on most wide angles is more than enough for events/party shots. Also you'll seldom be blowing up the images or printing it big so the "softness" won't be too much of an issue unless you're cropping heavily. It also varies depending on how far you're standing from your subject. If the subject is far away you can shoot wide open and rarely notice the different if the picture isn't blown up too big.

Use a flash to freeze the subjects and drag the shutter for more ambient if you want.

[indaybadiday]

in what focal lenght ur talking about?