Not all lens at same focus length and aperture, and assume all equal give the same amount of oof blur.
Normally, there is a reason why some lens are cheaper ...
pinholecam said:You don't need a lens.
You need a technique
http://blog.buiphotography.com/2009/07/the-brenizer-method-explained-with-directions/
Its also good to just say that you want a shallow DOF portrait, rather than use the term now commonly abused here as 'bokeh shot', (bokeh is only referencing to the quality of the OOF rendering).
If you need shallow DOF, the factors are subject distance, aperture and bkgnd distance. (no guarantee that bokeh is 'good')
If bokeh is wanted (subjective as to what looks appealing), then it has something to do with lens design and bkgnd type.
But he still need a slight longer focal length lens to achieve this effectively. Though his lens arsenal is more than adequate for that. I feel the 35mm F/1.4 is for scene portrait with human subject in it with a slightly blur background for his purpose in traveling.
pinholecam said:Just use a cheaper 85/1.8, 100/2.8.
Expectation need to be realistic using a wide angle lens for less dof.
The usual rules apply (ie. F-stop, subject distance, bkgnd distance, focal length)
I bought it to shoot portraits of my family on my upcoming Trip.
I have the 14-24mm and 70-200mm so the 35mm is a nice addition. Frankly, when I buy 35mm f1.4, the intention is not to blur the background into oblivion. One of the idea of taking travel portraits for me is the background. It is nice to blur the background a little so the subject pops out though. At 35mm and shooting full body portraits, I THINK I might need f1.4 to get the kind of blur I want. Especially sometimes my subject don't really fill up the frame as I want to show a bit more of the places I go...
I think the 35mm f1.4 is a very unique lens, hopefullly it will give me a different kind of picture. The 14-24mm and 70-200mm are very distinctive lens.
no point talk and talk ... can someone show some pics illustrating the difference between a good, average and poor bokeh .... i.e. different lens taken at the same F-stop, FL & lighting condition on the same subject?
note that these are shot with a crop sensor body and a 35/1.8 and not with a full frame body with a 35/1.4Not bad. But none r full body. ff is still better lah...
ah...my mistake...I did state in first post what.