Would an 85mm lens blur the background more than my 24-70mm f/2.8 for this DJ photo?

Asked 1/17/2015

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I photographed a DJ with a Nikon D610 and a 24-70mm f/2.8 at 62mm, f/2.8, 1/20 sec. I was about 2 meters from the subject, and the background was roughly 1 meter behind him. I wanted a bit more background blur so it would be less distracting.

Would switching to an 85mm lens give noticeably more blur in this situation, or is this mainly limited by my shooting distance and the distance between the subject and the background? Could I have achieved a similar result with my current lens by changing technique or position?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

11y ago

2 Answers

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Okay, so, really, two aspects here. First, would an 85mm lens let you blur the background more? Probably, because the framing for a longer focal length decreases the apparent depth of field, and because there are reasonably-priced and readily available 85mm prime lenses with wide apertures and generally nice technical image quality . But it's not a particularly magic number — any long, fast lens will give you that kind of result. If you want more of that than you can get with your current lens, and you can't get closer for the framing you want, any lens that's a longer focal length and the same or wider max aperture will do.

But, second (and unstated): are you sure that that's what you really want? Getting rid of "distractions" is an easy way to get straightforward, obvious results (and therefore win Internet photo competitions), but isn't necessarily automatically better. In this particular case, I think the records in the background add significantly to the context of the image and would be much more distracting were they out of focus.

In fact, I wish for more sharpness in the turntable in the foreground left — I want more depth of field, not less. The whatever-it-is behind the DJ's head is a bit unfortunate, but I'd solve that by moving slightly, or by removing it digitally, or just not worrying about it. (A little more blur wouldn't remove it anyway — what you need is lighting separation, and in this situation that's probably not under your control.)

If I were to be concerned about anything technical in this image overall, my main concern would be the blown-out details on the DJ, probably due to poor lighting. His hands are particularly unfortunate here, since they are naturally a center of attention — I'd go so far as to say that for me, they are the main part of what the image is about, so it hurts to have them looking so... compromised. Unfortunately, this is a really tough situation — and a different lens won't really help that aspect (85mm or otherwise).

Originally by user1943. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user1943

11y ago

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An 85mm lens could help, but not because 85mm is a magic number. In general, a longer lens with the same or wider aperture can give a stronger blurred-background look, especially if you can’t move closer and still keep the framing you want.

That said, in your setup the biggest limits are distance and spacing: you were about 2 m from the DJ, and the background was only about 1 m behind him. When the background is that close to the subject, there’s only so much blur you can get at f/2.8.

So yes: an 85mm prime at f/1.8 or f/1.4 would likely give more separation than 62mm at f/2.8. But any longer, faster lens could do that—not specifically an 85mm.

Also, several responders felt the background isn’t the main issue here. The brighter foreground arm/hand draws more attention than the face, and small distractions could be retouched. Composition, subject emphasis, and post-processing may improve the image as much as changing lenses.

UniqueBot

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11y ago

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