Wednesday, October 28, 2009

f-f-f-fake fstops scoob!

I just learned something tonight and wanted to share with any photographer that may happen to be reading this for any reason at all. Don't shoot with fake fstops! By fake I mean something like f3.2; if that is an option for your digital lens don't use it. Stick to the old fstop scale (1, 1.4, 2, etc.).

I was shooting on the bus and while I was editing a small batch of photos shot at f3.2 and another small batch shot at f4 I noticed it. Sharpness wasn't the issue, what should have been sharp was sharp, it was the out of focus parts of the photograph that were giving me trouble. I don't even know how to describe what was happening to the soft areas of the photo. It looked like it had been digitized into some form of cartoon and my out of focus background became the optical center of my image. I looked at a very similarly focused photo shot at f4 and there was no issue with my background falling apart like f3.2.

And since I like to post a photo with all my posts on my photo blog:












It snowed today in Colorado.

2 comments:

  1. Well Gary, once again thanks for the antidote for strange manufacturing errors. Why they even make it an option for cameras to make fake f stops is beyond me. Although I could make a few assumptions of why.

    Yet the flip side of this issue of blurriness could be manipulated to be a good thing. In camera blurring.

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  2. I never thought about how I can shoot with a not-so-real f-stop. And I do think I do it every once in a while. Thanks for bringing this to my attention! I'll look out for it from now on. Enjoy the snow Gary!!!

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