Lazy Sunday
Sunday, March 19th, 2006
Anne’s knitting, the Kitty is laying by the woodstove and I’m seeing if I can get back into the swing of taking pictures. Holding this 85mm f/1.2 lens is wearing me out. I think the Kitty’s got the right idea, time for a nap by the stove.
The Kitty loved her mouse enough I thought I’d get her a similar toy. She chewed on its antennae for a minute and walked away. Sigh…
richard -
love the shot of kitty! i like the way the foreground and background are ‘out of focus’ (right photo terminology?) with kitty’s face sharp and centered!
Will: thanks, glad you like it. The idea you’re describing is shallow depth of field and the term to describe the blur on the parts of the image in front of and behind the part in sharp focus is “bokeh” which in Japanese means blur.
Faster lenses (bigger apertures) allow shallower depth of field. I’m addicted to this bokeh blur like crack so most of my lenses are fast.
Shots like this are set up so that the Kitty’s face is far enough in front of the nearest object behind her so that it’s blurred. If the TV behind her were closer it would be clearer no matter what I did with my lens. So, getting this effect requires setting up the geometry of the shot as well as a lens fast enough to make it happen with the given geometry.
Sounds complex but you do it enough and it’s second nature. Still, it’s nice when it works well.