More or less blur? - a photo on Flickriver

More or less blur?

This is a rather good rose bloom, so I decided to put some effort into producing a good portrait of it. I even went as far as using a tripod so I could max out on the low noise and shadow detail of ISO 50. I took shots over a range of apertures so I could choose the best. The widest aperture gives the maximum blurring of out of focus background, but at the cost of not getting all the rose in focus. I chose a focus point midway between the tips of the central forward petals and the edges of the outer petals. This shot was taken at a narrow aperture of f11 in order to get most of the rose in good focus. At f11 this STF lens behaves like a normal lens with a hard edged iris.

On the other hand this link gives for comparison the shot at f2.8 (T4.5) to maximise background blur. www.flickr.com/photos/chris_malcolm/35168777161/

It's a trade off between best bokeh and sharpest overall detail in the rose. I'll have to look at these two images for a while before I decide which one to choose for some more careful post processing to see how close I can get to an exhibition quality image. Or indeed whether to choose an intermediate aperture, or even restage and reshoot the image if the rose is still feeling pretty.

[I notice that in this less blurred background image, Flickr's image recognition was able to tag this as a "macro flower garden plant", whereas it was baffled into silence by the shot with more background blur.]

Original: DSC00770ARWX

Some rights reserved

Taken in: United Kingdom / Scotland / City of Edinburgh / Trinity (show map)

Taken on: June 13, 2017

Tags:

red

yellow

portrait

STF

bokeh

blur

SAL-135F28 « less

Sets appears in: • Sony/Minolta 135mm STF • Bokeh more » • Flowers • PF Flowers • Technical Comparisons « less

Groups appears in: • Flower Close-Ups • Edinburgh Photographers more » • STF135mm F2.8 [T4.5] • Sony Alpha Mount Lenses - Official Tag Required • Bokeh Test « less

Camera: Sony SLT-A77V, f/11.0, 1/20 sec, 135mm (=202mm), ISO 50 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Sony SLT-A77V
Aperture:	f/11.0
Exposure Time:	0.05 sec (1/20)
Focal Length:	135mm (35mm equivalent: 202mm)
ISO:	50
Exposure Bias:	-0.7 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Contrast:	High
Saturation:	Low
Sharpness:	Soft
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	SLT-A77V v1.07
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