Which aperture???

[richyirich]

I've been experimenting with aperture priority setting, and found that 2.8 seems to work well for portraits and 5.6 for street/landscape photography.

If you shoot mostly with aperture priority, I'm curious to know your settings for certain scenes.

 

[chrfr]

I've been experimenting with aperture priority setting, and found that 2.8 seems to work well for portraits and 5.6 for street/landscape photography.

If you shoot mostly with aperture priority, I'm curious to know your settings for certain scenes.

There's no simple answer to this question. Sensor size and focal length are factors in this, and of course exposure requirements may demand a given aperture as well. There are also aesthetic considerations as well. Not everyone wants a shallow or deep depth of field in a given image type.

 

[richyirich]

There's no simple answer to this question. Sensor size and focal length are factors in this, and of course exposure requirements may demand a given aperture as well. There are also aesthetic considerations as well. Not everyone wants a shallow or deep depth of field in a given image type.

I should've been more specific. I use Fujifilm X-E3 with 35mm f/1.4 lens, which is equivalent to approximately 50mm.

 

[mollyc]

I shoot manual but choose aperture based on the subject and whatever creative vision I have. I also tend to shooter wider the longer my lens to blur the background more, but again, it depends on the subject in the frame.

 

[Apple fanboy]

I've been experimenting with aperture priority setting, and found that 2.8 seems to work well for portraits and 5.6 for street/landscape photography.

If you shoot mostly with aperture priority, I'm curious to know your settings for certain scenes.

Depends on what depth of field I'm aiming for. I shoot manual as well.
I'd say (generally) 5.6 sounds a bit to wide for landscape. I'd usually have something closer to 8 or 11.
Unless I wanted some of the image to be out of focus.

 

[kenoh]

Pretty much consistent with others.

I have experience of the 35 1.4 Fuji and it is lovely.

I like shallow depth of field so when I am trying for subject isolation, to make it stand out, i try to shoot close to 1.4 closing down as necessary depending on depth of subject. For example a portrait can be shot at 1.4 but group shots not becasue not everyone will be standing in the same place relative to focal plane therefore a deeper depth of field is needed to keep everyone in focus - at close range.

For general walk about stuff (i am not a street shooter really) i am typically between f5.6 to f8 depending on exposure needs. The 35 is razor sharp at these apertures right across the frame so works well for my "capture now, rescue later" approach to shots

For landscapes where I want maximum focus depth, i go ideally f11 to f13 depending on exposure needs.

 

[HDFan]

i am typically between f5.6 to f8 depending on exposure needs. The 35 is razor sharp at these apertures

F8 generally gives the sharpest picture, but the exact f stop is, of course, lens dependent.

 

[kenoh]

Anecdotally I have been told the sharpest aperture of a lens is typically 2 stops down from wide open. With the exception of Leica who optimise right from wide open.

So typically means lenses are sharpest in the f5.6 to f8 range.

 

[HDFan]

I was given that F8 number multiple times by Canon trainers. But it is lens dependent.

 

[simonsi]

2.8 for sports (a necessity under floodlights but player separation is good at bigger apertures, 2.8 for portraits unless context/background is required, 8 for landscape and pretty much anything else. All this assumes you have a lens that goes to 2.8...

 

[anotherscotsman]

As others have already commented, there isn’t a correct answer. It depends on what you are trying to achieve or overcome: wide for shallow DoF or faster shutter in low light, narrower for increased DoF or slower shutter.

A nice free app for iOS is DoF Ref - provides a graphic view of depth of field as you vary focal length and aperture to give a good feel for how you can control them to get the effect you want. Usefully, also includes a hyper focal distance calculator which can be very useful for maximising DoF at whatever aperture and focal length you use. Particularly useful for landscapes or for street when you want to set the camera to a pseudo point-and-shoot mode.

To give you a feel for sensitivity, at 16mm full frame even at f4.0, DoF is massive so not the best choice for shallow DoF effects. At 200mm at f4.0 focussing at around 20 feet gives a DoF of less than 1 foot, at 15ft focus gives less than 6 inch DoF. In other words you can also use focal length and focus distance as mechanisms for controlling DoF. My only ‘fast’ lens is the 50mm f1.8.

As Kenoh pointed out, lens sharpness tends to be optimal at mid-range apertures which coincidently generally give you enough DoF even at longer focal lengths to actually get and keep what you want in focus. Perhaps my limitations are distorting my view here