There is a bit of an obsession with shooting portraits at extremely wide apertures nowadays, and certainly, that is a popular look for a reason. Nonetheless, always shooting at f/1.4 to blow the background to smithereens can become a bit of a crutch and end up making your work a bit one-dimensional. This awesome video will show you portraits shot at everything from f/1.4 to f/16 to show you the strengths and drawbacks of each aperture.
Coming to you from Julia Trotti, this excellent video will show you portraits shot at a variety of apertures between f/1.4 and f/16. No doubt, wide-aperture portraits can be a lot of fun to shoot and can yield excellent results in a variety of situations, but using narrower apertures can help you create more complex images that tell deeper stories. In addition to often giving you better sharpness than the wider apertures and keeping more of your subject in focus, a narrow aperture can allow you to create deeper, more compelling and three-dimensional compositions and tell better stories by including context around your subject, whether that is their job, a hobby, or something else. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Trotti.
This video is horrible. She has no idea what she’s talking about. It is so inaccurate that it is laughable.
Her comments about depth of field for an 85mm vs 35mm lens were totally inaccurate. She doesn’t even know the relationship between depth of field and focal length and f-stop.
Why would fstopper use such garbage??
Sorry but Overall grade is F-
Julia pretty much loves photographing wide open portraits for 'creamy, dreamy bokeh' and every photoshoot in her videos looks very similar. She is good at what she does but it's all very samey.
That whole genre and style seems to be the breeding ground of most negativity regarding aperture, sensor size and all the gearhead waffle that comes with it.
I tend not not go on negative rants regarding any photographer who does it for a living, even if they know very little about the technical side. You actually don't need to know a vast amount of the technical stuff to be successful. I only know just enough that is relevant to my photography. Julia's 'samey' look, as I called it could be seen as consistency so when she is booked by clients they know exactly the sort of photographer they are getting and her signature style, if you can call it that.
It’s not just samey in her own photography space though is it, it’s been done to death across the board and evidentially so on social media… it’s essentially a bit of a fad in that genre of photography.
If she is making a living from it then good on her though, nothing against people giving clients what they want.
My main issue, as an APS-C user, is when people who have no idea what they are talking about, use it as a stick to beat APS-C systems with, making out like you can’t create that type of photography unless you use the latest full frame whatever and f1.4 lenses.
Yes done to death industry wide but I was simply sticking to the one Youtuber/photographer featured here. Also 'a bit of a fad' that has lasted almost for two decades and shows no sign of going anywhere anytime soon. A bit like the obsession with judging the quality of a lens by how sharp it is.
Someone I was talking to recently described it as the ‘easy pro look’ which I think kind of accurately describes it, much like long exposures in my genre of photography it’s like the first technique photographers get into after moving up from absolute beginner.
Sam…. It’s not about negative rants. I simply expect better from fstopper.
The video is billed as educational to help people understand the relationship of depth of field and the lenses they use. Julia’s commentary is so full of errors of fact that it makes it worthless. It comes across as self-aggrandizement instead of an educational piece.
There are a few negative rants here though. Because Julia has a successful photography business doing portraits and wedding photography, I don't think it particularly fair to be too harsh, even if the information she is presenting isn't the best. Lot's commenting on Youtube like what she presents. She clearly has been able to make a success of her photography and must be doing something right if people keep hiring her.
It's more down to FS who could take a little more care when curating third party content. The content of the video is not very helpful in gaining trust from potential customers. But after all, the target audience is on Youtube and not here on FS. There are some good writers here who produce great content. Look at the comments there and you will find that they are mostly positive and appreciative.
I saw there's other videos on her channel, videos like "How I started my photography business", "How to make MONEY from your photography". There must be thousands of videos with these titles. Typical click bait. For me, when I see such video titles and the fact that she sells lightroom presets, everything starts and stops there.
Wow what are you on about Gary, She clearly states about the DOF and lens choices and how these interact with each other, she gives a comparison between the 35mm and the 85mm and the changes you get in the DOF based on aperture and the difference in focal length.
Maybe you don't understand the principles or you weren't really listening or it was over your head.
Also it's not an educational video this is a behind the scenes video; she provides lots of these, FOC, and yes she does promote here presents , but again what is wrong with that. She has a very strong portfolio has been a wedding and portrait photographer for many years and her work is very good hence why she has a very strong client base..
ignorance expresses itself quite effectively on you tube
If she makes her clients happy, then I guess it matters little how she holds her camera or how much she knows about the techie stuff.
I do very few paid jobs anymore, but not one of my past customers asked me if I understood depth of field or the Rule of Thirds. They were concerned about results.
Self aggrandizement is quite different from pretending to know what you’re doing in what seemed to be an “educational” video.
Self aggrandizement is quite different from pretending to know what you’re doing in what seemed to be an “educational” video.
Someones got the Concise Oxford English Dictionary for Christmas big word fella.
No… I used my ancient Funk & Wagnalls