Today’s Bacon | Harold Lloyd
by Joe
Thursdaisy was one in a series of daisy photos I’d put up that week. The week before, serendipity (in the form of a few bokeh-filled days amidst banks of the flowers) had brought an informal Bluebell Week. Am a big fan of bluebells and I loved how the photos had turned out. So the next week, I found myself with a bunch of daisy photos. Et voila! Daisy Week was born. The theme weeks have been a fun way to direct the photography for a while.
This shot was heavily cropped from a larger raw file. I shoot exclusively with the 50mmf/1.4 on a 40D and usually shoot with it wide open, sometimes stopping down to f/2.2 if I want a bit less depth of field. This was shot wide open - a set of daisies, this in the bottom right hand corner. I was kneeling to get this from the right angle. With the f/1.4, the light was such and the background was such that the bokeh was guaranteed. I’d played with the shot and wasn’t happy one bit until I isolated this little fella and cropped tight on him. It went through a bit of post processing in Lightroom - took the shadows down a bit, upped the brighter colours, desaturated a tad. I then added a gradient top left to give the daisy a target of light for his streeeetttccchhhhing.
If someone was looking to replicate this shot, you’d want that low aperture and lots of light to help the bokeh behind. The f/1.4 wasn’t strictly necessary, it could have been the nifty fifty f/1.8 (the best value lens on either a Canon or Nikon) rather than the f/1.4 and there wouldn’t be any great difference. In fact, the petals would probably have been in slightly sharper focus… The f/1.4 does give that lovely smooth rounded bokeh though. That and the 40D were the best purchases I’ve ever made.
Wow, some awesome advice on depth of field and the differences between f/1.8 and f/1.4. Thanks for that Harold. Make sure to check out Harold’s photostream.
And just cause he has some great stuff, here is a slideshow of his most recent work:
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May 13th, 2009 at 11:28 am
Thanks Joe and the BLP! Have always loved me some good bacon and to be bacon of the day? A great honour! Have been really enjoying the site since I found it.