What is a lens that could produce this image?

[480sparky43 42]

A problem I run into when shooting at those apertures is the lack of light that the lens sucks up, so I have to open up the shutter speed to below 1/80th. How can I correct that?

Shooting any lens at f/4 to f/8 should NOT 'suck up' light, unless you're shooting in very low light to begin with.

If you're shooting in low light, you can up your ISO.

 

[Joshh]

A problem I run into when shooting at those apertures is the lack of light that the lens sucks up, so I have to open up the shutter speed to below 1/80th. How can I correct that?

Shooting any lens at f/4 to f/8 should NOT 'suck up' light, unless you're shooting in very low light to begin with.

If you're shooting in low light, you can up your ISO.

So I was testing out what you told me, and I tried to take some photos in a well lit room with my aperture set to about f/5.6 with the shutter speed set to 1/80th and ISO at 3200. It was still very dark. Obviously not natural light, but could it really make a difference?

 

[weepete]

Use your camera meter, or introduce another light source or raise the iso more

 

[480sparky43 42]

So I was testing out what you told me, and I tried to take some photos in a well lit room with my aperture set to about f/5.6 with the shutter speed set to 1/80th and ISO at 3200. It was still very dark. Obviously not natural light, but could it really make a difference?

Post it, unedited (save for resizing), and hopefully with EXIF intact....... let's see what you're ending up with.

Does the camera's meter tell you the exposure is 'correct'?

 

[Joshh]

So I was testing out what you told me, and I tried to take some photos in a well lit room with my aperture set to about f/5.6 with the shutter speed set to 1/80th and ISO at 3200. It was still very dark. Obviously not natural light, but could it really make a difference?

Post it, unedited (save for resizing), and hopefully with EXIF intact....... let's see what you're ending up with.

Does the camera's meter tell you the exposure is 'correct'?

I tried looking up the exif data on Photoshop (I'm using a mac and haven't found a downloadable exif data gui - haven't looked hard enough, I suppose) but it's not reporting the aperture value correctly. It says f/21 but that's impossible because on my lens (it has an adjustable f-stop ring), it's set between f/8 and f/5.6. ISO is 3200, and the shutter speed is 1/100th.

 

[480sparky43 42]

Do you have the Exposure Compensation set to something other than '0'?

 

[Joshh]

Do you have the Exposure Compensation set to something other than '0'?

No

 

[480sparky43 42]

Are you shooting manual or automatic?

 

[Joshh]

Are you shooting manual or automatic?

Manual.

 

[The_Traveler]

you need to use dofmaster.com to see the effect that aperture, focal length and distance to the subject have on the depth of field.

All of your questions are based on your lack of knowledge about that interaction.

 

[KmH]

Image sensor size also influences depth-of-field.

Focus distance has more effect on DoF than lens aperture does.
Focus distance relative to focal length is another major factor.

 

[djacobox372]

Image sensor size also influences depth-of-field.

Focus distance has more effect on DoF than lens aperture does.
Focus distance relative to focal length is another major factor.

Image sensor size doesn't change DOF, but it may cause you to change your focus distance (wider sensor means you may have to get closer) which will in turn change your dof.

There's nothing particular interesting about the technique or equipment used in that photograph--it's more of a right place right time sort of thing. The one thing that one could glean from this photo is the importance of shutter speed, it's fast enough to keep her face reasonably sharp, but not so fast as to drain all the motion/emotion out of the scene--a lot of photographers miss this aspect, and tend to think that sharpness is all that matters and the fastest possible shutters speed is always best.

 

[480sparky43 42]

Image sensor size doesn't change DOF,......

Yes it does.

.......but it may cause you to change your focus distance (wider sensor means you may have to get closer).......

Where did you hear this? You mean if I take a full-frame lens and put it on my full-frame body, and focus on something that's 20 feet away, when I put the same lens on my crop-sensor body I will have to focus at some other point than the 20-feet away my subject is?

 

[vintagesnaps]

I'm curious which image in the link has the type of look you want to achieve? What you might try doing is to go outdoors (not ideally in midday sun but with adequate light) and take some photos of the same subject/scene at different f stops - maybe 2.8, 8, 16, and notice how much of the scene is in focus to help figure out what range of aperture settings might work best.

It looks from your photo and your camera settings that there was not enough light coming in to your camera. An indoor room can appear to be adequately lit but can be deceiving in how you perceive the light and how your camera registers it.

Indoors if you can't get a setting even with a large aperture that gives you a fast enough shutter speed to prevent a soft image (or a noisy image because of the high ISO) that's telling you that you need more light (diffused flash if the existing light isn't enough). Outdoors might give you more opportunities to try different settings to get what you want. My starting point and where I'm in the habit of resetting my camera when finished is f8 and 1/125 - handheld I don't go much slower, maybe 1/60 if needed in low light, and at f8 I can go to a larger or smaller aperture in a couple of turns one way or the other. I'm a longtime film photographer but with my digital camera too I use about the same ISO - 100/200 outdoors and 400 indoors as a starting point, and adjust from there in lower light when I need more light sensitivity.