What f stop do you use most often?

[Sparrow]

i only ever use 5.6, no matter the lens.
if light conditions dictate another f-stop then i refuse to snap the shutter!

honest...

... good man! it's nice to see someone treating this with the gravity it deserves

 

[Richard G]

Brave question, with some not unexpected responses.

f5.6 with a 50.
f4 with the 28.

These are street shooting apertures at the limit of my ability to determine distance without using the rangefinder.

I don't follow the Thorsten Overgaard dictum that Leica lenses are made to be used wide open. I did go through a long 'bokeh' phase of my photography, but now it is much more about composition and subject.

My father taught me to use f8 and 1/125s. As I learnt even a little about photography I thought he was daft to just choose those parameters without some qualification related to the prevailing light or even the film speed. But just last night I was reading a link from The Online Darkroom where the blogger was experimenting with rolls of film exposed with just the one exposure setting, well almost the whole roll. It isn't so daft as I thought as a teenager.

http://fogblog-hermansheephouse.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/the-ralph-gibson-experiment-rides-again.html

 

[Keith]

Fast lens junkie here so wide open wherever possible ... I also like to know how fast my car will go in first gear before it hits the rev limiter! 😛

 

[Sparrow]

Fast lens junkie here so wide open wherever possible ... I also like to know how fast my car will go in first gear before it hits the rev limiter! 😛

... but do you know how fast it goes in top-gear?

 

[Keith]

... but do know how fast it goes in sixth-gear?

Sadly I'll never know ... the law are very astute in this country and don't take kindly to people travelling at 200ks plus on the open road! 😀

 

[teddy]

F4 is the aperture that gives me the bokeh I like.

 

[GRN]

Nowdays I prefer to have F8 -F16 if there is enough light. I try to avoid large f- stops like f1,7- f2

 

[Sejanus.Aelianus]

Sadly I'll never know ... the law are very astute in this country and don't take kindly to people travelling at 200ks plus on the open road!

Hang on, you're in Australia! Just how many coppers do you have out there? 😱

😉

 

[kshapero]

I shoot as wide open as possible. Isn't Bokeh everything? Isn't it?😀

 

[icebear]

I get told not to F-Stop when I hit the G-Spot.

ROFL 😀 😀 😀.

As for the question, well that obviously pretty much depends on the light, no ? At night it's as wide open as it gets. During bright sunshine I have to stop down if time is already 1/4000...

 

[Timestep]

The only times I use this concept is for whenI have no meter present, and mustbcalculate fro the "Sunny 16"rule .Or whatever permtation of same, to go with focal length/shutter speed.

 

[Particular]

I use the rule of thirds to determine the prettiest aperture, 5.6 for most of my lenses, because I want my lenses to look their best on my shelf.
When actually taking pictures, I was taught to always use F64. I try ,but I usually fall a few stops short.

 

[eric rose]

The reason I asked this question is due to all the fuss about shooting wide open and how Leitz lenses are so superior in that mode. I like most of you pick the aperture I want to use based on artistic reasoning. For the most part I end up shooting f8 to f11. Very very rarely do I shoot wide open.

So I ask again why all the fuss about shooting wide open?

 

[Texsport]

Depends on lens and what I'm shooting and the effect desired.

Ditto!

Texsport

 

[FrozenInTime]

For the most part I end up shooting f8 to f11. Very very rarely do I shoot wide open.

So I ask again why all the fuss about shooting wide open?

Group f/64 vs Pictorialist viewpoints ?

Mostly it's out of necessity - available light.
Often it's to differentiate subject from background distractions.
Sometimes it's just to create a different look compared to the deep depth of field from small sensor compacts and camera phones.

 

[hepcat]

The reason I asked this question is due to all the fuss about shooting wide open and how Leitz lenses are so superior in that mode. I like most of you pick the aperture I want to use based on artistic reasoning. For the most part I end up shooting f8 to f11. Very very rarely do I shoot wide open.

So I ask again why all the fuss about shooting wide open?

The fuss is about isolating your subject with a shallow depth of field, and therefore your ability to control DOF.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Digitally 1.2-8.
Film 2.8-16.

 

[Scrambler]

The reason I asked this question is due to all the fuss about shooting wide open and how Leitz lenses are so superior in that mode. I like most of you pick the aperture I want to use based on artistic reasoning. For the most part I end up shooting f8 to f11. Very very rarely do I shoot wide open.

So I ask again why all the fuss about shooting wide open?

1) Because it's an option some use
2) Because that is what got 35mm on the map: usable colour film and a fast enough lens to use Kodachrome's still quite pedestrian speeds.

Through to the last decade there was no such thing as high speed, high resolution image capture with a large depth of field. Choose any two. So low-light photography has historically had shallow depth of field and that has become accepted visually. It also allows choices of subject separation by focus.

The elephant in the room, of course, is bragging rights. And this has been the case since the 1930's Sonnar versus Xenar.

 

[Sid836]

Got used to setting it at 5.6 due to using lots of zone focus cameras. Basically many times I forget setting the aperture, so leaving it there it promises a fair chance of in things being focus 🙂

 

[Tijmendal]

Around 8 mostly I think. I don't like shallow DoF at all. I'd rather use a reppoussoir if I want to add depth to the scene.