Portrait Photography at EVERY aperture - f1.4 to f16 examples

Hey everyone! I'm so excited to be back with my first video of 2022!! This video idea was requested from some of you in my past comments and it was a really fun experiment to try. My aim was to capture at least one good photo for every single aperture of my Zeiss 50mm f1.4 on the Sony A7III. In this video you can see aperture photography examples from a live photoshoot to get a better idea of what each f-stop looks like and in what situations to use them. Let me know which one was your favourite photo in the comments!

Thank you to our incredible team for helping bring this video together:

PHOTOGRAPHY SETUP

Sony GM 35mm f1.4

VLOG SETUP

VIDEO SETUP

ACCESSORIES

AUDIO

LIGHTING

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Thank you for watching!

[pethumdananjaya]

I have been studying all your tutorial and photoshoot. As an amateur photographer, your videos were a great help in getting quality photos. I would like to thank you for that and wish you success in your channel. Best of luck..🇱🇰🇱🇰🇱🇰

[EmilWall]

My takeaway from this as an amateur landscape photographer is that I will start using shorter shutter speeds when doing portrait photography. You shot f4 with 1/400 and iso-500, I would probably have gone for 1/80 and iso-100 or 1/200 and iso-250 instead. I used to do some modeling and this was a good reminder that it was really frustrating when the photographer would ask me to hold poses and stay perfectly still for ridiculous amounts of time. Now I won't be that guy and I have you to thank for it!

[shivamchandrol]

I love people who share their editing app ❤

[antonletsgodipping]

Thanks for this video. Although we all know technically what it means to shoot at different apertures -- you really laid out the impact different apertures have on the creative process. When we are given a fast lens, our first instinct is always to open up the aperture as wide as possible, because that is the one magic thing to do to make a dreamy image every time, regardless of the background. But looking at the photos you've taken here - I am more impressed by the ones taken between f 2.8 - 5.6 over the ones at f 1.4. Those taken at smaller apertures were more thoughtfully created, their background contexts give the viewer more to imagine (they tell better stories), and they really are a pleasure to look at with a somewhat vintage feel.

Bravo for the good work.

[edithclaudio]

This video is so helpful, thank you! I also appreciate that you shot in harsh sunlight to show us that it isn’t anything to be afraid of and you can still get beautiful photos as long as you are mindful of the lighting. The patch of sunlight on the ground acting as a reflector is a great tip.

[JaviBear]

F 1.4 for sure. That creamy, dreamy, bokehlicious look is too good!

[morningvisuals]

I've been doing photography for 6-7 years now, and I've struggled a lot to find creative energy over the last three years, and I really haven't even been spending time watch photography videos. This video was very refreshing, and interesting. Appreciate your consistency with making quality and educational content!

[rogercooper]

Miracle Julia, to get to this point. Not easy. really appreciate your generosity of spirit, both you & your charming models. Such DTE advice is so warmly embraced...thank you

[fatboyslimz]

Ive been gone a minute, Julia. Ive moved down the hipster road of fujifilms but still come back to learn a lot from you. Stay beautiful hun. Bokay!!

[malcolmwright]

Really great video and loved your commentary as you reduced the aperture from wide open portrait, through to fashion, street and finally landscape was spot on. A 10 minute master class. Thank you.

[cryora]

I feel like I understand the uses of f-stops better in the context of cinema, where roughly speaking:
f/8 and up is for shots where everything is in decent focus and good when there are multiple people in the scene, or when the environment itself is important
f/3.5 to f/8 is when you have multiple subjects at different distances and pulling focus is needed to clearly see one, but you can still see the one that's out of focus, which is good for dialogue between subjects; or if there is one subject, it is where the subject is more important than the environment, but the environment is not insignificant (say capturing an important expression in the subject while the subject moves through an environment that too needs to be shown)
f/3.5 and below is for close ups when a subject is saying something important or expressing an important emotion

Perhaps there are portrait photography analogs to these.

I got interested in this type of video after watching Camera Conspiracies videos making fun of Toneh, whereas before I thought larger apertures were universally considered better

[bagery]

These aperture comparisons always mesmerize me. Because if you have a decent skill set, you can make any one of them look good. I personally like to use wide open to hide the fact that I'm not very creative or location aware in my compositions. I haven't given up just yet...there's still hope! ;)

[vrstoslav]

Great video. I really like that you explain in which situations would you use certain aperture. Outdoors portraits up to 5.6 are really beautiful. Just enough background so it's not distracting... and styling, posing, compositions, model... spot-on as always

[AstraPotsdam]

Hey julia. Thank you for this great video! Your model is so magically beautiful that I forgot to pay attention to the content of the film the first time I watched it ...!

[banjo]

It sounds crazy but I just realized through this video that I'm not that big of a fan of Bokeh. I Mean in certain situations it does look great no doubt. But I think I prefer anything between 3.5-8 over the wider apertures. This video was truly eye opening for me.

[rogercooper]

I'd like to elaborate Julia but this is a daunting environment for many. Just like a lot of stats are bent because it is only those presenting that are recorded. My prob. Gr8 job u r doing. thanks on behalf of many to be sure.

[TVe]

I am glad that f2 looked so nice, my two full frame primes are f1.8 and f2 (my 24-70 is f2.8 and my 100-400 is f4.5-5.6).

[maggnet]

Very interesting to see. A tip for you: best is to not have tree branches and other objects grow out of peoples heads.

[vgee]

I've been waiting for someone to make this EXACT video..so thank u.

[danelhouseofel]

Love the explanation of which aperture to use in different scenarios. Thanks for sharing ❤️

And gorgeous model 😍