T6i or Sl1 for Bokeh photography

Shirodkar

Hi,
My first post here. I am getting married but want some creative pictures with the bokeh style. Any advice on how to accomplish this, settings etc.? I own the Sl1 and T6i and have the 50mm lens.

Thanks.

bruto

This is a matter of depth of field. Depth of field depends on aperture, focal length of the lens, and distance from the subject. A 50mm lens should do well on a DX camera when it's wide open (f/1.8, if as assumed this is the 50mm f/1.8 lens). Get as close to the subject as you can without clipping out important parts. If you get too close, you might find that your depth of field is so shallow you lose some detail you want to include, in which case close the lens down a little or back up a little, depending on what works best.

Your best bet is likely either aperture priority or manual, so that you can set a known aperture. Try if possible to position your subjects in front of areas that are fairly abstract, whose shape or identity is not distracting. Maximize the distance between the subject and background objects, and remember to look carefully in the viewfinder for foreground objects. A blurry object behind the subject can be pleasing, but a blurry object in front may ruin the picture. Branches, blades of grass, and the like, can be missed until you see the image, if you're not explicitly looking for them. Watch out for nasty things like overhead wires that may also be missed. Sometimes it's possible to shoot from a lower position, aiming somewhat upward, and thereby to eliminate some ground and foreground objects, but be careful not to overdo, or you'll have weird perspective.

"Bokeh" is actually properly used to describe the quality of out of focus rendition, rather than whether it is there or not. Different lens designs render out of focus areas better and worse, and that difference is the "bokeh," strictly speaking, but nowadays it's used to describe the use of shallow depth of field in general.