OMD camera fan

Effect of aperture on background blur / bokeh effect on a natural subject - OMD EM10ii + 45mm f/1.8. Successively taken shots f/1.8, f/2, f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16 and f/22 (except that f/2 was actually taken last for completeness but I placed it second in the column of photos where it should go). This series shows well the compromise that you might have to make between getting an aesthetically pleasing blurred background effect and not actually having parts of the subject out of focus. This honeysuckle flower has petals pointing to and away fro the camera and, with the lens wide open, parts of the flower are out of focus. This in itself can be a distraction. In this case it seemed best to focus on the buds / seed pods and the most detailed parts of the picture to get a pleasing shot. It is not until around f/4 that the whole flower is in decent focus but a lot of the bokeh effect is lost by then. This would not be a problem if the subject was flat with all parts equidista...

I hope to show in the next couple of posts some examples of photographs of a nearby foreground object, a simple early autumn late blooming honeysuckle flower in my garden against a background comprising of other garden plants at various distances behind it. Firstly, I went through the OMD EM10 Mark II's main shooting balance options and art filters, all shot with the 45mm f/1.8 lens wide open at f/1.8, exposure times approximately 1/2000 second on a bright day. This gives an idea of how the art filters might affect a natural subject and also how they affect the colouring of the background blur. Secondly, I then I did a brief study of varying depth of field and how it affects the perception of the picture through background blur at apertures between f/1.8 and f/22 on the 45mm M.Zuiko lens, which is already one I love to use. With this subject as with many others, there is a trade off between the pleasing bokeh effect of well blurred background colour wash that brings the subje...