Keeping the same f-stop?

jaket

jaket

Well-known member
I was wondering if there is any advantage to keeping the same f-stop through out a scene?

Whenever I'm shooting anything I always set my shutter speed and white balance, before I start shooting and keep it the same for consistency through out that scene.

Would doing the same with my aperture and then only adjust lighting within the scene hold any benefits?
 
jaket said:
I was wondering if there is any advantage to keeping the same f-stop through out a scene?

Whenever I'm shooting anything I always set my shutter speed and white balance, before I start shooting and keep it the same for consistency through out that scene.

Would doing the same with my aperture and then only adjust lighting within the scene hold any benefits?
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It is my belief most people do use the same 'f-stop/t-stop', unless there is a 'dramatic' reason.

The Wife for her still photography almost always only uses F/8. I have tended to F/11 or F/16 for 35mm, and F/32 for 4x5...

For moving pictures, I've tended to lower F-stops, such as 5.6 or 4. (well, and the GH-1 stock lens I'm using now only goes that low...)

I think there's a practical reason for this, 1) no change in lighting. 2) for editing fewer 'surprise' changes in lighting or DoF...
 
Also when covering dialog, the depth of field stays consistent between actors. So the MS of actor A looks the same bokeh wise as the MS of actor B. Also keeping the same stops helps keep the overall exposure the same so that a highlight in one shot will still be a highlight in another and not blown out.

Granted in my example, I assume you are keeping the same lens on between the two MS.
 
Thanks for the info, it just dawned on me the other day and I thought that I would ask.
 
Keeping the same, or close to to the same F/T stop in a scene, a sequence or more of a movie can be a good way to help maintain visual consistency between shots. It is a good idea to maintain the same F stop, the same ISO, shutter speed and keep your lens choices to focal lengths that are very close to each other also, to maintain visual consistency between shots in a scene. If you shoot one side of a conversation, for example, at f 2.8 with a 50mm lens and shoot the reverse angle of the shot at f 8 with a 24mm lens, then cutting between them will be difficult, if you are not going for a dramatic effect and following the guidelines of seamless editing. Even if you maintain the same relative frame size for each of the subjects in this two sided conversation, they will have such different looks that it will be very distracting. Also, maintaining the same f stop will help you keep your lighting consistent within a scene, or actually will force you to adjust your lights for more consistency within a scene (and maintain proper exposure of course).

As far as shutter speed, I like to shot at 1/50th of a second as this replicates the shutter speed of a 170 degree shutter at 24 fps.
 
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