When shooting with a given lens, how do you know which aperture is optimal for your creative vision?

Let’s say you want shallow dof, is there a place where you can learn that the sweet spot for dof and sharpness for a given lens model is when it’s stopped down by 1/2 stop?  

Conversely, where would you go to learn that a given lens model goes soft after f/11?

Sure, you could create a test rig, take tons of pictures with each at every aperture and inspect them with a magnifying glass, but that seems awfully inefficient.

Thanks and I look forward to everyone’s guidance and insights…

  • Cat_Noms_3489@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    This is very subjective based on your subject and your goal for what you’re taking a picture of.

    You can’t just use one aperture for everything. The reason for photography in manual is to change the exposure settings based on the subject and lighting. It will continuously change because your subject and lighting will change, since I assume you don’t plan to take a photo of the same thing in the same lighting forever…