"zeitgeist" wrote in message news:llc4c.13211$Gm5.44185@attbi_s04...
Most of your fashion shoots on location use the
technique of a long and large lens wide open as it gives an almost studio
background to the image, a blurry indistinct suggestion of a location
without distracting details.

Spot on! Lenses tend to be marked with HYPERFOCALS. That is to say,
the f-stop markings are often printed alongside the focusing ring so
that at, say f/5.6 you can read off the nearest and furthest points
that are "in focus" when you have set the focusing point to the dot.

"In focus" is however, subjective. It will be based upon the "minimum
circle of least confusion" on the NEGATIVE. More enlargement will
produce more blur, but the final decision as to whether detail is
distracting rests with the viewer.

A wide-aperture lens should be chosen
(1) if you often need to soften a distracting background
(2) if you often need to photograph without flash in poor light.

Charles Douglas Wehner