When To Shoot Wide Open

I often get asked the question, "how did you shoot this"?  It seems there is so much interest in how an image was made technically but not as much into the thought process that led to creating the shot.  Lately I have been on a quest to look for the hero, or key subject, in my images.  I want to bring the viewer closer to what I am feeling and make sure they get the message I am trying to project in my image.

Recently I attended a wedding rehearsal dinner and took photos during the evening.  I did not want to shoot in the traditional manner because so many of the images I see at events, parties, etc feel the same, especially when shot with on-camera flash.  My idea was to shoot wide open and focus on one person at a time and find a hero in each image.  By hero I simply mean I like finding the main subject and bringing attention to whatever it may be.  In this case the hero is the gentlemen in the grey suit.  Even though there are hundreds of people in the room all the attention is drawn to him.  To further emphasis my point of view I choose to shoot wide open, F 1.8 with a 28mm lens on my Sony A900.   The focus is only on my main subject, or hero, and I believe this makes this image successful.  If I had shot this image with an on-camera flash and at an F-stop of 5.6 or 8.0, I would have a very different image than the one you see here.

Tomorrow I will discuss the unconventional lighting used to create this image. Until then always dream big!