To F or not to F ?

There are times when although there are many advantages of having the luxury of going all the way down to F1.2 sometimes there will still be times where a higher F number is a better option. As you can see here, in this example there is a much nicer, prettier and more interesting background when the lens is stopped down to F6.3 instead of leaving it wide open at F1.2 ! I've included photo examples of both so you can see the drawbacks and strengths of each. As we've covered in other topics, F1.2 will give you amazing subject isolation as well as blazing fast shutter speeds leaving you the freedom of low ISO, noise free images and in many situations will be a preferable choice but in this instance, when stopped down to F6.3 you're getting a much more colourful and busier background which gives a completely different effect than total isolation. Personally I prefer the F6.3 image - there's still plenty of subject isolation but now there are lots of interest shapes and colours in the background compared the F1.2 version which makes the flower look a little lonely and sad ! Flowers always look nicer when surrounded by more flowers - at least to me anyway !!!