My first shot with 50mm f1.8... meet Dave
Discussion
Yep, Dave was the subject of my first portrait using the newest (and first) additional purchase for my 350D. Went for the Canon 50mm, only really heard good things about it, and being new to photography it was a more obvious choice to make. Never really done much portrait stuff, this was just a quick snap whilst the dog was still at my grandparents house. A little post processing, bumped up the contrast a bit and so on. Is this a decent picture, anything obvious I've done wrong or could improve on?
What are your experiences with this lens, any advice on particularly interesting subjects or experiments to look into with it? (gig photography is next on my list, looking forward to seeing its capabilities compared to the kit lens.)
Any advice or suggestions welcome
Thanks
you know, I like that and the lens is superb. Love mine dont use it enough. Something to watch for is the addiction to keeping at 1.8 - this will give you a very shallow depth of field for the focus. I'm tired, eyes blurry but I like the shot, eyes are typically the most important thing to get into focus on any portrait of any kind unless the shot doesn't require it. Eyes looking at the viewer its always good to get them as the focal point. With a 1.8 even on a human face if you get the focus on the tip of the nose it can be enough to chuck the eyes out. On a dog its even more of an issue as you ideally want the nose to the eyes in range then let the fall off take care of the rest.
You done good! have fun with the lens just dont get too stuck on 1.8
ETA
Thats a pointer to the issues I am on about re dof, the distance from subject will also dictate the effect, the wider the aperture and the closer to subject the greater the effect of the shallow depth of field. With faces just a turn of the head by a few mm can be all the difference from the important bits in focus or not
here's a snap shot of my younger brother
the focus is slightly soft but should act as a good demo for just how narrow a field you have. This is an 85mm 1.8 but same principle. Eyes are in focus as are lips but look at nose and ears. Thats how shallow the field can be and if I had just swayed back a tad between focus and shot it would make all the difference between acceptable focus or not
You done good! have fun with the lens just dont get too stuck on 1.8
ETA
Thats a pointer to the issues I am on about re dof, the distance from subject will also dictate the effect, the wider the aperture and the closer to subject the greater the effect of the shallow depth of field. With faces just a turn of the head by a few mm can be all the difference from the important bits in focus or not
here's a snap shot of my younger brother
the focus is slightly soft but should act as a good demo for just how narrow a field you have. This is an 85mm 1.8 but same principle. Eyes are in focus as are lips but look at nose and ears. Thats how shallow the field can be and if I had just swayed back a tad between focus and shot it would make all the difference between acceptable focus or not
Edited by stigmundfreud on Saturday 24th January 03:07
...and so the shallow depth of field addiction starts... 
Congrats on the new baby. Fun ain't it? That's a great first image by the way - if I was being fussy I'd say maybe the focus point is slightly too close, should be on the eyes, but that's the risk with AF as it tends to hit the end of the nose. If you're anything like me, at F1.8 most of my focus points are slightly off so I wouldn't worry. Personally I'd also crop the top and bottom off so it's a little tighter round the face. If it don't add anything to the scene get rid of it!
Congrats on the new baby. Fun ain't it? That's a great first image by the way - if I was being fussy I'd say maybe the focus point is slightly too close, should be on the eyes, but that's the risk with AF as it tends to hit the end of the nose. If you're anything like me, at F1.8 most of my focus points are slightly off so I wouldn't worry. Personally I'd also crop the top and bottom off so it's a little tighter round the face. If it don't add anything to the scene get rid of it!
Louisa911 said:
What are your experiences with this lens, any advice on particularly interesting subjects or experiments to look into with it? (gig photography is next on my list, looking forward to seeing its capabilities compared to the kit lens.)
Any advice or suggestions welcome
Thanks
Should certainly allow you a higher shutter-speed than your kit lens for gig photography Any advice or suggestions welcome
Thanks
As with any fast lens, if your using a wide aperture then keep an eye on the af (especially if you are close to your subject).
The focus-recompose technique can lead to mis-focused images with narrow dof as well - even swaying slightly as you recompose can cause problems if your dof is only 1cm
Lots of practise required Really love my 50 f1.4
-
Even used it for action shots -
Enjoy your new purchase
Cheers.
Oh sod it, whilst were posting our F1.8 pictures...
You know what I was saying earlier about it being impossible to nail the focus point - think I was slightly out on this one too! (little too close-probably focused on his cheek).
Louisa, feel free to shout if you don't want your thread taken over and we can start a new one...
You know what I was saying earlier about it being impossible to nail the focus point - think I was slightly out on this one too! (little too close-probably focused on his cheek).
Louisa, feel free to shout if you don't want your thread taken over and we can start a new one...
ks!
Was driving home yesterday and snapped this just before my battery died. No idea if its any good or not. Also tried using a little (uh oh...) HDR as a first attempt, as I had a chance to play with a copy of Photomatix. Not as sharp as I would have liked, but as I said, was a quick snap on the way home. Want to try more car stuff- any tips or hints?
RobDickinson said:
coogy said:
What lens is this specifically? I'm a bit confused, it looks like the sort of thing i'm after!
What make dSLR do you have?Canon/nikon both have 'nifty fifties' , cheap f1.8 50mm primes which are bargaintastic, but not perfect, but for £50-60 you cant argue with them!
The 50 isnt very versatile, built out of old British leyland parts and cant focus, but its fast and pretty damned sharp for the money.
Its also a little 'long' for general use too, think of just having the 50mm setting on your 18-55zoom..
Its an excelent value for money lens though, its basic/ancient construction makes it cheap but the best quality/speed lens you can find for less than OMG levels of reddies.
If you want to erplace that kit lens with something better (who wouldnt, its woefull) the new IS kit lens is OK (but not fast) much better, and theres the Tamron 18-50f2.8 which is fast (for a zoom) and pretty sharp.
Its also a little 'long' for general use too, think of just having the 50mm setting on your 18-55zoom..
Its an excelent value for money lens though, its basic/ancient construction makes it cheap but the best quality/speed lens you can find for less than OMG levels of reddies.
If you want to erplace that kit lens with something better (who wouldnt, its woefull) the new IS kit lens is OK (but not fast) much better, and theres the Tamron 18-50f2.8 which is fast (for a zoom) and pretty sharp.
Spent 30 mins or so playing with my nifty fifty tonight. Shame it's out of focus, but I had the lens on manual and was trying to focus by moving the guitar towards and away from the camera. No lighting other than bedside lamp and the on board flash (with a bit of paper held in front of it to try and soften it a bit).
Still, I'm happy enough with the effect to try it again sometime with a little more effort.
Still, I'm happy enough with the effect to try it again sometime with a little more effort.
Edited by uriel on Monday 26th January 02:25
Louisa911 said:
Was driving home yesterday and snapped this just before my battery died. No idea if its any good or not. Also tried using a little (uh oh...) HDR as a first attempt, as I had a chance to play with a copy of Photomatix. Not as sharp as I would have liked, but as I said, was a quick snap on the way home. Want to try more car stuff- any tips or hints?
Well you can't tell it's hdr, so you're half way there...
I guess the thing with car photography is, like all product photography, everything has to be perfect to get the best result. Clean background, clean car (
) ), logos on wheels all aligned, tax disk removed etc etc. Personally I can't be bothered with all that malarkey so in that situation I would probably have done some detail shots, maybe of the sunset reflected in the a closeup panel of the car or the reflector of the headlamps.
There's a couple of pro car tog's on here that should be able to give proper advice.
RobDickinson said:
Its also a little 'long' for general use too, think of just having the 50mm setting on your 18-55zoom..
That's the only thing that's stopped me buying one...I think I'd sooner have something a touch wider.
Isn't the Canon 28mm about £100-120 or so, does anyone have one if so is it better/worse than the 50mm 1.8?
LukeBird said:
RobDickinson said:
Its also a little 'long' for general use too, think of just having the 50mm setting on your 18-55zoom..
That's the only thing that's stopped me buying one...I think I'd sooner have something a touch wider.
Isn't the Canon 28mm about £100-120 or so, does anyone have one if so is it better/worse than the 50mm 1.8?
28mm f2.8 - about £160
28mm f1.8 USM - about £300
Also pretty popular: Sigma 30mm f1.4 - about £270
Cheers.
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