Trying out the 50...

p0ss3s3d · 26 Nov 2009 at 18:31

After looking at the 50mm thread, I decided I might as well add one of those to the expanding kit.

We had a look at the 3d glasses and took a few images against the half-plain wall in the dining room, I think they are all wide open at ISO 1600, because light wasn't really there.

Feel free to comment... (Oh I know they are all portrait - the wall wasn't big enough for landscape orientation!!)

Thanks

Derek W · 26 Nov 2009 at 19:14

I quite like the first one, but I'm never sure with the chop the top of the head / sides of the hair off if it looks ok or whether it would be better with the whole head in shot or pushed in further with a tighter crop. :confused:

Not too keen on the B&W shots I'm afraid.

bigsharn · 26 Nov 2009 at 19:21

The black and white shots, look like there's far too much light in the background, and the hair is out of focus pretty badly in #2. Other than that I really like them

martinturner · 26 Nov 2009 at 19:23

Now for me, I disagree, I prefer the B&W shots. I think they could do with a tiny contrast boost though and straighten the last one as I think it would look better if the glasses were level. Whilst selective colouring can be annoying, something is telling me you should have kept the eye pieces in colour with a saturation boost. Just my opinion though :-)

Paul11 · 26 Nov 2009 at 19:28

LOVE that first shot.

p0ss3s3d · 26 Nov 2009 at 19:33

Derek W said:
I quite like the first one, but I'm never sure with the chop the top of the head / sides of the hair off if it looks ok or whether it would be better with the whole head in shot or pushed in further with a tighter crop. .

Next time, I'll have to move the dining room table

Me bieng too lazy, thanks for the comment.

bigsharn said:
The black and white shots, look like there's far too much light in the background, and the hair is out of focus pretty badly in #2. Other than that I really like them

Yeah, if there was more light I guess using a smaller aperture would've been useful since taking shots against a white (in this case cream!!) backrgound don't tend to use selective DOF.

martinturner said:
Now for me, I disagree, I prefer the B&W shots. I think they could do with a tiny contrast boost though and straighten the last one as I think it would look better if the glasses were level. Whilst selective colouring can be annoying, something is telling me you should have kept the eye pieces in colour with a saturation boost. Just my opinion though

Thanks you for the kind comments, TBH I wasn't sure if I had actually gone OTT with the contrast.

Paul11 said:
LOVE that first shot.

Cheers!!

Rojin · 26 Nov 2009 at 20:21

Nice, I also like the B&W

You're doing far better with the fifty than I am. My daughters 1st birthday was last Sunday so I had a nifty fifty fenzy... Resulting in hundreds of pics out of focus

I went to f4 to get more in focus? Anything wider is pointless as the DoF is so small. I'm using a single focus point, perhaps I just suck. Shutter speed up to 250, with direct and bounced flash. Back to the drawing board, gutted.

p0ss3s3d · 26 Nov 2009 at 20:33

Be patient, focus, then shoot. Like you would with macro photography. Slow everything down, focus and usually by the time it's focussed you've lost the subject. So just like with macro, wait a few moments, whilst you 'rock' into the focus zone. Really concentrate on that focus. Bam!!

I reckon if you slow down I got 35 out of 50 shots in very low light - (1/50- ISO1600(+1.3 stops in PP) f1.8). I spent 30 mins aroudn the house just messing around and only took 50 shots, 20 of which are these quick portraits done in a matter of five mins in total.

Like I say, patience is key with these sorts of lens.

I would also use manual focus a lot too especially with tighter images when the subject is less than one metre, set focus around the framing and fire off two or three shots with the same framing i.e the whole head and a candle from a few different angles. That way the lens doesn't hunt you do, this often seems to work better with faster lenses.

But I've only had this lens a day so I don't know it inside out but I guess it's like the old FD lenses.

Rojin · 26 Nov 2009 at 21:01

I always aim for the eye with the focus, wait for the little 'un to pause, half hit, red dot, beep, shoot. Not sure there is much more I can do?! I can hand hold a macro at 1.8 with a Raynox 250 with more success!

I've tried manual but a 1 year old isn't patient enough with Daddy! With macro I have a lot more control, shooting my daughter I have to rely on the AF but I'm obviously doing something wrong.

p0ss3s3d · 27 Nov 2009 at 15:03

I think I get what your saying but perhaps let the auto focus confirm then wait for the moment whyen the suject comes back into the focus point without reconfirming, like keep the button half-pressed for a few seconds perhaps upto four or five, during which I would guess the subject have moved back into focus.

It works okay most living beings but then again most children just love making life difficult for the photographer. It tends to go like this when I'm photographing a party - "Smile!" [Baby frowns] "Look at the camera!" [Looks away and does a 1200 degree spin faster than Tony Hawk could do a 360 before falling to the floor from dizzyness]