Zoom out lens (newbie question)

arcanoth · 14 Jun 2021 at 17:01

I don't think you'll need to worry too much about lens distortion from a 24mm lens. Lightroom and Photoshop have tools that completely fix this with minimal loss of content.

+1 for the 17-55 2.8. It does everything the 24mm does and more, minus the size/weight penalty as mentioned.

Donnie Fisher above mentioned that adding light can help. This is massively important in my opinion. If you're getting poor quality images it's likely this is down to a lack of light. Boudoir sets can often be dark too (even the furnishings) which won't help. Adding more light will allow your camera to run a lower ISO setting, resulting in a cleaner image. There are very cheap studio lighting kits on amazon that will get you started.

hurfdurf · 15 Jun 2021 at 06:38

Thank you. I have ordered some very cheap LED lights with light boxes. The 17-55 2.8 lens arrived today, you weren’t wrong about the weight!

arcanoth · 16 Jun 2021 at 01:59

Good stuff, and yep it definitely is a chonker, but worth it!

hurfdurf · 9 Nov 2021 at 03:10

Update on this. I’ve done 2 shoots with the added lights and the 17-55 2.8 lens.

What an improvement! I also got a cheap £50 flash that’s got TTL on it, and that worked amazingly when it was 3am, outside shooting into a hot tub, bounding the flash off the wall to the side in the pitch black with only the hot tub lights as the other light source (thank you YouTube for the explanation you don’t have to fire the flash forward)

I seem to now have all the gear and no idea, but if I stick it in auto mode, with the flash on ttl. Use 2 lights with soft boxes out of shot aimed in different directions, it all sort of just, works?

Shooting using the remote or timer is a big pain that I need more practice with.

Also I’ve learnt photo shoots are very much like a job. You can just be having fun, set a camera up, and expect to get good photos. You have to detract yourself from the fun whilst other people have it and catch it naturally, or have everyone act and pose rather than actually having fun.

I learnt this the hard way. One shoot with a young lady didn’t happen because by the time she was dressed up and good to go, we all went out to a club, had loads of fun, came back, everyone was too tired post fun, and then the next day too hungover.