First Photo with 50mm 1.8

Thru_These_Eyes · Aug 12, 2009

C & C is welcome!

I don't know if I am the only one who feels this way, but the "Nifty Fifty" is a tricky lens!!! Any tips or tricks are welcomed too!

So anyways, this was taken about a week ago....got a text about how cool the moon looked so I grabbed my camera, hopped into the car and this is the best shot I got......

shortpballer · Aug 12, 2009

in my opinon the 50mm 1.8 accels in the portrait department. it is also very good at taking pictures of things at 1.8 aperture and having the background completely blurred. When you get home try taking some pictures of things closer up like flowers, or someone.

Here is an example of a portrait picture taken at 1.8

and here is a flower:

In my opinion this is where the 50mm 1.8 really shines. Again when you get home try taking some pictures of people or close objects then repost those. You will be amazed at the shots this lens is capable of. Really a great piece of equipment for the price.

bigtwinky · Aug 12, 2009

If you didn't have any text written, I wouldn't associate the picture with a shot of the moon. Its far back and not really the focus of the image.

The shot itself seems very blurry. What were your settings for the shot? I image that even at 1.8, you still had a slow shutter speed and thus its camera shake.

Too much foreground in the image, moon isn't in focus and could be mistaken for a light, I don't like the pole in the image on the left side.

The nifty fifty is a fun lens that can do alot, and it can be a bit tricky to use. The trickyness I found comes with the shallow DOF it creates at 1.8 and how its easy to get the DOF off even with a slightest shift.

Read up on composition (framing, filling the frame, rule of thirds,..), exposure (shutter speed, aperture, ISO), and on low light photography. Even if you can go to 1.8 or 1.4 or 1.2, you sometimes need a tripod. It all depends on the shutter

Thru_These_Eyes · Aug 12, 2009

Okay, well that brings me to a new question.....

I am going to be doing a girls senior pictures here this month, are you saying that I can get those done with my 50mm? I saw some shots that someone did with a 70-200mm and was planning on renting it from Lenstogo.com

But if I will be okay with my 75-300, 28-135 wide angle and 50mm, then I won't bother wasting the money.

I will definitely take some test shots tonight when I get home and post them up. Thanks!

shortpballer · Aug 12, 2009

Depends on what your doing...Personally I only use my 50 for portraits. If you want a little more depth of field then just bump up the aperture to around f4. It takes amazing shots and in my opinion I love that the person is only in focus and the background is out of focus. It brings the attention of the viewer 100 percent to the person's face.

my 2 cents

Thru_These_Eyes · Aug 12, 2009

It seems that all of my pictures I have taken with the lens are blurry. Every single one! Its definitely camera shake....but I thought that because it was 1.8 that I wouldn't have to worry about it because I would get the fastest shutter speed....It has not been the case for me at all.

Thru_These_Eyes · Aug 12, 2009

shortpballer said:
Depends on what your doing...Personally I only use my 50 for portraits. If you want a little more depth of field then just bump up the aperture to around f4. It takes amazing shots and in my opinion I love that the person is only in focus and the background is out of focus. It brings the attention of the viewer 100 percent to the person's face.

my 2 cents

i completely agree with that. I love blurred backgrounds with portraits. I will keep this in mind when I do senior photos.

shortpballer · Aug 12, 2009

I have an exraodrinarily steady hand. I only use a tripod for night shots. But yes the 50mm does seem to get alot of shake. Especially in comparison to wide angle lenses. try using a tripod. or using better lighting...maybe put a an external flash on your camera.

Anesthetize · Aug 12, 2009

I've been taking pictures exclusively with Canon's nifty fifty ever since someone broke into my car and took my other two lenses. This means over two months now shooting everything with it (except a couple of pictures when someone borrowed me a different lens).

This made me try to push the lens to its limit. I found out it is indeed a good lens for portraits, but you should be very careful when using it at f/1.8 because of the very shallow DOF. It's not uncommon to focus the subject's nose and have the ears out of focus or something like that. You can even see that in shortpballer's post. That picture of the girl, here nose is focused but the hands are very slightly blurred. If he had gotten any closer, it would be even more noticeable (and I have no idea if those were shot at f/1.8).

I shoot mainly live bands and spot meter to the face. Because of the subject's movement, one very common mistake I end up making is having the microphone in focus and the face gets blurred.

Also, the lens is sharper at f/2.5 and lower apertures. Keep in mind that non-full frame bodies make it look more like an 80mm or so. It's not easy to get two people in the shot without them being very close together or you being a couple of yards back. I'm sure you'll get the hang of it in no time

EDIT: Shortpballer, you sure that's shake you're getting? Isn't it the extremely shallow DOF? Just asking because I very rarely get shaky pictures with it and I mainly shoot in dim light, no flash and no tripod. But I do have very steady hands. I actually won a bet because of my steady hands, by shooting with a 250mm lens at 1/15 and getting a steady shot

. I dind't even breathe when I took it, it was one in a thousand

chammer · Aug 12, 2009

love my 50mm 1.8 as well. i have used it a couple times for flowers and such, but i mainly use it for my puppy portraits indoors under natural lighting. they turn out absolutely stunning (at least in my opinion).

i havent noticed much, if any, difference using the "stop down 2 stops from max aperture for sharper images" mantra, but i still find myself more often than not (unless light prohibits) using it at around 2.8 or so. light really doesnt prohibit much at 2.8 anyways.

shortpballer · Aug 12, 2009

Anesthetize said:
I've been taking pictures exclusively with Canon's nifty fifty ever since someone broke into my car and took my other two lenses. This means over two months now shooting everything with it (except a couple of pictures when someone borrowed me a different lens).

This made me try to push the lens to its limit. I found out it is indeed a good lens for portraits, but you should be very careful when using it at f/1.8 because of the very shallow DOF. It's not uncommon to focus the subject's nose and have the ears out of focus or something like that. You can even see that in shortpballer's post. That picture of the girl, here nose is focused but the hands are very slightly blurred. If he had gotten any closer, it would be even more noticeable (and I have no idea if those were shot at f/1.8).

I shoot mainly live bands and spot meter to the face. Because of the subject's movement, one very common mistake I end up making is having the microphone in focus and the face gets blurred.

Also, the lens is sharper at f/2.5 and lower apertures. Keep in mind that non-full frame bodies make it look more like an 80mm or so. It's not easy to get two people in the shot without them being very close together or you being a couple of yards back. I'm sure you'll get the hang of it in no time

EDIT: Shortpballer, you sure that's shake you're getting? Isn't it the extremely shallow DOF? Just asking because I very rarely get shaky pictures with it and I mainly shoot in dim light, no flash and no tripod. But I do have very steady hands. I actually won a bet because of my steady hands, by shooting with a 250mm lens at 1/15 and getting a steady shot . I dind't even breathe when I took it, it was one in a thousand

I don't get shake unless i shoot below 1/10

Anesthetize · Aug 12, 2009

With the 50mm, so do I. :mrgreen:

bigtwinky · Aug 12, 2009

Thru_These_Eyes said:
It seems that all of my pictures I have taken with the lens are blurry. Every single one! Its definitely camera shake....but I thought that because it was 1.8 that I wouldn't have to worry about it because I would get the fastest shutter speed....It has not been the case for me at all.

Are you taking all of your pictures at night?
I'd be really surprised if you get a slow enough shutter speed to get camera shake during the day with the aperture set to f/1.8. Check to make sure the focus on the lens is set to AF (Autofocus) and not MF (Manualfocus)

As for the not worrying about shutter speed, that is somewhat true. Its not a magic lens, you still have to worry about the shutter speed, specially in lower light conditions.

A rule of thumb is to ensure that your shutter speed is 1/"max focal lenght" of your lens * crop sensor (if you have a crop sensor)
So for a 70-200, needs to be 1/(200 * 1.6) for a Canon crop camera = 1/320 shutter speed. Again, rule of thumb.

So for the 50mm, you need 1/(50*1.6) = 1/80.

If you are shooting at ISO 100 and get say 1/20 and the picture is shaky, up the ISO to 400. (100=1/20, 200=1/40, 400=1/80).

syphlix · Aug 12, 2009

i thought it doesn't matter at long distances for DOF even w wide aperture cuz it's far away... only affects stuff that is closer... is that right?

Anesthetize · Aug 12, 2009

syphlix said:
i thought it doesn't matter at long distances for DOF even w wide aperture cuz it's far away... only affects stuff that is closer... is that right?

Sort of. There is a formula do determine the DOF and it takes the distance to the subject into account (I don't know it by heart though. I leave the mathematics for my day job). However, with wide appertures and far away subjects you'll blur everything that is near you.

He is talking about taking portraits, though. So the recomendation to take the DOF into account is valid.