Another Noob question. please look.

Bram

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Alright how we doin TPF. Good.


Here's my thing, how come everytime i go to the people photography part of this forum or any that has people photography in it and I check it out, why is everything shot with a telephoto lens? I've seen anywhere from 135mm to 150mm sigma's and even 70-200 VR lenses. I am just curious as to why, why not use a 50mm 1.8? or 1.4 for that matter. Also another comment completely off topic. TPF I think you should make a section especially designated for moon shots. I am always browsing the beginner section for tips and to give some advice i may have and every second thread is a moon shot. Sorry but it's been done before guys. That's the boring thing about it, all the photos are the exact same. Sorry just my $0.02.

Thanks!
 
If you use longer lens, you see less of the background. Sometimes you dont want that much background behind your subject. Let me find a link to explain it better. BRB.
 
NO.. this has nothing to do with DOF. Just look at the size of the background between the bottle photos. The 18mm one shows the plug outlet on the left.. it is showing more area in the background. So if you use a 200mm, you probably only see the bottle and only small area of the wall.
 
Ohhhh I get it. Alright so the whole point of it is just to eliminate background? Like lets say we have a plug on the wall like this one for instance, and we dont want to edit it out, we ue a bigger lens to eliminate that>?
 
The sweet spot for portrait photography is between (and I know I'll probably get hammered for this a bit) about 70mm and 120mm, FF equivalent. Any less and you get too much background. Any more and you have to be standing too far from your subject. This isn't to say you can't do portraits with shorter or longer glass than this, but that's considered the sweet spot. This is why 70-200mm lenses are sometimes considered "portrait" lenses.

Anyway, just try it for yourself. Get a friend, girlfriend, wife, family member, or whatever, to "model" for you. Put your 18-55 on, and shoot a full body shot at 18mm. Then do the same at say 70mm with your 55-200, then do the same thing at 200. Make sure to keep the subject at the same relative size. Come back and tell us what you think looks the best. This is actually a really fun experiment to see what effect different focal lengths have.
 
Yes.. but if you are in grand canyon and you want all that nice scenery in the backgorund then I owuld use a wider (smaller mm) so you can include more of the background. Dont get stuck with you 50mm. I admit I got stuck with 50 mm a lot. I just bought 70-200mm and plan to do portraits using both now.
 
Hmmm so Gaerek, what you're saying is just take full body shots of somebody at 18, 70, and 200mm all full body, and just move back everytime?
Hmm Yeah schwetty I think I get ya there, i'm waiting for my sling pack to come in, then i'll carry around all my stuff. I always have my camera on me though so. Also I only have the kit lens and the 55-200mm I wanted a new body but now after buying a new car, I think i'll save for a year and get a 70-200 2.8 VRII.
 
Hmmm so Gaerek, what you're saying is just take full body shots of somebody at 18, 70, and 200mm all full body, and just move back everytime?

I'm saying do it as an experiment so you can see for yourself the difference between the focal length. The key is to make sure your subject takes up the same amount of space in the frame for each focal length. That way you can see how the focal length affects the background. And you don't have to limit yourself to those focal lengths. Try a bunch, just to see. Make sure to give yourself plenty of space though since you'll have to keep backing up.
 
TPF I think you should make a section especially designated for moon shots. I am always browsing the beginner section for tips and to give some advice i may have and every second thread is a moon shot. Sorry but it's been done before guys. That's the boring thing about it, all the photos are the exact same. Sorry just my $0.02.


Perhaps because of this?

Autumnal Equinox: Why First Day of Fall 2010 Is Differenthttp://www.themoneytimes.com/featur...st-moon-jupiter-usher-autumn-id-10129387.html


I'm sure it'll drop off after a while. Until then, you'll just have to deal with it, because I'm proud of my moon shots! :sexywink:
 
It took me not too much time:

93, 18, 48, 26, 32, 62, 90, 55, 88, 165, 140, 32, 20.

These are the focal lenghts of pictures in the first page of this forum (moons excluded, first picture of each thread), when EXIF data are present. It seems very variable to me :) . Typically, beginners start with kit zooms anyway, then go to fixed length.

Regarding moon shots, it's harvest moon once a year. If you come back in some day you will not find so many.

My 2 €cents :)
 
It took me not too much time:

93, 18, 48, 26, 32, 62, 90, 55, 88, 165, 140, 32, 20.

These are the focal lenghts of pictures in the first page of this forum (moons excluded, first picture of each thread), when EXIF data are present. It seems very variable to me :) . Typically, beginners start with kit zooms anyway, then go to fixed length.

Regarding moon shots, it's harvest moon once a year. If you come back in some day you will not find so many.

My 2 €cents :)

He was talking about pictures of people and portraits. Obviously, there's be no reason to have super wide angle lenses if everyone was shooting above 70mm.
 
Alright how we doin TPF. Good.

TPF I think you should make a section especially designated for moon shots. I am always browsing the beginner section for tips and to give some advice i may have and every second thread is a moon shot. Sorry but it's been done before guys. That's the boring thing about it, all the photos are the exact same. Sorry just my $0.02.

Thanks!

Sort of like this?

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/photo-themes/4114-moon.html
 

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