Big Ol' Tree

[smoke665]

What would be a better lens for trying to get the tighter shot? Sigma 105 mm or Sigma 24-70 mm?

Pick your focal point for the image, everything else should reinforce or enhance it, not detract from it. Remember size, color, shadow and luminosity draw attention to or away from.

 

[William Baroo]

Thanks. What I was trying to find out was how to get what I want in the picture, at this distance, with as little cropping as possible, with good detail and color. I went out there with a 105mm, and I would have had to crop a lot to get this frame. The 24-70mm was pretty close to on the money. I was thinking a prime might be helpful because of the challenging lighting.

 

[smoke665]

. I was thinking a prime might be helpful because of the challenging lighting.

And why exactly do you think that? And what is your definition of challenging?

 

[William Baroo]

I was guessing because people generally say primes are sharper and produce better images.

Just about any lighting that isn't simple is challenging for me. In this case, there is bright light from behind the subject, but I want to pick up the green ferns on my side.

 

[smoke665]

guessing because people generally say primes are sharper and produce better images.

Prime lenses "can be" sharper than a zoom, primarily in the corners, but the difference in a quality fast zoom is negligible especially when you stop down a little. That actually applies to all lenses as they tend to be less sharp at the extreme limits.

In this case, there is bright light from behind the subject, but I want to pick up the green ferns on my side.

This isn't a lens issue it's a camera issue, and Dynamic Range of the scene. DR is the ratio between the brightest parts of the scene and the darkest parts of the scene your device can record, measured in stops (aperture stops). Modern digital cameras can record somewhere between 10-14 stops. If the scene DR exceeds that range then either your highlights or shadows will be clipped.

The way you handle it is by bracketting (shooting multiple exposures over/under) and combining post, or adding supplemental light (reflectors or flash).