Confused about the 50mm....

[PerfectlyFlawed]

I think ill try my kit lens--turning off the AF, and try using manual--isee how I do with focusing it myself. Will that be good practice?-----equal to what I'd be doing with an AF lens?

 

[Christie Photo]

I would not buy either the 35mm or 50mm focal length primes as "portrait" lenses. The 35mm is too short a focal length for pleasing portraiture, and the 50mm lenses Nikon makes are no great shakes either at rendering faces in a pleasant way. A little bit longer lens, like the 85mm 1.8 AF-D would be a better choice I think.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This is all good advice.


This topic has been discussed quite a bit since the advent of consumer digital SLR cameras. This is what I think is going on:
When a person begins making photos with a camera and lens that affords variable apertures, they see the results of shooting with shallow depth of field. It's very appealing because there is separation of the subject from the background... an element of composition they had never achieved with a point-and-shoot camera. It looks totally different from what they're accustomed to seeing.

Then, armed with this little bit of knowledge, a common misconception emerged: The wider the aperture, the better a lens is for portraiture. Thus began the quest for a lens with the largest maximum aperture. You can often spot this by the phase coined and tossed around in an effort to sound like an industry insider: "fast glass." This merely means bright optics.

While shallow depth of field can be achieved using a lens at maximum aperture, it's not typically the best way of going about it. I can count on one hand the number of portraits I've made at maximum aperture.

It's far better to achieve this look by using a longer lens, which does give shallower focusing, AND moving the subject farther from the background. A longer lens will also give you much more versatility in choosing the background.
All this while preserving a more realistic perspective of your subject (not distorting faces).

Further, regarding differing senor sizes: The sensor size (or negative size) is considered the "format" of the camera. Each format has a "normal focal length"... a lens that shows approximately the same perspective of the human eye.

Dropping prices and improvements in auto-exposure controls put 35mm SLRs into the hands of a lot more people. Since the consumer market is tremendously greater than the pro market, digital camera formats are typically compared to 35mm film cameras.

Learn the format of your camera and it's normal focal length. A good starting point in choosing a lens for individual portraits is 2x the normal focal length.

I hope this helps.

-Pete

 

[Dallmeyer]

It's far better to achieve this look by using a longer lens, which does give shallower focusing, AND moving the subject farther from the background. A longer lens will also give you much more versatility in choosing the background.
All this while preserving a more realistic perspective of your subject (not distorting faces).

Absolutely. In all types of subject it makes life so much easier and photography more satisfying. It is normal to shoot stopped-down and achieve bokeh with a longish lens!

I'm interested in whether my opinion you regard as valid on this subject:
Why has the bokeh fad become associated at shooting wide-open? I never shoot wide open (unless to test). Stop down at least one stop please..even for 'that look'! Wide open is for focussing and on lenses other than the most obnoxiously stellar , wide-open is ugliest bokeh, the most vulnerable to distortion and CA. Does anyone agree with me at all or disagree?

 

[Derrel]

Christie Photo (Pete) did a marvelous job of summing up the current situation with regard to the 35 and 50mm lenses in today's d-slr world. His points about the way a longer lens gives more versatility in choosing the background and preserving a realistic (i.e. a non-distorted face) perspective are really central advantages of the longer lenses over the 35mm and 50mm models when used for portraiture.

 

[PerfectlyFlawed]

Well that was cleared up WONDERFULLY! Thank you guys. Makes total sense to me now....I guess my plan now, just for the time being, use my 200mm (because I have that handy.) Play it safe, I'll start saving for the 85mm- that Derrel had mentioned. Although, it won't be the last addition to my "collection"m

Will take a while but I'm sure it'll be worth it.

Thanks again!