First time shooting in RAW

[amandamartin]

I've heard the 35mm 1.8G is the best bang for the buck for portrait work, I'd look into that lens. (I just ordered one too!).

Great! Thank you!

 

[amandamartin]

This example doesn't indicate that you need a new lens, it indicates that you need to pay more attention to backgrounds and compose your shots better. Large aperture is not the be-all end-all of portraiture. With two people in your shot, you'd likely miss focus on one of them by shooting at f/1.8.


Zoom your kit lens to 55mm and open to f/5.6. Get close to your subject for a tightly framed shot and place them so that the nearest background object is pretty far away. You will blur the sh!t out of the background. It's all about managing camera-to-subject and subject-to-background distance ratios. Perhaps difficult with a kit lens on a crop body while indoors, but shouldn't be a problem to find a suitable setup while shooting outside.

Great tip! Thank you. I will give it a whirl

 

[amandamartin]

Not a bad attempt at all. Others stated pretty much what is what.

I would maybe edit a bit to give them that "soft" feel that people seem to like these days...

The vignetting makes it a bit darker than I want...but the people look ok, and I prefer darker anyway sometimes...however I learned what I see isn't what you guys see as my monitor sucks ass badly. lol

something like this...

View attachment 11869

Thanks for the advice. I often worry that my images don't look "polished" without a vignette. I do use a soft focus every now and then, but I try to mix it up a bit and not use it every time.

 

[cgipson1]

I've heard the 35mm 1.8G is the best bang for the buck for portrait work, I'd look into that lens. (I just ordered one too!).

Great! Thank you!

The 35mm 1.8 G has major CA problems. It is also much to short to shoot portraits with, as was mentioned earlier. I had one.. and I gave it away.

If you want a good portrait lens for your APS-C body... get a Nikon 50mm 1.8 (or even better, the 1.4 Nikon or Sigma). This is the absolute shortest length you should use for portraits, unless you have massive experience. On a DX sensor.. you get a FOV of approximately 75mm... and this is still short enough to use indoors in tight spaces. An 85mm is better.. but on a DX.. it is too long for most indoor shooting.