Low lighting with 50mm f/1.8

[madisonofriel]

one thing I notice is if you get farther away from a subject it seems easier to work with a f/1.8 lens, I have not used my 50mm 1.8 for much of anything so I am not sure if that lens will have the same results but with my 35mm 1.8 I don't really have any issues with depth of field as I am not close to what I am shooting. if I get close to what I am shooting than it is much harder to work with the dept of field.

this was 1/40 f/1.8 and iso 800 with the 35mm 1.8, the sun was setting and it was semi dark out. try getting farther away and than cropping the image to where you want it and see how that works out for you. that might make f/1.8 easier for you to work with.

I actually think that pic you took and posted looks pretty descent.

View attachment 89316

But is it possible to have the face in focus with 1.8 from like 5-6 feet away? which is necessary with the 50mm..

 

[MichaelHenson]

Probably not...One option would be to back up and crop the photo to your liking...

According to the DOF calculator I used (just used my camera since I don't know what you have), 50mm @ 6 feet and f/1.8 = approx. 3.6 inches. So you'd have less than 4 inches of the "field" in focus. I'd say to have the whole head in focus you'd want more wiggle room...at least a foot?

So you'd want to be about 10-11 feet away...Which you could probably do and then crop in to have the final image framed the way you'd like if you wanted...

 

[weepete]

^^ What they all said.

 

[Didereaux]

To be as succinct as possible: It's the LIGHTING, not the lens.

 

[Derrel]

But is it possible to have the face in focus with 1.8 from like 5-6 feet away? which is necessary with the 50mm..

Well, at five to six feet away with a 50mm lens at f/1.8 the depth of field band is very shallow. Also, at that close a distance, the nose of a person will appear just a little bit overly large, due to the short camera range that makes things that are closer appear larger than things that are just a little bit farther away.

The depth of field band is so shallow that very small movements of the person, or small focusing errors, or using center AF focus bracket and then re-composing--any, all, or combinations of these things, can cause missed focus on the final images with a 50 shot wide-open at five to six feet.

The real advice I would give to a person asking about these types of issues is simple: stop down to f/3.2. At close range, the difference in the final depth of field is not all that great between f/1.8 and f/3.2, and at f/3.2, there is a small "cushion" that allows for a better out of focus appearance on things like the bust of a woman, or a hat or cap, and it allows the ears to be less of a distraction. To the visually sophisticated viewer, the rendering characteristics of many 50mm f/1.8 lenses shot wide-open are not that appealing. If you ever shoot a bunch of important photos wide-open, then get home and find out that 9 of 10 are rejects, you'll understand the f/3.2 advice.

There are times when photographing a woman for example, that her clothing, if it is out of focus, will become a HUGE source of distraction if the lens is used wide-open, and the face is sharp, but a large portion of the frame is out of focus clothing. This is the type of scenario where it's farrrrrrrrr better to stop the lens down to f/5.6 or f/6.3 or so, and get the whole person into good focus.

 

[dannylightning]

the best thing you can do is find some sort of subject and take photos of that subject from different distances with your lens at f/1.8 from close up to far away and see how that effects the depth of field with your lens.

I use mine mainly when the light is low, a dark barroom, when the sun is setting and stuff like that. here is a photo I took from about 5 or 6 feet away at 1.8 with my 35mm lens. as you can see I focused behind the bartender and he is slightly out of focus. the person was standing directly in front of the stuff in the backgorund, If I would have had my focus point on him he would have been in focus but that was the first time I shot with that lens..


here are a few other pics that I took at f/1.8 where I was a little further away, the one of the fountian I was probably about 7 feet away, that is just a guess. the entrance I would guess I was about 10-15 feet away.



and here is one I took from about 2 or 3 feet away

 

[Superman2527]

Distance from subject and distance to background. As others have mentioned with meticulous detail. That's how to get blurry DOF, or take 2 pics One with subject in it and one without subject, don't move tripod... Then without pic, blur it on manual focus. Mask in PS and done

 

[mcap1972]

1. Use reflector for fill
2. Don't shoot under overcast sky in the open