Need tips on new 50mm prime lens

[AfterAll25]

I have a Canon T2i. I have the kit lens and a zoom and have been doing well with those. I shoot in manual by using the main dial and adjusting the ISO by hand if needed. I also have a Canon speedlight. My biggest issue has been shooting indoors in low light.

I got the 50mm 1.8 lens for Mothers Day.... I tried out indoors with the speedlight bounced various ways and my results are pretty crummy. The pictures seem to be very blurry and not clear even at different ISOs.

Is this something that I cannot really use the main dial for? Rather than looking for the arrow to line up in the middle of the viewfinder for the perfect exposure, do I use a different exposure compensation for this type of lens?

Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Sorry if I sound like a total amateur, but I am :/

 

[480sparky]

Exposure compensation has nothing to do with the lens you're using. You may, however, see a back-light or fore-lighting situation that demands EC.

Post some samples, along with as much information as you can provide, so we can see what's happening.

 

[hirejn]

Blurry shots are the result of not using proper technique or not understanding photography. It's not the equipment. What shutter speeds were the blurry shots taken at? Were the subjects moving? Are you talking about soft focus vs. motion blur? F/1.8 requires precision to get sharp. It's not a point and snap aperture. You should be more precise in describing the exact problem and how you're shooting. Exposure compensation has nothing to do with the lens.

 

[tecboy]

Is your image stabilization is on? Post some pics so we can see.

 

[gregtallica]

Not sure about the Canon 50 f/1.8's but I know the Nikons don't have VR/IS. I don't think it would.

 

[phaserkb]

As Joel said. Blurry images (if the equipment is working fine) is about technique. I have that lens too. If your aperture is at 1.8 the Depth Of Field is going to be very narrow to maintain the subject in focus. If I am shooting indoors / low light conditions events like birthdays or seniors proms, were the subjects are moving and/or I need need to focus and recompose, focus and recompose, I go for an aperture greater than f/4, a shutter speed of 1/150-1/200, ISO 400-800 to be in the safe side avoiding to miss any important moment. Another tip is to always focus to high contrast areas like eyes , corners and then recompose after getting focus.

Another tip: The 50mm f1.8 mk II is really slow to AF when you are shooting in events like this. That's why I bought the EF 40mm 2.8 STM pancake lens, it is faster and this will reduce considerably the possibility of missing an important moment if the AF takes a long time.

Obviously I am no an expert or pro photographer, not even amateur but this has helped me a lot when shooting family weddings or birthdays.

 

[jrizal]

Google is your best friend. I have a prime and I know how to use it but still in the art of mastering it. Here's a link.

how to use prime lenses - Bing=

Hope this helps.

PS

I wrote "Google it" and ued Bing. Still I hope you do get the point.

The Canon 50mm f1.8 does not have IS AFAIK.

Are you shooting wide open in low light? Try shooting with a smaller aperture. Read the links. We can't really tell what's wrong if we don't see some samples.

 

[AfterAll25]

Here is an example of a blurry indoor picture taken with the lens. It was on AF.

Canon T2i 50mm
f/5.6
1/15
ISO 400
Flash compulsory (not sure what this means... I was using the speedlight)

I take all of my manual pictures by adjusting the main dial and then changing the ISO if necessary. I do not make any other adjustments. I have had good results with my zoom lens, but obviously I am doing something wrong....

 

[480sparky]

Too slow a shutter speed: The camera moved.

It looks like you missed focus as well.

"Flash compulsory" means the camera decided the on-board flash was required.... but it just didn't have the horsepower to crank out the light to save the shot.

 

[MK3Brent]

Here is an example of a blurry indoor picture taken with the lens. It was on AF.

Canon T2i 50mm
f/5.6
1/15
ISO 400
.

Right here.

 

[AfterAll25]

Here is an example of a blurry indoor picture taken with the lens. It was on AF.

Canon T2i 50mm
f/5.6
1/15
ISO 400
.

Right here.

Okay but here is the thing... if I always adjust my photos using the Main Dial, how do I go about changing that without losing something else?

 

[jrizal]

You often lose something else when balancing the exposure triangle. If you increase aperture value you lose shutter speed. In this case, I'd try to increase ISO further to increase shutter speed. (other methods may apply also) And I'd like to focus on the face. Either you manual focus or simply adjust the focus point to the face. And keep a steady hand. Main reason to the OOF is the slow shutter speed. 1/15 is most difficult for a lot of people without a tripod. Try adjusting your camera ISO and F stop so you can get 1/60 but 1/100 would be ideal for me using also F4 with a 50mm prime. And practice, practice, practice. Each body and lens have their own quirks. Truth be told I still take a lot of practice shots with my 50mm just to get a better feel to it. It's not like you"re using film.

PS Offhand it really looks like motion blur. You used a slow shutter speed. You can bump ISO to 3200 (1600 max for me) comfortably unless you are really nitpicky or a pro. Low light performance has greatly improved over the years. Try doing the same shots using different settings just to see the effect and to make you comfortable when you have your practice shots.

 

[TCampbell]

Flash "compulsory" simply means that you enabled the flash ... basically you forced the camera to use flash whether or not it thought a flash was needed.

Which mode were you using on the mode dial? Were you in M, Av, Tv, P???

The 1/15th sec exposure is what blew it for you. For handheld shots at 50mm your shutter speed should generally NOT go below 1/80th (that's the focal length of your lens multiplied by the crop-factor of your camera... which are 50 and 1.6. 50 X 1.6 = 80). While that is a "guideline" and not a rule, it's a "guideline" based on how still the "average" person is capable of holding the camera when they are actually TRYING to be steady and using a good technique. You're shutter is at less than 1/4 of that minimum speed guideline.

You didn't mention which model speedlite you have or what mode it was in. In E-TTL (or E-TTL II) mode it fires a pre-flash, evaluates how much power is needed for the "real" flash, and then the shutter opens and the flash fires a second time using the calculated power level. This all happens so fast that if you didn't know better you'd swear it only fires once.

If you're shooting in Av or Tv then the main dial adjusts the aperture or shutter speed (it adjusts aperture when in Av mode and shutter speed when in Tv mode).

If you're shooting on M (manual) then the main dial adjusts SHUTTER speed, but if you press-and-hold the [Av +/-] button (located near the upper right corner of the LCD screen on the back of your camera) WHILE turning the main dial THEN it will adjust the aperture. On a mid-level camera such as a 60D or above (pro bodies) there would be a separate dial/wheel for the aperture and shutter.

When the camera is in manual mode (even with a flash), the built-in meter will report the exposure settings as if no flash is being used. Try it! Take the speedlite off the camera (or just switch it off) meter a shot through the camera to find the exposure settings with no flash. Now turn the flash on and meter the shot again. You'll notice it's the _same_ settings... they haven't changed.

When you use flash in E-TTL mode the flash doesn't plan to fire at some fixed power level... it plans to fire twice. Once to test the lighting and the second time for the photo. The flash will adapt to whatever power level is needed (within the limits of what is possible.) In other words, had you simply bumped up the shutter speed to at least 1/80th sec and tried to hold the camera steady (with good holding technique) then you would have got a much better shot.

 

[texkam]

The 1/15th sec exposure is what blew it for you. For handheld shots at 50mm your shutter speed should generally NOT go below 1/80th

^ This


Shutter speed, aperture, iso. Learn how each of these affect an exposure, the benifits and drawbacks of increasing/decreasing them. Once you learn this, shooting in maunual will make perfect sense.

 

[cynicaster]

The 1 / (focal length) guideline is valuable info, so long as you understand when and why it applies. It’s rarely (if ever) “bad technique” when hand-holding but, truth is, its inherent raison d’etre kind of falls apart when you’re using a speedlight, because in many situations, the flash has the effect of freezing the subject even if the shutter is way slower than the 1/(focal length) guideline.

At the settings listed for that example photo, in a reasonably lit room, I would think your camera would have been able to pull off an almost-properly-exposed shot without even firing the flash, meaning the ambient exposure and the flash exposure aren’t as different from one another as they would be, say, on a subject outdoors at night.

The more narrow the gap between the ambient exposure and the flash exposure, the faster the shutter (or steadier the hand) you need to avoid a blurry “ghosting” effect, which is probably why the slow 1/15 shutter speed caused blur in this specific example.