Nikkor 50mm 1.8

[zulu42]

New lens just arrived. It was surprising to this noob how much light the wide aperture lets in.
Looks like I'll need to pick up some ND filters if I want to take advantage of the shallow DOF.

 

[astroNikon]

or use a faster shutter speed

 

[zulu42]

Hmm, I had it in aperture priority, and couldn't get a proper exposure at F1.8, I'll check on what it was trying to set the shutter speed.

 

[zulu42]

Yeah, at f1.8, 1/4000 still too bright.

 

[480sparky]

Wait for the earth to rotate a few more hours.

 

[jaomul]

What iso did you have?

 

[Dave442]

Turn down the ISO to 100.
The f/1.8 at 1/4000 and ISO 100 is the same as f/11 at 1/100 and ISO 100 - that would be a fine exposure for a cloudy day.

 

[sabbath999]

Yeah, at f1.8, 1/4000 still too bright.

Where are you standing, on the sun?

With all due respect, one does not shoot digital cameras at F/1.8 outside in the sun at noon without filters. This is a given.

If you MUST shoot outside at F/1.8 in the sun at noon, buy yourself a film camera and get some LOW ISO film. Lomography is selling some ISO 6 film right now, that will let you play with your new lens while standing in hades.

 

[astroNikon]

My old camera went to 1/8000 at ISO 100
my new camera to 1/4000 but ISO 50

so check your ISO availability, or ND filter as you mentioned

A f/1.8 is great for Aperture experimentation.
Check the settings on each photo, and redo them in Manual mode. Think about the DOF you want (aperture), and think of stopping movement (Shutter) and then compensate with ISO ... all dependent upon how bright it is out too otherwise have to compensate on one of the others if you can ND it in bright sun.

 

[Derrel]

Wait for the earth to rotate a few more hours.

This sounds complicated. Are there any tips or tricks that can speed up this process? lol! Just kidding around with this one.

One option to a Neutral Density filter (ND filter) is to use a polarizing filter to cut down on the light admitted to the lens. It cuts light admittance AND can help with giving deeper, richer color, and eliminates or subdues reflections that can sometimes be a distraction.

In many real-world shooting scenarios using an aperture of f/2.2, or f/2.5, or even f/2.8 almost creates almost imperceptibly different results than f/1.8 does--and in MANY cases, stopping down just a bit brings higher image quality. At wide-open, most lower-cost lenses have a look to their image that involves a lot of light fall-off toward the edges of the frame, and also a fairly significant loss of sharpness overall, and also a big sharpness differential between the central area of the frame, and the edges and corners. Also at wide-open, many lenses have an overall, all-over-the-frame loss of image contrast and lack of sharpness, a lens fault that is usually diminished greatly with just one stop's worth of stopping down,improves markedly by two stops down, and which is often totally gone by three stops down from wide-open.

If you want a "lensy" look, then by all means do what will create that, but do make sure to check out what f/2.8 or f/3.5 can actually create. With close subjects and distant backgrounds, f/1.8 can lead to a lot of spoiled, out of focus frames, whereas f/2.8 or f/3.2 or f/3.5 can create a nice, shallow Depth of Field result--but with really nice, wonderful image quality that looks pretty good all across the frame, without the need to correct every single lens flaw in post software.

 

[480sparky]

Wait for the earth to rotate a few more hours.

This sounds complicated. Are there any tips or tricks that can speed up this process?................

Hire Superman. He did it in one of his movies.

 

[nerwin]

Just because your lens has f/1.8, doesn't mean you should shoot at f/1.8.