struggling with 50mm lense

[ADAMJAY]

Derril, im not afraid to admit that im a noob and don't have the photography lingo down. I apologize for wasting 10+ minutes of your life writing the comment you left. I'll try my best from now on to be correct and end this horrible trend that is ruining the photography community or whatever you said.

Gary A - thanks for the advice!

 

[soufiej]

The phrase "opening up" means moving the aperture selector (on-lens or on-camera control system) to a physically wider, larger diameter light-admitting hole. One "opens up" the lens when one moves the f/stop control from say the starting point of f/8, to f/5.6 to f/4. One would say, "I opened up the lens three f/stops, from f/8 to f/4."

Here I thought "opening up" meant you guys were starting to cry over those "cute kitten plays with string" photos.

To the op; wasn't there a better example of your work than the guy in the swim trunks? No lens is going to improve that shot.

(Just to clarify, one of those statements was intended to be some what humorous and the other was not.)

 

[ADAMJAY]

Soufiej - LOL ....and no, I don't have much other pics because I just got that lens and most of other photos were playing with DOF. That one, although not the most pleasant, should have been clear. Or at least I thought it should have been.

 

[astroNikon]

Soufiej - LOL ....and no, I don't have much other pics because I just got that lens and most of other photos were playing with DOF. That one, although not the most pleasant, should have been clear. Or at least I thought it should have been.

I didn't check anything but what was your shutter speed for those photos ?
too slow a shutter could also affect the clarity of the photo due to slight camera/motion blur.

 

[Gary A.]

ADAMJAY-

This is old school methodology ... but I suggest you toss the 50mm on a camera and nail it on for a month or two. (If you have a specific photo opp, then use your zooms, but for everything else ... forget about the zooms, use the 50mm.) Do a Photo A Day thing (PAD). Capture at least one keeper everyday for two months with the 50mm. Use the 50mm under all kinds of conditions and lighting. After a week or so, go back and shoot the same thing again. Shoot the hell out of it. After a month or two you will have harmonized with the lens ... then decide if the lens is worth keeping. After the 50mm, throw a zoom on the camera and break out the Superglue. Repeat the PAD but with the zoom. Et cetera.

One of the differences between a pro and a hobbyist is time behind the viewfinder. These little exercises will make you a better photog and help you familiarize with the equipment on a deep level of understanding. You start seeing the world at specific focal lengths and apertures without bringing the camera up to your eye.

 

[Designer]

So we're not going to hear your specific complaints about the lens?

That's too bad.

 

[ADAMJAY]

AstroNikon - I was thinking that as well. Been playing with it a lot more with different shutter speeds. Thanks!

Gary A - used the 50mm almost all day yesterday. Starting to figure it out I think.

Designer - My main concern was the pictures just weren't as clear as I thought there were going to be. I know, there is a million factors in that and most likely its cause im not doing something right. What I read about the lens had my hopes up, for some reason I thought I would put it on the camera and magically have awesome pictures hahaha didn't happen. Im starting to like it the more I use it.

 

[ADAMJAY]

Thought this was pretty decent for low light ...

 

[Vtec44]

Derril, im not afraid to admit that im a noob and don't have the photography lingo down. I apologize for wasting 10+ minutes of your life writing the comment you left. I'll try my best from now on to be correct and end this horrible trend that is ruining the photography community or whatever you said.

Gary A - thanks for the advice!

It's all good. I'm a professional and I still don't have the lingo down. As long as I know what the camera does when I press that button or move that dial, I'm good.

 

[ADAMJAY]

It's all good. I'm a professional and I still don't have the lingo down. As long as I know what the camera does when I press that button or move that dial, I'm good.

That's kinda how I feel lol I don't know how to say everything but when someone shows me an idea off of Pinterest of what they want at a shoot, for the most part I know what I need to do in the camera. That's good enough for me!

 

[astroNikon]

AstroNikon - I was thinking that as well. Been playing with it a lot more with different shutter speeds. Thanks!

Start learning more about aperture and shutter as they affect how you want to capture an image.
For instance the main things to think about before taking a photo is
a - what shutter speed is best for the situation (something not moving, person moving, large scene which could have movement vs no movement).
b - what aperture do I want for the object (shallow DOF for isolating the subject vs get detail of the entire scene)
let ISO be automatic to compensate for your selections if you want.

There's so much to learn
Such as, go to a busy street corner with a lot of moving foot/car traffic.
use a small aperture (and or ND filter or in the evening), and a long exposure (say 30 seconds or longer ). You'll notice that with the moving people that they may be ghosts in the shot or not in it at all. And all you have left over is an empty street corner. It's quite a good learning experience.

When I first got my 50mm lens it allowed me to learn alot. Things that weren't obvious suing other lenses became obvious with that (ie, like f/1.8 - f/22 DOF - the f/4.5- f/16 wasn't very obvious to me at that time). then learning more about shutter speed with aperture became more obvious as I could do more extremes).

So as mentioned above, keep the 50 on and use it all the time and learn how to use all the f/stops and how they vary, just try a shot at all different settings. You'll learn alot.

 

[ADAMJAY]

AstroNikon - I was thinking that as well. Been playing with it a lot more with different shutter speeds. Thanks!

Start learning more about aperture and shutter as they affect how you want to capture an image.
For instance the main things to think about before taking a photo is
a - what shutter speed is best for the situation (something not moving, person moving, large scene which could have movement vs no movement).
b - what aperture do I want for the object (shallow DOF for isolating the subject vs get detail of the entire scene)
let ISO be automatic to compensate for your selections if you want.

There's so much to learn
Such as, go to a busy street corner with a lot of moving foot/car traffic.
use a small aperture (and or ND filter or in the evening), and a long exposure (say 30 seconds or longer ). You'll notice that with the moving people that they may be ghosts in the shot or not in it at all. And all you have left over is an empty street corner. It's quite a good learning experience.

When I first got my 50mm lens it allowed me to learn alot. Things that weren't obvious suing other lenses became obvious with that (ie, like f/1.8 - f/22 DOF - the f/4.5- f/16 wasn't very obvious to me at that time). then learning more about shutter speed with aperture became more obvious as I could do more extremes).

So as mentioned above, keep the 50 on and use it all the time and learn how to use all the f/stops and how they vary, just try a shot at all different settings. You'll learn alot.

Thanks for the advice. And that is exactly what I did the other day. I pretty much have kept the 50mm on it the entire weekend. Was blown away last night when using it in the house at f/1.4 while playing with a 430ex ii (I just got that as well)

 

[ADAMJAY]

Just a few from the other day while playing with my son. Getting the hang of it, right?

The only time I took it off was when I saw this little dude and threw on the 70-200mm

 

[Gary A.]

Right! ... Dunno what you are, but it looks like the high temps just melted the squirrel.

 

[Derrel]

Derril, im not afraid to admit that im a noob and don't have the photography lingo down. I apologize for wasting 10+ minutes of your life writing the comment you left. I'll try my best from now on to be correct and end this horrible trend that is ruining the photography community or whatever you said.!

Good luck Adum. Best of luck to you.