The Masked Dragon Lady

[Tropicalmemories]

There's no strict lockdown here, but masks are expected when out of your home, so all photos are beginning to have a similar look.

 

[Jeff1547 47]

Nice shot, strange times we live in at the moment......

 

[Derrel]

Nice!

 

[Granddad]

Nice shot... and even with a mask the lady (you?) manages to look good.

 

[Tropicalmemories]

Nice shot, strange times we live in at the moment......

Yes - everything seems to be different now - and eating out is a surreal experience .....

 

[Tropicalmemories]

Nice shot... and even with a mask the lady (you?) manages to look good.

Thank you! My Muse.

 

[CherylL]

I like how her red dress compliments the red in the roof and the scarf. How are you liking the 56mm?

 

[Tropicalmemories]

I like how her red dress compliments the red in the roof and the scarf. How are you liking the 56mm?

Thank you Cheryl.

To be honest, I'm struggling a bit with the 56mm.

Unless the light is good, I need wide apertures to get a high enough shutter speed to avoid movement blur (subject and camera) but then the depth of field is so tight I get some focus issues.

So when I manage to get it all right, I like the results, but currently well over the half the shots are not sharp.

I prefer my trusty 35mm f1.4 which is much easier to use. I know it's me and not the lens, but I feel the 56 is more of a 'studio portrait lens' whereas the 35 and 23 f1.4's are good for amateur, outdoor, every day portraits.

 

[Derrel]

Could you start shooting at ISO 800, 1000, or 1,250, to build shutter speed?

 

[Tropicalmemories]

Could you start shooting at ISO 800, 1000, or 1,250, to build shutter speed?

Yes, good suggestion. I tend to use lower iso for portraits to avoid issues with noise, but I should try with a higher auto iso setting.

 

[Derrel]

I think you should start at ISO 250, OR HIGHER,as a regular matter with this lens.

 

[CherylL]

I like how her red dress compliments the red in the roof and the scarf. How are you liking the 56mm?

Thank you Cheryl.

To be honest, I'm struggling a bit with the 56mm.

Unless the light is good, I need wide apertures to get a high enough shutter speed to avoid movement blur (subject and camera) but then the depth of field is so tight I get some focus issues.

So when I manage to get it all right, I like the results, but currently well over the half the shots are not sharp.

I prefer my trusty 35mm f1.4 which is much easier to use. I know it's me and not the lens, but I feel the 56 is more of a 'studio portrait lens' whereas the 35 and 23 f1.4's are good for amateur, outdoor, every day portraits.

The lens needs more contrast to catch focus than the other Fuji lenses. If too windy then hard to get things sharp. I started seeing a better sharpness with all of my lenses when I shoot with a shutter speed of 500 at the minimum. I struggled with that lens at first. What helped me was using only that lens for a few weeks.

 

[Derrel]

Low ISO to avoid noise is like driving 25 Miles Per Hour to avoid crashes in a road rally race...

 

[Tropicalmemories]

I like how her red
dress compliments the red in the roof and the scarf. How are you liking the 56mm?

Thank you Cheryl.

To be honest, I'm struggling a bit with the 56mm.

Unless the light is good, I need wide apertures to get a high enough shutter speed to avoid movement blur (subject and camera) but then the depth of field is so tight I get some focus issues.

So when I manage to get it all right, I like the results, but currently well over the half the shots are not sharp.

I prefer my trusty 35mm f1.4 which is much easier to use. I know it's me and not the lens, but I feel the 56 is more of a 'studio portrait lens' whereas the 35 and 23 f1.4's are good for amateur, outdoor, every day portraits.

The lens needs more contrast to catch focus than the other Fuji lenses. If too windy then hard to get things sharp. I started seeing a better sharpness with all of my lenses when I shoot with a shutter speed of 500 at the minimum. I struggled with that lens at first. What helped me was using only that lens for a few weeks.

Low ISO to avoid noise is like driving 25 Miles Per Hour to avoid crashes in a road rally race...

Thank you both.

I looked back at my shots with the 56 - and most were shot at iso 400, and I generally used auto iso with a max of 800, but min shutter speed set at 1/90 (inverse of focal length). I see now from many of my shots that are not sharp - that it's movement issues due to slower shutter speeds in lower light leading to shutter speeds of 1/90 to 1/150.

Two examples: The first shot was at 1/90 and there's movement blur, but second was at 1/1900 due to the better light.

So it looks like setting a higher min shutter speed will help? I often shoot aperture priority with auto iso, and only adjust aperture to suit the subject.

So raising auto iso and min shutter speed should help?

I think camera shake with my favourite 35 and 23 mm lenses is rarely an issue with my usual min shutter speed of 1/60, but when using the 56 I need to set min shutter higher than the 1/90 I'd been using .... and this will need higher min iso if lighting not good.

 

[JBPhotog1]

A bit late to this party but this may help. The old film formula of shutter speed/focal length doesn't apply well to high pixel density digital these days. FWIW, in my experience the minimum shutter speed is now 2x-2.5x the focal length so with your 56mm I would start at 1/200. and not worry about noise.

I owned that 56mm f1.2 at one point and it is a nice piece of glass.