I find myself not using my 50mm f1.4 very much.. So I am going to do a week long challenge of using my 50mm only shooting at f1.4-f2. I would love to have people join me on this challenge. If you have a 1.8, no need to go down to 1.4. I just want to shoot wide open for a week. Tag the photos with #wideopen50 and post it to this thread.
@cadevanheel good luck I did something similar for 40 days at lent 35mm f1.8 all the way!! It makes you think in a very creative way and I found it a lot of fun too.
i've been considering buying a lense, either 35mm 2.8 or 1.8. What is the benefit and challenges to these? i only have the stock f3.6 lense that came with it.
@fivefingerofdeath when you shot below f2.0 the depth of field it really narrow, makes you think about the composition of your shot. I would really get a lens that has a fstop that's below f2. It also adds a great affect of out of focus foreground and background
I've seen a lot of people who barely use their 50mm Prime. That's pretty much all I use. It's my walk around lens- pretty much because my camera won't fit in the bag with my 18-55mm on it, and I'm lazy xD
@fivefingerofdeath On an APS-C camera, probably, since 35mm equates to the classic "nifty fifty" 50mm angle of view on a full frame (or 35mm film) camera. But a 50mm on a full frame or 35mm film camera is the classic that most of the older masters shot with, and can be considered close to the angle of view of the human eye. if something like that even matters...
For me, I find that "blurred background" (bokeh) is more about the "hyper-focal distance" effects rather than a wide absolute aperture. Just make sure that background objects are 5 or more times distant from the subject than the camera to the subject, and even something like f/11 will get you nice background bokeh. Conversely, if you a relatively long distance from the main subject and the background is relatively closer to the subject behind, you probably won't blur the background too much even "wide open."
Now, close up focus (macro focus) is another issue all together. There, even on something like f/8 or more, your DoF will be only a few centimeters if you have a focus distance of 12-15 inches. Again the "hyper focal distance" effect.
I can't attain really shallow depth of field because my camera is an Canon SX50 and it doesn't have a very wide aperture--consequently I can't get true shallow depth of field--not as much as I'd like anyhow. I do get some good background blurring when zooming. I aspire to get a changeable lens camera with a good, fast prime lens as soon as finances allow so that I can get more of the shallow DOF people are exhibiting now.
@frankhymus one important thing to mention is when using 35 mm on cropped sensor you actually DO NOT get the equivalent of 50mm lens on a full frame you only get somewhat the same angle of view but lens distortion does NOT change. Here's a rough example: lets imagine that your cropped sensor camera's magnifying factor is x10 and you put 5mm lens (which o a full frame would be fish-eye lens), effectively it would have the same angle of view as a 50 mm on full frame but the image would still be distorted as with using fish-eye :)
@frankhymus wel I meant crop factor which is approx. 1.5x depending o a camera this is where angle of view of 35mm lens on a cropped sensor camera becomes equivalent to 55mm lens on full frame (1.5x35=55) BUT the lens properties itself does not change meaning that you will still get same perspective distortions ;)
@tauras OK, but since the edges are cropped away with an APS-C sensor size, you don't get those. Fisheye and such tend to have most distortions at the edges. :)
if you look at this image two bottles are taken with different focal lengths from the same distance if you'll use same lenses from the same distance on a cropped sensor camera you will only crop the edges of a frame but size aspect ratio between objects will not change.
I just got my first camera, I have a four thirds system, and I have only one 45mm 1.8 lens, I love shooting wide open, I love this challenge, a lot of fun, can't wait to see everyones pics
Then I ran out of time!! And you need to take the hashtag off the front to find all of these together in the tag section...just use wideopen50 and then you can see them all together.
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I've been soley using my 50mm 1.8 for ages now. I love it! other than it doesn't have a great wide angle!!
For me, I find that "blurred background" (bokeh) is more about the "hyper-focal distance" effects rather than a wide absolute aperture. Just make sure that background objects are 5 or more times distant from the subject than the camera to the subject, and even something like f/11 will get you nice background bokeh. Conversely, if you a relatively long distance from the main subject and the background is relatively closer to the subject behind, you probably won't blur the background too much even "wide open."
Now, close up focus (macro focus) is another issue all together. There, even on something like f/8 or more, your DoF will be only a few centimeters if you have a focus distance of 12-15 inches. Again the "hyper focal distance" effect.
@karlow75 that's a great start!
if you look at this image two bottles are taken with different focal lengths from the same distance if you'll use same lenses from the same distance on a cropped sensor camera you will only crop the edges of a frame but size aspect ratio between objects will not change.
Second one:
Then I ran out of time!! And you need to take the hashtag off the front to find all of these together in the tag section...just use wideopen50 and then you can see them all together.