In past years, I have issued a challenge for the month of September to take and post images using only a 50mm (or FF equivalent) lens and to post the JPEG as captured in camera. Previously a large number of you joined in for all or part of the month so I have decided to issue the same challenge for the month of September this year. Now's your chance to get to grips with the nifty-fifty... and to practice getting it right in camera.
Here's how I introduced the challenge in previous years:
I got to thinking about how photography has changed in recent years: it used to be that 20, 30 or 40 years ago if you wanted an 'enthusiasts camera' you bought either a 35mm range-finder camera or a 35mm SLR, and chances are that in either case it would have come equipped with a 'standard' 50mm lens. So you loaded your choice of 35mm film, took 24 or 36 exposures and then sent your film off to a processing house for the next stage in the process... at some considerable cost. Ten days to a fortnight later, you got your 'snaps' back and, if you were anything like me, you were disappointed with the results. Some didn't 'come out' and the rest didn't seem to exactly tally with your memories of the scenes that you captured.
These days this second and vital part of the process is also handled by the photographer him or herself and this has led, I think, to some blurring of the roles of camera and processing engine. Often, and I plead guilty to this, decisions that should have been made in camera - composition, colour balance, exposure, etc. - get made in processing... such is the power of a raw image file. But I can't help thinking that this is rather sloppy technique - often we'll get away with it and get the final image we wanted... but sometimes we won't. So on balance I think it must be better to do what should be done in camera, in camera.
So I have again decided that the month of September will be for me NF-SOOC-2018. Every image I post in my main 365 album will be taken with a 50mm (or equivalent) lens and will be posted exactly as it came out of the camera. Yes I know that it will have been processed by the camera's internal processing engine but I need to get used to this standard result exactly the same as in the film days we had to get used to a standard mass-produced 6 x 4 print. I will do no external processing and no cropping and if I want to zoom in on an image, I'll have to do it with my feet!
So who's brave or mad enough (probably a bit of both) to join me in this adventure? You can play for the whole month - I hope some of you will do that - or just post the occasional image. Remember, JPEG as produced in camera and a 50mm lens. Remember also that a Nifty Fifty is only 50mm on a full frame camera: if you have a crop sensor camera like most of use, then the lens you need will be marked 30mm or 35mm for an APS-C camera and 25mm for a micro 4/3 sensor (Olympus and Panasonic). If you don't have a standard prime lens but you would still like to join in, then set your zoom to 50, 35 or 25 as appropriate for your camera and shoot away. (For those who do have a prime lens, there is the added advantage of being able to exploit the wider maximum aperture of those lenses - normally f/1.8 or f/1.4 - and compose with reduced depth of field and/or shoot hand-held in low light.)
Tag your post nf-sooc-2018 and feel free to share your images on here to encourage us all.
Good Luck everyone - I look forward to your joining me in the this little adventure and I promise you that all who participate will become better photographers as a result.
I would like to give this a go - at least in part. Do you have any idea how I use my camera lens at 50mm? I have a compact camera with a lens which ranges from 24 to 720mm - I have no idea how to tell where it is on that range. With no zoom, the display shows 0.03m to infinity with a bar at W (as opposed to T) I guess that means wide angle as opposed to telescopic. So, perhaps I need to zoom until it says 0.05 - which is a very tricky process. If I get a chance, I will try and look this all up in the manual, but it might just get overwhelming. I'm not too technical! Thanks for any enlightenment :)
I’ll prolly give it a go again this year... not sure if I just enjoy making myself crazy or whether I enjoy having something to be justifiably annoyed about 🙃
Hah! Maybe this challenge will finally force me to stop taking crooked shots. I almost always have to re-orient and crop my pictures because the horizon is usually slanted.
@helenhall took me some time to find the function on my Nikon system camera, but I finally found amongst others 35mm and 50mm in my zoom options ("zoom steps"). Maybe it's similar for your camera?
Richard, you have to believe that I was thinking of leaving you a message to ask if you thought of running NF-SOOC again this year. So I am very please to know that you are. I shall use the 30mm lens on my a6000 which has an APS-C sensor. It's a great lens for this challenge as it's a macro lens and also good for walkabout.
I gave a little presentation to Winchester U3A Photography Group recently about 365 Project and mentioned this challenge in 2017 and explained that I had found it both 'limiting and 'liberating'. Hope to do every day!
just a quick question, Richard, I am going to use a super-takumar 35mm manual lens , the closest focus is 45cm, so wondering if it is considered within the bounds of the challenge to use closeup filters if i want to do a bit of macro!
I might give this a try. I only have a 16-300 zoom lens, no standard lens. But I can set it to 50mm manually each time, though I can't lock it there. I just have to remember to do it!
@casablanca Welcome aboard... it's a fun challenge. Just one point, your Nikon D3400 has an APS-C half-frame sensor so, as mentioned above, you need to set your lens to 35mm to have the full-frame equivalent of a 50mm lens.
@kali66 Hi Kali, sounds like you're really entering into the spirit of things this year. The real learning comes from the discipline of using a prime lens and getting it right in camera... using a close-up lens occasionally is not going to disturb that.
@vignouse Excuse me for being ever so slightly technically thick, but what is an APS-C half-frame sensor?? And why does it make a difference? Happy to be guided by you and use the 35 setting, I just would love to understand what it means!
@casablanca A full-frame digital camera has a sensor the same size as 35mm film - 24mm x 36mm: the APS-C sensor is smaller at 24mm x 16mm on a Nikon. This means that a focal length which just fills the full-frame will considerably overlap the APS-C sensor so that only part of the scene will be recorded - effectively you have zoomed in on the scene. The diagonal measurement of a full-frame sensor is 43mm compared to the 29mm diagonal measurement of a Nikon APS-C sensor so the 'zoom factor' - it's actually called the 'crop factor' - is approximately 1.5 to 1. So a 35mm APS-C lens x 1.5 comes out at a full-frame equivalent of 52.5mm - near enough to 50mm for this exercise. Hope that helps...
I'm in please! I have a Micro Nikkor 55mm 1:3.5 lens which I would love to use - would it be possible please? It's a vintage prime lens (feet have to do the zooming in bit) but could I use 55mm instead of 50mm please? If not will use standard lens with either D40 or D5100 and set on 35mm. Sorry for lack of knowledge here.
@fbailey Felicity - so glad you want to join us. The learning here comes from the use of one focal length all month and no processing or cropping. The lens you use is less important but if all the focal lengths are the same, then we're all singing off the same hymn sheet - it's a minor point. That lens has a great reputation so I'm looking forward to seeing your results.
@vignouse Thanks v much for clarification, my elderly lens it is then! It's my favourite go to lens so that's really good for me - the no processing bit will be very tough though and most of my pics are def not straight - big learning curve ahead ...
@vignouse Thanks. I actually just sat on a tube train with my hubby in London on the way to the theatre this evening discussing what you wrote and getting him to explain all the ins and outs of the differences between sensors and 35mm film. It turned out to be very interesting!
Help!!
I want to join but my 50mm lens belongs to my Canon 6d which I find too heavy and bulky to walk around with—-my question is can I use my Fuji mirrorless with 35 mm instead?…is 35 an equivalent to 50?🤔 @vignouse
Gosh. I'm thinking of using a 50 mm lens. That would put me on a a different hymn sheet since it's a Nikon 3200. I'm going to go for SOOC and use the same lens. Not sure whether to tag for the challenge or not.
I don't have an SLR camera, but I can set my Lumix camera to 50 mm and take sooc pictures. Will that also qualify. I need to practice on my sooc pictures.
@chrispy01 Hi Chris - it will only appear here if you upload it with your reply. Below the commentary box on your page is a line of information that begins with the date and ends with a right facing arrow - click on that arrow and then copy the embed code that appears and finally add that code to your reply and your picture will appear here. It's entirely optional as all the challenge responses can be seen by clicking on the nf-sooc-2018 tag on your page.
Never thought this challenge could be so much fun... but to be honest, i love it... i know im still pretty new around 365, but this challenge is the best i joined up for so far.. ok ok, i missed 1 day :)
@vignouse Hi Richard. I apologize for peremptorily posting your challenge. I thought that since you haven't been active since April that you were no longer taking part in 365 but I should have tried contacting you first. It is your challenge and you should be the host. I have removed my post, and once again, my apologies.
@cdcook48 August 30th, 2022 (edit | delete | reply)
Chris, Chris - I wasn’t unhappy with your hosting… just the opposite!
Let's join forces - put your post back and we'll co-host.
Deal?
@vignouse I'd be happy to co-host with you Richard. I will change the text of my post to reflect that. May I say that when I took part last September it found it to be one of the best challenges in this community. That is the main reason I jumped the gun this year, I wanted to make sure the challenge continued.
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Thanks for bringing this to our attention one more time!
I gave a little presentation to Winchester U3A Photography Group recently about 365 Project and mentioned this challenge in 2017 and explained that I had found it both 'limiting and 'liberating'. Hope to do every day!
I want to join but my 50mm lens belongs to my Canon 6d which I find too heavy and bulky to walk around with—-my question is can I use my Fuji mirrorless with 35 mm instead?…is 35 an equivalent to 50?🤔
@vignouse
I prefer color because the bokeh looks yummy
And, convert to B&W.... yeah! and add a little red filter for that dark "ansel Adams" sky... must... resist... must... resist...
Chris, Chris - I wasn’t unhappy with your hosting… just the opposite!
Let's join forces - put your post back and we'll co-host.
Deal?