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| © Jennifer Soltren,
soltrenphotography.com |
Dreamily defocused
backgrounds suggest mystery and romance -- and few tools conjure them up as effectively as the shallow depths of field possible at f/1.4. No wonder you can't dig too deeply in any wedding photographer's bag before bumping into a 50mm f/1.4 "detailer."
It's useful for focusing in on table decorations, the bride's gown and jewelry, the bridal bouquet, and other details, since that f/1.4 aperture successfully throws everything but your subject out of focus. It strongly forces viewers' attention to where you want it, simultaneously casting an irresistible, soft spell over everything else.
Shooting at f/1.4 can be magical, but it's not easy. Holding the focus on elements that need to be sharp can be challenging. (The closer the focusing distance, the shallower your depth of field becomes and the harder this gets.) So, when working at or near maximum aperture, be careful where you're focusing. Don't pay too much attention to the green "in-focus" viewfinder bullet. Instead, keep your eye peeled to the specific AF target that's active.
Don't automatically work at f/1.4.
Closing down a stop lessens vignetting and expands the depth of field for sharpness, while still delivering softness beyond. And, since 50mm f/1.4 lenses are typically least sharp when used wide open, if detail is important (as in flower close-ups or eyelashes in tight portraits), again, stop down a bit.
Close Up
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| © Michael Soo, www.soophotography.com |
While nowhere on the barrel of your 50mm f/1.4 will you find the word "macro," if your lens has an aperture ring, you can quickly and easily turn your "normal" lens into an extremely powerful close-up tool.
To magnify your subject to a 1:1, 2:1 or even 3:1 ratio, all you need is a lens-reversing ring such as the Nikon BR-2A ($30, street). You twist the ring onto the front-barrel filter threads of your 50mm, and then bayonet the lens backwards into your camera's lensmount. You won't be able to focus at infinity -- but bring on the bugs and buds.
If none of the 50mm lenses made for your camera have an aperture ring, macro fans still has options. Find a reversing ring for your lensmount (typically $15, street). With the right ring, you can reverse-mount any maker's 50mm f/1.4 on your DSLR body and fire away in your camera's manual mode. Search garage sales and online auctions for inexpensive 50mm lenses (with aperture rings). Or, failing that, grab a new Pentax 50mm f/1.4 for $200, street. Even new, it's much less expensive than virtually any 1:1 macro lens around.
If you decide to try this low-cost and effective route to high-magnification close-ups, budget, too, for a macro focusing rail (from $175, street). Without one, you will very quickly tire of the tedium and inaccuracy of conventional manual focus at such tight subject distances.
Low Light
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| © Michael Soo, www.soophotography.com |
If you're accustomed to shooting in low light with a variable-aperture f/3.5-5.6 kit zoom, get ready for a pleasant surprise: Today's 50mm f/1.4 lenses make sharp photography possible in the kind of light so dim, you probably would have left your camera in its bag before.
Several factors contribute to give the 50mm its superb low-light performance. First and most obviously, the high-speed f/1.4 maximum aperture allows more light through to the image sensor than almost any other lens available today.
Second, the compact dimensions of the 50mm lens are -- compared with more long-barrelled lenses -- less apt to magnify camera shake.
Third, if your camera body is blessed with sensor-based shake control (that's you, Pentax, Samsung, and Sony owners), it will give you yet another stop or two of sharpness when lights are low.
Finally, with each generation, the sensors in today's DSLRs are getting much better at suppressing image-softening noise in dimly lit shadows, even when you've dialed in high ISOs.
Add these factors together, and you see how a 50mm f/1.4 lets you leave tripod and flash at home.
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