50mm f1.4

[raymond101]

Hi,
Newbie here just bought the 50mm f1.4 prime lens from another csers.
Any kind soul to advise what is best setting:

i) taking portrait indoor (normal lighting) with flash?
ii) without flash?
iii) outdoor (sunny) ?
iv) outdoor (gloomy)?

Right now, am using P mode only.
Thanks for your time.
Raymond

[USM]

Cecil, where are you?

You are the best person to ans his questions sicne you are always using your EF 50mm f1.4.

[raymond101]

Hi Guru Cecil,

Remember me? I was at your free seminar at YCK CC few weeks ago.

Heeding your advice, I bought myself a 50mm f1.4 second hand. Have tried a few shots but not sure correctly executed. Took this one with Av priority set at 1.4, handheld with no flash on glass table top:



Regards,
Raymond

[manda]

Congratulations on ur purchase.

This was also my first lens and I still love it. I return to it time and time again.

A professional told me f2.8 is the best for balancing sharpness & depth of field ~ don't know what the others think of this? I use this 99% of the time, unless i need to a wider depth of field.

This lens is considered excellent for low light and portraits - it is fast, light and depicts things in a similar way to how our eyes view things.

As it is a prime you really have to work the composition - again the perfect way to learn. You will find yourself shifting view points and angles which is fantastic training & ur photos will thank you for it.

If you look at my photoaday project you will get an idea of its versitility.

PS - if you can afford it, invest in a polarizer

[cecil]

sorry USM busy working both day and night as I'm right now editing a wedding I shot last Saturday and also working in the daytime, didn't even have time for photoshoot.
Raymond, firstly my main purpose of using the 50mm f1.4 is for nightshoot without flash as I feel that without flash my photo would turn out nicer with depth and shadow and at f1.4 to f2.8 it is possible. Here is an example.

The other usage is using the shallow depth of field to create nice bokeh and at the same time isolate the object of interest from the background (like what you did with the 3 toys)
Using manual setting to play with Aperture and Shutter Speed to get different creative shots and with the larger aperture you get a larger range to play with with many different results.
You'll most likely need to attend a paid course on basic photography (perhaps get USM to conduct one) to learn more in depth on basic photography as a 4 hour course cannot do justice to a proper basic photography course.