Park Portrait

[thingy]

Shot in the park with the bright afternoon sun. First time I built up the courage to get my rather large reflector/diffuser disk out in public (Yes, I know how that sounds). I took a incident meter reading whilst holding the disk up between the sun and my subject, set up the camera on manual, set the timer and ran back to my subject to hold the disk up again.



Any thoughts / suggested improvements welcome.

G

[thingy]

Oh and forgot my settings:

Sony DSLR-A100 ; 1/2000sec at f/2.0 ; ISO100 ; Nifty Fifty

G

[hitkaiser]

crop the top bit off so its more at eye level

give a little more space on either side, the sideways crop is a little too tight

otherwise nice exposure

[thingy]

Cheers for responding HitKaiser

G

[ELAY]

The exposure is very well done -- I don't think I would have thought of putting the camera on timer and running over to hold the reflector myself!

I maybe detect a bit of softness on the left side of your model's face -- 2.0 is a pretty unforgiving aperture, and I wonder if you don't give yourself (and your camera's AF) a bit more fudge room, while still preserving DOF effects, if you go to 2.8. I understand that most 50s tend to be a bit sharper a stop or two up from maximum, too.

EL

[thingy]

Originally Posted by Elay

I understand that most 50s tend to be a bit sharper a stop or two up from maximum, too.

Thanks for the tip Elay, I wasnt aware of that. I am still playing around with my fifty and getting used to the increased aperture over my kit zooms. I have probably gone a touch too far in my efforts to blur the background. Do you or anyone else have any other fifty related tips?

G

[ELAY]

G,

Do you have the Sony f/1.4? Sounds like a great lens from what i can find online.

I didn't find anything specifically about the sharpness of this lens through its aperture range, but I think it is an almost universal phenomenon that lenses are softer at their lowest and highest apertures (I suspect though, that the differences are not very pronounced in most cases). But unless I have to because of low light, I don't tend to shoot below 2.8 on my Nikon f/1.8 50mm.

EL

[thingy]

Originally Posted by ELAY

Do you have the Sony f/1.4? Sounds like a great lens from what i can find online.

I wish No its a Minolta f/1.7 which still apparently performs very well for its price range (well I bought mine second hand so extremely well). When I think about it, I have heard of lenses having a 'sweet spot' which I assume is where you just seem to get that little bit extra sharpness and no distortion. Is this partly what you are referring to? I will have to do a bit more research on t'internet to find out what it is for my fifty (although I guess it is possible to be different from the same model, lens to lens, due to manufacturing anomalies). After my first endeavours with this lens I will heed your advice and say at a min of 2.8 unless I'm working on something with a really flat and parallel subject.

G