Working with a 50mm 1.4 lens...

[bahayphillips]

Haven't shot with this lens outside the house...around noon. Need some tips.

[inkista]

If you want to shoot outside at f/1.4 at noon, I'd recommend getting a neutral density filter so you can stay within your camera's shutter speed range.

[MWerner]

Originally Posted by inkista

If you want to shoot outside at f/1.4 at noon, I'd recommend getting a neutral density filter so you can stay within your camera's shutter speed range.

Tell me more about this neutral density filter...

[inkista]

An ND filter is like putting sunglasses on your camera. It's a grey filter that simply reduces the amount of light coming in. NDs are usually graded by how many stops they filter out.

I use a four-stop filter when I want to shoot with my 50mm f/1.2 wide open in the bright Southern California sunshine. I use a ten-stop filter when I want to use a tripod and a long shutter speed to make water or fog go all misty/dreamy or to erase tourists.

No filter: 1/50s exposure.


B+W 110 10-stop ND filter: 39s exposure.


There are also graduated ND filters, where the darkness of the filter has a gradient across the middle, so that half of the filter is light, half is dark, and there's a fuzzy middle line separating the two--this is most typically used for landscape work, to darken the sky and still get proper exposure for the ground. HDR in a piece of glass, as it were.

If you plan on using graduated ND filters, though, you may want to look at a drop-in/filter holder rather than a screw on filter, so you'll have control over the horizon placement.

[MWerner]

Are these ND filters expensive? So what you're saying is that I could use one of these filters on my 50 1.4 in the middle of the day with the obnoxious, cloudless sun at the beach and still get the DOF that I want? Your pictures looked like it was overcast that day...

[inkista]

Like all filters, NDs can run the gamut from cheap to outrageously priced. But essentially the larger the filter, and the more dark you want it, the more expensive it will get. A 10-stop 77mm will run you around $100. My 10-stop 58mm was only about $65.

And yes, it was cloudy that day. Here's another example with more direct sunlight:


Canon XT. Olympus OM-mount 50mm f/1.2. Hoya ND4 filter (2-stop ND).
iso 100. f/1.2. 1/1000s.

[MWerner]

Woohoo! This could be the answer to my prayers! Really bright sunlight is the bane of my photography existence, at least with human subjects. Those nasty shadows ruin all my fun!

[inkista]

Well, this won't help you with the shadows. You need to light for that. And then the problem comes in how to get high-speed synch with off-camera flash outside... but that's another story.

[willbrawn]

For the high speed camera sync check out the Pocketwizard new mini and flex. It allows your to shoot in ETTL with a wireflash and still get shallow DOF.

PocketWizard® - Remote flash and camera triggers for professional and advanced amateur photographers