Nikkor 35mm f1.8 - worth the money?

[adias.angel]

Hi,
Recently my sister-in-law and I were asked by a friend if we could do them a huge favor and take pictures for their wedding. Long story short; military wedding with the groom soon to be shipped over seas. So of course we said yes.

I am still kinda new to photography and carry just a couple kit lenses:
- AF-S DX Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR
- AF-S DX Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6G VR

I am a bit worried that my current aperture is not large enough on either lens to accommodate low light situations like the reception might be. I have been thinking about getting the AF-S DX NIKKOR 35mm f/1.8G so I have at least one lens that can do low light and still fit in my sad little budget.

Is it worth the money or should I just crank up the ISO and remove the noise in post-processing? And advice would be much appreciated. Thanks! Carla =)

[OsmosisStudios]

What body?

[adias.angel]

Sorry about that. D3000

[OsmosisStudios]

The 35/1.8 would certainly help with low light, but it's probably still not the best bet. Sigma have a 85mm f/1.4 with an HSM motor (Sigma's version of AF-S). Of course, can't go wrong with both.

[TFord.LTTP]

For $200 I think it's great and I think the only prime under $500 or so that will auto focus on a D40/60/3000/5000. Working with a 28mm 1.8 recently, which is a very similar focal length, it's good but not going to get super tight and isn't ideal for portraits but great for group shots. Without spending a lot it's probably your best bet though.

I wouldn't turn the iso on that camera up any higher than absolutely necessary. Even at 800 it's going to be extremely noisy and losing a lot of detail. Given what you have I would consider a couple different options. First if, and only if, you're decently comfortable with metering and manual shooting you might consider underexposing your shots slightly and bringing them up in post instead of doing noise reduction. You'd have to spend some time before hand figuring out how much latitude you have with your camera to do so.

Second even if you consider the first option I might consider renting the 50mm 1.4 AF-S for the portraits or even better rent the 24-70mm 2.8 AF-S. If you're doing this as a favor and not getting paid maybe even the bride or groom will chip in the $100 to rent this for a week if it means you having what you need to capture the important memories. Just remember if you rent a lens it has to be AF-S or it won't auto focus.

Third idea scout the location out at the time of day the wedding will be, always a good idea, and if there's light available maybe just not where you'll need it then it's time to recruit an assistant. Pick up something like this gold/silver reflector and have them angle the light onto the couple.

You can combine any of the ideas and doing so will yield even more flexibility for you hopefully. I really hate flash photography for anything other then studio work so I would advise against it but it might be your last resort. Just make sure you scout the location first and make sure there will be walls or a ceiling you can bounce it off of and that whoever is in charge of the location, as well as the bride and groom, are alright with the use of flash. An SB600 will run you a little over $200 and with a diffuser for it another $50-100 without good batteries so I'd still lean more towards the 35mm 1.8 but it might yield the easiest, not best, results but I would still try for the others first.

Finally work with what you have available to you when the day comes. Not only in your gear but the light available to you. You have to capture the "core" shots still but if the lighting is just crap then it's time to go with it and try to accentuate the motion of certain moments, or be more creative. Just do that after you've made the couple happy.

[adias.angel]

Thanks! I really appreciate you taking the time to write all that. =)

Originally Posted by TFord.LTTP

Working with a 28mm 1.8 recently, which is a very similar focal length, it's good but not going to get super tight and isn't ideal for portraits but great for group shots.

The ceremony, portraits and cocktail hour will all be outside on the beach so less worried about the aperture and more worried about shadowing there.

Originally Posted by TFord.LTTP

First if, and only if, you're decently comfortable with metering and manual shooting you might consider underexposing your shots slightly and bringing them up in post instead of doing noise reduction.

Wouldn't happen to have a good reference you could point me to so I can read up on this would you? I have read a couple small things about metering but not enough to really say I understand it. =)

Originally Posted by TFord.LTTP

Pick up something like this gold/silver reflector and have them angle the light onto the couple.

What is the difference in the gold vs silver?

[TFord.LTTP]

Originally Posted by adias.angel

What is the difference in the gold vs silver?

The color of light it's reflecting, so the gold would give you warmer tone light reflected. The basic idea with color after all is that surfaces generally absorb the light spectrum outside the color we perceive it to be and it's reflected to our eyes. Very handy principle.

Wouldn't happen to have a good reference you could point me to so I can read up on this would you? I have read a couple small things about metering but not enough to really say I understand it. =)

Have you tried the spot metering on your camera before? You mentioned shadows and if they're going to be under a tree or something that will be your most powerful tool. Check out page 74-75 of the manual if you're not familiar since you ideally need to use it in companion with the AE-L/AF-L (auto-exposure/auto-focus lock) button unless you're shooting full manual. So if you're not familiar the spot will take the reading of light just from the center of the frame, and in tricky situations where a bride may be under a tree with a bright beach around her or a glaring lake behind her let you choose what's being metered. I like to use it with single point AF as well when I'm shooting aperture or shutter priority so I know that the focal point of the photo is what I want and properly exposed, see pages 44-47.

You can use this to determine a good exposure as well. So setting the camera to manual have a person stand where the bride will be just before the ceremony's getting ready to start. If you have a gray card have them hold it, if not bring a white sheet of paper and have them hold it, usually next to their face on the side the light's coming from. This will make it much easier to white balance in post if you're shooting raw and even color correct if you've got a gray card.

So here's how I work with that being said. I'll set my iso to either what I want to work at it the light is good or what I think I'll have to work at if the light is bad. So let's just say 400 for this example. Next depending on what I'm shooting I'll decide if shutter speed or aperture are going to be more important to me. Let's say I'm hoping for an aperture setting of 8 because I want decent depth of field. I then will set the other setting to the reciprocal of the focal length I'm at so let's say 1/125 on a 100mm lens. Set it as you think you want to shoot we're just trying to establish a baseline.

Continuing this example though we're starting at 1/125 f8 iso400. If your hapless volunteer is holding a gray card point the spot meter area at it, other wise aim at the cheekbone on the side of the face the light is coming from. If the meter at the bottom of the viewfinder is at 0 then either you're a savant, you've done something horribly wrong or something's broken. More then likely the bar will be extended to one end or the other. The D3000 shows two stops either way with the meter in the viewfinder and by default the left side is overexposure the right side is underexposure.

Now we need to either adjust out aperture or exposure until we hit 0 pointing at the same spot. So if say we were showing one stop over exposed changing our settings to 1/250 f8 400 should be sufficient and set the meter to 0. You may have to make bigger or smaller adjustments or even change multiple settings but that's the goal and why it's important to be at least moderately comfortable ahead of time.

We've figured out what get's us properly exposed but now to get the setting's we want. So say you ended up metering 1/30 hoping to use f8 at iso 400 but that won't do because you'll never stop anything at that speed and really won't feel comfortable shooting under 1/250 because light's still good. So for each stop you lower or raise one setting is one stop you must do the inverse of to the other. Faster shutter speed means open the lens more or raise the iso, stop down the lens and slow the shutter or increase the iso, etc. Each stop will double or halve the amount of light coming into the camera so you have f/1, 1.4, 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11 and for the shutter 1 second, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250 and so on. Same for long exposures with 2 second, 4, 8, etc.

Knowing this we can take a couple approaches depending on what our shoot demands to get to 1/250. We can stop the aperture down three stops to f/2.8, raise our iso one stop to 800 and stop the aperture down two to f/4. Every shot is different and finding what you need to make that shot match your vision is the reason you're behind the camera and you just have to play with it and take some test shots. Hence why it's important to show up early and familiarize yourself with the setting and have a loose plan in your head.

So if we've figured out proper exposure make sure it matches the skin tones near the eyes if you metered off a gray card and if there are other things in areas of interest note how the metering may differ on them. Now the benefit once we've established this if we want to shoot a stop down is that it's a simple matter of doubling our shutter speed or stopping the lens down. Just remember to routinely check a recent shot or two during the couple down seconds in an event, anticipation is a key skill, and to watch for changing light if you're to shoot full manual.

I prefer to use the single focus point in the middle because it's the most accurate, especially on lower end cameras, and right in the middle of the spot meter area. So as you focus on the brides eyes, bridge of her nose, whatever your point is you can check the current metering or set the exposure in assisted modes. At this point you push the shutter release half way and before releasing it hold the AE-L/AF-L button on the back on the camera. Long as you have this button depressed, by default, the focus and exposure (if set by the camera) are now locked in. This lets you move the camera and compose your shot however you please without losing this information. It's a bit to work with off the bat but once you start using it you'll probably pick it up pretty quick. Practice, practice, practice of course.

I do feel a little dumb since I just realized that what I was thinking originally can be done more automatic if need be, especially since your light will probably be good for everything but the reception then. If you want to shoot in aperture or shutter priority then you can do that like normal and just use the exposure compensation and set it up to a full stop, -2/3 or -1, under exposed. Page 76 of the manual if you haven't done it before. As always test this first and make sure you'll still have the latitude you need. Hopefully it will keep down any over blown highlights with the sand and water and white dress.

Hopefully I remembered everything I meant to say and it was all somewhat sensible, way more then I intended originally. What editing software are you using by the by?

Edit: Before someone says something yes I know that starting all the way stopped down on your lens is the more technically "proper" way to determine exposure but like I said that's how I prefer to work.

[JAD40]

I have the 35mm 1.8 for my D40. I absolutely love that lens. The crop factor with my 50mm made it difficult to get people in shots indoors without backing into a wall.

[coombzy]

I think you're covered for good advice but feel free to check out my Flickr stream as most of it is the result of a 35mm + D40 pairing.