New Canon 50mm Test Shot - Mistake or Lighting Situation?

[BeeKayPea7]

Hello,

1st post here, not gonna bore with details of myself. But, just recently bought a T2i and just few days ago the 50mm f/1.8. Took this shot of my sister, but I'm not sure if I like it. It doesn't seem sharp enough to me. I'm not sure if it was my mistake in the setting the camera in M mode or just the light coming in. It was a sunny afternoon, and light coming in from patio door.

Just want some input/tips/advice/opinions on this shot.

EXIF:
Aperture Value: 1.625
Color Space: sRGB
Components Configuration: 1, 2, 3, 0
Custom Rendered: Normal process
Exif Version: 2.2.1
Exposure Bias Value: 0
Exposure Mode: Manual exposure
Exposure Program: Manual
Exposure Time: 1 / 1000
Flash: Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode
FlashPix Version: 1.0
FNumber: 1.8
Focal Length: 50
Focal Plane Resolution Unit: inches
Focal Plane X Resolution: 5,728.177
Focal Plane Y Resolution: 5,808.403
ISO Speed Ratings: 1600
Max Aperture Value: 1.834
Metering Mode: Pattern
Pixel X Dimension: 5,184
Pixel Y Dimension: 3,456
Scene Capture Type: Standard
Shutter Speed Value: 10.375
Sub-second Time: 83
Sub-second Time Digitized: 83
Sub-second Time Original: 83
White Balance: Manual white balance

[TheMoons678]

Lenses tend to have a sweet spot for sharpness which on a 50mm 1.8 is normally not wide open at 1.8. I've found my nikon 50mm 1.8 lenses to be more sharp around 2.8, 3.5.

[RichardTaylor]

Those lenses are not super sharp wide open.
Also DOF is extreemly shallow - notice her nose and centre of her lips are sharp - that's probably where you focussed. .

You may find this DPS post of interest.

DOF Notes:1 - Head shots using a 50mm lens.

[BeeKayPea7]

Thanks for that information. I really liked that article. I need to get a hold of DOF still.

Another question, when would it be ideal to use f/1.8 - but also retain maximum sharpness or quality?
-Is that when DOF comes in to play? If my subject was further away, would f/1.8 be a better choice?

I just want to know how/when to use this lens in its various points.

I took the lens out again for a spin, and came out with this for one of my shots, but it was me playing rather than understanding how to use the lens:

InterfaceLIFT

Thanks for the information!

[BigFuzzy]

Originally Posted by BeeKayPea7

Thanks for that information. I really liked that article. I need to get a hold of DOF still.

Another question, when would it be ideal to use f/1.8 - but also retain maximum sharpness or quality?
-Is that when DOF comes in to play? If my subject was further away, would f/1.8 be a better choice?

I just want to know how/when to use this lens in its various points.

I took the lens out again for a spin, and came out with this for one of my shots, but it was me playing rather than understanding how to use the lens:

InterfaceLIFT

Thanks for the information!

We can't tell you how/when to use this lens. It's an artistic decision when you learn what the lens can do. You can learn what the lens can do by, a learning about DoF and how that works, b. going out and shooting with it a ton.

Why I hesitate to tell you how/when to use it is because it's also dependent on what you're trying to achieve. If you want a shallow DoF portrait, then it's great. But then, you can also take plenty of wide DoF shots by using a narrower Aperture..

It might be more helpful if you tell us what you want to achieve and we can hopefully give you some direction on how we think you could achieve your goals.

"Another question, when would it be ideal to use f/1.8 - but also retain maximum sharpness or quality? " What do you mean maximum sharpness? You can get maximum sharpness that lens can achieve at f/1.8 by using proper focusing and camera holding techniques combined with an appropriate shutter speed (and good light and low ISO).

What do you mean by quality? Do you mean it as a technical thing? Either way, you have to use the lens and camera and the light available to you properly to achieve the best "quality"

" If my subject was further away, would f/1.8 be a better choice? " better choice for what? Again, what are you trying to achieve?

Happy to help, but a bit of clarification is necessary.
Welcome to DPS by the way!

[RichardTaylor]

This may help with DOF.

Exposure (3): Aperture


also this - DOF is controlled by subject distance, focal length, and aperture.

Online Depth of Field Calculator


With that lens I would only use it at F1.8 if shooting hand held in low light and/or I wanted very narrow DOF..

This post on fast lenses may give you an idea.
Lenses #6 - Fast lenses

"Maximum" sharpness (for a zone of focus) is usually one or two stops down from wide open for a lot of lenses. That means from around F4/F5.6 sharpness will improve but once you get to F16 + it will start to drop to drop off.

However stopping down will also give you more DOF. which may give the appearance of more "sharpness".

At the end of the day, as BigFuzzy says, it is an artistic decision.

[BeeKayPea7]

oops. , thanks for the welcome though

But, everything you've said makes sense. I didn't consider that when writing that up. I'm just grasping this whole DOF topic - I still have a lot to really learn to get it. I think that's what holding me back right now. I usually just play around with various settings on a broad scale before getting something I like, but I'd like to eventually master better techniques so I know what exposure settings to consider for the given situation.

For example, I went shooting in a nature trail by my house. I went with Auto ISO, and shutter (tried keeping 1/50+; handheld) and aperture were set using the viewfinder light meter. I was taking shots of a flower, and used various apertures until I got a sharp flower, yet blurred background. I guess I just have to continue this process till I get a hang of how the lens works.

"It might be more helpful if you tell us what you want to achieve and we can hopefully give you some direction on how we think you could achieve your goals." - On this, one thing I'd like to learn is low-light photography. One of the reason why I bought this. I know a lot goes into that, i.e available light, ambient lighting, am I using flash/hot shoe flash, etc.

Thanks for the site and wonderful sources here.

Originally Posted by BigFuzzy

We can't tell you how/when to use this lens. It's an artistic decision when you learn what the lens can do. You can learn what the lens can do by, a learning about DoF and how that works, b. going out and shooting with it a ton.

Why I hesitate to tell you how/when to use it is because it's also dependent on what you're trying to achieve. If you want a shallow DoF portrait, then it's great. But then, you can also take plenty of wide DoF shots by using a narrower Aperture..

It might be more helpful if you tell us what you want to achieve and we can hopefully give you some direction on how we think you could achieve your goals.

"Another question, when would it be ideal to use f/1.8 - but also retain maximum sharpness or quality? " What do you mean maximum sharpness? You can get maximum sharpness that lens can achieve at f/1.8 by using proper focusing and camera holding techniques combined with an appropriate shutter speed (and good light and low ISO).

What do you mean by quality? Do you mean it as a technical thing? Either way, you have to use the lens and camera and the light available to you properly to achieve the best "quality"

" If my subject was further away, would f/1.8 be a better choice? " better choice for what? Again, what are you trying to achieve?

Happy to help, but a bit of clarification is necessary.
Welcome to DPS by the way!

[ChrisAdval]

Originally Posted by BeeKayPea7

Hello,

1st post here, not gonna bore with details of myself. But, just recently bought a T2i and just few days ago the 50mm f/1.8. Took this shot of my sister, but I'm not sure if I like it. It doesn't seem sharp enough to me. I'm not sure if it was my mistake in the setting the camera in M mode or just the light coming in. It was a sunny afternoon, and light coming in from patio door.

Just want some input/tips/advice/opinions on this shot.

EXIF:
Aperture Value: 1.625
Color Space: sRGB
Components Configuration: 1, 2, 3, 0
Custom Rendered: Normal process
Exif Version: 2.2.1
Exposure Bias Value: 0
Exposure Mode: Manual exposure
Exposure Program: Manual
Exposure Time: 1 / 1000
Flash: Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode
FlashPix Version: 1.0
FNumber: 1.8
Focal Length: 50
Focal Plane Resolution Unit: inches
Focal Plane X Resolution: 5,728.177
Focal Plane Y Resolution: 5,808.403
ISO Speed Ratings: 1600
Max Aperture Value: 1.834
Metering Mode: Pattern
Pixel X Dimension: 5,184
Pixel Y Dimension: 3,456
Scene Capture Type: Standard
Shutter Speed Value: 10.375
Sub-second Time: 83
Sub-second Time Digitized: 83
Sub-second Time Original: 83
White Balance: Manual white balance

I don't think the EXIF's data is telling us the aperture is correct being f/1.6 because the lens is a 1.8... unless I'm missing something?

[RichardTaylor]

Re the low light photography.

This is a multi part intro to exposure - you need to understand the basics.

Exposure (1) A balancing act


This is an intro to city scapes at night (low light)
Night Photography:1 - Cityscapes.

Part 2 is in the street (again in low light).

Night Photography:2 - In the street.

I havn't written a tutorial (yet) for low light event event photography, however the basic principals are
(1) High ISO
(2) Fast lenses
(3) Shoot wide open & take what ever shutter speed you can get.
(4) Shoot RAW.
(5) Be prepared to do noise reduction when PPing.

If the lighting is more than expected adjust the ISO downwards and/or reduce your aperture. This will be a technical and artistic decision depending on what you are trying to achieve.