Critique my first outing with 50mm 1.8 please

[jnelson]

Okay, first post here so take it easy on me

Just kidding, here is a picture i took of my niece with with their new puppy this weekend. It was up at our cabin and i liked the aspen backround a little out of focus. For reference this was also my first time with my new Nikon 50mm f/1.8 so i was sort of learning the manual focus and DOF as i went along. Let me know your thoughts on this, good and bad, on the composition and whether her face should be more focused or if the softness suits it well. Also, any advice on using the 50mm lens would be great, im shooting it on a D40

Thanks......and dont take it easy on me, i can take it



D40 w/ 50mm 1.8
1/1600 sec
F/1.8
Exposure Comp.: -0.7 EV
ISO 200
WB- shade+3

[cabrown]

Who is the subject? It appears to me that not only are the aspens out of focus, but so is the girl! The puppy looks good and so do portions of your niece's hair, but the girl's face is not as sharp as the puppy's. I've never shot with this type of lens, so I have not suggestions on a fix. I can only tell you what I see.

[Eberbachl]

I agree, nice shot - and the background is blurred nicely.

But this lens is tricky (I have the very same lens, and love it).

You need to learn to control the DOF carefully - with this lens you can have the depth of field very shallow if that's what you want, so part of using it is selecting the appropriate aperture and distance to subject. I would have liked to see the girls eyes and the puppy in focus whilst blurring the background. To me the girl's face looks a little warm - I might not have gone so far on the white balance, but maybe if her face was in focus it would look better.

[skatingzooyork]

It's a really cute shot but as others have said, her eyes/face should be the focal point.
You will get it, the 1.8 can be tricky to get the fp perfect.

[kimspics]

i personally like the puppy being the main focus....I will tell you that I have the 50mm 1.4 for my D300...and boy it is the hardest to get used to...I have not goten it down yet, I just keep using and praying.

[mdruziak]

Take a look at this: http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

You might be surprised how shallow the Depth of Field is at f1.8.

[Eberbachl]

Hey - thanks for that link Mark - nice one.

[OsmosisStudios]

That is one cute puppy.

Try closing it down a bit to 2 or 2.8: it'll still blur the background right out, but give you a bit more latitude with the dof.

[Chip]

I agree that a little more DOF would be good. Stopping down a bit makes manual focusing easier, too, since you have a wider margin for error. And try to remember that just because thens opens up to 1.8, that doesn't mean you have to shoot wide open all the time.

Very cute puppy. Is it a German Shepherd?

[lputman]

Being an owner of Rottweiler dogs...that's the cutest little puppy photo and works great as the puppy being the main subject. If the intent was the puppy and girl, then yes, close up your aperture a bit like OsmosisStudios said.