My first "portraits" with new 50 f/1.4 lens...

[babycarlsson]

Well, my little FA 50mm f/1.4 lens came! Not that I didn't like EF50mm f/1.8 II, this one was a little surprize, it is very solid, nice smooth manual focus ring and metal mount. Thanks Kam for the store in CA suggestion, B&H and all others still dont have this lens in stock!

I was over a the friend's house over the weekend, had some coffee, somehow dad mentioned that they would have loved to have some nice "soft focus" pictures of their baby, like they have seen in the studios.

I had that 50mm lens with me, so I though would be a good experience for me to attempt to capture the baby, and see what can this lens do in the low light.

So here are few shots, your feedback is greatly appreciated, as I have no experience in people photography, and trying to use only that small amount of natural light on the constantly moving baby.

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i230/duhvinci/People/pa_baby3.jpg


http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i230/duhvinci/People/pa_baby1.jpg


http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i230/duhvinci/People/pa_baby2.jpg

Regards,
D

[Golden1245]

yeah, the ef50mm 1.8 is a piece of crap physically, but optically it's a good little lense.

anyways, wow, your pentax 50 1.4 makes some nice pics, what aperature was is at in those pics because they're really sharp and in focus in the meant to be areas. I'm still not very good with shallow dof focusing, my pics always come out blurry.

[babycarlsson]

Canon's EF1.8 - I really loved that little thing, sharp as tack, AF was lightning fast too. Really was hoping for something similar in Pentax fit for under $100 for those "special occasions" , but this f1.4 is the closest thing that is in production right now. And for $175 after rebate - I'd just shut up and enjoy it :)

First image (manual exposure):

1/125 sec
f/1.6
ISO 640

Second image (aperture priority):

1/125 sec
f/2.2
ISO 400

Third image (manual exposure):

1/80 sec
f/1.8
ISO 640

Focusing indoors with low light (hence shallow DOF) - the only thing I could suggest for portraits, focus on the eyes, that is the darkest area, AF usually grabs it rather quickly and accurately most of the time, the rest of the face can be out of focus a little, but - who wants to see the detail of the nose anyway :rolleyes:

One other thing for shallow DOF (may sound too obvious) - I rarely use the "fancy 11 point" AF grid, I generally choose one point, focus on the point of interest that I want to see in focus, then recompose based on how I see it fits the frame.

Regards,
D

[babycarlsson]

Just a thought, when I had Canon, I often used "show autofocus points" in Canon's "ZoomBrowser EX" to analyse those less than perfect shots, just to see what went wrong... Dunno if you use it or not, but I thought it was a good tool for learning and improvement.

Regards,
D

[redline]

These are very nice! Did you do some skin softening? On the last shot, it looks like her skin was softened, but you forgot to omit the eye and nose, as it looks blurred, but not lens blurred.

[Bigpete123]

I like the second pic the best

[babycarlsson]

Thank you gentlemen! Mark - soft focus was done in one layer, chroma and luminescence, and I'm having hard time seeing the detail on what you are talking about on my cheapo 19" Emachine... Something under the left nostril and wrinkle of the left eye?

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i230/duhvinci/People/pa_baby.jpg

Just used a blur brush at 10%, is that it?

Regards,
D

[HaFaMaCa]

Looks great! Love that soft look:cool: