Fixed or Not?

CaraJ

CaraJ

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Cara Jenkins
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Hi,

I have recently purchased a Nikon D80 with an 18-135mm 3.5-5.6G ED lens ,which is great.

But......

I would also like a lens with a larger aperture. My aim is to take shots of my subjects (not in a studio) with a blurred background.

A couple of lenses have been mentioned to me and I am not sure what to buy. One is a fixed lens with an aperture of 1.8 or a focal lens with an aperture range from 2.8 onwards.

Can anyone help!
 
50mm 1.4/1.8
85mm 1.4/1.8
35-70mm 2.8
60mm 2.8
17-50 2.8 tamron
24-70 2.8 sigma

as a selection, don't know about their quality apart from the 50mm 1.4/1.8 but there are lots of options, what is your budget
 
CaraJ said:
Hi,

I have recently purchased a Nikon D80 with an 18-135mm 3.5-5.6G ED lens ,which is great.

But......

I would also like a lens with a larger aperture. My aim is to take shots of my subjects (not in a studio) with a blurred background.

A couple of lenses have been mentioned to me and I am not sure what to buy. One is a fixed lens with an aperture of 1.8 or a focal lens with an aperture range from 2.8 onwards.

Can anyone help!
Click to expand...

OK before you go spending money work with what you have. Now you say you want a blurred background and I'm assuming you mean for portraits. The depth of field is effected by the aperture of the lens, but also by other things too.

Try keeping your subject further away from the background, and move closer to them yourself. If you are closer to your subject than the background, with a wide aperture you may get the result you want without spending anything at all ;)

For practice, get someone to stand in the garden, take a shot at the widest aperture, then take a step forwards, take another, step forwards etc etc. With most lenses you will be getting almost uncomfortably close to the subject before the lens wont be able to focus on them. Then go look at the results on the PC and see the results. I think you may be surprised by the outcome.

Pete
 
There is an absolute science to depth of field, and a use of a guide like this one ....

http://www.warehouseexpress.com/product/default.aspx?sku=1023960

... can help you understand, with practical experience, how much will be in focus and how much out of focus! It is not cheap, nor is it expensive, you could still buy it and one of the good suggested lenses and learn with the two.

I'd say, get the guide and learn the science of this ... as has been described by icecavern ... and then see what lens to buy.
 
The guide is fine, but there's no replacing the experience of experimenting to figure out how it works yourself IMO. Besides, it gets you out shooting which is the most important thing.
 
Thank you very much for all your help. I think I have some practice and reading to do :)
 
Practice Makes Perfect :shrug:! But do share with us what you're learning, as surely there are many here - me one of them - who learns a lot by seeing what others are doing, as well.
 
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