NIFTY FIFTY??? Lens for studio work

donkeymusic

donkeymusic

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Carlo
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Hell, currenlty pricig up equipment to start studio.portrait work and someone mentioned a "nifty fifty" i have seen a sony one that offers an apperture of f1.8.

Now as i am still learning and buying kit to learn with i cant see why i would need a aperture of 1.8, does this throuhg a lot of the image out of focus?

Why are these prime lenses classes as portrait lenses?

any help is much appreciated.

thanks
 
The 'nifty fifty' is the 'pet' name for the Canon 50mm f/1.8 mkII cheap and cheerful lens. It is cheap, very sharp but has some downsides - all irrelevant to you as you own a Sony!

Wide aperture lenses of around 50/85mm (those that open up to about f/2.8 and wider - even f/1.2 of f/1.0 in some rare cases) are considered to be good portrait lenses because

a) Their wide aperture allows you to get a blurred background which can help make the subject 'pop' out of the photo

b) Focal lengths of 50mm/85mm on small sensor / full frame cameras allow you to get a head/shoulders portrait without going in so close that the subject looks unnatural and distorted (which would happen if you used a wider angle lens and went in close).

Actually, if you are taking studio shots then a wide aperture is normally fairly academic as the background is far enough away & featureless to be blurred at smaller apertures (f/8-f/11 say).

Wide apertures are best for portraits outdoors on in low light situations where flash is not used.

HTH

Phil
 
not quite sure if this is something i would need then, surely with an aperture that small then if i was to focus in on the eyes surely a lot of the rest of the image would be out of focus due to the shallow dof?

is that right?
 
Big and small can get a bit confusing here. A physically small aperture is a large number and vice-versa.

So, small number: f2 = big aperture = shallow depth of field
Big number: f22 = small aperture = big depth of field

For portrait work in a studio, you'll often be using backdrops with little if any detail, so depth of field, as has been mentioned, shouldn't ever be a problem.

Therefore, a decent 50mm lens, sat at about f4 - f5.6 should be just perfect to start with. Something around 80mm would probably be better length for portraits of course, but it won't be quite so useful as an all round lens.

Of course, if you're using your Sony Alpha camera then with a 1.4x crop factor, then a 50mm lens effectively becomes 70mm and just about perfect for the job.
 
so would i be better using the standard lens that is 18-55mm?

is it the fact that a 50mm lens is fixed that makes the difference?

thanks
 
Its not so much about the big aperture, as the fact that these prime lenses will generally be much sharper when stepped down to f4-5.6. It will sure take sharper pictures than your kit lens.
 
I'm not an expert, but I tell you waht - I bought Sony 50/1.8 and I love it, it is amazing lens! I bought it especially for portraits of my daughter and its great, never took it off since I bought it. I take it even for walks to the park.
 
donkeymusic said:
Hell, currenlty pricig up equipment to start studio.portrait work
Click to expand...

you mean to open a studio, surely you would know a little more about photography before opening a studio, the questions you ask are very basic, or have i got the wrong end of an enormous stick ? :shrug:

oh and jsut to help, get the lens its amazing, im constantly amazed by its potential. i really have to think hard if i need another lens like it as it does me jsut fine. id happily show you my best pic with it, if you dont mind cats ?
 
not opening a studio.

Buying the kit to learn with.
The questions asked about a lens were due to not using one so was a general enquiry and to get my head around the lens.
 
ahh ok, my bad.

in that case you cant go wrong with the lens, it will teach you an awful lot.
 
For studio shots you won't be shooting wide open, I shoot at f/8 in the studio, you'll find anywhere between f/8 and f/11 will give you nice sharp results. Depending on the space you have to work with a 50 may be too limiting, I tend to use a Tamron 28-75mm for most of the work and then use a 50 for head/shoulders shots.
 
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