P & P - Standard Focal Length - Exercise 5 -Standard Focal Length

This exercise requires images taken with a standard focal length of  between 40 and 50mm on a full frame camera which will be very close to the focal length our eyes have.

All 3 of the following images were taken with a 50mm fixed focal length lens on a full frame camera

Image 1

Image 2

Image 3

Exercise Learning

a) The problem with fixed focal length lenses is that you have to move the camera to do perform the framing rather than a quick twist of the zoom. This does sometimes mean for portraits you could spend to much time trying to this right. However after a few images the distance the lens needs to be is quickly judged. I try to leave a gap in the frame to allow for potential cropping around the subject(s) later

b) 50mm on a full frame camera will create images that are natural to the eye as this is what we will view with our own eyes, subject to any zoom cropping of the image in post production, these images have none

c) The distance between subject and photographer is a very comfortable distance and I found people are very natural and easy to pose at this distance

d) A small depth of field can be created with fast 50mm lens and subject to location of image can easily be used to blur and uninteresting background, as shown images 1 and 2

e) This particular lens I used is a Nikon 50mm f/1.8 and is very cheap, very fast and very light. The lightness of the lens makes for easy and quick images and appears less obtrusive to subjects. Its a great lens for indoor images