Len(ii) Portraits with Prime Lens - Requirements and expectations

In Part 1 of our lens selection exercise, Daddy share his newbie motivation for Portraits. From blogwalking, we see beautiful baby pictures, each telling a compelling story.

We dived into realm of DSLR, and you know the rest of the story (or pictures).
As our skills improve, we can expect even nicer photos to come our way, hooray !!

If you are still considering a DSLR, read our post on the benefits of DSLR.


1) Research
Just when Daddy thought he is satisfied with his DSLR toy, he overheard Prime lens. (also called Fast lens, or Portrait lens).
Primes are suitable for Portraits, having a narrow depth-of-field (DOF), you can easily get a blur background (bokeh), and sharpen your “subject”.

Now, it will be nice if we can grab some candids on our four little models :)
In Part 2 of our lens-story, we would like to share our Prime lens-selection journey.

Sample DOF effect. Only subject is sharp, and everything else blur.


As we investigate further, more jargons appear.
- manual/auto focus
-aperture F1.4 or F1.8 , how-many-stops
- DSLR crop-factor (eg x 1.5, or full frame )
- creamy bokeh, edible?

Luckily wiki can help explain most stuffs in layman terms.
Refer to our "Resources" section" below for more links.

Q1 - At the end of the research, ask ourselves. What is our objective and requirement for getting a new lens? (if clueless, it means we do not need a lens now)

2) Shortlist and Simulation
After identifying our objective (Tele,wide,Portrait,Landscape, etc), start shortlisting.
- budget and performance (need to compromise)
- requirements
- special considerations? (maybe usable for future when we upgrade our DSLR?)

Q2 - Should we use one lens for all (eg 18-200, covering 18mm Wide, portrait 50mm , 200mm Tele) or multiple lens for different occasion?
- during outings, do we have time to swap the lens? and risk missing candid moments
- do we want to carry heavier one-for-all lens?
- is performance or convenience more critical for us?

Any lens can do a portrait, but Prime lens are supposed to provide higher quality snapshots, under low light (inhouse).

a) With our kit-lens, we can try to simulate what a prime lens 35 or 50 mm "sees".
DOF - Daddy's bokeh experiment with Nikon 18-55 lens.


b) iso - We can repeat our trials with iso from 100 to 6400
c) shutter - Repeat shots for shutter speed from fast to slow
See how picture turn out differently with various settings.

d) Disable Auto-focus (AF), and try manual-focus (MF). MF can still focus sharply on static objects, look at our pens.


Once we understand ISOs, Apertures, ShutterPriorty.. we are rewarded with beautiful pics. With more understanding, we further Finetune our requirements:

- 35mm or 50mm (35mm for confine space)
- select Nikon, Canon, or third parties (sigma, tamron etc)
- F1.4 or F1.8 (the lower the number, more $$ the lens)
- Auto-focus or Manual-focus ( AutoFocus if you are shooting active children in low light.)
- read lens reviews/feedbacks.
- browse sample galleries of our favourite lens at Flickr.



We are now ready to trial and touch some lens.


3) Shopping Tips
- Be thick skin. Do not be afraid to ask questions.
- We need to ask those silly questions, in order to satisfy our selection criteria, and clear our doubts.
- when you go shopping, it is actually the best time to learn !
- bring your own camera, plug in the new lens, snap away.
- Do not bow to salesman pressure. If unsure, walk away. Try another shop!!





4) Other considerations :
- Choose a shop with good feedback and great customer service.
- should I spend more to get the better lens, is the quality/effect worth the extra $$investment?
- If we cannot tell the picture quality difference, pick the cheaper lens
- bring own camera, go take some photos at shop, review and compare your shots at home (not on the small camera LCD)
- Different users got different expectations.. once we are happy , do not compare anymore :p


5) Hands on, shoot away
Bought your lens? This is only the beginning..
Photography requires dedication.
- Keep shooting, explore new skills and frontiers.
- Expose ourselves to new perspectives
- It is always fun to learn (or copy) from some other gurus or forums

End of the day, the photographer is the crucial factor.
Daddy tries to portray a "Story", even before he snaps away.
Camera, is just a tool for Daddy to create his storyboard.


6) Resources (too many to list)

http://www.dpreview.com/
http://www.flickr.com/groups/afsnikkor35mm18/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bernklauova/
http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/nikkor.htm
http://digital-photography-school.com/forum/how-i-took/
http://www.the-digital-picture.com/

Wikis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lens_speed
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depth_of_field
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-number
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokeh

http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/

Video : Nikon 35mm F1.8 --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOU74yKbzsc




Summary

This post took longer to conceive.
Daddy was concerned.. "write too much, talk nonsense"... "if write too little, readers might misunderstand lens-selection is straightforward" :p

Daddy tries to write this post from a newbie's perspective.
Objective of this post is to share the challenges a newbie will encounter, when he go lens- shopping. Although we are using Nikon D5000, we believe lens selection criteria and concepts, are likely similar across different brands.

**disclaimer
DSLR is not necessary, but nice-to-have.
The photographer is as important as his equipment.
With imagination and composition, a passionate compact-camera can kick a DSLR !


Happy shopping !!


We leave you with this doggie pic from Klara
Now, you do not need to be a dog lover to appreciate this panting dog :)
When can Daddy reach this standard :p



Lens story
part i - our motivation and intro
part ii - requirements and research