D70 Kit Lens for Portrait

[glay78]

If you really really want the bokeh, you can create it using PS if your equipment doesn't allow you to get as creamy a bokeh as you want I'm serious about this btw. I know some people who do this and no one's the wiser. It actually looks quite good.

Hint: Use the gaussian blur tool

Yeah agreed but somehow I always got difficulty using the lasso tool to select what I wan to select :cry:

 

[cheersjy]

Hi Taurean and Explorer,
Thanks for the pointers
I tried with my friend's 50mm/f1.8, found that it's something like ExplorerZ mentioned,
quite hard to get 1/2 and 3/4 body photo with good DOF effect, but the face close-up is definitely good if i use the 50mm/f1.8

For me, the cheap but sharp 50mm lens is good enough for casual portraits. Just to share - the photos in this page are all taken with 50mm. But i was not really using f1.8 but 3-4.5 instead. You can blur the background further if u open up the apperture more. Add an ND8 filter if u need to use flash under daylight.

http://www.pbase.com/cheersjy21/yang_ming_mountain

 

[shashin]

For me, the cheap but sharp 50mm lens is good enough for casual portraits. Just to share - the photos in this page are all taken with 50mm. But i was not really using f1.8 but 3-4.5 instead. You can blur the background further if u open up the apperture more. Add an ND8 filter if u need to use flash under daylight.

http://www.pbase.com/cheersjy21/yang_ming_mountain

Hi cheersjy, your photo are really very nice :thumbsup:

Btw, in order to take these 1/2 or 3/4 body potrait, the distance between
you and the model must be quite far right? May I know roughly how far is it? :embrass:
Sorry for my newbie question again :sticktong

 

[cheersjy]

The closest distance i can get, should be 2-4m. Try to get your model further away from the background if you want it to blur more.

Forget about the technical details. To achieve maximum bokeh, the general rule is:
1. Use max apperture
2. Zoom to the max (e.g. 70mm if u are using 18-70 kit lens)
3. Minimize the distance between you and model
4. Maximize the distance between model and the background.

Try it

 

[shashin]

The closest distance i can get, should be 2-4m. Try to get your model further away from the background if you want it to blur more.

Forget about the technical details. To achieve maximum bokeh, the general rule is:
1. Use max apperture
2. Zoom to the max (e.g. 70mm if u are using 18-70 kit lens)
3. Minimize the distance between you and model
4. Maximize the distance between model and the background.

Try it

hi cheersjy, thanks a lot for the pointers :thumbsup:
i will try it he he

btw sorry to check again, for 18-70 kit lens, if i zoom to the max (70mm),
then will not be able to get the max aperture le (will get f4.5 instead of f3.5) :think:

 

[ExplorerZ]

hi cheersjy, thanks a lot for the pointers :thumbsup:
i will try it he he

btw sorry to check again, for 18-70 kit lens, if i zoom to the max (70mm),
then will not be able to get the max aperture le (will get f4.5 instead of f3.5) :think:

no worry, at 70mm f4.5 the DOF is much lesser than at 18mm f3.5. try it to believe. just try to go as close to the model.

 

[ellery]

hi jnet6 and Cactus jACK,
really appreciate and thanks for your information
btw, pls bear with my another newbie question hor, when i adjust the zoom ring of
the lens, the aperture value will change accordingly too even if i hv set to certain
aperture value b4, is this correct? cos thought i set it to a aperture value, then it
will be fixed at that value... :embrass:

]
The lens you have a variable aperature lens - meaning as you zoom out at a certain focal length the aperature will scale down to the lower value. Both lens can work for portraiture - if you want a blurer background then you need to be more careful than if using say a 1.4/1.8/2.8 lens which while should give better quality also costs a lot more, you should be able to work with the lens you have. Only thing is that you need to be careful since you will most proably need to shoot wide open or 1/3 to 2/3 stops from wide open. Meaning be careful in focusing and in movements from yourself and the subject or you will have out of focus pictures. Naturally you may want to be shooting from 6 to 12 feet from subject with backgrounds at least 10 to 30 feet away.Like most things it is better to learn to work with what you have then to wait for the perfect lens to appear until then if you had been shooting think how much practice you would have gotten already.

 

[shashin]

thanks ExplorerZ and ellery,
your advices are very useful to me :thumbsup:

 

[Jeff_Tan]

i also newbie. so if i want to get sharp pictures and fast shuttle spid, so the setting will be ?

ISO 1200 + F/22 + shuttle spid 1/500 ????

sorry i newbie here...

 

[glennyong]

wah.. zeckson's pro techniques !!!! :thumbsup:

 

[ExplorerZ]

i also newbie. so if i want to get sharp pictures and fast shuttle spid, so the setting will be ?

ISO 1200 + F/22 + shuttle spid 1/500 ????

sorry i newbie here...

y do you wan to use f22 and iso1200???
guess its time for you to flip up on some basic photography magazine

 

[Jeff_Tan]

becoz i wan the whole pic to be sharp. i don know leh i'm a newbie... can teach me plz??:cry:

 

[ExplorerZ]

becoz i wan the whole pic to be sharp. i don know leh i'm a newbie... can teach me plz??:cry:

if thats the case, use a wide angle lens at f11 or higher depending on what lens you use. ISO setting follow suit just enough to make the pic non-blurry and keep noise down

 

[Jeff_Tan]

oh ok, if i'm using D70s kit lens izzit the same?? how bout when we takine photo for ppl doing sport??;p

 

[metallilan]

oh ok, if i'm using D70s kit lens izzit the same?? how bout when we takine photo for ppl doing sport??;p

Does this classify as sports??? http://metallilan.multiply.com/photos/photo/36/7 ;p

 

[jnet6]

oh ok, if i'm using D70s kit lens izzit the same?? how bout when we takine photo for ppl doing sport??;p

get a 50mm f1.8

shoot iso 1600, F2, shutter speed 1/3200...
can add flash if you want.
if still not stable enough, mount on a 055proB tripod. :devil:

 

[Jeff_Tan]

F3.5 also can mah?? coz my camera is D70s how bout fireworks??

 

[metallilan]

F3.5 also can mah?? coz my camera is D70s how bout fireworks??

I've been using a D70 and my kit lens for sometime already and i can fairly say its a great all-in-one lens... been shooting lots of random stuff INCLUDING fireworks... the 3.5-4.5 is quite an advantage over the 18-55 D50 kit lens.

 

[Jeff_Tan]

how bout the shutter speed??

 

[ivan]

i also newbie. so if i want to get sharp pictures and fast shuttle spid, so the setting will be ?

ISO 1200 + F/22 + shuttle spid 1/500 ????

sorry i newbie here...

hi jeff,
you might wish to take a look of this link first,
it explains the basic of aperture, shuttle speed and iso...
http://www.canon.co.jp/Imaging/enjoydslr/p_2_005.html
hope it helps