Practice

[denaliwind]

I received a new lens a couple days ago, a 50mm 1.8. It's the first time I've ever worked with a fixed lens and is quite different than the zoom lens I've been using for however many years I've had my camera. I have been a little frustrated with it, but I think I'm beginning to get the hang of it. >.Today I decided it was time to practice and get

Comments

[heimdalalr]

With my vintage minolta lens that has similar depth of field, I like to drape beads or patterned wrapping papers behind the subject since it gives a weird effect to it (and makes all my photos way different despite using the same props all the time).

Like this is a damask printed martha stewart wrapping paper.

It's not gonna be able to do the same things the zoom lens can, but you can always work different lenses to their advantages. I'd also try different lighting set-ups than you'd use for that other lens. Since Myliex is casting a shadow on the bg, you could try pointing a light to the background which will prevent how she seems to blend in and make her pop.

don't be frustrated ^^;;

[denaliwind]

Thank you, thank you for these tips! Super helpful! :D

[snowgray_white]

I shoot almost exclusively with a 50mm 1.8, usually all the way open at 1.8! (I also have a 35mm 1.8, which I use for sales shots or things where I need a lot of stuff to be in focus... or when I want full body shots of my SDs, because with the 50mm I can't get far enough away from them in the good lighting spots of my apartment to get them entirely in the frame!). I have a really tiny apartment so most of the time I'm trying to hide/blur the background as much as possible! I'd agree with the comments above that lighting is important (though I think these shots turned out adorably!). If you're having a hard time with focus, you could either change the aperture (1.8 is the shallowest depth of field), or you could try, instead of focusing with the lens, focus by moving yourself back and forth until the part of the subject that you want in focus is in the focused part of the shot, if that makes sense? I'm pretty nearsighted so I usually cheat and use autofocus (with the focus points on the doll's eyes, if I can get that to work),