damians personal blog

I'm not talkin about a near death experience, it's about photography. I'd like to share a revelation I had yesterday: the power of an 50mm f1.8 objective.

The image above is a part of an 3456 x 2304 pixel image with the following EXIF data:

• ISO Speed 400 (Filmepfindlichkeit / Sensibilité)
• Shutter 1/50 (Belichtungszeit / Vitesse d’obturation)
• Exposure Bias -1.33 (Belichtungskorrektur / Correction d’exposition)
• Aperture 1.8 (Blende / Ouverture)
• Focal length 50mm (Brennweite / Longueur focale)
• Flash Off (Blitz / Flash)

The shot was taken in a train at night, thus very lousy light conditions. I am completely amazed by the possibilites this offers as I am used to an objective with aperture values ranging from 3.5 (18mm) to 5.0(40mm) to 5.6 (59mm) to 6.3 (195mm). In such light conditions (train at night) I wouldn't even have tried a shot because I wouldn't want to be disappointed by a motion blurred image.

Another advantage of a focal length of 50mm is that you don't have to hold absolutely still - I even took shots with 1/30 and they were just slightly blurred. The next image (400, 1/125, 1.8, 50mm) is an old lady sitting about 3m away from me to give an impression of the angle you can capture.

And finally, a test of the close-up capabilities of this little wonder of optics: my jeans at a distance of 45 cm. Though it isn't a spectacular ratio as of a true macro objective You can capture quite a lot of details. And the depth field is very small, thus giving beautiful portraits at short distance.

(I didn't say I was a beautiful model but You could take beautiful pictures!)