Help choosing a lens

[325Ti]

Afternoon

I'm pretty much clueless when it comes to cameras

Bought my first slr last year when my first child was born - a Nikon 3100 with the standard 18 - 55 lens

Now kid number 2 is on the way i want to invest in a few new bits to help getting better pictures having borrowed bits from my brother in law below

I like soft / natural colours with the background soften / out of focus

Majority of pictures will be of the kids and quite up close, so my questions

1) do I go 35 or 50mm?
2) do I stick with Nikon or buy a different brand?
3) also flashes - is there any difference between additional flashes or are they all similar? Just want a basic lens that I can point at the roof

Thanks

[325Ti]

Lakelord said:

Agree with the above. You want to be using Aperture Priority mode and chose the lowest f number you can. This will give you a shallow depth of field, keeping your subject in focus and blurring the background. Just google Nikon Aperture Priority Mode and I'm sure you will get lots of good hints, tips and results out of the outfit you have without having to invest in further kit.

Maybe it's my lack of knowledge and experience but I've had a play with the settings mentioned above with my lens and then repeated the process with a 35mm lens and the results seemed a lot different

[325Ti]

Simpo Two said:

mrdemon said:

I like soft / natural colours with the background soften / out of focus

that's all about settings on your camera nothing to do with the lens. just learn to use what you have imo

No and yes - a kit lens will only offer limited shallow DOF. In this instance I'd go for a 50mm f1.8.

As for flash, defo get one with a bounce head - personally I'd stick with Nikon but I think Yongnuo (sp?) make one that's compatible. Or get Nikon one s/h from eBay.

'Soft and natural' colours are up to the processing, whether in camera (JPG) or manually later (RAW).

I'm interested as to why the 50mm over the 35mm?

Also - what's the difference in the 2 lens below?


http://www.jessops.com/online.store/categories/pro...

http://www.jessops.com/online.store/categories/pro...

They both seem to be 50mm and f1.8?

[325Ti]

Morbid said:

I use a 50mm f1.8 to photograph my son, and I rarely use any other lens now. If you're interested there are a few (!) shots of him on Flickr.

https://m.flickr.com/#/photos/73553172@N04/

Some fantastic photos there - just a few indeed!

[325Ti]

oddman said:

I've a 35mm1.8 and a 50mm1.4

The 50mm is definitely better for portraits

The 35 is a fantastic landscape carry anywhere lens

Ok thanks

Looking like a 50mm is the winner

Although I think my budget will only stretch to a f1.8 and not the f1.4

[325Ti]

ExPat2B said:

OK for 200 pounds you can transform your photography.

Pick either the Nikon 35mm or 50mm 1.8 lens.

Then get a Yongnuo 560 flash.

Put the flash in S1 mode ( Optical trigger ) in manual mode, at about 1/2 power. Point the flashing leds towards you, and the flash head backwards at a white wall or ceiling with the built in diffuser covering the flash head.

Set the camera to manual, ISO 100, aperture F3.5 to 5.6, shutter speed 1/200

Set on camera flash mode to manual, 1/32 power, rear curtain sync.

Set the focus to single point focus, and compose the shot with the focus point directly on their eye.

Now take a pic - the on camera flash gives the lights a catchlight, and illuminates the iris, and triggers the off camera Yongnuo flash. The yongnuo will turn the entire wall and ceiling into a softbox and give wonderful shading across the face without the horrible flat look of on camera flash or harsh shadows.

You can also do this with a wide aperture for shallow depth of field, but you will need a Yongnuo wireless flash trigger for best results, as the on camera flash is overpowering even at 1/32 when you are at f1.8. You can block the on camera flash with some IR transparent plastic, but this is a bit clumsy compared to a wireless trigger.

Thanks for the reply - I understand about half of it - but will give it a go sometime

Had a look at the Yongnuo 560 - the series 3 is out now - amazon have a few around 45 / 50 quid - is that about right?

It seems quite a complex flash with lots of settings - I had been looking at something more basic - ie it's either on or off - but guessing a better flash will be much better if I get my head around the settings

[325Ti]

Thanks for all the replies

I've decided to get a flash first, play with it and the settings in the camera more then look to get a lens in a month or two when funds allow - still not decided on 35 or 50 yet

Ordered my YN560 last night - bit nervous that I'll not be able to work it due to the manual controls but all the reviews were so positive I decided to give it a go

[325Ti]

Well I got my flash and as expected it's taking a while to get my head around it.

I've sorted out manual mode and the different strengths of flash

My biggest problem is my 1 year doesn't stand still - the camera seems slower with the flash and a lot of my photos are coming out blurry.

I've found using multi flash and sport mode on the camera helps things.

Also when trying to bounce the flash off the ceiling should I use the reflector card or the diffuser cap?

[325Ti]

well im stil trying to learn the flash

thanks for the advice about playing with shutter speeds - not something id done before - as stated im new to all this

i had always tried it in appature mode before - probably where my problems were coming from

shutter speed around 100 seems best and cuts out all the blur etc

below is a random shot from earlier when i was messing about - all advice is welcome about improvments

taken on a Nikon D3100 with 18-55 lens and a 560 flash

[325Ti]

Morning all

Yeah ignore the background and the general content of the photo - I was just playing with the camera trying to get the light levels correct etc

The flash was at 8 I think so still good bit more available

The F stop is one of my issues with my current lens - will be able to go a lot lower when I get my new lens - hopefully next month

[325Ti]

Simpo Two said:

Quite easy to bash into shape using Photoshop.

1) Sort the exposure out with levels and curves
2) Rotate until the verticals are vertical
3) Crop to lose clutter and focus attention on subjects
4) A bit of manual colour adjustment - the original was a bit warm





(personally I think the lighting is too diffuse, which is why the subject looks flat)

Thanks for this - although I'm not planning to get into photoshop just yet

When you say the light is too diffuse - what does this mean?

I had the flash pointed vertically upwards with the white reflector card up if that helps

[325Ti]

tonights efforts

had more of a play with the settings and trying to get the lighting better

also had my first play with the flash off the camera - can you tell which photos they are?

[325Ti]

rottie102 said:

andy-xr said:

For the next trick, do you think you can balance light? Drop the exposure of the room lighting by a stop. So if you werent using flash, it'd be underexposed just a bit. Then add the flash in, from above and left, focused on the child and see what that looks like.

That's what I would do in all of those photos. You don't need all the distraction behind the child, you want all the attention to be on her.

It's very easy to do it with flash, I took this photo yesterday:

during the day in the garden.
But as the others said - DO NOT BE AFRAID OF POST PROCESSING YOUR PHOTOS. It will make them much better than any new lens!

please expain in basic terms how you got the above image? is the black background simply something you created in photoshop afterwards?

[325Ti]

well im back again - still trying to get to play with the flash and still havent managed to buy a lens yet - but i will do soon





are the photos improving? i havent had a chance to learn about the graphs yet and stilll struggle to tell what is under / over exposed and what is the current level of light - but i personally think these look more natural than some of my previous attempts

[325Ti]

Thanks for the photos guys - it really does make a big difference

Am guessing this is all achieved via Photoshop?

[325Ti]

im back again - i finally got myself a lens - went for the 35mm 1.8f

only had a chance for a quick play before the wee lady had to go to bed - will get more time over the coming days

[325Ti]

[325Ti]

[325Ti]

Trying to use the flash off the camera now - any suggestions for how to improve these?