Portraits with a 50mm f/1.4...

[Remorhaz]

I recently took delivery of a Sigma 50mm F1.4 EX DG HSM lens for my Nikon D90 (the Australian distributor arranged a price match against a grey market supplier so it was $454 delivered (instead of around $800) - I ordered on Tuesday afternoon and it was delivered and waiting at my office on Thursday morning so have to be extremely happy with that ).

As it happened my eldest daughter (the last image) is in the annual school play which was performing that night and the next and as I'm sort of the unofficial school photographer it was a perfect opportunity to try out the brand new lens with candid childrens portraits and indoors ambient low light photography - essentially the two prime reasons I bought the lens

Here are a couple of my first shots with the lens - interested to see what you think... obviously never having had/used an f/1.4 lens before my temptation is to shoot everything at f/1.4 and have insanely shallow depth of field and creamy backgrounds. As this was all candid photography and pretty fast paced I used auto focus for everything but I do generally select which focus point I use - however I can see that I have to be much more careful with focus at f/1.4 and if I take more formal portraits with time available I'd probably use manual focus and take my time.


NIKON D90 + 50.0 mm f/1.4 @ 50 mm,1/200 sec at f / 3.5, ISO 200


NIKON D90 + 50.0 mm f/1.4 @ 50 mm,1/500 sec at f / 1.4, ISO 200


NIKON D90 + 50.0 mm f/1.4 @ 50 mm,1/100 sec at f / 1.4, ISO 200

[aim54x]

Good to see a post from you mate. The Shitma 50mm f/1.4 often gets good writeups, and from the looks of things you have gotten your hands on a pretty good copy.

It is also great to hear tht someone else has discovered, and taken advantage of CR Kennedy's offer to match grey pricing.

Cant wait to see more images from this lens

[gstark]

obviously never having had/used an f/1.4 lens before my temptation is to shoot everything at f/1.4 and have insanely shallow depth of field and creamy backgrounds.

And that is a major temptation.

But just because you have that facility doesn't mean that you should use it all the time: it's there for if and when you need it.

Play with the lens at varying aperture settings and learn where its sweet spots lie. That's the key to using this sort of glass, with the benefits of optical speed to be used as needed.