# New to it all. Canon 6d, 50mm f/1.4



## tamnicole (Jul 20, 2015)

_Hello all!

I've been a "phone photographer" for the past two years and absolutely love taking photos. I finally decided it was time to take the plunge and buy some gear. I know NOTHING about cameras, lenses, etc. and spent a lot of time researching... I still feel pretty clueless. 

I ended up purchasing the *Canon 6D and the Canon 50mm f/1.4*

I want to excel in portrait photography. I would ideally like to be well rounded: single, couples, family, newborn. 

Was my lens choice "ok" for my goals? Recommendations? Where do I start? I purchased a few books and have even researched a few local classes. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance._


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## jaomul (Jul 20, 2015)

6d is very nice. 50mm f1.4 is nice. Some find 50mm to short for portraits on full frame but of course it can be done, just don't go to close to subject for head shots.

There is loads of great info on thephotoforum. You tube has an endless supply of great tutorials. A lot recommend Bryan Peterson book "understanding exposure" 

Welcome to the forum


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## Bryston3bsst (Jul 20, 2015)

tamnicole said:


> _
> I ended up purchasing the *Canon 6D and the Canon 50mm f/1.4*
> 
> Where do I start?
> ...



Went from a phone to a 6D......that's quite a leap. 

I think the 50 might be a little short for portraiture as well. Jaomul's advice in that regard is very good.

The very first thing you need to do is sit with your camera and the owner's manual and get to the point where you know exactly what everything does and you can make any changes in your settings easily. The next most important thing is to be able to realize when and why you are making any changes. That's the part that is going to take a fair amount of time and practice and it may, probably will, be a little frustrating for you. 

Initially, you can set the camera to full auto and at least you can begin using and enjoying it. Then I'd suggest you explore the more creative modes on the camera so you can get to a point where you are able to make it do more of what _you envision _rather than letting the camera makes decisions for you. 

Good luck.


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## tamnicole (Jul 20, 2015)

Bryston3bsst said:


> tamnicole said:
> 
> 
> > _
> ...


Thank you so much for the quick response. It was a pretty big leap but I wanted to purchase something that I could grow into rather than buying something that I would quickly grow out of. I see just from reading that it could get a little frustrating, not fully understanding, that is. Though, I'm very determined.

Could I ask you what lens you recommend over the 50mm f1.4 for portraits?

Thank you again for your time.


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## tamnicole (Jul 20, 2015)

jaomul said:


> 6d is very nice. 50mm f1.4 is nice. Some find 50mm to short for portraits on full frame but of course it can be done, just don't go to close to subject for head shots.
> 
> There is loads of great info on thephotoforum. You tube has an endless supply of great tutorials. A lot recommend Bryan Peterson book "understanding exposure"
> 
> Welcome to the forum


Thank you so much for your response. I actually just received that book in the mail a few days ago! I will be starting it up today. Glad to see I made a good choice!

I am eager to learn and will be doing lots of reading on thus forum and will definitely venture over to YouTube.

Could you recommend a better portrait lens, perhaps? Not that I will buy it this moment but it would be great to know! 

Thank you so much.


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## JacaRanda (Jul 20, 2015)

Here is some information you should find useful.

How to Choose the Perfect Portrait Lens


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## Bryston3bsst (Jul 20, 2015)

I usually shoot portraiture at something above 80mm. I have a 24-105 f4 that's good for indoor and a 70-200 f2.8 that's good outdoors. 

You're going to get about as many answers on lens choice as there are responders so I'm not sure it's going to be much help.


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## jaomul (Jul 20, 2015)

As said above you will get many answers to a good portrait lens, and your 50 will do good portrait shots also.

It is generally considered 85mm is a very flattering focal length for portraits on a full frame camera such as your 6d. Fast lenses with a large aperture (small number) allow you to separate background from subject. This combination points directly at canons own EF85mm f1.8, an affordable, excellent portrait lens


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## Bryston3bsst (Jul 20, 2015)

Bear in mind that focal length and aperture play off of each other with regard to depth of field. With a constant aperture setting and with a fixed distance from your subject as you increase focal length depth of field is effected. There's kind of a fine line where just the right amount of DOF resides. And different shooters like varying DOF for different situations.

Here's a handy chart in that regard: http://media.digitalcameraworld.com...5/Depth_of_field_photography_cheat_sheet1.jpg


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## Derrel (Jul 20, 2015)

A 50mm lens on FF gives a naturalistic type of view of things...the size of foreground objects looks natural, the size of background objects looks natural, and the width of the background as seen behind the subject looks "normal"--neither unusually widened, nor unusually narrowed. This all applies from about seven feet distant and out to Infinity. At close distances, say inside of seven feet or so, the 50mm lens will tend to exaggerate the size of closer objects, such as noses, chins, or outstretched hands, legs, feet, arms, and so on. So--*keep your distance with the 50mm*. You have a modern, high-performance sensor with plenty of resolution capabilities, so if you want a tight headshot DO NOT move in  close--stay at 7 or 8 feet, and then CROP the image, to maintain proper size relationships.

For two-person, three-person, and group shots, the 50mm lens will work just fine. A 50mm is pretty good lens in most cases. Not a "great" lens, but pretty good. And I am totally serious about avoiding shooting it from too close a distance; the lens is simply not very good for people work at distances less than around seven feet. Unless you want to make noses look big, and make chins look big, and so on.

A 50mm also offers a wide range of depth of field options, from very shallow with blown-out backgrounds on small-area photos shot at closer ranges and wide f/stops like f/2 or f/2.5 or f/2.8, down to pretty deep DOF on things like big group shots made at f/11 at 25 or 30 feet. At moderate aperture settings like f/4 or f/5.6, a 50mm lens offers a very nice background rendering on many types of one-,two,three-, and four-person group shots and also on single-person, full-length shots.


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## TrolleySwag (Jul 22, 2015)

I'm playing around with my new 6d  & 50 1.8. I'm loving it so far. I get good shots, when the sun doesn't wash them out. I really want to know if the jump up to 1.4 is worth it.


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## jaomul (Jul 22, 2015)

TrolleySwag said:


> I'm playing around with my new 6d  & 50 1.8. I'm loving it so far. I get good shots, when the sun doesn't wash them out. I really want to know if the jump up to 1.4 is worth it.



Thats about a 250 dollars question


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## TCampbell (Jul 22, 2015)

TrolleySwag said:


> I'm playing around with my new 6d  & 50 1.8. I'm loving it so far. I get good shots, when the sun doesn't wash them out. I really want to know if the jump up to 1.4 is worth it.



The 50mm f/1.8 II is now a 25 year old lens.  It's upside is it's extremely low cost and in-focus areas are sharp.  Out of focus areas have poor quality blur due to the 5-blade aperture which does not create a very smooth blur quality.  It's sometimes described as a "nervous" or "jittery" quality.  Other negatives are that the focus motor is slow and noisy.  It doesn't have full-time manual focus.  It doesn't have a focus distance indicator scale.

Canon just replaced that lens with the new 50mm f/1.8 STM.  It uses a 7 blade aperture which substantially improves the quality of the out-of-focus blur.  It uses the STM focus motor which operates much faster and almost completely silent.  They did not increase the price (still $125).  It has the IDENTICAL optics to the previous 50mm f/1.8.

The 50mm f/1.4 USM has the faster USM focus motor, it does have a focus distance indicator, and it has an 8-blade aperture for even smoother blur quality.  It also has a better physical build quality.  It is the best of the three options (and of course it also has a lower focal ratio.)

If I were buying a 50mm lens today, I'd still go for the 50mm f/1.4 over the f/1.8 versions (even with the improved f/1.8 STM version).


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## TrolleySwag (Jul 22, 2015)

Now I got to decide between the 50 1.4 and the 85 1.8.


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