In the last post, I ranted about the merits of going prime. I put it to the test last week because I brought only one lens with me ... my trusty 85mm.
Admittedly, it was free-form shooting. No rules, no constraints ... just shoot what interests me. But it involved all types of shots - indoor, outdoor, people, buildings, animals, landscapes ...
Verdict: I agree with myself! Prime makes for prime shooting.
Take the picture above. This most unfriendly kitty was quite aloof with me. I feared she was going to bolt so I remained a few steps away. No matter how many "here kitty, kitty"s I gave her, she would NOT look at me. The best I got was, "Talk to the paw". Maybe she's tired of all the paparazzi.
With a zoom, it would have been my tendency to pull in tighter and fill the frame with more kitty and less sidewalk. With the 85mm at this distance there was a bunch of open frame. I decided to put those cool cobblestones up front and use DoF to isolate the subject. A zoom lens wouldn't have given me the blur-power (f/1.2) that my prime gives me. All-in-all, a better shot than I would've taken with a zoom.
Note, too, that the amazingly huge f/1.2 aperture produces such a hair-thin DoF that just the slight turn of this kitty's head moved her eyes out of the plane of focus. Wow! Be warned. I should've used f/2.0.
More kitty pics and OSJ pics to come. Here is another example of framing I wouldn't have chosen with a zoom.
Love and peace,
Glen
Glen
4 comments:
So true. I have never looked at it like that before.
Love the second photo, it ist so peaceful and right for meditation;-) Sunny greetings
I like the shots you poster here and on smugmug, thanks for sharing!
Your last blog entry got me thinking, so I'm experimenting with fixing my zoom at a various focal length to get an idea of what a prime of that length would give me. Granted, I won't get the same shot because the better primes have an aperture you can drive a truck through, but it does get me thinking about what might be a good prime (for me). I keep coming back to how I loved shooting my old film camera with a 50mm. The equivalent on the cropped sensor would be ~30mm. The new canon 24mm rocks, but the price does not :-(
So many lenses, so little time ...
Wayne - Yeah, I was headed to the store to buy a 50mm prime for that normal perspective on a FF camera but opted for the 85mm. My next prime is likely to be a 35mm because, as you mention, it is such a useful length. You can have some context in the shot and still be reasonably close to your subjects. Hey ... good glass is worth it :) Peace, Glen
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