What do you do when you get a new lens or are gifted one? Do you do a lot of research? Do you look at the manual (like I tell you to?) Or, do you jump in full of curiosity about what your new toy can do?
I admit it. This time I was so keen to start using the 50mm lens I got for Christmas, I jumped right in!
I am working on a ‘new lens’ blog post for February but, for now, I want to show you a photograph of Thomas the tuxedo and share a few details of the shot for the Kitties Blue Selfies Hop.
Tom The Tux Close-Up
The day of the photograph is bright, but not too sunny and as I am using Av (A) mode the camera decided ISO 125 seemed like a good idea. The shutter speed is 1/60 which is not super fast. (Fast would be 1/250 +).
F-Stop Experimenting
The one thing I was able to experiment with that made a difference to Tom’s close up is the F-stop. this has allowed me to get a sharp focus on his right eye and be a lot sharper than I have achieved before.
TIP: If you check out my cat closeup post, the F-stop controls show how sharp your picture is and how much soft fuzz you can have in the background.
With my new 50mm new lens, I have learned that this camera lens can go right down to F1.4. This is a very shallow setting. Had I used this instead of F3.5, Tom’s nose tip would be super sharp but his eyes and fur would have been blurry.
For every reasonable photograph I take with the new lens, there are plenty of almosts, and ‘not quite rights’, as I experiment with how close, or far away I need to be.
Thankfully the camera is digital and I don’t have to print out every photograph.
What do you think of Tom’s close up?
Marjorie is a blogger, award-winning photographer and smartphone moviemaker who loves cats.
Awwdorable Selfie, Tom💗😸Pawkisses for a Happy Tuesday🐾😽💞
That is gorgeous!
I love my 50mm lens 🙂
That is a lovely close up portrait of Tom. Our mom likes using a mid range zoom lens (50 – 230 mm) when taking outdoor portraits of us so she doesn’t have to get too close.
Absolutely gorgeous selfie!
Wow! What a pawsome photo of Tom.
You did well!! Lovely close up!
Petcretary might have to go back to her ‘real’ camera, as she had to ‘donate’ the iPhone6 she was using…its a P & S one, but she still doesn’t know/use all the capabilities it has…a Canon SX40, not new at all, but she loves it.
That is a great selfie. Tom is a cutie.
I have found it is very difficult to get a good close up of a cat’s face because they move too much, especially if you put a camera in their face. That movement means you need a faster shutter speed and thus a smaller depth of field. All that considered, I think Tom looks great. Keeping the eyes in focus is the most important thing and you can see from the photo that he has beautiful eyes.
Thank you. And yes he is very handsome!
Beautiful!
That is a most wonderful close up, we love it!
It just shows what a hard thing it is to achieve a great result and how good your pictures are becoming. With a fractional change in the point of focus and with shallow depth of field, you can blur things you do not want to or didn’t expect.
Purrs for a lovely picture
ERin
We love Tom’s closeup! So glad you’re having fun with that new lens, Marjorie. 🙂