Photography News Issue 43

Photography News | Issue 43 | absolutephoto.com

Technique 35

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Get more fromyour standard lens Improve your standard lens technique with these easy-to-follow tips

PART 2

2 Shoot wide open in bright light

If you’ve invested in a standard prime like a 50mm f/1.4, you’ll find that using the widest apertures can be very appealing. The shallow depth-of-field you get allows you to separate the subject from the background, keeping them in sharp focus while the rest of the scene blurs, and this is especially useful when a backdrop is messy or distracting. But try setting the widest apertures in bright light, like on a sunny day and you can get a nasty surprise. The picture may overexpose, or you may not be able to shoot at all. This is because, while a very wide aperture lets in lots of light, the shutter speed can’t go quickly enough to compensate, having hit the highest speed possible. To show the error, the shutter speed may blink (as shown below), or read ‘hi’. Instead of using a smaller aperture, first dial in the lowest ISO, often 100 or 200. If the picture is still overexposing, you’ll need to fit an neutral density (ND) filter. An ND cuts the light entering the lens, and that amount is governed by the strength of the filter. So, in aperture-priority mode (A or Av), a one stop ND (called an ND2, or ND 0.3), will lower the shutter speed by a stop; a two stop ND (ND4 or ND 0.6) will lower it by two stops. This is often enough to keep you shooting.

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1 Move your feet If you’re working with a standard prime lens, you might initially find the lack of other focal lengths restricting; but stick with it and you’ll soon find it can help you produce better images. While zoom lenses can make photographers a bit lazy, the restriction of just one focal length makes you work harder in your composition. You’ll get better at framing, and more likely to see, and correct, problems within the composition. It’s not that prime lenses automatically make better pictures, but learning to use them can make better photographers. The process of moving your feet instead of turning a zoom ring can also mean you’re more likely to investigate the subject, finding new and more interesting angles on it. This could be as simple as framing the subject in a way that’s different to how you’d normally do it, such as the more interesting angle on the platform above. What’s more, by keeping to a standard focal length and moving your feet, rather than zooming in or out, you’ll get a much more natural view of the scene, rather than the compressed perspective of a telephoto lens, or the huge angle of view of a wide-angle lens that makes the foreground seemmuch larger than the background.

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3 Blur backgroundsmore easily

Shooting with a standard prime, you’re likely to have wide maximum apertures like f/1.4, f/1.8 or f/2 at your disposal. These make blurring the background to your subject fairly easy, as long as you do it in the right way. But if you need to shoot at a more limited aperture, like f/4 or f/5.6 (for example when you want to keep more of your subject sharp), you can get more blur with careful positioning of the subject. In aperture-priority mode (A or Av), set the aperture required, then focus on the subject and take your first shot. Now, if possible, move the subject further from the background, while keeping them the same distance from the camera. Refocus and shoot again. Compare the two shots and you’ll see that, in the second, the background is more blurred. The closer that you move the subject to the camera (and away from the background), the more pronounced the effect will be. But be warned: shooting close-up portraits at 50mm – like a head and shoulders framing – you’ll start to notice some distortion in the subject’s features.

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