Friends at f/1.4

[Thiago Sigrist]

Hi again folks!
Long time no post, eh? So, I'll try to fix that with 3 shots I got yesterday, at a friend's birthday party.

All of them were taken with the Nikon D70 at ISO 800, 50mm f/1.4 lens at f/1.4, with an exposure time of 1/30. Hope you enjoy them!

http://www.ic.unicamp.br/%7Era002560/guilherme.jpg

http://www.ic.unicamp.br/%7Era002560/veronica.jpg

http://www.ic.unicamp.br/%7Era002560/danilo.jpg

Thanks in advance for your attention!

-- thiago

[Angelo]

These are beautiful, warm photos. How did you achieve the center focus on #2?

[lynnma]

Welcome back Thiago :clap

these are great shots.. lovely dof and crisp crisp.. and I love the warmth. I so glad I just bought a 50mm 1.4 - you give me ideas..:clap :thumb

[bfjr]

#2 must be a lucky # today !!
Excellent shots, really like #2. You could read so much into her expression and the overall feel of the picture, just great. :thumb

[ginger_55]

In that case, he did shoot it at 1.4...........

Cool photos, I agree with #2. I like the others, too.

Stay around, miss you when you are not here.

ginger

[USAIR]

Great love #2 best :lust

Thanks
Fred

[Thiago Sigrist]

Angelo: on that #2 photo, I set the autofocus to AF-S (single shot) and single area, and used the center AF sensor to focus on the girl's eyes. Worked great! :-)
Something very important about the 50mm f/1.4 is that the DOF with it is *very* thin, so the 'focus & recompose' often doesn't work. The lens must be critically focused, so you either have to compose the shot and then lock focus, or forget AF altogether and focus the lens manually. I can't stress how critical is focusing when shooting at f/1.4! Many people say the lens is 'too soft' wide open, but this is often due to user error (bad focusing) instead of actual lens softness. :-)

Lynn: you make my day when you say I gave you ideas to work with your 50mm f/1.4! Those are great lenses, and these kinds of situations I depict here are the best for them! So, I'm looking forward to seeing some shallow DOF goodness from you! :-)

bfjr: I agree with you, #2 is my favourite too. I like it a lot because it actually shows something happen, and that's a very special moment! I wish the photo would record the music, you'd probably love it! :-)

Ginger: thanks again! You know I really enjoy looking at your pictures as well, and I'm more than happy to be able to share them here! :-)

Fred: thanks a lot, man! Both for taking your time to look at my pictures and for liking my favourite one! ;-)

Thanks for stopping by, and take care, you all!

-- thiago

[Andy]

nice work, thiago. glad you're back. post some more pitchas, will ya?

[4labs]

These are wonderful.. I stopped using my 50mm 1.4 because I wasnt able to focus I am going to have to give it another try.. Thnxs for the explanation..

[snapapple]

These are wonderful Thiago. I love No.2! It tells a nice story and the focus on the girls eyes is wonderful. I was wondering how you did that. Thanks for the explanation. I always have trouble with grain when I use ISO 800. I also wonder how you got your shots so crisp. Great job. :thumb

[Yuri Pautov]

Each of 3 is wonderful!
What were the light conditions there?
Spasibo,
Yuri

[gubbs]

Lovely shots Thiago, so expressive!

[Thiago Sigrist]

Andy: Thanks a lot, man! I'll try my best to keep the photos a-coming! :-)

4labs: Thanks for your kind words... So, give the 50mm another chance! It's a great lens... If you have difficulty getting everything in focus with it, try it at f/4~5.6! It's superbly sharp at those f-stops!

snapapple: Thanks so much for your warm compliments! About the high ISO noise, I think I'll make a long post (soon enough) explaning how I use noise reduction in order to get the best from those noisy shots. So stay tuned! :-)

Yuri: Your nice words made my day! :-)
About the light, there were only a couple of incandescent bulbs there... But it was just amazing what their warm light could do for the photos.

gubbs: Thanks so much, friend! I think that *people* are expressive, and I feel happy if my photos can communicate that!

Take care, you all!

-- thiago