A student took this snap of me yesterday:
He did this as follows:
- He used his Canon 60D with my 50mm f/1.2 lens.
- He used his new 580 EX II speedlight, bounced off the ceiling behind him.
- The camera was set to manual exposure, f/5.6, 1/30th second
- He selected 400 ISO.
Typical “indoors flash” settings.
The 50mm lens was set to f/5.6, so that means you could have done the same with any lens in the range of 50mm. This kind of lens length (meaning 80mm on a full frame body) is great for portraits. Which is why the 50mm (crop body) or 85mm (full-frame body) are such popular lenses.
If you do not yet own a 50mm prime lens, go get one. 50mm f/1.8, or if you can afford it, f/1.4 – or go all the way as I did, and get the 50mm f/1.2, but you will not using it at f/1.2 much.
Michael,
what about de focus shift with the 1.2 lens?
especially 2.0-2.8 aperture?
like to buy an other new one [last year I sold my 1.2, because of the focus shift], but I feel doubt.
whats your advise?
Well, good question. It is not the sharpest lens at those wide open aperture – Canon would probably call it a “dream” lens. And Canon bodies do tend to back- or front-focus… I find adjusting them a bit of a pain. But when you shoot at f/5.6 – f/8.0, it is VERY sharp indeed. So I tend to use it there.