Small DoF and new challenge

Here is one of the reasons I love to shoot with a fast prime.  Particularly one faster than 2.8 or even 1.8.  When you stop down a really fast lens like the 50 1.4G to even f/2 the image becomes sharp and contrasty.  You'd have to go to 2.8 or 3.2 to get the same from most 1.8 lenses.  But, the great thing  about shooting at 2 is you get that crazy narrow depth of field along with nice sharpness which "pops" the subject out.  This works on DX/Crop cameras as well, but on FX the DoF is narrower and really gives you a little more play room.

This is one of the reasons why I almost shoot nothing but fast primes, or at least I prefer them over zooms.  2.8 Zooms are nice and ones like the 24-70 and the 14-24 are amazing, but they can't replace the shallow DoF and even lower light performance of a nice 1.8 or 1.4 lens.  Don't get me wrong here sometimes you NEED a zoom, and those two I mentioned have been on my "LL" Lust List for quite sometime.  They are amazing feats of optical performance.  They rival primes in sharpness, contrast and color... they just wont be as fast and sometimes you need fast.  Whether its for creative purposes or because you are just in light that's too low for even 2.8.

So anyway, whew.  As you can see this little heater has a bit of pop to it, as its shot at F/2 on my Nikkor 50 1.4G.  If you look at the carpet carefully you can even see where the DoF starts and stops.  Highly recommend this lens or the Sigma 50 1.4 HSM.  The Sigma I think is sharper wide open than the Nikkor and has better bokeh than the Nikkor until around F/2-3.2  where I believe the bokeh looks the same and the Nikkor actually shines with better sharpness across the frame.  Either of these guys are just amazing.

New challenge!  Since I am moving soon I am going to be getting nostalgic around here, so I am going to switch the D700 into JPEG mode and shoot with Monochrome settings (Zero sharpness setting, I want that nice soft look).  I will list them so if you want to do it for fun you can try it out.  I will also be spot metering all the while to try some creative ideas in that area.  So Saturday to Saturday is going to be the Sepia Challenge.

If you want to try this yourself here are the JPEG Picture settings I will be using.

1. Monochrome
2. Sharpening 0
3. Contrast 2
4. Brightness 0
5. Toning Sepia 4

There you go!  Have a great weekend!