Advocating 50mm
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
The camera equipment is not what excites me most about this business, but yet there tools that I could not do without and which influence directly on my image and my style.
The 50 mm is included. When I go through my library of images, I realize that 70% of my images are made with this focal length. When I got back seriously into photography, I tried a lot of zoom lens (zoom) without ever finding anything of convincing for what I was looking for.
I'm finally back to my first love because the 50mm is actually the first goal I used the quick reflex silver that my father lent me when I was 10.
Today, I use the 50mm for several reasons:
At one time, this lens was proposed to office with boxes and been widely disseminated. The technology is so successful and inexpensive. Today, even entry-level 50mm (f1.8) worth hundreds of euro offers image quality that many zoom lenses more expensive are not entitled.
If the focal length reduces costs, it also reduces the backpack. Apart from the ultra high end models that open to f1.2 (if you had € 1400 you did not know what to do ...), the 50 remain fairly compact and light, qualities that I particularly during long hikes. It also helps to keep quiet and do not have a "monster" super light screwed to the case and slide easily into your pocket if you change your goal frequently.
The fixed focal length required to move rather than simply turning the zoom ring and keep your feet nailed to one place. Each variation requires framing to move (sometimes several centimeters), to turn around his subject, trying to work ... it pushes these pictures I found more precisely, and directly affects the quality of his compositions.
Technically speaking, these objectives provide a large opening and can work in conditions of very low light sensitivity without much up. I also like playing with low depth of field in my images, in order to highlight the main subject of his environment. The large openings of the 50 offer all the fun of playing between the foreground and background blur net.
I particularly like the portrait work with the 50mm lens because it is the vision that gives the closest to the human eye. The images produced have, in my opinion, a more realistic, more "authentic" as short as focal 24 mm by examples. But what seems most important is the relationship that requires focal with her: there's no talk of cheating by taking photos on the fly as one might do with longer focal lengths. The 50th requires proximity with the "model" which obliges to have his agreement. In other words, it first requires an exchange, a discussion, a complicity that inevitably will be felt in the image.
In my case, this is part of my approach. Me not looking to just shoot people, but as far as possible to convey emotion, charisma, or charm they exude. By "discipline" and it requires honesty on this point, the 50mm is the ideal tool for me and indispensable.
To end this post, if you intend to buy your first digital SLR, the absolute fly zoom sold with the kit (often 18-55 mm opens up to f3, f5 see 5, 6). Construction is often poor image quality really little valued, and you would restrain openings miserably low lights that are often the most interesting.
Consider buying a body only and offer you a little (or step) 50 mm, even entered a range. Think also of older lenses found used for less than a mouthful of bread and that mount easily on the digital camera via adapter rings. I still use the lens of my "childhood" (a 50mm f1, 8 Zuiko OM10 once mounted on my father's) in relief, and I found even better than some recent targets ... and 10 times stronger! !!!!!!!!
It'll just rummage through the attic or running in the nearest camera store. 
