YEARG! Foiled by F/2.0

Oh one other thing. Then that is when I would focus on the eye and then recompose the shot.

I don't know, I am still learning, but this works good for me.

pagefile wrote in post #2258772
Ok all is good there.

This is whats helping me. I dont know if this would have worked with out the uses of your flash.

I have found that if I set the dial to M then set exposure at 125 or 160 and set the aperture to 5.6. I am getting great shots, but that is with a flash.

Now if I was to do it without a flash, I would lower the exposure to maybe between 5 and 15.

I don't know if that will help you or not, hope it will some. You may know all this already.

Yeah I have a pretty good understanding of this stuff. If I was shooting with the flash I would use f/5.6 and around 1/100th as well. The only problem being that flash kills the mood so to speak. I probably should have tried anyways just for fun. f/5.6 is considered a good aperature for shooting a face. I believe you can focus anywhere on the face and there should be decent depth of field to get the whole face in focus.

I was purposly shooting around f/2.0 to really narrow the depth of field. I didn't realize how narrow it was at f/2.0, 4.2 inches is pretty narrow. I wished I was better at judging focus and depth of field in the view finder, but I find that difficult.

Looking at the EXIF data on that shot I had lots of room to play. I shot 200ISO, so I could have gone to 800 ISO and stopped down the aperature 2ish stops, or also picked up a little bit of shutter speed at the same time. It was shot at 1/60th, which is on the slow side for a 50mm lens.

pagefile wrote in post #2258788
Oh one other thing. Then that is when I would focus on the eye and then recompose the shot.

I don't know, I am still learning, but this works good for me.

I have used this technique quite a bit before. The problem is that the Digital rebel will lock focus and exposure when you do that. I wish I could do these two actions separately, but I'm not sure I can....

Thinking about it I should be able to set up the shot the way I want. Press the * button and press the shutter halfway to get the exposure. Then hold the * button down put the focus point on the eye and let go of the shutter and press it again to lock focus.... recompose and then shoot. A little round about, but possible I guess.....

Also as mentioned earlier with a narrow DOF lens like the 50mm f/1.8, focus recompose doesn't always work nicely. You knock the image out of focus when you recompose....

AHHHH!! So much to think about when shooting.

OK so you have a good grasp of it all. Now its just finding what will work best in that situation. You will find it.
Do you have a flash diffuser? I have one and I keep it on most times. Maybe that could help.

pagefile wrote in post #2258868
OK so you have a good grasp of it all. Now its just finding what will work best in that situation. You will find it.
Do you have a flash diffuser? I have one and I keep it on most times. Maybe that could help.

No I haven't gotten one yet, but I shoot with bounce flash most of the time when indoors like this. It gives very natural looking lighting, and no typical flash shadow. It would still kill the lighting from the makeup-mirror and bathroom lights though. That's what I mean by killing the ambient lighting.

Well I don't know, maybe one of the pros will jump in on this and say "this is what works good for waht you are looking for".
I will be watching this thead, I want to know what would help make this shot with the mode your looking to get. It is something I would like to try.

aacmckay wrote in post #2258845
I have used this technique quite a bit before. The problem is that the Digital rebel will lock focus and exposure when you do that. I wish I could do these two actions separately, but I'm not sure I can....

Thinking about it I should be able to set up the shot the way I want. Press the * button and press the shutter halfway to get the exposure. Then hold the * button down put the focus point on the eye and let go of the shutter and press it again to lock focus.... recompose and then shoot. A little round about, but possible I guess.....

Maybe digital rebel is a different term, but... I can do this with my 350d. Are you talking about the 300d or the 350? I'm guessing the 300.

I'm talking about the 300D. I'm just about to get it out to see if I can use the technique I mentioned or not. I do wish I had the functionality of the 20D or 30D where you can focus with *, and then get the exposure with the shutter halfway pressed. This seems to be the best way to go about things. Sadly I'm at least a year from getting a 30D I think.

Shoot Manual. Meter for what you want then recompose.

cdi-ink.com wrote in post #2259161
Shoot Manual. Meter for what you want then recompose.

You know what the funny part is. I shoot with a Nikon FE quite regularily and this is the technique that I end up having to use.... WHY DO I ALWAYS FORGET TO DO THIS WHEN I HAVE A MORE ADVANCED CAMERA IN MY HAND. THINK SIMPLE!!!!!

aacmckay wrote in post #2259070
I'm talking about the 300D. I'm just about to get it out to see if I can use the technique I mentioned or not. I do wish I had the functionality of the 20D or 30D where you can focus with *, and then get the exposure with the shutter halfway pressed. This seems to be the best way to go about things. Sadly I'm at least a year from getting a 30D I think.

Yup, its a great way to do things, looks like you bought one model to early!

It's made things a bit easier for me, thats for certain.

I'd imagine there must be some sort of firmware hack to get this functionality?

DiscoLizard wrote in post #2259212
Yup, its a great way to do things, looks like you bought one model to early!

It's made things a bit easier for me, thats for certain.

I'd imagine there must be some sort of firmware hack to get this functionality?

Yeah true I did buy early. But I've had my 300D since may 2004 I believe. I wouldn't give up the 2+ years I've had it for the extra functionality.

I have to check the firmware hack again. I had it installed for a while, but I ran into some focus problems with another lens a few months back. It started happening right after I uninstalled the hack, so I uninstalled it just to verify that it wasn't the issue.

aacmckay wrote in post #2259269
Yeah true I did buy early. But I've had my 300D since may 2004 I believe. I wouldn't give up the 2+ years I've had it for the extra functionality.

I have to check the firmware hack again. I had it installed for a while, but I ran into some focus problems with another lens a few months back. It started happening right after I uninstalled the hack, so I uninstalled it just to verify that it wasn't the issue.

Yup, fair point. And I bought one model too early for anti-dust on the 400d. And we both bought too early for the 700D... You could wait forever for the perfect feature-set and you'd never actually take any photos.

I need to work at getting the right apertures at the right distances too. I'm not sure it will ever be second nature.

DiscoLizard wrote in post #2259382
Yup, fair point. And I bought one model too early for anti-dust on the 400d. And we both bought too early for the 700D... You could wait forever for the perfect feature-set and you'd never actually take any photos.

Yup gotta jump on things at some point. If you're always waiting for the next model, you'll be waiting forever. Especially these days as the new models come out soooooo fast. Makes it hard to know when to jump in.

DiscoLizard wrote in post #2259382
I need to work at getting the right apertures at the right distances too. I'm not sure it will ever be second nature.

I think it will. Other aspects of photography have become second nature. No reason why DOF wouldn't too. Just takes longer to learn I think.

I have posted another pic from the series in another thread. Check it out if you like:
https://photography-on-the.net …php?p=2259455#p​ost2259455