Welcome to the IHoP v.2

[MKader17 332]

More options here

http://photo.net/canon-eos-digital-camera-forum/00dMTY

Still not what I used.

[MKader17 332]

http://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/62381/how-do-i-determine-the-shutter-count-on-a-eos-60d-body

From here specific link to follow

[MKader17 332]

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9wetBW2pjaxdWkwRHNKNEYxYjQ

This!

[MKader17 332]

Was gong to out that all in one reply but when I tried Ater a couple of times the page would refresh.

I blamed software, which is probably Android software.

[MKader17 332]

Put all that extra out there because I want to try different ones to see if they agree.

[nem 2,019]

My gram surprised me today. She gave me my paps Nintendo and all the games he had. I remember playing that with him when I was younger. I brought that sucker home and hooked it up. Wow the fun I am having! 

[///M5 2,833]

13 hours ago, MKader17 said:

I took a blurry photo and my wife said, "Wow, that's why people spend that much on Cameras"

Nice.  Should respond and say "bitch, you limited my budget to crap for an SLR so what do you expect?"

[MKader17 332]

I think I've got exactly what I need to learn how to be a photographer:)

[MKader17 332]

Looks like I may finally need to upgrade from my $350 laptop though...

[MKader17 332]

1.4 1/13 1000 -.03

1.8, 1/8, 1000

1.4, 1/40, 3200

1.4, 1/60, 800

1.4, 1/20, 800

Hiding from the Paparazzi 

1.4, 1/25, 320

This is my wife's best friend holding the baby. She's been in China and my wife hasn't seen her for a couple years. Luckily the lens came in the day she came by. She'll be in China for at least another 2 years

[MKader17 332]

Pictures! Feel free to pixel peep on them, and tell how to make the photos better. The general metadata is saved.

A quick rundown of my approach.

Aperture Priority; I shot at 1.4 unless I felt the DOF was too shallow, then I would bump it up. I would usualy bump it right back down because it affected my shutter speed so much.

I tried to keep ISO low, but sometimes I put it in auto and let it fly (it's capped at 3200). I think I'll be able to go lower as I get more skilled at holding still. I kept moving it up and down, depending on the situation to try to get a descent shutter speed. I found that shooting 1K seem to work in our nursery with only a 40W bulb on across the room.

I shot in RAW+JPEG. All of these photos are straight JPEGs from the camera.

PS- I need to quickly come up with a system to back up photos.

[///M5 2,833]

5 hours ago, MKader17 said:

I think I've got exactly what I need to learn how to be a photographer:)

What you have is KICKASS, I just thought taunting a taunt is always in order. 

[///M5 2,833]

4 hours ago, MKader17 said:

1.4 1/13 1000 -.03

1.8, 1/8, 1000

1.4, 1/40, 3200

1.4, 1/60, 800

1.4, 1/20, 800

Hiding from the Paparazzi 

1.4, 1/25, 320

This is my wife's best friend holding the baby. She's been in China and my wife hasn't seen her for a couple years. Luckily the lens came in the day she came by. She'll be in China for at least another 2 years

Be careful in the multiple people shots.  The 1.4 may be too short a DOF.  For instance if you peak at the pups you will notice they are a bit soft.  This can be a benefit if you are trying to focus on a particular portion of the frame, but it is hard to nail.  The close up of your baby would be cleaner at 1.8 as you'd have ears that weren't quite so far into the bokeh realm.

And remember, with a 50mm you "need" to be shooting at 1/50th of a second or faster otherwise YOU will move.  For shots of babies I'd try to be at 1/200th.  Obviously this means higher ISO, but you will be surprised at how easy noise removal is in Lightroom.  Of course avoiding it is better.

By the way, the lens is sharper at 1.8...but the bokeh is better at 1.4

[///M5 2,833]

The last pic is a great example of why 1.4.  It is in a really busy background but it turned out great because the background is out of focus enough to not draw your attention to it.  Of course if they moved a bit further from the cabinets and you still framed it the same it would be even better in that regard.

[///M5 2,833]

Same with the anti-paparazzi.

Tell her she is going to get subjected to this a ton as that is the only way you will have the right shots to preserve your memories.

[///M5 2,833]

My wife complains she is never in any of the pictures...

[MKader17 332]

Most of my baby pictures are more blurry then I would like, increasing ISO will help this of course.

Is there a way for me to control shutter speed and aperture and let the ISO do it's thing?

 

I searched this but want to confirm. The further away I am from the subject, the DOF increases, correct? so in the case of the last picture, I can get everyone in focus because I'm far enough away, but in the case of a close up on Margaret I have an extremely shallow DOF?

 

Most of my pictures have too much back light. I'm not setting up the subject, but trying to work around them.

[///M5 2,833]

Set Iso on Auto and choose manual mode.  Then you can set your shutter, aperature and exposure.  It will however shoot in this mode even if it shouldn't.  So you have to pay a lot of attention.

[///M5 2,833]

6 hours ago, MKader17 said:

I searched this but want to confirm. The further away I am from the subject, the DOF increases, correct? so in the case of the last picture, I can get everyone in focus because I'm far enough away, but in the case of a close up on Margaret I have an extremely shallow DOF?

Your conclusion is right, but summarized in a way that is confusing.

Perhaps easiest to explain without terminology, but with an analogy.  Think of your focus as an X.  At the center of the X you are dead nuts in focus at the edges you aren't.  You are always at the left side of the X and the background always the right.  You can stretch the X in either direction by walking closer or further away.  In both cases the center of the X moves relative to the background.  The further from the center you are the softer the focus.  You can't however change the angle of the X differently on one side than the other.   

What this means in practice is that the closer you get to your subject the more the background will be out of focus (assuming that the subject to background are a fixed distance from each other).  You can see this example in your pictures.  The baby close up has ears that are out of focus, but the one of the ladies has all their ears in better focus and much more.  This is why I recommended that you have them step further away from the background since you can't get closer to them without losing part of the shot.

[///M5 2,833]

You had a hard time searching since you searched for depth of field without reference to the actual target being shot.  ie, is the assumption that you are closer to the subject but have the same field of view or a different one?  For you this question was never a though since you cannot zoom, but the whole internet world gets confused once you add the zoom into the equation and can't discuss it logically.

ie, the net thinks you were looking for a difference in dof using a 50mm for a headshot at X distance or a 70mm headshot at X+Y distance with the same overall picture.  Then the answer is they are the same.

[///M5 2,833]

In other words if you put a 70-200mm 2.8 on a full frame and a crop and shoot the exact same picture at the same focal length on both the dof will be the same

[///M5 2,833]

That is why I referenced an X or a cone.  An optic is just that an optic, you can't change it's properties as it is what it is.

[///M5 2,833]

This then comes to the question you had while shopping and is now related to printing.  If you are only viewing 1080p or under 8.5x11 pictures if you want more of your target in focus (ie the ears) just back up and then crop in post processing to get the close up.

You may ask the logical question which is why not just use 1.8 or 2.0 instead to do the same.  The answer is of course then you need a slower shutter speed as you will have 1 or 2 stops less light when you do that.

[///M5 2,833]

I think you are starting to see why your questions further show a fixed focus lens is definitely the best way to start.  You are going to skip years of nonsense photos since the lens is forcing you to think.  Great choice and buy by the way

[///M5 2,833]

If my ramblings don't make sense I can clarify, but of course the best is for you to shoot pictures at both settings and post them and compare.  It becomes even more clear.  Doing great so far btw.

I like the creativity of the mirror focus btw.