There's No Substitude for Speed by Bruce Stein

Photo Tip of the Month   
There's No Substitute for Speed  by: Bruce Stein

In one of the strangest ironies in photography, the least expensive lens in any manufacturer’s line is also one of the best tools that you can have in your camera case. The 50mm f/1.8 used to be the “kit” lens that they included with most cameras up until the mid 1980s when the quality of zoom lenses became good enough that most people were willing to give up the speed of the 50mm lens for the versatility of a zoom. When talking about lenses, speed refers to the maximum or widest aperture that the lens will shoot at permitting more light to enter the camera and allowing you to shoot at a faster shutter speed. The byproduct of shooting with a faster lens is that you can also create much more depth than a slower zoom lens. Nowadays many people are shooting portraits of their own families, or family friends and are frustrated that they can’t blur out the background like the professionals and often come in asking how it’s done. The answer is the 50mm 1.8 lens, which gives a great focal length for an individual portrait and the speed (1.8) to blur out the background for a pleasing, professional looking portrait. I’ve included two sets of sample photos this month to illustrate the major advantages of using this lens; the first set demonstrates the difference between shooting at an aperture of f/1.8 indoors which allowed me to shoot at 1/60^th of a second, but when shooting at f/5.6 I was only able to shoot at 1/8^th of a second causing a slight camera movement which you will see in the lack of sharpness.

The second set of photos shows an example of the depth of field that you can get shooting at f/1.8 for a blurry background as compared to the sharper background when shooting at f/8.0.