I don't have much experience with a crop body, but think the viewfinder might well be an issue, but might want to try a differnt focus screen anyway. Also, shooting at 1.8 or 2.0 might give you just enough DoF to get those eye-lashes in focus and still keep the OOF background.
I couldn't reliably focus my 5D with super-fast lenses (especially 85). I swapped out the Ee-a focusing screen for Ee-s, and, although no miracle occurred, I did find fine focusing easier.
Yakim: Congratulations on your purchase, and good luck with the learning curve. One thing I don't think anyone has mentioned here is that photography isn't easy, and phtography at f/1.4 is especially difficult (which has been mentioned). While the reasons for this particular difficulty may be different than the reasons for the difficulty of getting a bat-on-ball shot in baseball, or a perfect balance of flash and ambient light in another setting, the fact of the challenge is not. Just keep at it. Storage is cheap. Shoot a lot. Try different things. Don't become discouraged. Every shot won't be perfect, but you should be able to achieve at least a low rate of success at first, and over time, your success rate should improve. Good luck!
I did have focusing problems with my 5D and 85mm wide open till I sent them away for tuning and they came back perfect. Now it only takes 3-4 shots to get one actually in focus (low light), nailing that tight DOF with non pro AF systems is not easy but boy is it great when it works and the eye and lashes are razor sharp and the incredible soft transitions over the rest of the face to the beautiful bokeh behind.
Yakim, in this shot I would criticize the skin tone, not the DOF!
A lot of posters have covered the issues already, but I will point out that for any given f/stop and camera format, if you choose distances that give the same subject size, the DOF will be the same. With the 85 (assuming at f/1.4, not 1.2) you would back off and get a different perspective, but the DOF on the face would be identical (if the face was exactly the same size in your viewfinder). Of course the relation to the background would be totally different, which is the whole point of having different focal lengths.
So in other words, any fast lens can be difficult to manage wide open. You're doing fine, and I'm sure you'll continue to improve!
That 35L is my favorite wedding lens. I use it probably 75% of the time... I shoot it around F2.2-3.2 typically. Very sharp and a tad bit more DOF... I mainly use it on my 5D, but use it on the MKIII on occasion.
Navyblue wrote:
The EF-S focusing screen works for me, I can MF with 50 mm at f/1.4 with decent keeper rate, though the VF appear dark when shooting with slow lenses.
I agree that with the live view zooming to 10x it is impossible to handhold, it's only great with tripod.
The EF-S focusing screen is indeed in my "next to buy" list.
Russ and Jess, It's not that I am inexperienced in photography in general or with fast lenses in particular. It's just that I feel like I'm back on square one. It reminds me what my Kong-Fu teacher said to me once. After several years I got a brown sash and was telling him that I feel that I am up to my knees in water and see a vast ocean in front of me (i.e. I had a lot more to learn). I asked him how it would be with a black sash. He replied: "It's like only your tiptoes are in the water".
Yakim Peled wrote:
Russ and Jess, It's not that I am inexperienced in photography in general or with fast lenses in particular. It's just that I feel like I'm back on square one. It reminds me what my Kong-Fu teacher said to me once. After several years I got a brown sash and was telling him that I feel that I am up to my knees in water and see a vast ocean in front of me (i.e. I had a lot more to learn). I asked him how it would be with a black sash. He replied: "It's like only your tiptoes are in the water".
Happy shooting,
Yakim. ...Show more →
Poe said to Grasshopper "At times the task you face, may seem overwhelming. And you may feel unequal to what is required." Great post! We can all take a lesson.
Wrong lens, f-stop, and distance. Lenses set at f1.2 and 1.4 must be used with caution, and they do require some practice if you want to take full advantage their low light capabilities.
When shooting with the 85L or 35L wide open I always toggle the focus points on the joystick. I set up the shot, light up the focus point on eye, and press the shutter. Works great on a crop or FF camera.
I think you are focused well in front of the eye and the lashes in focus are part of the DOF. There is more DOF than you are showing. I use the lens all the time.
rbraun wrote:
Yakim. screw it. just shoot with reckless abandon and one of the shots will be good enough.
Sadly I'm too deeply rooted in the film days (i.e. think a lot and carefully compose before pressing the shutter button) to do that. I think this dog is too old to learn new tricks
Yakim Peled wrote:
Russ and Jess, It's not that I am inexperienced in photography in general or with fast lenses in particular. It's just that I feel like I'm back on square one. It reminds me what my Kong-Fu teacher said to me once. After several years I got a brown sash and was telling him that I feel that I am up to my knees in water and see a vast ocean in front of me (i.e. I had a lot more to learn). I asked him how it would be with a black sash. He replied: "It's like only your tiptoes are in the water".
Happy shooting,
Yakim. ...Show more →
It's always like that! It's very much the same in music.
I guess you are right. Although I shoot for many years, I still find myself looking at pictures and saying to myself: "How on earth could I make such a silly mistake?" Luckily, there are not many of those .
