50mm Prime Lens

The 50mm prime lens is a cheap and affordable piece of equipment that should be in every photographers kit bag.
I have the Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 but this lens comes in other brands and also comes as a more expensive f/1.4.
For now I will stick with the cheaper option of the f/1.8.
This lens is not only tack sharp but has that gorgeous wide aperture of f/1.8 which is great for blowing backgrounds out of focus when used properly.
This is a superb portrait lens so focus on those eyes open up that aperture and blow everything else out of focus, it's magical.
This is the sort of lens that you normally only find in the more expensive pro range so don't hang around if you haven't got one, get one.

 

I bought this money pot for a Christmas present but borrowed it back to take a picture.

I knew how I wanted this to look with someone holding it and blowing the background out of focus.

So out comes my trusty Nikkor 50mm f/1.8, attached to my Nikon D300s I have a monster combination and ready to do battle.

I asked my daughter to hold the money pot for me and extend her arms slightly.

I worked in manual mode giving me full control over the settings to take into account ambient light and flash.

I set up my Nikon SB600 flashgun on a light stand and with my 24" 60cm x 60cm EZ-Fold Studio Softbox to push out some very soft light.

Now the magic of the Nikkor 50mm, I opened up the aperture to that amazing f/1.8 and focused on the writing on the money pot and just blew that background into a wonderful blurry softness.

This also creates a very slight and natural frame by focusing your attention where it's intended, the writing and pot.

The wide aperture lets in loads of light so I only needed a blip from my flashgun and softbox so set the power 1/64 this just helped to lift the shadows and add a bit of sparkle.

This is just one example of what the 50mm is capable of but it's not just used to throw backgrounds into a dream of bokeh goodness Oh No, stop down that aperture for some amazing detail from landscapes to architecture to street photography and so on, the list is endless.

The Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 can be picked up for around £100 pounds brand new or you can try and pick one up second hand for almost half that, so what are you waiting for get out there and get one.