When I bought my first camera, I was eager and excited to get started. I took a course on basic photography at one of the local Community Colleges, where they taught me the "exposure triangle". I learned the relationship between aperture, shutter speed & ISO. We learned why to shoot raw, and how to manage simple lighting situations.
As my skills progressed, I soon wanted more than what my kit lenses could do. But being a novice, I didn't know where to start. A friend of mine suggested that I acquire a "nifty fifty" - a 50mm prime lens. They were inexpensive, and taught a noob the concept of properly framing the shot. You see, there is no "zoom" function on a prime lens. At the time, Canon had just come out with the widely popular "Shorty McForty", a 40mm prime lens, which suited my needs perfectly ! It's called a "pancake" lens, as it is very shallow, and looks funny on the front of my camera body !
These lenses are really wonderful for portrait work. They have nice wide apertures (mine is 2.8), which allows for some amazingly narrow depths of field. Or, as I did tonight, you can start to explore the world of bokeh. Here are a couple of photos from tonight. I thought the Christmas Tree would provide opportunities to showcase some bokeh & depth of field.
In the image at left, the foreground is crisp & in focus. As we move further to the back, away from the lens, the image becomes more blurry. This is "depth of field".
In this image, the focus is shifted further back, blurring the foreground, and the items behind the white bulb. The lights are beginning to blur, creating soft bokeh effects.
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