Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Project365 - all Prime, All the Time !

Introduction

Pat cleaned out the fish tank (aka Freddie & Mercury's home) today. The water is crystal clear, and I wanted to re-visit shooting the guys. The first attempt was pretty good, but there was a lot of crud floating about in the water. I have also been reading a lot of discussion forums where the "Pros" talk about only shooting with prime lenses. Prime lenses have no zoom capabilities - when describing lenses, they give a range 24-105mm for example. A prime lens only has one number, like my 40mm lens.

The Setup

Camera - my Canon 60D, lens - the "Shorty McForty" a Canon 40mm f/2.8, flash - Canon 430EX II, trigger - Cactus v5

The flash is off-camera, so I can move around without moving the light. Which is important, because with a prime lens, you zoom with your feet !

The Photos

While this photo is slightly over-exposed, it shows how translucent Mercury's body really is. You can clearly make out the veins in his arms & legs !

 

 

Here, the strobe is indirect, so Freddie's head is in shadow. But the detail of his scales & fins is remarkable !

 

 

 

 

Lessons Learned

I keep forgetting that my prime has a nice wide Aperture of f/2.8 ! It is a very bright lens, allowing lots of light onto the sensor. I must remember to shoot with it more, as I get nice crisp photos with it.

 

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