Comparing 50mm 1.8 Lens to 50mm 1.4 Lens With Side-By-Side Images With Same Settings

One of the first lenses I invested in is the Canon 50mm 1.8 lens. I do think this is a fantastic lens, especially when compared with the kit lens, and I use it without hesitation.
That said..
I also own a dreamy L lens. (You can see my lens comparison blog post here)

The L lens is amazing but very heavy. When my husband and I decided to go on a vacation backpacking overseas this summer, I hit a crossroads: Do I bring the 50mm 1.8 or the 85mm 1.2?

The 85mm is the superior lens however it is very heavy. However on a vacation I want the best quality.

The solution?

We invested in a 50mm 1.4 lens.

It’s not as nice as the 85mm 1.2 but nicer than the 50mm 1.8 – a great compromise.

The day I got it I was anxious to try it out and see what I thought. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but what I discovered really surprised me.

Based on my one test (I plan to do more!) the 1.4 seems greatly superior to the 1.4!

These are the test shots I did.. Keep in mind I sat at the same spot, used the same camera, with the same settings, with no lens hood and no filter on either lens & none of the photos are edited in any way except the text and size.  The only thing that changed is the lens.

Left side is the 50mm 1.4 and the right side is the 50mm 1.8

Left side is the 50mm 1.4 and the right side is the 50mm 1.8

So there are my side-by-side image comparisons using 2 different lenses – remember they were taken with all things equal and they are not edited in any way except for adding the text to the image and reducing the size of the image to post online.

If you’re well convinced that you would like a 50mm 1.4, here’s a link to the lens on Amazon.

I will try to do another round at a different location soon!

-Christine Ann
Duluth MN Family Photographer

Photo Examples Of How Font In A Watermark Affects Look Of Photos

It was 2 AM and my frustration levels were high.  I had created many different watermarks/logos but none of them really fit me or cued that magical “hallelujah” music inside my mind.
I had an idea of what I wanted I just couldn’t find the right components to make it happen.  Trying out so many different things got me thinking about how incredibly  much a watermark affects how a viewer views your photos.
If you slapped a generic watermark together and called it a day, it might be time to step back and reconsider.
A watermark is a very simple concept.. it’s basically something you put on all your photographs to reduce photo theft and to let people know who took it, yet everything about your decisions in watermark reflect a style that becomes a part of your brand.
You may not realize it but every aspect of your watermark affects how a photograph is interpreted.  Things to consider when creating your watermark stamp is:
Font, Opacity, Color, Size, Placement, Wording, Consistency
We’ll go through each of these in this post as well as compare the same photo with different watermarks so you can see how the watermark affects how the photo and your brand/style comes across.

FONT

This is pretty self-explanatory.. the first thing to consider and decide on is your font.  The font alone makes up a large portion of how your photographs are interpreted.  I have gone through hundreds to find mine!  The font should be consistent.  It should ideally tie in with fonts used on your website, which are the same fonts used on your contracts and business cards etcetc.  Keep your brand consistent.  There are so many fonts that convey different looks and styles.  Some are very elegant, some are very informal “handwriting” ones, some are sans-seriff, some are cursive etcetc.. and this makes a big impact!  Let’s take a look at the same photo using different fonts.. everything else is the same except the style of font in these images.

^This is how I chose to watermark this image with all the above factors in mind.

OPACITY

Opacity is how “see through” the watermark is.  5% opacity it will barely show up and 100% opacity means not see through at all.  You may be surprised to learn that the opacity of your font plays a pretty big role in how the font ends up looking.  I never use font at 100% opacity.  Ever.  I try to stick around 20-30% (sometimes have to go higher if it isn’t showing up well in the photo).  Part of my watermark style is that I don’t want it to take away from the image or distract from it, so I like mine simple, small, transparent, and away from the subject.

^Compare this image with the one above it.  The one above it has the font around 50% opacity and this one is at 100%.

COLOR

The color of your font is surprisingly important as well.  IMO pure white or pure black rarely work and color can work depending on the style but for me I always choose a light grey and a darkish grey and switch between the two based on what the image is (if it’s light or dark).

^Compare this image to the ones above it (which are a light grey color).

SIZE
The size of your watermark also impact the image.  This is all personal preference but I prefer mine to be small.  I feel that big watermarks are very distracting and take away from the image.

^This is the same watermark, just bigger.  Makes a big difference.

LOCATION

Where you choose to put your watermark is also pretty significant and can change everything.  I personally like to hand stamp all my photos so I can figure out where it would look best.  I consider my watermark part of the image and I work with the image.  Yes it is more time consuming but I think it’s worth it.

^  Notice how my original placement is a part of the photo and it works with it whereas in this one it seems like I’m trying to hide it or it’s an afterthought or generically stamped on all photos in the same lower left hand corner.  That can work for some people especially if consistency is important to them but for this stamp and my style I really dislike it down there.  Lower corners do work well for some logos though :).  Not trying to say what is better or worse just keep in mind that placement affects the photo.

Here’s a quick comparison of my watermark compared to one that pays no mind to all the points above (except the font is the same):

Quite a difference in how you interpret that image, eh?

SIMPLICITY/WORDING

What does your logo look like?  Is it simple or complex?  Is it font only or does it have an icon with it?  All this affects how the image looks.  For my style, I like simplicity, that’s why I chose not to include “Christine Ann Photography” in this logo.  I am considering adding my city & state though since there are multiple Christine Ann’s out there but I’m not sure yet.  I haven’t “launched” this logo yet, I’m still trying to be 100% sure with it before I do.

^ Notice how adding the extra information really change the look/feel of the image compared to when it just said “Christine Ann”?

CONSISTENCY

Your watermark / logo should be consistent with your style of photography.  Below I compare the same image with 2 different watermarks so you can see how much the watermark affects the look of the photo.

^Photograph with my watermark on it

^I just put this logo together really quick to show that for an emotive/serious sort of style you wouldn’t want something informal and fun/funny.  However if you do a lot of kids portraits, you may not want something formal and would prefer something more fun.  So the “right” way to do it is different for everyone but just be sure to assess the style of your photography and the style of your website/branding before choosing your watermark.

To top off this blog post I thought I’d do a few examples of how different the photo can look based on just what the watermark is doing/looks like so you can see how it does impact the final image.

 

 

And there you have it.. a bunch of photos to compare together to see how the watermark plays a role in your style and branding.

I should note that there is really no right or wrong answer in here.  What works for one person will not work for another, it’s all very subjective and personal.  I have my personal preferences about what looks best but I have no doubt there are people reading this that think some of my “playful” watermarks are better than the one I use, haha.  It’s okay.  I just wanted to write something up to help people be very aware of their watermark, what it’s currently conveying, what they want it to convey and assess if it is conveying that or not.

I just started my business last year and while I knew I wanted a watermark I like, I really had no idea it made as much impact on a photo as it does until recently when I was trying to decide where to go with mine.  Hope this has made everyone aware of things they may not have been before!

-Christine Ann

Duluth MN Family Photographer
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How To Add Color To A Black & White Image With A Layer Mask/Photoshop Layers Explained

A Beginner’s Tutorial On How To Use Photoshop Layers, Layer Masks, And Bring Back Color To A Black And White Image (All-In-One!) With Image/Screenshot Examples
*Note:  This article might look long/hard but it’s because it’s written assuming you know nothing about how to use Photoshop so it’s just very thorough.. this is VERY easy and fast to do!

Many years ago my husband got Photoshop for me.  I was super excited.. I opened it up and was so overwhelmed I didn’t open it up again for another year!!!!  WHen I did open it up a year later, it was because I had seen an image on Facebook and someone noted on it “Edited with auto color in Photoshop”.  “Auto edit????  I can do that!”.  And I excitedly opened it back up.  Once it was re-opened I started playing around with it more and learning new things about it.  I was still very confused about how you could add color to a black and white image and my husband explained it like this: Imagine you have 2 photographs.. a color photograph, and a black and white version of the exact same photograph.  Imagine you put the black and white photograph on top of the color photograph and then take an eraser and erase away parts of the black and white image to reveal the color beneath it.  ta-da!  Like magic, I now understood the concept of Photoshop layering! The very first thing I learned how to do with layers was add a pop of color to a black and white image.  You can do it as I stated above (layer a bw image on top of a color image and use the eraser tool to erase away the bw image to reveal color) but the issue with doing it that way is.. what if you make a mistake?  What if you erase away too much?  You cannot go back to add the black and white back.  For that reason I want to teach everyone how to use a layer mask.  With a layer mask (VERY easy to do!!!!) you can remove parts of the top layer AND bring them back again!  And you can use it for endless different projects beyond a selective coloring/color pop image! I’m a very visual learner so that’s how I like to explain things as well.

^STEP ONE:  Open The Image
We’ll start with what your image looks like when you open it in Photoshop:

^STEP 2:  Duplicate Layer
This is the step where you layer 2 images on top of one another.. do do this by going to the layers palette, right click on your layer, and select “duplicate layer”.  You can also simply go to your menu on top of the screen and click “Layer>New>Layer From Background”.

^STEP 3:  Turn The Top Layer Black And White
Make sure your top layer is highlighted in the layers palette and then turn your image black and white :).  You now have a black and white image on top, and a color image on bottom.

^STEP 4:  Add A Layer Mask
This is where you add the layer mask I was mentioning earlier.. this mask will allow you to remove parts of the black and white image as well as bring back parts of the black and white image.

^STEP 5:  Select A Black Paintbrush
Your layers palette should now look like this.. the white box next to your bw image is the layer mask.  You will use the black paintbrush to remove the black and white image, and the white paintbrush to bring back the black and white image.

^STEP 6:  Verify Your Layer Mask Is Selected
If you have anything other than the layer mask selected, this will not work and the paintbrush will work normally (adding a white or black streak on the image).

^STEP 7:  Paint Anywhere You’d Like To Add Color Take your paintbrush and paint anywhere you’d like to add color!  It’s that easy!  If you run over the lines, it’s okay.. you can turn it back to black and white which we address in the next step.

STEP 8:  Select The White Paintbrush To Bring Back The Black And White Image
Change the color of your paintbrush to white and paint over anywhere you did not want to bring the color back.  It helps to scroll in very close to the image, use a brush that isn’t 100% soft, and make the edges as clean as possible.  It looks very sloppy when the color runs outside the lines.

^The image after cleaning it up with the white paintbrush (again verify that your layer mask is clicked on!).

^STEP 9:  (Optional Step):  Reduce The Opacity/Strength Of The Colors
I always feel that bringing back the full strength of color in an image is just too intense/harsh.  For this reason I like to make it sort of a blend of half black and white/half color.. this tones down the coloring a lot and makes it look much more gentle and blends better.  (This is just my opinion and what you like may be different!  I compare a full strength color pop image to a partial strength color pop image here if you’d like to compare for yourself).

^This is the image with the coloring reduced by 50%.. it blends much better.

I’d like to make a quite note that the above images are not ones that I would choose to do.. They are only edited this way for the purposes of this article.  If I brought back color to anything I would choose the boots but for the purposes of this article I wanted to choose something that was easy to see and overall I just prefer this photo in color :).

I really hope this helps you all learn some more about how to use layers in Photoshop and how to add color to a black and white image!

-Christine Ann

Duluth MN Photographer

Does Resampling / Resizing An Image Affect Its Quality? [With Image Examples & Free Actions].

The question was recently asked – does reducing the size of an image affect its quality? I couldn’t find anything on the internet with image examples (I’m sure it exists somewhere in the depths of the internet; I just couldn’t find it!) so I thought I would make my own so we can see for ourselves what happens when you reduce the size of an image (****I need to disclaimer here that technically when you “reduce the size of an image” to make it smaller for contest submissions or website submissions, you are physically changing the number of pixels in your image (the Pixel Dimensions) and this is called resampling.. resizing is something different and has more to do with printing and the document size than the [pixel] size of your photo, but for all intents and purposes, I’ll speak colloquially, and most people just say resizing when they mean reduce the pixel size). I will upload a full res image, along with 3 additional images which have been reduced in size. Perhaps you already know what happens to reduced images and are about to click that X on the top of the screen – instead, you may want to consider scrolling to the bottom of the page where some nice, free resize/sharpen actions lurk :).

Anyway, the best way to compare each of these photos is to open a new tab for each photo (to do this you can hoover the mouse over the photo and click the scroll wheel or you can right click and select “open in a new tab”). By the end of the comparison you should have 5 new tabs in a row starting with high res and moving towards smaller res. When you get to the last 2 images the photos appear smaller.. to see how they look you may need to zoom in. To do this hold down the “control” key on your keyboard and then scroll your mouse wheel up to zoom in (and then down to zoom back out).

^ Full resolution image. The image is 3744×5616.

^This image has been reduced to 600×900. 600×900 is considered the “ideal” size to post to Facebook and web [update:  within the last couple months of June 2014 Facebook’s ideal image size has changed to 960 or 2048..] It is highly recommended to resize and sharpen on your own because if you upload a huge file to the internet, the internet will automatically reduce the size and quality.. if you do the job on your own, you retain control over how the photo looks. Although compressing it like this makes it lose sharpness so it is recommended to do a little bit of sharpening to anything that has been reduced this amount. Personally I run a high pass filter @ .5 – 1.0 and it’s perfect! While it is easy to do this manually I created some actions to speed up the process of resizing and sharpening. If you are saving in Lightroom there is a simple box you can check to sharpen upon export.

Here is the same file size – 900×600 with a .5 high pass filter applied to it.. it is definitely an improvement from with no high pass filter and looks almost identical to the original file despite being significantly smaller. 600×900 is the perfect size to put on the web without worrying about how the web will change your photo. (If you want a free high pass filter action, I put a download to one I made at the bottom of this page!).

^This image is 267×400. You can very clearly see how much it has been degraded at this point so we already have our answer that reducing the size of an image does impact how it looks and degrades it.  If you cannot tell then hold down “CTRL” + scroll the scroll wheel of your mouse up.. this will zoom into the image so you can see the quality up close.

^This has been set to 134×200. Though uploading that is probably overkill at this point since the point was already made in the above photo :).

I’ve created 2 files I want to share with everyone.

The first one includes 4 actions – Two of these actions reduce your file size to web-sized files (2048 on the longest side) and the resolution to 72 and the other two actions reduce the size to the same size but also apply a .5 high pass filter to the image which helps sharpen it. When you reduce the file you are squishing pixels on top of each other and losing information.. that’s why a little bit of sharpening is ideal.

Please note this actually “resamples” the image but I am using colloquial language and most people call it resizing :).

Resize Horizontal
Resize Vertical
Resize and Sharpen Horizontal
Resize and Sharpen Vertical

You can download this free resizing and sharpening action here.

The second one also includes 4 files. All of these only sharpen images, regardless of their size. The smaller the image is, the smaller HPF you’ll want to apply. For full res images I usually run HPF 3-4. For 600×900 I run at .5. If you want above a 4 you can run HPF 4 and then HPF 1 (totaling HPF 5). Anyway these are the actions included in this set (HPF stands for High Pass Filter).

HPF .5
HPF 1
HPF 2
HPF 4

You can download this free sharpening action here.

Of course there are countless ways to do resizing and sharpening, this is just one of many 🙂 and there is software designed to assist you in resampling the image without hurting the image quality so if you need something like that, programs like that exist!

-Christine Ann

Duluth Senior and Family Photographer
Facebook Page

Photos From 85mm 1.2L Lens.

Which lens you decide to use on your camera has a big impact on how the photo turns out. A big contendor in the photography world for people who are very invested in photography is the 85mm 1.2L lens by Canon. This is the first professional level lens I invested in and I am very fond of it :).
The first thing you have to decide when picking a lens is if you want a prime lens (does not zoom in and out) or a zoom lens (has a range of how close or far you can get to the subject by rotating the lens to zoom in and out). THere are advantages and disadvantages to each (perhaps a future blog post topic 🙂 ) but one of the best and most noteworthy features of the 85mm 1.2 lens is that the aperture can reach .. *drumroll* .. f/1.2! The lowest number you usually see on a zoom lens is f/2.8 so this is quite a big difference on the prime, however you do lose the ability to zoom in and out. The f/1.2 is amazing for when you want to get as much light into the camera as possible and also if you want a very small depth of field (meaning only one thing will be sharply in focus and everything else will be blurred).
The f/1.2 is so sensitive that on my full frame sensor camera body (how far 1.2 takes you depends on a handful of factors including your camera body), if I focus on someone’s nose, their eye will be out of focus. It’s a very very narrow depth of field and very unforgiving for in focus images! There is a learning curve to harnessing this power. I would not recommend using any new equipment at a shoot that you haven’t practiced with in advance. YOu will probably get some out of focus images when you start out with this lens. I try not to go to 1.2 anymore, personally. f/2 or higher is usually ideal but if there is low light or if I want a certain look I will bump it down lower.

Anyway, I wanted to make a blog post showing image examples of photos taken on the 85mm f/1.2L lens so people could take a look and maybe it could help people make more informed purchasing decisions.

I do need to explain that I reduced the image size significantly to post to the web. Standard web size is 900×600.. the originals are around 3800×5700 so they don’t reflect the same quality as they do out of the camera but I hope it gives a good idea.. especially since the originals are better :). If you would like to see a full resolution version of anything just ask in the comments! I am happy to post!

Anyway, without further ado….

^f/3.5

^f/2.8

^f/1.8

^f/1.2 – wide open!

f/1.8

^f/1.4 – close to wide open :)! If you’re shooting this low you must nail the focus spot!

^f/2.5

f/1.4. I was able to take a photo with one fairly dim light on @ 1.4.. this low aperture also created a very nice bokeh effect on the Christmas tree.

^f/1.8 (This lens is great for Christmas lights!).

^f/2

^f/1.8

f/1.6. Notice how narrow the focus is.. the arm is in focus and his entire body is blurred.. there’s about a foot between what is in focus and what isn’t. If the aperture were higher (around f/4+) the arm and body would both be in focus.

^f/1.8

f/1.8. Loving how blurred the background is! Notice how even the front of the scarf is blurred.. 1.8 is not a very large depth of field.

f/1.8

^Here’s one at f/1.2 – this is as low as it can go. I am going to do another blog post soon zooming in so you can see the eyes are in focus but even the nose is out of focus. It still looks okay zoomed out but if you zoom in you’ll see how sensitive the focus is.

^f/2.8

^Wide open at f/1.2. To do this shot over I would have used a higher aperture since her hair is blurred out but I still love this photo :).

^Another photo taken at f/1.2. I’m trying to include a lot at 1.2 since a lot of people are curious about what photos like at that aperture.

f/1.8 portrait

^f/1.4

^Here’s a shot taken at a higher aperture of f/4. As youc an see.. still plenty of lovely bokeh :).

^f/2.2

^f/2.2

f/2

^f/2.2

^This is a full res version of an image taken at f/1.2 – click on it to see full detail.

To see zoomed in versions of the photos to see how the depth of field looks up close at f/1.2 check out this article.

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask!

-Christine Ann
Duluth MN Senior and Family Photographer Website
Duluth Photographer Blog
Duluth Senior and Family Photographer Facebook Account

Why your photos are blurry (with image examples)

One long time mystery amongst people who take photos is “why are my photos blurry?”. The answer is much more simple than you probably realize but will take a moment to explain.

Photo from December 2010 😉 – camera settings this photo was taken at are listed later in this article.

There are 3 major components which determine how your photographs turn out.. one of those components is what your shutter speed is.

What is a shutter?
Picture a stage with curtains that open and close. This is, essentially, what a shutter is. It opens and closes (this is a video of a shutter opening and closing). The shutter is the sound you hear when you take photos – you can hear it open and close. Sometimes it opens and closes very fast and sometimes it opens and closes very slowly. When the “curtain” (shutter) is open, it captures ALL movement in the photo up until it closes. Hence, when it opens and closes fast it “freezes” the moment and does not capture any blur; when it opens and closes slowly, it captures a lot of movement.

The shutter is responsible for 2 things:

1. It contributes to how light or dark the photo is

2. It is the reason your photos turn out blurry or not blurry (*from motion blur – Photos being out of focus can make them blurry in an “out of focus” way which is not due to the shutter).

If you are getting motion blur in your photos there is one simple answer for it: Your shutter is staying open too long.

So, what causes the shutter to stay open for too long?

Low lighting.

Now that I’ve said that you’ve probably realized that most of your blurred photos were taken indoors or at night.

Why does it stay open long in low lighting? Because the longer the shutter is open, the more light it lets in. Photos NEED light. If there isn’t much light, your camera needs to do things to make sure it gets enough light, otherwise you will be left with a black photo.

The photo at the top of the page was taken at the following settings: f/3.2 ISO 640 Shutter speed 1/8 (aka too slow!!!!).. that means it was open for 1/8th of a second which sounds fast but it isn’t fast enough for kids who move around. I usually try to stay around at least 1/100, and ideally a little higher, when photographing kids (what speed you set changes based on your lens and what you are photographing; things that are sitting still can be photographed at a lower shutter speed but you still have to shoot fast enough to avoid camera shake from your hands unless you are using a tripod).

How to Avoid Motion Blur in Your Photography

The easiest and most simple way to avoid motion blur in your photos is to get more light! Take your photos outside or closer to a window. You can also just turn more lights on inside but then you might want to be aware of your white balance because a lot of photos taken indoors will have an orange/red tint due to incorrect white balance (<– article about that tint and how to avoid it).

The last option is to use your flash. Most professional photographers will agree that the flash built into your camera is not good and actually hurts your photos. My rule for using in-camera flash is only use it if the alternative is a super blurry or black photo. A photo with flash is better than a blurry or dark photo. The other option for flash is to buy an external flash – one you can take off the camera and diffuse it. This is the ideal option if you need to use flash (I will write more on this later!). I try to shoot outdoors as much as possible :).

If you own a DSLR there is another option for eliminating motion blur: Set your own settings and tell the shutter what its speed needs to be.

There are two modes in which you can do this:

TV Mode. TV mode is found on your dial and it is “shutter priority mode”. Shutter priority means that all other settings are formed around your shutter speed.. so you tell your camera what your shutter speed needs to be, and it figures everything else out for you. It is a good setting for people starting out with their DSLRs – however there can be consequences to this such as your camera may bump up your ISO, causing your photos to be grainy, or shoot at too high or low of an aperture, losing the “blur” effect or giving you too much of a blur effect.. however you can guarantee they won’t have motion blur 🙂 and sometimes you have to made decisions like that (ie I’ll have a grainy photo instead of a blurred photo) because when there’s not enough light, something’s gotta give.

M Mode (Manual Mode). This is ideal. This is the mode most professional photographers shoot in. You tell your camera exactly what the settings need to be and it shoots at that regardless of what it would want to do in auto mode. You set the shutter speed (if you’re getting motion blur you increase the shutter speed), you set the aperture, you set the ISO.. you can understand what is happening in the photo and what the outcome of the photo will be based on your settings, however it requires more knowledge than TV mode so it’s perfectly fine to start with TV mode and keep working towards M mode.

The fun part of understanding how the shutter affects your photos is that you can use it to intentionally capture motion blur and make some interesting photos! Leaving the shutter open on purpose is called Bulb Photography.

To do bulb photography you must put your camera on a tripod so it stays perfectly still (otherwise there will be camera shake which will hurt the photo) and then have the subject move around while you leave the shutter open and capture all the movement.

Here are some examples of the camera being on a tripod with the shutter left open:

f/3.2 ISO 6400, shutter: 1/25.

Notice in the bottom right photo you can see 2 red streaks in the background – those are the taillights of a car :).
Settings: f/11 ISO 500, shutter speed 4 seconds (shutter was open for 4 seconds).

Settings: f/11 ISO 500, shutter speed 7 seconds (shutter was open for 7 seconds). I was wearing all black to minimize being seen and did additional editing to completely “disappear” from behind the sparkler otherwise you would see me as motion blur in the background :).

(My white balance is off in this photo which is why it has a red/orange tint).

Most photos of the sky at night are done on a tripod with the shutter left open.. it allows the camera to pick up many stars. When I do exposures like this, the camera “sees” many more stars than I can.

—–
Fast shutter speed:

Just to contrast these photos with slow shutter speeds, here is an “action shot” frozen because of the fast shutter speed

ISO 100, f/9.0, shutter speed: 1/320 Please ignore the harsh lighting :p I only posted to show a photo taken with a fast shutter speed 🙂 she is mid-jump and there is no motion blur! At a low shutter speed there would be a ton of motion blur.

-Christine Ann
Duluth MN Senior Photographer Website
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Telephoto Distortion and Perspective and How It Affects Your Images

Guest blog post from Christopher Fisher – my husband and occasional second shooter for large groups and weddings :).

Telephoto Distortion and zooming with your feet

Photographers often talk about “zooming with their feet”. If they are using a fixed lens or their telephoto lens and it cannot capture the size of subject they desire, they just move [with their feet] closer or further away from their subject.  To the new photographer, they may not realize that zooming with their feet might compromise the composition of their photo.  While the subject might be brought to size, the background will look significantly different.

This difference is due to an effect called telephoto distortion. A human eye (or a camera) is a small fixed point to which an image is projected. This can be visualized in the below diagram:

While a tree may be several times the size of a person, the image of a tree is focused into a single point:  the human eye or camera lens. If the person walks closer to the tree, the subject appears larger. If the human being walks away from the tree, the subject appears smaller.

Look at the different figures. In the first figure, only a small section of the tree is visible. In the second figure, the entire height of the tree and more can be seen. Let’s see what each figure will see from the eye’s perspective.

Now let’s add a second subject:

-Post by Christopher Fisher

-Christine Ann Photography
Duluth MN Photographer Website
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Unedited Photos from T2i + 50mm Lens.

This blog is specifically dedicated to showing images straight from the T2i + 50mm lens.  This is the combo I used for a few years before upgrading to the Mark II 5D + 85mm 1.2L lens.  I got the upgrade about 2 years ago (a little less..) and have barely touched my T2i since (though I do still use the 50mm sometimes).  I picked up my T2i for the first time in a couple years and was surprised by how much better of photos I could get off it than I was ever able to before.  I could not have intentionally gotten as clear and nice of photos (though I did get some lucky ones!) when I used this combo about 2 years ago.  The equipment didn’t change, but I have :).  And I speculate if I pick it up in 2 more years they’ll be even better.  This isn’t to say you can’t get “nicer” photos on nicer equipment, but I recently compared photos from the Mark II 5d + 85mm 1.2L lens to photos on the Mark II 5D + 50mm 1.8 lens to photos on the T2i + 50mm 1.8 lens (IE:  $3,000 camera + $2,000 lens to $3,000 camera + $100 lens to $700 camera + $100 lens) and the results were not all that different from one another.  I was incredibly surprised!  You can see the image comparisons here:  https://christineannphotos.wordpress.com/2013/10/20/photos-taken-with-canon-rebel-t2i-50mm-1-8-lens/ keeping in mind they are unedited and you need to click them to see the full detail of each photo.
The point in all this is that if your photos are out of focus or not sharp it is almost definitely you and not your equipment.  I read a post from someone who has sent back the same 50mm 1.8 lens used in this blog post 2 times, got it a third time and was wondering if she should send it back again or get a different lens all together.  I can assure everyone it was not the lens any of those 3 times, it’s a lack of understanding how to use your camera and how/where to pose people and why.   You can give an artist crappy supplies and they can make something beautiful; you can give someone who is not an artist high end supplies and they will not be able to do much with it.  Focus your energy on practicing, improving, and learning how to use the equipment you have and how to edit.  My one piece of advice regarding equipment is that the kit lens is junk and if you only own a kit lens, it’s time to at least upgrade to the 50mm 1.8.. it is around $100 and you will see a quality improvement!  That is one thing my test shots did show.. a noticeable difference in quality regarding the kit lens to 50mm lens.  Anyway these are some images I have gotten off the T2i in the last couple months (most being from the last few days specifically for some blogs I want to do on starter equipment) they are unedited and I could further improve them by doing some editing 🙂 but then you wouldn’t know what is due to the equipment and what is due to the editing so I will leave them alone.

Unedited images from the T2i + 50mm lens  *CLICK EACH IMAGE FOR FULL DETAIL*:

*Click images for full detail.. the thumbnails look fuzzier than they are*.

*Click images for full detail*

*Click images for full detail*

*Click images for full detail*.

*Click images for full detail.. the thumbnails look fuzzy*.

*Click images for full detail*.

*Click images for full detail*.

*Click images for full detail*.

*Click images for full detail*.

-Christine Ann
Christine Ann Photography Web Site
Christine Ann Photography Facebook

Image Comparisons T2i VS Mark II; 85mm 1.2 vs 50mm 1.8 vs Kit Lens

A hot topic in the photography world is does better equipment = better photos? I started on the Canon Rebel XSI + kit lens (18-55mm), acquired a similar-quality telephoto  lens (55-250mm), acquired the 50mm 1.8, upgraded cameras to the T2i, …