Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM

Sporgon said:
One of my daughter's friends is doing photography A level and I've been helping her understand that so much of photography is about light. Wanted to take some shots of my daughter in woods so I tagged along and grabbed a few incidental pictures.

Shot with the 5D mk2. I do like the quality of the 85 1.8 just as much as the 135L - in fact more because I find it by far the more versatile lens. Same can't be said for the AF though. The combination of a 5D and 85 1.8 @ 1.8 is an AF disaster. Most of the time I resort to liveview for focusing.

Nicely done Sporgon.
 
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Dylan777 said:
Sporgon said:
One of my daughter's friends is doing photography A level and I've been helping her understand that so much of photography is about light. Wanted to take some shots of my daughter in woods so I tagged along and grabbed a few incidental pictures.

Nicely done Sporgon.

Thanks Dylan ! :)
 
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J.R. said:
Sporgon said:
Shot from a recent washed out trip to the English Rain District

1/320 f7.1. A great versatile lens and good value to boot.

Nice shot Sporgon. How do you like the contrast on the 85 f/1.8?

BTW, no respite from the rains for you, it seems ;)

Thanks J.R. Yes the weather here is dreadful now after a good summer. When the Romans first invaded Britain the commander Julius Caesar was recorded as asking; " what do we want this land of mist and rain for anyway " ?

The 85 f1.8 isn't quite as sharp or contrasty as the 135L when both are wide open, but from about f2.2 onwards it is as good as the 135L IMO. However stating that on CR is a bit like saying the Venus statue would be better with two arms. Can produce chronic purple fringing in extreme contrast situations but stopping down a little takes care of it.

A very good lens for the money.
 
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All taken with the 5DMKIII and EF 85mm F/1.8

Electro 80s band

Electro80s-2-L.jpg



Electro80%27s_0088-L.jpg


Converted to B & W in Lightroom
Electro80%27s_0102-L.jpg
 
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85mm prime on an EOS-M for fast-moving sports? Heresy! Shutter-priority at 1/800, pre-focused.
 

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The 85 1.8 is one of my favorite lenses for photographing people, but I haven't used it a lot this year. I became interested in lenses that create an obvious separation between the subject (usually a person) and the background. Most 50mm F/1.4 lenses will do this, as will the 24-70 F/2.8 Mark 2.

I've been using my old 85 again and find that under certain conditions, I can get a fair amount of that separation effect. It seems to be best around F/2.0, not wide open. I'm thinking the effect results from a combination of very high sharpness in the focal plane along with good bokeh (whatever that means) and a background that lends itself to a mildly abstract appearance when heavily, but not too heavily, blurred. My impression is that this separation effect really exists because of the way our visual system processes flat images (ie: photos).

Here is an uncropped example shot with the 85 1.8 a couple of days ago. Gentle adjustments in LightRoom. The camera was a 5D3 whose precise focus is part of the equation, I think.

I left the EXIF in if you want to check it.


p1516384907.jpg
 
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