Advice on first DLSR camera
I wanted a 1.8 I think or 1.4?
Suggestions welcome!
In most situations you wont use the lowest f-stop your lens has.
eg: just because your car can go 200km you don’t drive it that fast.
At really low depth of fields you won’t actually get your subject in focus. Lets say your taking a photo of someones face. Do you want the tip of their nose in focus, their eye lashes, the pupil or the pimple at the base of the nose.
F-stop changes more than depth of field, it’s more about how much light your letting through the lens. Let in too much light and it will ruin your photo’s
F-stop is literally the same as the pupil in your eye. Think of waking up in a bright room, your pupil is wide (low f-stop) and you need to wait until the muscles in your eye can reduce the light coming in (bigger f-stop number) by making your pupil smaller.
To get the correct exposure and details you have to balance f-stop with shutter speed, film speed etc.. Or control your lighting.
Oz your going to want a depth of field 10-20cm for food unless you want the viewer to concentrait more on your photo than your food.
Unless you are taking a picture of Pizza 
this photo was taken on 1.8
I tried to find a bacon example so Azz could relate… but still looking
here’s one (i literally just google bacon and 1.4 LOL)
Photo details here
http://www.kevinandamanda.com/recipes/dinner/cheesy-chicken-bacon-broccoli-and-rice.html/attachment/cheesy-chicken-bacon-broccoli-and-rice-17
Next time we catch up, you will have to have a play with our Canon 100mm Macro IS 2.8L.
You will love it so much you will soil your undies (I do when I use it)
Grrrr don’t confuse me!!!
i thought macro was a low fstop??
Why is that called a marco lens?
:sob: this is why i have buried my head in the sand with buying a new camera… I have been out of the loop far to long my brain has gone to mush!
Like I said they are examples of photos but not the subject matter. 
The first photo - chin and nose out of focus even her eyes are soft but the seem of her shirt on her shoulder is in focus (for a few stitches) as are her eyebrows. Whats the point in doing that?
Whats the point of leaving half the dish out of focus? isn’t that half cooked properly? Unless you want the viewer to just look at one ingredient of the meal.
Also notice how blown out the rice is, you can barely tell it’s rice. Correct use of aperture would give better detail and do the subject matter more justice.
If you where shooting a snowflake or ant 1.4 can be justified but not a complete meal and defiantly not 1.8 for a head/shoulder portrait.
I’m not in the loop with new equipment. Spent an afternoon at CameraHouse a few months back is all.
My DSLR is circa 2002 and my good lenses from 1971.
Photography rules, use of the equipment and good technique hasn’t changed in over 100years.
A good photo has to do with psychology of perception and sociology. What you want to say with a photo.
You can arrange a thousand words in many ways to tell a different story. (cleaver word play to do with this subject)
Forget numbers, megapixels, focal length… blah blah
When I’m asked about what camera (photo or video) someone should get, what is the first thing I ask?
Dan gave the answer in his first post. What are you going to use it for?
Grrrr don’t confuse me!!!
i thought macro was a low fstop??
Why is that called a marco lens?
:sob: this is why i have buried my head in the sand with buying a new camera… I have been out of the loop far to long my brain has gone to mush!
macro lens is great, ours is a 100mm, and it’s a 1:2.8 cost megabucks beautiful lens How close do you want to get?
the 50mm prime is a 1:1.8 cost mini bucks (just over $100) and it’s good, but not beautiful.
The macro really needs a macro flash, (more $, we don’t have it) and a tripod to get fabulous shots. Yesterday, shooting some water drops trying to get the reflection in focus, I just couldn’t stay still enough to hold the focus point on the reflection on the water drop. This was shot at f/7.1 just to play around and see how a higher stop affected the DOF. ISO was 2500. The bokeh in the background is getting closer to circular than with a lens with fewer blades. Anyways, you can see Chill Hill upside down here. We also use this lens in some event situations, takes great shots but the fixed focal length is limiting for us then.
This one is f/11 ISO not cranked
Not great photos, I move too much
That Bee one is very cool!!!
But yeah I don’t need to get that close. 
And you can achieve that with a zoom lens as well can’t you?
ie I don’t get what the macro bit is on the lens?
That Bee one is very cool!!!
But yeah I don’t need to get that close.
And you can achieve that with a zoom lens as well can’t you?
ie I don’t get what the macro bit is on the lens?
the macro bit allows you to get 1:1 or better (bigger), on small things which you can’t get with zoom. So imagine a stamp, can get close enough to fill the screen/shot/frame and keep it in focus. Can’t do that with zoom, although zooms do have some macro capabilities
Ozgirl, Low f-stop values are crucial if you want to be able to shoot sharp subjects in low/poor lighting.
As Seb mentioned, you’re balancing iso, shutter and aperture to achieve your spot on exposure. If you were for example, taking portraits of people inside at an evening event with low lighting, your f1.8 or f1.4 will come in handy to allow enough light in without over-cranking the iso. I use the cheap 50mm 1.8 and it has been fantastic at 1.8 in poorly lit situations.
When you have good lighting, you won’t shoot as much at f1.8 due to such a shallow depth of field as seb highlighted (unless you’re aiming for that look of course). However being able to shoot either a person, or moving object at dusk and keep them sharp and without grain, will give you immeasurably better results at f1.8 compared to f4.
As for the f1.4 vs f1.8, Personally, my $100 f1.8 has pulled through for most situations, but again, a lower f-stop will increase your low light shooting capabilities even more!
One other consideration - If you plan on using your DSLR to film, and you film something under lights, you have to shoot at the same shutter speed as the freq. of the light. eg 100fps = 100hz, and this will avoid ‘flicker’ for lights in Aus. So you now have a fixed shutter speed, you don’t want your ISO to go beyond 3200 max (any more and footage is super grainy - this practical limit may be lower on the body you purchase) what does it leave you to adjust? Aperture. Again, the greater range an f1.4 or f1.8 has will save you in this scenario.