It’s raining outside and that means I don’t want to test my new 50mm lens outside yet. But I tested this lens already inside, especially at f/1.8 to get a nice blurry background or shallow depth of field. The problem is however that depth of field can become too shallow sometimes. Well, this is actually not a problem, it’s rather one of the reasons why I wanted to get this 50mm lens. What I meant is, that I do now have to get used to different aperture settings, or to be more exact to control this and to learn when the aperture is set too wide. In the case of the photo in this post, aperture was maybe too wide, because one eye of my cat is more clear than the other. I think I wanted to achieve a blurry background, but a sharp focus on the cat. It’s not that I dislike how the photo turned out, but it’s a great example that owning a new lens means to experiment with it and to try out different things, but I like that. Do you think both eyes should be sharp in a cat portrait?
Diary of Dennis 
The 50mm lens is a perfect lens! I use mine quite often for portraits and details of things 🙂
I am still not very experienced with this lens. I got this one used for 120€, a nice deal. I’ve seen reviews and liked that aperture can be opened that wide, and the DoF and bokeh that comes with it. But I must learn when it’s too much of DoF. Do you think my cat portrait has too much DoF? Should both eyes be clear or do you think it’s ok if the depth is leading you to pay attention to one eye? Maybe I should have closed the aperture a bit more, but well, it’s my first lens with f/1.8 and it’s fun to try wide aperture 😀
it’s one of the sharpest lenses and is still sharp when wide open, 120 euro is a great price 🙂 I really can’t tell if the DoF is too much or not, it really depends on what the photographer (you) wants to show, if you wanted both eyes sharp then yes maybe an aperture of f4-5 would be good, if you intended to show one eye blurry and focus on one eye then this is great. It really is a matter of personal feeling and what you want as a photographer 🙂 I rarely go to f1.8 I usually have it on f2.8 because that gives it just that little bit more DoF 🙂 f1.8 is great for details (my opinion) f1.8 is great for use in evening/morning scenery since you don’t have to bump up the ISO that much and you can still shoot from the hand 🙂
Awesome, thanks for sharing your experience 🙂 Since the effects of aperture is now much more visible compared to my kit lens, I assume you’re right and I must find out what I can do with it creatively. Yeah, I think in the case of my cat photo I wanted to have the background blurry but both cat eyes sharp, I will close aperture with the next try. However, I think how it turned out now is not bad either, I do agree that the DoF can be used creatively and we decide 🙂
you are welcome 😃 practice is the only way to get better ✌😃 it’s indeed a great photo already 😃
Thanks 🙂