Focal Lengths Compared: 35mm, 50mm, 85mm

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Now that I have lenses with three different focal lengths, I did a little experiment to see how the same picture would turn out using my different lenses: the 35mm 1.8, the 50mm 1.8, and the 85mm 1.8.

If you're wondering what a focal length is, there's a really technical explanation here.  I have no idea what all the jargon means. :)  But in simple terms, the focal length of your lens affects how magnified everything looks when you look through the viewfinder.  A longer focal length like the 85mm will make everything look much closer to you than a shorter focal length like the 35mm.  The three lenses I own don't zoom.  They are prime lenses so if I need to "zoom in", I need to physically move closer to what I'm photographing.

For my highly technical experiment, I grabbed the cutest, non-mobile subject I could find (Timmy), stood in the same spot that I marked with a dog toy, and took a picture of him with each lens.  For each picture, you'll notice changes in two areas: how much of Timmy and his surroundings are in view and the amount of bokeh (background blur) in each photo.  Aperture is not the only thing that affects bokeh.  Your focal length does too!  The longer the focal length (so the more "zoomed in" you are), the more blur you will have.  (Note: I kept my aperture the same for each photo so that the only thing affecting bokeh was the focal length.)

The Results!

~ 35mm ~

35mm, f/2.8, 1/250, ISO 100

~ 50mm ~

50mm, f/2.8, 1/250, ISO 100

~ 85mm ~

85mm, f/2.8, 1/320, ISO 100

As you can see, the longer the focal length, the more zoomed in everything looks even though I stood in the same spot for each picture.  Also, the bokeh got more and more blurry as the focal length increased.

If you're wondering what my favorite lens to shoot with is, the 35mm wins for indoor use.  The 35mm is SO sharp even at 1.8.  I find that I generally don't have enough room to shoot with the 50mm and the 85mm in my house.  For outside, the 50mm is my go-to lens for almost everything, but I love the 85mm for a nice portrait shot (for people who can actually stay still unlike my wiggly kiddos!).  

What is your favorite focal length to shoot with?

I Heart Faces Photo Challenge - Let's Hear It for the Boys

Monday, June 20, 2011

I love this picture of my son on his Daddy's lap!  And there's Poppy in the background too!  Timmy is the first baby boy in the family, so it was really sweet to capture "the boys" hanging out together. :)

Happy Father's Day!

Sunday, June 19, 2011

to the best Daddy in the world! We love you!!!

50mm, f/2.5, 1/30 (gasp!), ISO 1600

Fix It Friday!

Friday, June 17, 2011

Oh this is such a sweet family picture for this week's Fix It Friday at I Heart Faces!

Here is the original photo that was taken by Susan Keller:

Here is my clean, color edit:

And here is the black and white version (which I'm partial to).

Click on the graphic below to see more edits!

The Instruction of a Father

Nancy Leigh DeMoss has been doing a week long series on the insights and principles her father taught her in her first 21 years of life.  The series has been excellent, so I wanted to share these pearls of wisdom with you.  Perhaps you will share them with the fathers and husbands in your life to encourage them.  What a wonderful gift that would be as we approach Father's Day.

1. Start Your Day with God
Excerpt: God did not save us to experience a part-time, weekend Christian experience. We’re all supposed to be full-time Christians, full-time servants of the Lord, regardless of our vocation. Being a Christian is not a 40-hour a week job, or it’s not a 2 hours on Sunday morning job. It’s a 24/7, all the time, day in and day out relationship with Christ.

2. Trust and Obey
Excerpt: My dad used to say it this way: “This thing about habits and choices and little things—you are what you have been becoming. You are today the sum total of what you have been becoming. And you will be down the road what you are becoming now.” 

3. Guard Your Heart
Excerpt: Everything else about your life flows out of what’s in your heart—what you say, what you do, how you think, how you react, your emotions, your choices. Your whole future life springs out of what’s in your heart.

4. Don't Spend Your Life, Invest It
Excerpt: My dad had a strong conviction which comes right from the Word of God that we don’t own anything, that God owns everything, and that we are merely stewards of that which God owns which He has entrusted to us for a little bit of time here on this earth. One day we will stand before the Lord and will give account to Him for what we did with everything that He entrusted to us. Our time. Our hours. What we did with those hours.

5. Returning to Your First Love
Excerpt: In the light of eternity, most of what matters to us now will seem absolutely insignificant, and conversely, things that seem insignificant to us now, when we stand before God may seem to be monumental. We've got to get our values adjusted so that they fit eternal values.

Whispering Words of Forgiveness...

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Abby turned 3 today and it was an emotional meltdown of a day.  The reason was not because she was overwhelmed with birthday festivities, excitement, and sugar.  It was actually a very low key, normal day.  But ever since she turned 2, our Abby has clearly shown me that I'm not the incredibly patient person I always thought I was!  And today, even though she is 3, was no different. :)

Yet how sweet it was when she asked me to cuddle with her at bedtime tonight.  She whispered all about her new toy lizard, snake, and frog (yes, she likes these things!).  She whispered about catching fireflies tonight.  And then she whispered words that melted my heart.
     "Mommy?  D'you forgive me?"
     "Forgive you for what honey?"   
     "For cwying today?"
     "Yes honey.  Of course I forgive you.  And do you forgive Mommy for getting angry?"
     "Yus Mommy."

As we cuddled some more, I thought about God's grace and how amazing it is that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Oh how I want that grace to overflow as I parent and shepherd these young children.  I fell short of that today and I will no doubt fall short again, but I am reminded of God's forgiveness, patience, and the power of the Holy Spirit to change me and make me more like Christ.

Making Your Pictures Look Better On Facebook

Friday, June 10, 2011

Here's a quick and simple photography tip for today.  Have you ever noticed that your pictures seem to look worse once you upload them to Facebook?  If you resize your photos to 700 pixels wide on the longest side and set your resolution to 72 pixels/inch, they'll look so much better and they'll take less time to upload too!

If you don't know how to resize an image, or if you don't have editing software, click here for step by step instructions on using Picnik.com (it's free!) to resize your photos.

Happy resizing and photo sharing!