5 minutes with the 50

I've read loads of posts/articles recently about people making very good use of both shallow DoF and 50mm (standard) lenses.  I was sitting around this evening after a hard day at work, about to chill with the piano for 5 minutes, when I read an article on my phone about 80 inspirational shots with a 50, and I thought I'd have a quick go and see what I could do...

Holly (5D2, ISO800, 50mm f1.8 at f2.0, 1/50s)

So the first shot is of Holly, one of our 3 cats.  She's such a poser!  I used a fairly typical portrait technique of taking a shot from above, focussing on the eyes and throwing the rest of the body out of focus with shallow DoF (this was taken at f2.0).  I tweaked the colours a little - reduced the sharpness a touch as it's not necessarily flattering for portraits to be too sharp, and desaturated a bit after a touch of white balance correction.  I tried B&W, but wasn't happy with the results, so I left it with subtle colour.

Fly and Shoes (5D2, ISO800, 50mm f1.8 at f1.8, 1/50s)

If you like ale and have never tried Blandford Fly, I can wholeheartedly recommend it!  Absolutely gorgeous beer, made with a little ginger.  I had one bottle on the shelf and fancied it after the day at work today.  I decided to make it a point in a shot, and my shoes were on the floor next to where I was, so I bought those in to get some detail in the old leather.  The vignetting is deliberate (although all the 50's vignette fairly heavily when wide open).

Little and Large (5D2, ISO800, 50mm f1.8 at f1.8, 1/25s)

My youngest, Oz (short for Oscar) has just got his first pair of "real" shoes (as opposed to the very soft first shoes).  And here they are!  They are very sweet, and he looks so cute in them!  I use my big oafish shoes to give a sense of perspective, focussed on the little train on the front of the nearest shoe and got this shot.  The vignette, again, is added and deliberately squared off a bit from the standard oval.

Red (5D2, ISO800, 50mm f1.8 at f1.8, 1/50s)

 Finally, I had bought my wife some roses from the supermarket on the way home from work.  They're still in the packet here, and I put them against the table in the kitchen with the wooden slats of the chair in the background.  I've left only red and green in the image to bring the focus completely to the roses.

This was a very quick play with the 50mm, and it's not helping my desperate want for a better quality 50mm lens.  I've been eyeing up the Canon f1.4 and the Sigma f1.4, and today was reading about just how good the Canon 50mm f1.2L is (and at a touch over £1000, I wont be getting one of those yet!).  But I'm pretty sure I'll get myself a Sigma f1.4 something soon - primarily as I think it's considerably sharper by f1.8 than the f1.8 that I have got, the bokeh is better, the AF is better, the construction is better.  I think it could end up being my most used lens on the 5D2...