Switching To A Longer Lens

I decided to swap out my usual 17mm lens to my 50mm 1.4 7artisans lens. When I first tried the lens I was not impressed, but now that my manual focusing technique has improved, I found the quality of my images much improved. Its 75mm equivalent focal length has the advantage of a longer working distance between the subject and the camera, which allows for tighter cropping with smaller subjects. Also, I'm seeing something I've not encountered with shorter lenses: bokeh, the Japanese word used to describe a soft, ethereal quality given to out-of-focus backgrounds.

I have never actively sought to achieve "good" bokeh in my photos, I've always felt that bokeh was just a quality attributed to "out-of-focus-ness". And by virtue of the fact that longer lenses increase the apparent relationship between the subject and the background (a.k.a. foreshortening), those creamy backgrounds are mostly the result of simply being both large and out of focus.

My flirtation with manual focusing lenses has made me re-examine what I consider important in a finished print, or in this case, a posted image. Since the average computer screen can resolve only a fraction of the pixels available from a current production digital camera, critical sharpness doesn't carry over well. We should remember that one of the first successful professional digital cameras was the Nikon D1, a cameras that produced three megapixel images on an APS sized sensor. Even my six megapixel D70s have more than enough resolution for most digital applications, but barely enough for a good 8" x 10" print.

Shooting wide open, or nearly so, will throw not in the plane of focus blurry. If my intent was to show the entire plant in fine detail, this photo fails. But if the photo was an example of complimentary colors, it works. Of course, this was my intent all along.

Setting bokeh aside, the longer focal length lenses allow for greater subject to camera distances. If I had my usual 17mm lens, I could not have gotten this close to this cat. With the 50mm, the deed was done without any emotion stress on the subject. I'm am not bothered by the lack of eye contact. After all, cats are the epitome of indifference, so my feelings aren't hurt.