toxdoc42

Thanks to everyone for allowing me to ask so many questions. The learning curve for me is steep.

I was shooting photos with my new Nikon D3400, recently converted from film and sold my Nikon F2 and Nikormat and all of the lenses I owned, for the weekend celebrations of my mother in law who turned 100 years of age at the time. Lucky for me that most of the photos turned out just fine, for, sadly, she ended up dying a week later.

I was most often using a 50 mm f/1.8 AF-S lens on my Nikon D3400, Here is what the Nikon website states about the lens:

"A must-have for standard portraits and everyday use, the AF-S NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8G is a lens that will absolutely surprise you. The 50mm focal length (75mm equivalent on DX format cameras) with a fast f/1.8 aperture allows you to capture stunning images with a shallow depth-of-field, letting your subjects stand out from their backgrounds. The AF-S NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8G may soon become your new favorite lens."

That is why I purchased this lens. On my F2 I used a 50 mm 1.4 as my "go to" lens, a 28 mm as my wide angle, my 85 for portraits and I had a 300 mm for telephoto work. It does seem that when I upgrade to a full frame sensor, the 50mm f/1.8 lens will work fine, since they claim it is optimized for that, claim its format is Fx35mm which probably is Nikon's way of saying it is formatted for full frame sensor, it says compatible with Fx, Dx and Fx in Dx mode.

So far I have been very pleased with the lens. Photographing the party, I was fooled by the "autofocus" on several occasions and need to figure out what is the best for my use. I shot a "portrait" of 4 people using back focus to be sure one of them was in focus and the result was that only that one person was in fact in sharp focus, they seemed to be all in line to me through the view finder, and all in focus, so I thought. I shot at ISO 1600, hand held at 1/60 and f 1.8 from about 8 feet from them, flash pointed up for bounce effect. I am going to fool around with using different ISOs and see how high I can push it without getting too much noise, I wish that I had done that with this particular shot to enable me to close down the lens and gotten a little more depth of field. The camera finder and even the LCD doesn't really give you the feeling that any of the photo was out of focus.

I don't have any pp software yet, but I assume none would help with this problem anyway.

Any thoughts? Suggestions?

(Download)

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

First off, when posting an image here, make sure you check the "store attatchment" box so we can bring up a larger image.

ISO 1600 will not match the synch speed of your strobe, so experiment with lower setting. Pointing your flash up will provide bounce, but will result in overly yellow lighting on your subjects. Try this: Get an ordinary #10 white business envelope and secure it to your flash barrel with a rubber band. Pointing the strobe up will give you bounce flash and fill lighting which will be more pleasing on your subject. I have seen a ton of professional photographers use the envelope bounce trick. For a better tool, consider Gary Fong's Lightsphere: https://www.garyfong.com. I shot an engagement ceremony under a tent using the Lightsphere and got amazing portrait results.

toxdoc42

Thanks so much for your prompt reply. I just edited the posting and added the download option.

Actually I used the built in little white "thingee" which is almost like the envelope technique, except that it also brings up a diffuse lens that covers most of the strobe.

I am intrigued about your comment that the strobe won't work correctly with an ISO 1600. I haven't seen that before. I learned over 50 years ago, not to use too fast a shutter speed because the strobe might not work correctly, but I never knew that ISO, aka ASA speed would also be a problem.

Whuff Loc: Marshalltown, Iowa

Your choice of aperture of f1.8 at the distance of 8 feet gives you a total depth of field of approximatly 6.5 inches that will be in focus according to the depth of field calculator in my photopills app. The young man on the right seems to be forward of the rest of the group by at least that much, resulting in the others being out of focus. You are correct in thinking of closing down the lens and using a higher ISO.

Walt

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

50 yers ago, communications between strobe and cameras are definitely not the same as modern DSLRs. Try this: Put the camera in Program mode and use the strobe. See what Nikon's light meter does to the image and use those settings as a starting point.

PHRubin Loc: Nashville TN USA

Your choice of settings would have given you similar results with film. f1.8 is much too wide an opening for any depth of field. ISO of 1600 is rather high, but probably OK. I'd drop to ISO 800 or 400 and an aperture of f4 to limit strobe power required. If your strobe is a strong one, ISO 200 and f8. Do some test shots. The shutter speed for a flash shot depends on whether or not you wan ambient light in the image. If so, 1/60 sec. or so would be good with flash "fill". If not, 1/200 or 1/250 (if your camera supports that speed for flash). Experiment before the next occasion to be sure you are ready.

toxdoc42

Thanks for all of the comments. They are helpful.

The difference is that with my film cameras, the viewfinder had a prism in the center to assist in assuring proper focus. I tried to focus on the central figure here, obviously missed it and ended up focusing on the far right individual which blurred the others. I thought that focusing on the middle person would have helped, somehow, that didn't seem to work this time. I haven't conquered the choice of focus points yet.

I don't like the look of a direct flash, so I chose to use more of the available light with the strobe only as a fill, thus I bounced it upwards. Next time I will close down the lens, hope that the strobe plus available light will work, although the exposure seems fine with an ISO of 1600, if I doubled the ISO I cold only have closed the lens one stop, perhaps not enough to have gotten enough depth of field.

Shellback Loc: North of Cheyenne Bottoms Wetlands - Kansas

Since it's a slightly differnet world, CameraSim will help you as it will simulate the DSLR and let you play with the exposure triangle - Speed / Aperture / ISO to see the effects each setting change will produce.

You can choose Aperture Priority / Shutter Priortity or Manual (Be sure to keep the exposure meter close to center) -

This gives you the ability to visualize:
The change in aperture and depth of field -
The change in shutter speed and motion -

You can change the Focal Length (18mm to 55mm) and your distance to the subject (3.2ft to 10ft) - gives a difference perspective...


Additionally, I think you will find my page of Training Resources helpful...

Bobspez Loc: Southern NJ, USA

Look at this online depth of field calculator.
http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html
Your total depth of field with a 50mm lens at f1.8 is about 6 inches (3 inches in front and three inches behind the focal point). On your pic the person at the far right was the focal point and in sharp focus, no one else was. To get everyone in focus you need a smaller f-stop. For example, f8 would have a depth of field of about a foot in front and a foot in back of the focal point. If you make your focal point the person midway between the closest and farthest person (probably the lady second from the right) everyone should be in focus. Of course then you would need more light. You can try setting your aperture and f stop and shutter speed manually and leaving your iso on auto iso. If that gives you too much noise, you can try the flash, and set your iso to 100. The flash should be adjustable on your menu, so you have to practice to see what setting is best flash strength for your iso, shutter speed, aperture and distance for a specific lighting condition.

I practic these different setting with and without flash in my study, taking pics of my book case or desk or pictures on the wall, etc. After a while it becomes second nature. With a few test shots you can be in business in a minute or so.

Bill_de Loc: US

You should be more than intrigued, you should be flabbergasted. Like many things you will read on any forum, it makes no sense.

Just like bouncing flash off a ceiling will give a yellow cast. That could be true in a house full of smokers with a nicotine stained ceiling. Bouncing flash off a white ceiling should be fine.

I think President Reagan was referring to UHH when he said. "Trust - but verify"

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PHRubin Loc: Nashville TN USA

If the strobe you used has TTL control, it will increase output so more than one stop of aperture reduction will work, 'tho the available light in the image will be reduced. However, if you are bouncing the strobe light properly, you will minimize the look of direct flash.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

The D3400 has a depth of field preview button, doesn't it? That could help. Since you have experience with photography, you should catch on quickly. There is a lot of software to deal with noise caused by high ISO.

toxdoc42

No, the D3400 doesn't have such a button, and, so far, I can't find a way to assign a mother button for that. I am about to do a test of quality with varying ISO, the D3400 goes way higher than I could have dreamed of with film. I must admit to actually liking the grain that I got sometimes from pushing TriX way up and enlarging to make the grain even more apparent, from what I have seen with digital, it is not equivalent.

Notorious T.O.D. Loc: Harrisburg, North Carolina

ISO is the sensitivity of the camera's sensor to light, similar to film speed. You seem to understand that just fine. I think renergaderphoto was confusing sync speed of a flash with ISO. I think you probably don't need ISO 1600 if you are adding light with a flash. 400-800 would probably be fine, maybe even less depending on how powerful your flash is and the amount of light it can produce. I think your main issue as others have stated I'd too open with your aperture therefore getting a very shallow depth of field. I would try ISO 200, f5.6 at 1/125 as a starting point. This will totally eliminate the ambient light and let the flash light the photo when indoors most of the time. Start with the flash in ETTL mode or in Manual mode at 1/2 power. If using manual mode you can adjust the flash output or use flash exposure compensation as you get more used to using the flash.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7zZBD6EMB1k Robert Harrington's video will give you some ideas of what can be done with one flash. You can possibly fire off camera flash with a built in flash if your camera has one. I believe Nikon calls it Commander Mode, but I am a Canon shooter.

Best,
Todd Ferguson

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Right. I see the D3300 didn't have that button, either.