Gabby came from PAWS Chicago in January 2021. She's 3+ years old and missing one of her paws. None of the paperwork was sure of where she came from or what has happened in her past. I selected her as part of the clear the older cats program.

Portrait of Gabby by Paul Sager, on Flickr


Images here show the EF 135mm f/2L, above, and the EF 85mm f/1.4L IS, the three below. I plan to post a first reply with crops of the eye details from all four images for comparison. These two focal lengths are widely consider the preferred focal lengths for portraits.

Portrait of Gabby


For these images, the focus was placed with a single AF point where the eyelid and eye meet. Three feature the very narrow depth of field at f/2 and one only slightly increased to f/5. As seen from the crops of the eyes, the two lenses are just as sharp, but the details outside that sliver of DOF are very soft. How much or how little DOF is accomplished is an artistic decision.

Personally, I tend to prefer an image where I can determine / understand the subject. In the case of a portrait, that would be from the tip of the nose through the ears, depending on the angle of view to the subject. Still, I'd like the eyes to be the sharpest and specifically focused. Some more work will be needed with Gabby testing different lenses, focal lengths and apertures.

Portrait of Gabby by Paul Sager, on Flickr


The 135L doesn't have IS, so in the lowlight of the moment, I had the lens wide open at f/2 and the ISO pumped to ISO-2500 to handhold at 1/160 sec. The 85L IS lets me shoot a lot slower, where I can lower the ISO, but also have to be concerned about subject movement at 1/60 and 1/30 sec.

There are all hand-held, shot in bursts. I initially look at the framing and move the AF point to that eye / eyelid point for the framing of Gabby. I focus and shoot 2 or 3 images, lift and replace my thumb over the BBF and repeat, aka 'pumping' the auto-focus. Getting Gabby to keep her eyes open and looking at me was a challenge. I use the LR compare tool looking at two images at a time in comparison of the pixel-level details, keeping only the single best image of each pose.

Portrait of Gabby


If the images are not filling your widescreen display due to recent UHH changes, follow this link and update your UHH profile: https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-572300-1.html

Gabby came from PAWS Chicago in January 2021. She's 3+ years old and missing one of her paws. None of the paperwork was sure of where she came from or what has happened in her past. I selected her as part of the clear the older cats program.

Portrait of Gabby by Paul Sager, on Flickr


Images here show the EF 135mm f/2L, above, and the EF 85mm f/1.4L IS, the three below. I plan to post a first reply with crops of the eye details from all four images for comparison. These two focal lengths are widely consider the preferred focal lengths for portraits.

Portrait of Gabby


For these images, the focus was placed with a single AF point where the eyelid and eye meet. Three feature the very narrow depth of field at f/2 and one only slightly increased to f/5. As seen from the crops of the eyes, the two lenses are just as sharp, but the details outside that sliver of DOF are very soft. How much or how little DOF is accomplished is an artistic decision.

Personally, I tend to prefer an image where I can determine / understand the subject. In the case of a portrait, that would be from the tip of the nose through the ears, depending on the angle of view to the subject. Still, I'd like the eyes to be the sharpest and specifically focused. Some more work will be needed with Gabby testing different lenses, focal lengths and apertures.

Portrait of Gabby by Paul Sager, on Flickr


The 135L doesn't have IS, so in the lowlight of the moment, I had the lens wide open at f/2 and the ISO pumped to ISO-2500 to handhold at 1/160 sec. The 85L IS lets me shoot a lot slower, where I can lower the ISO, but also have to be concerned about subject movement at 1/60 and 1/30 sec.

There are all hand-held, shot in bursts. I initially look at the framing and move the AF point to that eye / eyelid point for the framing of Gabby. I focus and shoot 2 or 3 images, lift and replace my thumb over the BBF and repeat, aka 'pumping' the auto-focus. Getting Gabby to keep her eyes open and looking at me was a challenge. I use the LR compare tool looking at two images at a time in comparison of the pixel-level details, keeping only the single best image of each pose.

Portrait of Gabby


If the images are not filling your widescreen display due to recent UHH changes, follow this link and update your UHH profile: https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-572300-1.html

Gabby came from PAWS Chicago in January 2021. She's 3+ years old and missing one of her paws. None of the paperwork was sure of where she came from or what has happened in her past. I selected her as part of the clear the older cats program.

Portrait of Gabby by Paul Sager, on Flickr


Images here show the EF 135mm f/2L, above, and the EF 85mm f/1.4L IS, the three below. I plan to post a first reply with crops of the eye details from all four images for comparison. These two focal lengths are widely consider the preferred focal lengths for portraits.

Portrait of Gabby


For these images, the focus was placed with a single AF point where the eyelid and eye meet. Three feature the very narrow depth of field at f/2 and one only slightly increased to f/5. As seen from the crops of the eyes, the two lenses are just as sharp, but the details outside that sliver of DOF are very soft. How much or how little DOF is accomplished is an artistic decision.

Personally, I tend to prefer an image where I can determine / understand the subject. In the case of a portrait, that would be from the tip of the nose through the ears, depending on the angle of view to the subject. Still, I'd like the eyes to be the sharpest and specifically focused. Some more work will be needed with Gabby testing different lenses, focal lengths and apertures.

Portrait of Gabby by Paul Sager, on Flickr


The 135L doesn't have IS, so in the lowlight of the moment, I had the lens wide open at f/2 and the ISO pumped to ISO-2500 to handhold at 1/160 sec. The 85L IS lets me shoot a lot slower, where I can lower the ISO, but also have to be concerned about subject movement at 1/60 and 1/30 sec.

There are all hand-held, shot in bursts. I initially look at the framing and move the AF point to that eye / eyelid point for the framing of Gabby. I focus and shoot 2 or 3 images, lift and replace my thumb over the BBF and repeat, aka 'pumping' the auto-focus. Getting Gabby to keep her eyes open and looking at me was a challenge. I use the LR compare tool looking at two images at a time in comparison of the pixel-level details, keeping only the single best image of each pose.

Portrait of Gabby


If the images are not filling your widescreen display due to recent UHH changes, follow this link and update your UHH profile: https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-572300-1.html