Photo by G. Russell on Flickr

Price

It may seem a little strange to start this review off by talking about price, but the great value of the 50mm f/1.8 II really deserves to be spoken about, as it’s just such an affordable loens to add to your arsenal. For example, it’s only about $150 from Amazon US, or around £100 on Amazon UK.

Photography is an expensive hobby at the best of times, so it’s great to find an excellent lens (which it is, by the way) that doesn’t leave us eating cheese and bread for a month or two…

How Will It Improve My Photos?

This is the biggie – afterall, why would you bother getting a new lens if it’s not going to improve your photography at the end of the day? There are a few reasons why you can benefit from getting the Canon 50mm, and I’ll list them in order of importance (in my opinion, anyway):

1. No Flash Needed

Yep, with this little baby attached to your DSLR, you can put away that little pop-up flash on your camera, because you just won’t be needing it – this lens’ maximum aperture of f/1.8 means that it takes in a whole lot of light at a time, which in turn means that you’ll be able to take sharp shots in lowlight situations with ease.

Don’t believe me? Check out my shot of a friend’s cat, below. It was taken inside at night, with no flash whatsoever:

f/1.8, 1/60 sec, ISO 1600

Check out the sharpness of the cat’s eye!

A shot like this, in such a dark situation, would not have been possible to take without flash with the 18 – 55 kit lens that came with my Canon 500D / T1i – the aperture of that lens just ins’t large enough to allow enough light in. But, with the Canon 50mm f/1.8, I just set it at its maximum aperture, raised the ISO (which is the camera’s sensitivity to light) to 1600, and shot away.

By the way, I did a tutorial on how to take photos in lowlight without using a flash, which you may be interested in too.

2. Shallow Depth Of Field

I love taking shots with a beautifully blurred background; love the way this makes the subject of my photos ‘pop’. And what’s the main way you can achieve such out-of-focus backgrounds? Yep, by using a large aperture again – another reasons why the 50mm’s f/1.8 is just so darn great.

You can see an example of this in the shot below: the nice focus on the eyes, with the background (his body) and foreground (his nose) a lovely blur…

f/1.8, 1/30 sec, ISO 3200

It’s also actually another example of the lowlight performance of the lens, as he is a dark dog, in a very dark room – there’s no way that my kit lens would have been able to take this shot without using flash, but the Canon 50mm had no problems.

Funnily enough, I’ve done a tutorial on how to blur the background in your photos too, which you may find useful.

3. Great Focal Length For Portraits

As most of us are probably using crop-sensor cameras – such as the Canon T2i or T3i – then the 50mm focal length of the lens is very similiar to an 80mm lens of a full-frame camera, and this focal length is just great for portraits. And if that talk of crop-sensors and full-frame doesn’t mean much to you, don’t worry, just know that by using the 50mm to take photos of your friends and family, you’re going to get some great results.

The 80mm-equivalent focal length means your subject will look natural, and not distorted – and the wide aperture means you can send the background out of focus with ease.

Check out the portrait of my mum (ah…) below as an example:

f/2.8, 1/1600 sec, ISO 100

I’m pretty sure my mum likes this shot, and she normally hates photos of herself, so the 50m is definitely working well here!

4. It’s Sharp.

Yep, it really is. At f/1.8 it’s good, and at slightly smaller apertures, such as f/2.8, it’s even better. You’ll definitely notice the improvement from your 18 – 55 kit lens.

I’ll include some more shots below – all showing great sharpness:

f/6.3, 1/800 sec, ISO 200

f/2.6, 1/200 sec, ISO 1600

f/2.8, 1/400 sec, ISO 800

f/2.8, 1/3200 sec, ISO 200

Verdict

So, you’re probably thinking I quite like this lens, and you’d be absolutely right! But what of its downsides? Well, you may have heard or read about the build quality of the lens. Yes, it is plasticy, but, you know what? It doesn’t matter. At all. It fits on your camera, and works. Surely that’s all we need it to do? We’re not going to be playing ‘catch’ with it, after all. For amateur/enthusiast photographers, there is just no need to go for a more expensive option just because of the plastic build.

It works, and it works darn well.

A photo I took with this lens was even published in my local newspaper, so, yes, I am quite a fan!

The Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II is available from Amazon US and UK.

I actually really don’t like having my photo taken, which sounds pretty bizarre as I’m always snapping other folk – but I can see that, in ten years’ time when I’m looking back at my family photos, it might be a little sad if I’m not in any of them…

So, one of the benefits of getting my new Canon 7D has been that I can teach my wife how to use my old camera, the Canon 500D (T1i). As well as the joy of sharing a passion and hobby, it means I’ve had to bite the bullet and actually appear in some photos for once. And to bite the bullet even further, I’m going to actually show you what I look like – I believe these will be the first ever photos of me that I’ve put on the site, and it’s been going for nearly a year and half now…

Yep, it's me - finally!

There, I’ve done it…

And now I’m on a roll, here’s another!

By the way, that handsome fella above is my parent-in-law’s dog, Alfie. He’s not as shy about having his photo taken.

So, it’s just a small thought to leave you with, as I know how fantastic it is to be behind the lens – but perhaps you should let yourself be snapped now and again so your family will remember you actually existed back then…?

What it makes it unique, you say? Well, instead of there being a photo with each entrant having to come up with a suitable caption, they’ve turned it on its head: They supply the caption (in this case ‘It seemed like a good idea at the time…’), and YOU supply the photo!

It’s a nice, creative idea, and the prize is pretty darn good too – a Canon 500D DSLR. Nice!

Click the screenshot of the competition below to find out more and enter (by the way, as it is a UK site, I’m pretty sure the contest is only open to UK residents, sorry).

Click the pic to go to the competition page

If you’ve found something on the ‘net that you think would be of interest to our readers – perhaps a competition like this, or a great tutorial, or some fantastic photography – , just drop me an email and I’ll cover it on the site.

I’d like to thank everyone for taking the time to wonder around the site, reading the guides, tips and random photographic warblings of mine; leaving comments, asking questions, re-tweeting and facebook ‘Liking‘ – it’s all massively appreciated, and makes me really love writing the blog.

Personally, I’ve come quite a way over the past year when it comes to my photography – learning loads along the way, and hopefully imparting some of this new-found knowledge to you all as well. As an example, here is a photo of my parents that I took before I started to learn about photography, back in 2009:

Over a year later, using my new photography knowledge (and new camera, of course – a 500D / T1i), here are a couple of portraits of them that I think are quite a lot better:

f/2.8, 1/500 sec, ISO 100

f/2.8, 1/640 sec, ISO 100

Another example, this time a shot of my dog, taken with a compact a couple of years ago:

My dog, looking a bit lost in the middle of the frame...

Compared to a shot I took within the first few weeks of owning my new DSLR, and my ‘photographic learning journey’ (Oh it sounds so grand…!):

f/5, 1/250 sec, ISO 100

None of my ‘new’ shots are going to win any awards, but I think you’ll agree just how far I’ve come. With a little understanding and knowledge, it really is easy to make your photos ‘shine’ – and the quality leap from the days of my compact, to what I’m shooting now, has really made every penny going into my DSLR totally worth it.

Here’s to another year of learning, and passing on what I find useful to you…!

I took this shot whilst on a walk with my wife and mum on Christmas Day – we were just ambling past this house when this gorgeous dog popped up, gazing at us with those adorable eyes! I just couldn’t resist taking a couple of photos.

It’s not the best photo, technically – the dog itself should have been sharper, for instance; I should have took my time and focused on the eyes. But, I was afraid the dog may get spooked and leave, so I shot quickly. You never know if you’re going to have time to re-compose and focus perfectly, so for instances like this – where the shot may get lost if you hesitate, or take too much time – I think it’s best to shoot away (you may get the time to take another, more-controlled photo after, but you may not get a shot at all if you took too long in the first place…).

Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 (photo by pete92009 on Flickr)

As my kit lens already went up to 55mm, the 55 – 250 seemed the perfect counterpart – meaning that with both lenses, I could cover a range of 18  – 250, which is a fantastic range! The Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 is also very good value for such a long telephoto zoom, at around $220 / £150 (you can buy it at Amazon US and UK).

There are lots of reviews of this lens on the ‘net, many going into extraordinarily specific and detailed technical analysis – my review will instead focus (pun intended!) on my ‘real world’ usage of the lens, and will show you some sample photos I’ve taken with the lens. So, without further ado, let’s start, shall we?

My First Day With The Lens

The photo of the robin, below, was taken on the first day I got my 55 – 250:

ISO 500, 1/250 sec, f/5.6

Needless to say, I was impressed with my new lens right away – see the detail of the bird’s feathers, the sharpness of its feet, and the lovely background blur too. Being able to get such a close-up, detailed shot of the robin, without having to be actually standing right next to it (I was a good few metres away when I took this), is fantastic – if I’d got physically nearer, then I would have frightened it away, so my 18 – 55 kit lens would not have been able to take this shot at all.

By shooting ‘racked out’ (which means using the lens at its longest zoom length – in this case 250mm), not only did I manage to capture a detailed close-up, but it also helped to produce that extensively blurred background that looks so good. Using longer focal lengths like this is one way of achieving such a background blur – if you’re interested, you can find out other ways of how to blur the background of your photos in the seperate tutorial I did.

Carry on to part 2: It’s great for wildlife and candid photography —>

Our collection of photos taken with a Canon T2i / 550D proved the most popular feature

(Photo above by Dave Dugdale, LearningDSLRVideo.com)

1. 15 Great Photos Shot With A Canon Rebel T2i / 550D (And How They Were Taken)
It seems the T2i is a very popular camera, with lots of visitors interested in seeing photos taken with the camera, along with details on just how each photographer ‘got the shot’. This was easily the most frequented piece of content on the site, with three times as much traffic as the article in number two…

2. How To Take Sharp Photos In Low Light Without A Flash
The ‘How To…’ section was the most popular general area of the site, and this guide on how to get sharp photos in lowlight situations, without using that pesky flash, was the most read tutorial.

3. How To Blur The Background
In third place is our guide on how to get that lovely blurred background in your photos – one of the things that can differentiate an ‘alright’t photo, to one that looks more ‘pro-like’.

4. 500D vs 550D: Which One Should You Buy?
With these 2 Canon cameras proving very popular, many visitors were looking to find out the exact differences between the models – our comparison helped show just what the ‘real world’ differences are.

5. Canon EOS Rebel T2i / 550D Digital Field Guide Review
Again, the popularity of the Canon T2i (known as the 550D in Europe) shows here, as many owners were looking to find our review of the digital field guide book for this camera (which is a fine book, by the way!).

6. 15 Gorgeous Dog Photos (And How They Were Taken)
As well as helping people see just how some great pet photography was done, a lot of visitors probably just enjoyed the great photos of cute puppies…!

7. So You’ve Bought A Digital SLR: What Next?
Our article containing tips on ‘what next’ for new DSLR owners proved pretty popular – with nods to great web content, photography books, and potential next lens purchases.

8. Download Our Free iPad Photo Book: ‘Mirror, Mirror’
Our very own free iPad photobook, which was created with the help of 28 great photographers, comes in as the eighth most popular piece of content. The photobook now graces almost 1000 iPads throughout the world!

9. How To Graduate From Fully Auto In 2 Easy Steps
Our guide on how to start using the more advanced features of your DSLR – and just how easy it is to do so – comes in at number nine.

10. 10 Fantastic Videos Shot With A Canon T2i / 550D
Our selection of great videos, all of which were shot with the Canon T2i / 550D, shows that people are not only buying DSLR for ‘still’ photography.

Once again, I want to thank everyone for visiting LearningTheLight.com over the past year, leaving comments, following us on twitter or facebook, and for making it such a joy to keep writing content for – I hope some of our writings have been useful!

Have a fantastic new year, and I look forward to seeing you all again in 2011…!

Merry Christmas everyone, and thanks for frequenting LearningTheLight.com over the past year, leaving comments, following me on twitter and facebook, and just taking the time to read my warblings…

Our Christmas Tree. Ahh...

Enjoy your Christmas, and don’t forget to take lots of photos (thought I’m sure you don’t really need reminding of that…!)

Toys are enjoyed by all ages at Christmas!

Go For The ‘Candid’ Shots

I’m not a fan of the group photo stereotype – we all know the one; a badly-lit, flash-blasted montage of the whole family around the sofa, with 2 out of the 5 people choosing to blink or suffer from the worst case of red-eye-itis. Posed photos just don’t cut it! So, like in the photo above, where I caught my father- and -brother-in-law playing with their new toys on Christmas Day, try to take natural, ‘candid’ shots of your family and friends – they just look so much better.

Some examples of Christmas-y situations that are great for candid shots include:

• Opening of the presents (catch your child’s joy when they unwrap their gift, and then your partner’s look of dismay as the little one plays only with carboard box).
• Playing with the gifts – both young and old alike!
• The preparation and cooking for the Christmas meal – perhaps you can catch a shot of your Mum downing a glass of sherry or two…?
• The meal itself. Lots of full mouths and action-chewing shots.
• The aftermath. Uncle Charlie asleep on the sofa. Your Dad asleep on the sofa. Hmmm, not too much action then – should be easy to get some sharp photos at least!
• And lots more besides…

On to part 2: Using a zoom lens to take natural photos —>

I like this portrait of a friend I took at a recent gathering; I like the light, the shallow depth of field (obtained by using a wide aperture of f/2.8), and I like the fact you can see me taking the shot in his sunglasses’ reflection!

By the way, apologies if you follow my photography blog and noticed the lack of updates lately – I’ve been away on holiday, and then, as luck would have it, fell ill whilst I was away.

Bonus shot! Here’s a pic of me taking the photo above – thanks to my friend, Stew, for letting me use his photo on my blog. Yep, that’s me, the guy with no hair below…