Need help to decide between canon 50mm 1.4 and 35mm 1.4

[Keith B]

What specifically didn't you like about the 50 1.4? Since acquiring a FF camera, the 50mm f/1.4 has been one of my favorite lenses to work with.

I didn't care for the bokeh, color, contrast or build quality. Especially the manual focus ring. Didn't care much for the weight. It didn't balance out well for me. I like a heavier lens as it helps me steady the shot which I found highly important while shooting at shallow DOF.

[Dave Throgmartin]

Sean,

Your pictures are outstanding. I've taken a look at some of your setups and noticed you use a lot of monolights. If going for similar effects with speedlights what differences do you think would be required in the setup?

Dave

[Sean Setters]

Sean,

Your pictures are outstanding. I've taken a look at some of your setups and noticed you use a lot of monolights. If going for similar effects with speedlights what differences do you think would be required in the setup?

Dave

Well, you'll probably have to move the modified flashes much closer to the subject than I usually do with monos. Monolights give me a decent amount of power to work with when I'm using relatively large or inefficient modifiers and/or ND filters. That gives me a little more working distance to the subject. I primarily used shoe mount flashes for several years. However, I found that monolights gave me more flexibility to create interesting light on subjects in just about any (non-rainy) conditions. However, that flexibility in opportunity comes at the cost of increased setup times and minimal mobility.

I still use shoe mount flashes when I want more mobility or a smaller footprint and I don't need a lot of power. Case in point, I used 4 shoe mount flashes for this shot:


Gerel with Scarf by budrowilson, on Flickr

Shooting indoors meant that I wasn't battling the sun, so power wasn't really an issue. Plus, the stands I use with shoe mount flashes are smaller. As we were shooting in the university center of a college campus, the building was full of poeple (many of whom walked down those very stairs while we were shooting). Even though there were 4 separate flashes used, we were never really in the way. If I were doing this again, the one thing I'd change about the shot is the use of a bare flash as a rim light. Using monolights, I'd generally use a strip box for soft rim lighting. Otherwise, if the rim light were positioned higher (even if bare) I don't think the shadow cast by the ear would be as distracting as it is to me now.