Any photographers here?

[gopher]

Thanks everyone for all your advice and help. I ended up buying her a D3400 with 2 lenses in kit. She now says she wants another lens for portraits. She likes her camera, but she is now wanting to be able to have her portraits be blurred in the background (Is that Bokeh?). She mentioned someone told her a good lens would be a nikon af nikkor 50mmf/1 autofocus......would that be like the one gopher mentioned above 50mm F/1.8G?

This stuff overloads my mind. She has also been talking about lighting. That is a whole new topic though.

One other thing. This new camera she has problems getting it to take multiple pictures with one push of button (full auto, lol) is there a trick to that stuff?

Thanks again everyone for your help.

Blurred background is indeed "bokeh". Generally, you get "bokeh" by using a large aperture (e.g., f/2.8 or larger; remember that smaller f numbers are LARGER apertures) or by using a telephoto lens. In both cases, you will need some distance between your subject and the background if you want the background to be out-of-focus. Just how much depends on the f ratio and the lens focal length.

Nobody makes a f/1 50mm lens. Either the f/1.8 or f/1.4 50mm lenses that I listed are good lenses. Most diehard portrait photogs prefer a little longer focal length, though: something in the 85mm to 100mm or so is considered the "sweet spot" for portrait work. If you can afford it, the 85mm or 105mm would be better; if you can't swing that, the 50mm f/1.8 is plenty good.

nippr has you covered for the single/multiple modes of the shutter release (RTFM )

Probably wouldn't hurt to stop by Roberts Camera (downtown location) and peruse their used lens selection. Sometimes you can find good deals there. They'll be happy to talk lenses with you 'til the cows come home too!

 

[indyjoe]

Nikon and Canon have both made a 50mm f/1.0 lens. But they are not cheap. I find f/1.8 to be as wide as is needed for portraits in crop frame and f/2.8 for full frame. I'm not a shooter that likes only one eye in focus. Some take aperture too far.

Fuji has a 56mm f/1.2, but this is to be equivalent to 85mm f/1.8 for portrait. I've been selling off my Nikon gear as I switched to Fuji. It is amazing to see the exact exposure in the EVF as you take photos. This has made my paid photo sessions go faster, along with the immediate image preview to check expression without leaving the EVF. I tried to wait for Nikon to go mirrorless, but they still haven't. Hard to go back, once you try it.

 

[gopher]

Nikon and Canon have both made a 50mm f/1.0 lens. But they are not cheap.

Learned something new. "Not cheap" is something of an understatement...

 

[indyjoe]

Learned something new. "Not cheap" is something of an understatement...

Nikkor f/1.0 may be a one of. But Canon opening allows a larger lens. So the f/1.0 is less than $4k. I've seen some lenses that move from a car price to a house price. "Not cheap" is relative.

On the Nikkors, the f/1.8 50mm lenses sometimes render better than the f/1.4. But the kind of the hill is the Sigma Art lenses now for primes.