Prime time

I've had a reasonably busy week. My firefighter photos were looked at by the tutor and I was given constructive criticism on how to improve. I had several more photos than I uploaded here, but I chose some of the ones that I liked the most. I did quite well but he wants me to be more specific next time. Might be a bit difficult to do detail shots when they're gonna be up and down the ladders, but I'm up for the challenge!

Tomorrow I'll be asking my tutors for advice on which prime lens I should get. I've had my eye on the 50mm f1.8 Nikkor and the 50mm f1.4 Nikkor. The f1.8, judging by the reviews, is very sharp and more than satisfactory, and get this, only £90. The f1.4 with it's possibly better build, higher quality glass (though I haven't actually read that it does have higher quality glass yet, it remains to be seen for me at this moment in time), smoother bokeh and all-round seemingly superiority over the f1.8 costs well over £200 and is just shy of around £300.

Technically, I can afford the f1.4. My student loan is there for such things, like course materials. So I'm quite tempted to buy the f1.4 and leave it at that. However, I'm not one for buying something really really expensive if I can find it cheaper elsewhere, such as the f1.8. Not the same lens, but pretty darn close. In all fairness, the f1.4 doesn't seem that different. Not many people use it at f1.4 anyway due to it having a depth of focus that's a little too shallow, and stop it down to f1.8 or f2. This is where the f1.4 is sharper than the f1.8, but not by a lot. After that, the sharpness is more or less the same. Sure, it shows up on test charts, but in the real world where I'm going to be taking pictures of a dew drop on some unsuspecting plant? Probably not a ginormous difference. And this is the dilemma I find myself in. What it all comes down to in the end is cost.

After writing this, I'll be heading upstairs to take photos for my "high tech" brief. It's open to interpretation but I'm taking the literal approach and taking photos of high tech things. It's mostly an exercise on cinematic lighting using torches and other household light sources, which I find rather entertaining. I'll post the results of the shoot on here. That is, if I can tear myself away from The Mighty Boosh episode that's on the background...

Everybody look at de moon!

Hehehe :P