beginners question??:)

[Bongsplat]

Hi all
I'm new to this part of the forum.
I have a question hopefully some one will be able to answer.

I have just bought a nikon d40, To take some decent wedding/honeymoon pictures in June but also I do sculpting so I needed to take good closeups.

The main reason is for the wedding, so we can take some nice shots,I'd really like to get some nice depth of field pictures(but haven't quite learned how to yet:))

So far I just have the standard 18-55mm lens, but a friend told me that if I wanted to take good close ups and nice Portraits with a bit of DOF then I would need a different lense? One that go's to 300mm?

I've had a quick look and I saw a Tamron 70-300mm F4/5.6 DI LD Macro for about £125 which I thought about.

I'm So confused about this whole thing,I am a complete novice and don't really understand any of it.
Does anyone know if this is the kind of lens I need? Can I take good DOF shots with what I've got?, I don't have a lot of money so the cheapest way of doing this would be the best for me!!:D

Thanks for any Help:)

[Nike]

hi there,

no, I think you really don't need a 300 lens for wedding photography and portraits - I mean, 300 is nice for wildlife, birds and such, or for sports, if you're in a football arena or something, but for a wedding - doesn't mean you can't use it at all, but I think it's far from essential or even very useful. It might be nice to use for your honeymonn though as a kind of universal lens.

Myself, I usually mostly stick to a 50 mm fix focal lengh lens for weddings, it's wonderful for portraits, it is fast, which allows you to work with low-light situations without flash (f 1:1,8 or even f 1: 1,4), and it's cheap - I have this one and never regretted buying it. Also nice for weddings is a wide angle for group shots or if you don't have much space to move - check ukanfoff's thread in the docusection, he has wonderful wide angle stuff.

I don't know about the tamron - take into concideration that it's a very slow lens and is certainly not the best choice for not so good light conditions or indoor.

For closeups a macro lens is the best way to go, but there are other, cheaper solutions, too. I'll link you to this site, that gives an overview: http://www.ephotozine.com/article/Macro-photography-119

For now, I'd recommend to practice (experiment, what happens if you open/close the aperture, play with light, distance, angle, composition) with your kit lens, keep the 50 mm fix focal lenght lens in mind, and have fun with your cam - once you have better control over the features, you'll also know better what lenses you want/need next :)

[Bongsplat]

Thanks Nike:)

Great link,and great advice.Like I say I'm a complete novice and am still trying to figure out how aperture works.

But I'll keep fiddling! Thanks again:)

[Nike]

no worries, you'll have the aperture thing figured out soon :)

quick rule - the smaller the aperture (the higher the f-number) the larger is the depth of field/zone of sharpness
the bigger the opening (the smaller the f-number) the zone of sharpness is shallower

this is also influenced by distance from lens to object - the closer I am to the object the more shallow the zone of sharpness is getting and vice versa.

I can give you another link about aperture (though I'm sure you'll find plenty yourself) http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/fototech/apershutter/aperture.htm
but I think you'll understand much better if you just take the cam and experiment :)

[Bongsplat]

Wow Thanks again:)
Thats a great link, I need to have a really proper read through, But it seems to explain everything in a very simple way...just what I need!!:D

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions:)