The Canon 50mm f1.8 is a fixed (prime) focal length lens. No zooming. It opens up to 1.8 which is allows about 4 times as much light in as your kit lens. Being a prime lens is it generally sharper than the kit zoom. At 1.8 you have a very narrow DOF.

The Alien Bee link will take you to the beginners page that has several articles to read about lighting.

I don't remember who it was that fixed the photo of Earesistible (the one eared cat), because that part of the thread is missing. If I remember correctly she also restored carousel horses. If you are out there might you be able to fix the BG on this attached shot? The kitty was being great, but kept coming too close to the edge of the stage. Once I fixed the BG of course she had had enough.

Thanks,
Barbra

$85 at Canoga Camera. They have been a reliable mail order house for me. B&H is also great.

http://www.canogacamera.com/detail.aspx?ID=4482

That's even better yet! At 15% off B&H price, I rushed over to check their prices on OLY Equip, but was disappointed to see they only do C & N. Shucks!

Jim

Hello Photo Friends,

I have missed you and this forum, but have been following some of you on FB.

To bring you up to date (the quick version) I haven't learned a whole lot since we last chatted other than the current set-up I had was not going to do what I wanted (2 hot lights and 2 umbrellas).

I cheated during the rescue season, by using poster backgrounds and the photos caused quite a stir.

Here are a few examples:














I did learn a little more about lighting in the sense that those posters sure can create a glare and trying to get the poster and cat lit with little to no glare on the poster was a job. When the poster didn’t look real I played around with the lighting as much I could and often found that lighting from the side was most interesting (and helpful in making the poster look better). I found in this shot that it added a foggy, eerie kind of feeling and to me it worked (you should have seen how bad the poster was).



I had hoped that once kitten season ended I would be able to learn more about strobes and start 2011 off with much better photos of the rescues. The season never ended. In almost 20 years of rescue I NEVER had moms delivering in January and I now have several.

In addition to the moms I now have Alien Bees. They are still in the boxes and I will be setting them up next weekend. Not that I have a clue what to do.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

All of them are creative and GREAT thinking! The first one is just amazing though! LOVE IT

Thanks. It got us through the season, but now it is time to learn the right way.

LOL that first one is a crack-up! I like those posters, neat idea.

Diana