Just Got My Bees!

I just got an Alien Bee package. 1 B400 and one B800 with stands an umbrellas. I started to take a few quick portraits and everything is working well. I used the 24-85 Nikon lense and am just wondering if it is okay to take portraits (close head shots) with a 100 macro lense? I feel I just can't get close enough with the 85mm. Will a macro lense make things too sharp?

Mark F.

How tight are you trying to make your headshots? If you are trying to get that tight a slightly longer lens is better not for sharpness but for perspective. Glad your Bees are working out well.

Mark F. said:

I just got an Alien Bee package. 1 B400 and one B800 with stands
an umbrellas. I started to take a few quick portraits and
everything is working well. I used the 24-85 Nikon lense and am
just wondering if it is okay to take portraits (close head shots)
with a 100 macro lense? I feel I just can't get close enough with
the 85mm. Will a macro lense make things too sharp?

Mark F.

Click to expand...

I am trying to get in very tight and eliminate the background at times. I haven't tried the 100mm yet but will do so tommorrow. My main concern is that the macro lens may be too sharp or have a very limited depth of field. I borrowed the lense from a friend and just started playing with it.

I just can't believe how much better the pictures look after 5 minutes with the Bees versus all the wasted time with on camera flash. I know that I am an amatuer but WOW! What a difference.

Mark F.

padeye said:

Mark F. said:

I just got an Alien Bee package. 1 B400 and one B800 with stands
an umbrellas. I started to take a few quick portraits and
everything is working well. I used the 24-85 Nikon lense and am
just wondering if it is okay to take portraits (close head shots)
with a 100 macro lense? I feel I just can't get close enough with
the 85mm. Will a macro lense make things too sharp?

Mark F.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

I use my Canon 100mm f/2.8 macro for all kinds of non-macro work. It works beautifully. DOF is fine, just stop down a bit like you would with any lens. The extremely shallow DOF you get when shooting macro closeups only applies when shooting at clsoe distances. You should get fine DOF at regular distances, at least that's the case with the Canon.
Have fun with those Bees. I just got mine about a week ago and they're great!
-Kevin

--
Canon D60, BG-ED3, 50mm f/1.8, 28-135mm IS/USM, 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro, 420EX
See some of my photographs at:
http://pages.cthome.net/cassella/index.htm

Mine is scheduled to arrive on December 2nd. Unfortunately, my backgrounds won't arrive until the latter part of the second week of December.

Del

Generally sharpness is a good thing but a little less contrast is often called for in portaiture. Old style portrait lenses were just simple designs that showed a lot of shperical aberration at wide apertures. Your 100mm macro will have the same sharpness as a comparable quality non-macro lens for portriature and the same depth of field as any other lens at the same magnification ratio and aperture.

Fight the urge to crop too tightly. That is a common mistake in portaiture. You can always crop a bit more for final output but you can't reverse a shot that was cropped too tight to begin with.

Glad you're happy with the Bees. It's amazing how much better things get when you go back to old fashined manual flash.

Mark F. said:

I am trying to get in very tight and eliminate the background at
times. I haven't tried the 100mm yet but will do so tommorrow. My
main concern is that the macro lens may be too sharp or have a very
limited depth of field. I borrowed the lense from a friend and
just started playing with it.

I just can't believe how much better the pictures look after 5
minutes with the Bees versus all the wasted time with on camera
flash. I know that I am an amatuer but WOW! What a difference.

Mark F.

Click to expand...