Daily Archives: January 23, 2014

 

On my desk I have a Shure Model 55 microphone, it’s a long story!   I  love music and my choice in music is all over the board.  One thing most of  my early favorite artists have in common is they sang into a Shure 55!  Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Tony Bennett, Elvis, well you get it, this mike is a symbol of an entire era of music!

 

It’s also a test target for me, sitting at my desk trying out different lenses I often photograph it. Today I decided to shoot  with the Fuji X-Pro 1 and three different lenses; the 35mm f 1.4, the 60mm Micro f 2.4 and the 55-200 f 3.5-4.6.  I tried to make the size of the mike somewhat similar in each image, and by increasing the focal length using more distance and narrowing the angle of view to show less and less background.  Here are the other two shots.

 

60mm Micro f 2.4 @ ISO 1600

 

55-200  ISO 3200 f 4.8

 

The point of the exercise is to demonstrate how the subject to background relationship changes as the focal length of the lens increases.  It is one of our bags of tricks as a photographer that we can eliminate or reduce background by narrowing the angle of view with a longer lens.  The background in these shots was my computer desktop.  By positioning the camera to control what colors on the desktop are included, you can further plan the outcome.  This is one reason why interchangeable lens cameras can increase your options in how you capture your subject, changing focal lengths!!!

 

Blessings

 

the pilgrim