Camera: Nikon D200, 1/2 second exposure at -2 EV, ISO at 100.
Lens: Nikkor 50mm at f/1.8
Light: Christmas lights!
Recently I noticed the nice DOF effect that strings of small lights give (taking pictures at a halloween party last week) and decided to work it into a photo. I hung up a string of christmas lights in the background and then focused on a Dr. Evil action figure I had sitting around the house, put the camera on timer mode (less vibration for those shots with a slower shutter speed) (and if the D200 only had timer mode + mirror up, I'd be *so* happy) and pushed the button.
The picture was shot at -2 EV (the camera calculates the proper exposure value for the light at the aperture you've set, then shoots two EV [EV being calculated as EV = log2 * aperture squared over the shutter speed] under what it should be) due to the brightness of the lights in the background and the lack of lighting on the action figure. The RAW file was opened in Photoshop and I upped the exposure until Dr. Evil was clearly visible and then I pasted him onto a layer over the image as it was originally exposed, giving a nicely lit figure over a properly exposed background.
The proper way would be to do a better job lighting it to begin with, but as I was short on time at that particular moment, you do what you can and fix it in Photoshop later :)
The depth of field that a lens with a f1.8 aperture affords is very, very nice. Anything below f2 tends to be a prime lens and the closer the number is to 1, the more expensive the lens.
Nikon 50mm f/1.8 - $100.00
Nikon 50mm f/1.4 - $280.00
Nikon 50mm f/1.2 - $600.00
Leica 50mm f/1.0 Noctilux - $5,500.00
Notice how the price doubles every .2 stops until it gets to f1.0, where it goes insane?
And a few f0.75 50mm lenses exist, namely the Canon XI 50mm f0.75 (currently the fastest camera lens in the world, AFAIK) and the Carl Zeiss, De Oude Delft, Rayxar lenses 50mm lenses (though they're made for X-Ray machines, it seems you can adapt it to a Nikon F mount). I have no idea what they cost and I'm not sure I want to know...
This fellow has a nice page on a few of them: http://www.muellerworld.com/exhibits/fast_lens/
(With photos taken with them!)
Being bereft of vast amounts of cash, I only have a Nikon 50mm f1.8 at the moment. But I can dream. Oh, can I dream...
