When you get a chance, use your SB-400 outside for portraits when it is sunny out in the middle of the day. It helps a lot to fill in the shadows. You can use a foam core board instead if you have someone to hold it for you, since the sun hitting the white board will bounce the light back into the subject's face. I try to avoid midday sun, but if I can't, I mostly use my flash and it makes a big difference. The tilt on the flash also makes a big difference, especially if you are taking a picture of animals. You will be able to maintain the dark eyes if the flash is bounced, and the light is also softer and more diffused. If you are doing close portraits, you may need to keep the aperture on 2.8 with the 50mm to be able to get both eyes in focus. This may be too much information, so filter and use what interests you.
Your 70-300 lens will also achieve wonderful results, and it will get the kind of bokeh you are looking for. With the longer focal length, you are compressing the field of view and you can get great backgrounds.
Some people say you should take your 18-105 lens and set it at one focal length, possibly 35 mm for a little while just to learn. If you learn to use it at the one focal length and zoom with your feet, you will be more careful with composition. I started off with only a 50mm lens many years ago, so I had to do that. On a full frame camera, the 50 mm has approximately the same field of view as a 35mm on a crop. You could do this with your 50mm, but it may not be wide enough. You have so many great tools to use, and they each serve a purpose for different things, so you will definitely use them all. You made some excellent choices. I can see you have done your research and gotten a lot of great advice. Playing with one focal length might be something to try at one time. I am happy you are enjoying your camera so much. It is a wonderful hobby, and photographs also document so many important events in one's life. |