So, based on a lot of discussion with other photographers and advice taken and starting to get a feel
for what I want to focus on – I decided to invest in some of the basics for portraiture. To this end,
I bought myself a nice second hand Canon Speedlight EX430MK1 flash which can do ETTL2 and
off-camera flashing, as well as Canon’s famous EF50 F1.8 portrait lens. A lens which not one but two
people have told me “every canon photographer should have in his kit”. It’s a fixed focal length lens
(e.g. it cannot zoom – you move closer or further) but with it’s 1.8 F-stop it can shoot great pictures
even in low light conditions (often negating the need for a flash where most other lenses would
require it), it’s shallow depth-of-field is idealfor portaits and what is in focus is crystal-sharp.
Essentially, it’s ideal for most of the kind of pictures which I am currently taking a lot off as
well as the studio-ish style work I want to do more off. I will be looking into building myself
a lightbox for macro work – which this lens is also quite good for (though not the best you can
get for it – it’s still good).
