One of the greatest compliments you can receive from a client is to have them call you consecutively to cover family milestones. Recently I had the privilege of photographing a maternity shoot from a client whom I've had the fortunate opportunity to photograph several times prior to this moment. the weather was cooperating, an evening was July 11th 2023. They were running a little late as they had a toddler with them and the skies were partially cloudy which meant at the time of our photoshoot it was getting darker by the second. I opted to bring out the 50 mm Nikon f/1.2 s lens to see its magic. The chromatic aberration is at a minimum with this lens! No green fringing, no light flare, it is one of the best lenses ever made! There are situations where a professional photographer needs a little more than average. The 50mm f/1.8 is also an excellent lens and should not be overlooked if you have no need for a super fast 1.2. It is definitely lighter than the 1.2 and one quarter of the price too! But in certain situations, the f/1.2 is the only choice for a professional. For example, let’s look at the picture below. The night was swallowing up daylight and the security lights kicked in about 30 minutes prior to this photograph as the sky was dissipating into darkness. with a f/1.2 aperture I was able to capture the ambient light surrounding the subject and also feel the Warm Glow of the lights behind her. as she was sitting posing, we were able to capture the white bush which was important to the subject in the backdrop. Notice the details on her face and clothing and how it separate from the background, that is the magic of Nikon’s f/1.2 s technology. Could I have acquired this with a 50mm f/1.8 lens? Yes, but the workflow would have not been as quick and the spontaneous moment would have been lost. Hence the benefit of the f/1.2.
You can achieve a very shallow depth of field, which means you can isolate your subject with a creamy, blur background regardless if it is day or in a situation where there is extremely low light. This shallow depth of field is something to be desired and only can be achieved with the lens with a 1.2 f-stop. Yes, different focal lengths will acquire a different look to the Bokeh, but this will be discussed in a future blog and I will explain why I sold my 105mm and opted for the 50mm to be my “everything” lens.
Some people say the lens is overpriced however as a professional I believe having the best piece of glass in my camera bag is always worth it because you never know when you need to use the lens to its full capacity.