Alice by
wbeem, on Flickr
I went to Epcot yesterday with a friend. We both just received new 85mm lenses and wanted to try them out. I bought the Nikon 85mm f/1.4G and he got a slightly used Canon 85mm f/1.8 (for free!).
He wanted to do some character portraits, which was fine with me. I wanted to see what works and what doesn't work with this lens at f/1.4. Started off the day totally screwing up because I'd forgotten to turn off my auto-exposure bracketing from previous HDR shots. Felt damn silly once I figured out my screw-up, but I survived.
85mm is a bit too long for some of the grand gestures that characters make, given the room you have to work. I didn't want to waste time posing the character or treating this like a portrait shoot, since people behind me were waiting their turn. It was get in, get a couple of snaps, and get out.
The good news is that I really do love this lens. On the other hand, it has a longer minimum focusing distance than I would like for some close-ups on smaller subjects. The bokeh is just phenomenal. Just don't try shooting at f/1.4 in full sunlight.
It was a bit nippy in Orlando yesterday and all of the characters were dressed warmly. I asked "Alice" to remove her cloak, though, since I wanted the shot with the traditional dress.