night parade photos -- one more question

[allie5]

I have the Canon 50mm f1.8 which I intend to use for night shots and night parades. Im fairly new to DSLRs (had mine a few months and still learning). I understand that this lens is "fast" and that it can let in a lot of light so would be great for night work BUT as far as I understand things, using a very large aperture is going to give me a very shallow DOF? Is it possible to photograph, say a float in Spectro using F1.8 and get the whole thing in focus??

Im a little confused over this point so any clarification would be great thanks!

 

[Groucho]

Thanks for the info. You are in DL now?? Your photos are great. I hope this new lens works out for me, but I am sure it will be years if ever, before I end up with photos on par with yours.

Yup, here at the Disneyland Hotel, woke up a little bit ago and am letting the rest of the family sleep for another few minutes. I'm leaving today though.

As for my photos, a lot of it is luck and a decent setup. I'm pretty good at the technical side (especially when it comes to "armchair photography", ie, looking back at shots to see what went wrong) but my composition skills are fairly basic, I'm trying to get better on that side of it!

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

I have the Canon 50mm f1.8 which I intend to use for night shots and night parades. Im fairly new to DSLRs (had mine a few months and still learning). I understand that this lens is "fast" and that it can let in a lot of light so would be great for night work BUT as far as I understand things, using a very large aperture is going to give me a very shallow DOF? Is it possible to photograph, say a float in Spectro using F1.8 and get the whole thing in focus??

Im a little confused over this point so any clarification would be great thanks!

I would love some clarification about this too as I just picked up a 50mm F1.8 lens and am a total noob to dslr photography. I just got a Nikon D80 w/ 18-135 kit lens, 70-300VR lens and the 50 mm1.8 plus the sb800 flash. Now I have a huge learning curve ahead of me to learn how to use it, but I'm determined!

 

[Groucho]

Yes, you'll have a very narrow depth of field, but in my experience, it isn't really that much of a problem for the parade photos... and besides, what's the alternative? You have to choose either very large aperture (narrow DoF), slow shutter speed (motion blur), or extremely high ISO (3200+) and hence lots of noise (unless maybe you have one of those very latest cameras that can do OK there) - I'll pick DoF any day.