This Week Outside of the Green Box: New Lens?

To keep this blog alive, I am going to at least post my favorite picture(s) from the last week every week and an update on what I've learned about my Canon.

I'm proud to announce both of these were taken "outside of the green box" in Av mode (I'm still letting the camera do a little work for me).

I like how the light is shining on his face in this one.

I love it when I catch a cute facial expression!

I have been playing with my camera A LOT but just recently have actually ventured away from the "green box" successfully. Turns out it wasn't as exciting as I hoped. Why? Because I don't have the lens I need! I knew when I bought my camera that the standard lens that came with it wouldn't end up being an "amazing" lens, but that it would be great for standard use especially while I'm learning. Well, I've already hit the point where I'm ready to move on and to be able to get the features I want to get in my pictures.

Since I'm always taking portrait photos and not in a studio that has a plain background (I wish), the main feature I need is "bokeh" or in simple terms I need a blurred background to not distract from the person I'm taking the picture of. Both of the pictures above have a distracting background. I can do this with closeups using the lens I have...

The left side has a distracting background (f/36) whereas the right side does not (f/5.6). How do you achieve this? With a lens that has at least a minimum f/stop of 2.8 for portraits. So now the decision I have to make is if I should go with the cheap Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 to start practicing with or pay a bit more on something that will likely last longer. It will definitely be a prime lens (won't zoom in or out) since the zoom lenses are way too expensive...that will be a few years down the road. I will probably end up going with the cheap one. It has received GREAT reviews and I've looked through a lot of pictures taken with that lens that are fantastic.