Canon RF 50mm F1.2 L USM Lens Sample Pictures

As I shared in The Sony a1 and FE 35mm GM Lens Capture the Exit image, the time allocated to this shoot was very short. To speed the shoot, three cameras with prime lenses mounted were in the MindShift Gear BackLight 26L. The Canon EOS R5 and RF 50mm F1.2 L USM Lens got the call for this scenario.

Noteworthy is that this image was captured handheld at "Civil End". If you are unfamiliar with this term, estimate it to be about 30 minutes after sunset. It was dark.

Utilizing the R5's IBIS kept what was not blowing in the wind sharp, despite the awkward and unsteady near-ground level shooting position.

Need a clean background for your portrait subject's head? The sky often works well for this.

Want to make your athletic subjects appear large? Using a low camera position often works well for this.

Merge the two concepts, and this image is the result.

The Canon RF 50mm F1.2 L USM Lens's ultra-wide aperture had a big role in making this image possible, and that feature held complete responsibility for the strong background blur. Despite the incredibly wide aperture in use, the background remains recognizable at this subject distance.

When the background is supporting the subject, being recognizable can be advantageous. When a high percentage of the image area is background, the importance of what is in the background is elevated, becoming critical to the overall image. Spend the time to search out supporting backgrounds for your engineered images.

While this image was captured at ISO 2500, my eyes were not keeping up with the viewfinder brightness increasing relative to the ambient lighting. Therefore, this image required +1 EV of brightness adjustment in post.

After a casual portrait session with the R and the RF 50mm f/1.2L Lens I thought I'd share a quick update on the Canon EOS R's Eye AF performance.

This indoor, ambient window light session netted 157 images. Of these images, 10 were 2/3 body portraits, 82 included head and shoulders (or were framed slightly wider) and 64 were headshots with a significant number of those being close to minimum focus distance. All images were captured at f/1.2 for the shallowest, most-AF-challenging depth of field possible and eye detection AF was exclusively in use.

Of the 157 images, ten were focused on eyelashes (usually acceptable, mostly close to the iris), two were focused a similarly-short distance behind the iris and only two images misfocused beyond iris-to-eyelash distance. The other 143 were optimally focused on the iris.

That the camera was being handheld with me in a somewhat squatted position and the subject standing (sometimes leaning against a wall) meant that our movement could easily have caused any of the less-than-perfect results. I remain very pleased with the EOS R's portrait AF capabilities and the RF 50mm f/1.2L is a very impressive lens, perfect for portraits.

I have to wonder what a model thinks when the assignment to wear a parachute dress at Dragon's Teeth (Kapalua, Maui, HI) comes in. "I get to wear an enormous dress designed to blow in the wind while standing barefoot on sharp rocks in extreme wind next to an ocean with occasional rogue waves that send salt water spray over everything nearby for an entire very hot, sunny day!" Pick me! Pick me! [Finding Nemo]

This model obviously accepted Canon's request and she managed the assignment very professionally. Parachutes are designed to ease the landing, but in this case, the parachute was more likely to cause a liftoff (followed by a perilous landing). I would have been more comfortable if she had a crash pad beside her, but she stayed on her feet through even the strongest wind gusts.

A 50mm lens does not create the extreme background blur that long telephoto lenses can create, but the 50mm angle of view allows a closer camera position that provides a more intimate look while the f/1.2 aperture still provides a strong background blur that makes the subject stand out. The look is unique in a very positive way.

The extremely wide f/1.2 aperture allows handholding in very low light levels but with a white dress in the sun, even a 1/8000 shutter speed is not always fast enough to avoid blown highlights at f/1.2 and ISO 100. In direct sunlight, a neutral density filter or, as used in this example, a circular polarizer filter on the lens.

When water is on the horizon, I usually want the image framed with the horizon level. Electronic viewfinder levels have greatly improved my original captures in this regard, but with the wind and unstable footing, I still managed to get a small degree of tilt that needed to be corrected in this image.

An ultra-wide aperture lens is generally selected to make use of those ultra-wide apertures. Often, especially with 50mm ultra-wide aperture lenses, the image quality at the widest apertures is not good and often describable as "dreamy". While dreamy can be nice on occasion, it is not usually what I am going for. With this lens, f/1.2 results are very sharp, showing good resolution and contrast. I have not hesitated to use this lens wide open and ... haven't stopped it down very often. The Canon RF 50mm f/1.2L USM Lens is a compelling reason to get a Canon EOS R camera.

I know, my daughter graduated from college a couple of years ago, but my image processing backlog is ... eh, maybe I'll share that number later. It's high. Anyway, I want to talk about portraits today, so I selected this graduation portrait to final process and share.

When capturing a portrait image, the goal is usually to emphasize the subject. Competing for that attention is everything else in the frame. While those additional elements are often not removable, they can be blurred to reduce the sharp lines of contrast that catch and pull the viewer's eye.

An outstanding way to accomplish the blurred background goal is to use an ultra-wide aperture, creating a shallow depth of field that leaves the background strongly out of focus.

Sometimes, a sense of place is desired for the portrait. The 50mm angle of view is wide enough to incorporate those identifying elements without magnifying them into obscurity.

The Canon RF 50mm F1.2 L USM Lens or Sony's alternative, the FE 50mm F1.2 GM Lens, is a superb choice for this goal.

Here, the subject's head is aligned between the two buildings to further reduce background distractions.

Also check out The Graduation Exit and Athletic Graduation Portrait After Sunset images.