Anatomy of a Photo: eBay Part II

For many of you, getting a good photo of an eBay item using a DIY Macro Studio should be old news. I know I've talked about it before. So why do I have a Part II? Because I found a lighting scheme that seems to work pretty well (and only requires one flash or lamp) and also wanted to put in more details about the post processing. Don't worry though, this post will have less words and more pictures than the last few.

So, the task: to get some good pictures of my Nikon SB-20 for an upcoming post. Since I was already taking some eBay pictures of a video card, I used the same set up, but the first picture came out dark and I was momentarily confused. Then I realized that by taking a picture of my SB-20, I couldn't use the SB-20. Duh.

Lets start with the flash scheme. As usual, I can't take claim for coming up with the idea (darn that David Hobby guy). The basic idea is this: use a single source of light (in this case, a flash) but position the light box to provide a light source on both sides of the object. (Click to make the pic larger to see details)

In fact, the way I set it up, there is a ring light effect: the flash hits the near copy paper (diffusing through it), hits the far box flap (covered in copy paper, see at trend yet?), and also spills onto both the top and bottom of the box entrance. The result is pretty even lighting from all around the entrance of the box. The balance between the two sides is controlled by moving the flash closer or farther from the box (light intensity drops with distance, but the distance between the two sides will stay the same).

Total Cost: $0 (since I have plenty of copy paper, old boxes, and scotch tape)

And remember, I used a flash, but you can use any old light source (flashlight, desk lamp, etc). If you don't use a flash, use a tripod because your exposure time will probably be pretty long. I can't remember the exact settings (and they don't matter that much) but I think it was something like F/11 and 1/4 power on my Sunpak 383 for 1/200s (flash sync speed). Really I just kept shooting (in manual mode) until my histogram was nice and spread out and I liked the balance of lighting on the flash. FYI, I used an eBay trigger for synchronization.

So, now I have the photo at left. Not great, to be brutally honest.

You know, the more digital photos I take, the more I realize that post processing can take an mediocre photo and elevate it to a good or sometimes even a great photo. But, if you have to start with something, after all, garbage in, garbage out.

The first step is obvious. Crop it to get rid of the distracting stuff.

Then, time to fix the crappy color balance. I'll be devoting a future Quick Tip to color balance, so I'll just give a quick description here. When I took the photo, I set the 350D to the "Flash" white balance. For some reason, I got a redish tint (maybe some of the box wasn't covered in paper so it polluted my white light?). It also may have been the ambient, but I doubt it. The good news is that fixing the white balance afterwards is easy. The bad news is you lose a little color detail unless you shoot in RAW mode, but for this image, it doesn't hurt the quality much.

In this case, I adjusted the color balance in Paint Shop Pro XI as shown to the right. Photoshop has something similar, I am sure. Just click the Smart Select button and then put the target onto something that should be white in the original image (left image). The resulting color balance will be shown in the right image. There are other options too, but I find I rarely need them. Just make sure you select something that is supposed to be white.

Next, adjust the contrast and force the background to white; I usually use curves, but anything where you can see a histogram is useful works well. In the image at left you can see the PSP XI curves view with histogram. To be quick and dirty, I'll just bring in the left-hand curve to start at the first black pixels, and bring the right hand curve into a position inside the final peak (this is the white of the background). After all, you want to push the background to a pure white. Don't go too far or you'll start losing highlight detail.

Even after that one side of your image will still not have a pure white background because of variations in lighting. Of course, that wouldn't be a problem if you had a separate background light, but sometimes you don't have the time and money for that. But the solution is simple -- dodge (lighten) the background of the image as shown in the picture at right. Usually you want to use a small opacity (maybe 10% or so), soft edges, and set it to only modify highlights. This makes the dodge brush very forgiving if you accidentally touch the object edge. While it will take a few passes to bring the background up to pure white, it is worth it to protect the integrety of your subject. The end result is the image that started this entry.

So, that's it. The main thing I wanted to demonstrate was how easy it is to use a single light source to make a quality eBay picture with a white background to make the product jump out of the page. Once you've practiced the technique a bit, it really only takes 10 minutes total to set up, take the picture, and process it.


[If you missed it, read Part I.]

The One Where I Talk About Running This Blog

As I promised a week ago, I'd like to describe some of the tools I use and tricks I've learned from running this blog. By no means am I an expert; in fact, it is quite the opposite, I still have a ton to learn.

My motivation has never really been to develop a popular website like Strobist. Frankly, a large website like Strobist would be a pain to run and it'd become just another obligation. But this blog does scratch some of my itches: an itch to be heard, an itch to organize my thoughts, and an itch to create something useful.

Everybody wants to be heard. It is a basic element of humanity -- we want our presence to be acknowledged. Of the billions of people on the earth, we feel we are special, and we want someone else to notice. If you look out in the blogosphere, being heard is the overwhelming reason people create blogs. Sadly, just creating a blog doesn't automatically make you noticed as a lot of bloggers have learned; people need a way to find out that you have a site. More on that later.

Also, I find writing really organizes my thoughts. And as I get older, I forget things more and more, so having a repository of my better thoughts (photography or otherwise) is useful. If I forget the specific macro setup I used at one time in the past, I'll be able to look it up here. If I want to remind myself of some of the basics, I have an entry or two here for that too. If I forget how crappy my pictures were when I started out, I don't have to go far :)

Finally, I, as many people, have a desired to create, to accomplish something. Lets be honest, just going through daily life feels pretty useless if you don't get anything done, and I am all about measuring progress. Here, I can measure progress in hits, posts, comments, etc. In a way, it feels a bit like a video game (and I've played my fair share of those). Just like those guys (and girls) who spend tons of time in WoW (and you know who you are) socializing, building experience, and making their digital self more powerful, running a blog feels a lot like building up an online character. Instead of interacting with virtual entities, you're actually interacting with real people and trying to attract them to your site. Pretty cool actually (and reminds me a lot of a game called Theme Park).

But how do you manage a blog? How can you attract readers?


Tools of the Trade:

A method of editing and posting HTML. Obviously, I use Blogger, which works pretty well although it does have a few things that bug me to no end (why not make your composition window a little taller!). Anything will work as long as you find it easy to use. In the old days (you know, 10-15 years ago), I used to make all my web pages by editing the raw HTML... yeah, it isn't worth doing that anymore, especially if you want to post a lot of text! The best part of Blogger is that it is completely free.

A method of tracking visitors. I use Google Analytics for this, which is another awesome free service from Google. The opening image of this post is straight from my GA page. An amazing, amazing resource which I'm just beginning to learn to use. You can see who is coming to your page, what they look at, how often they look at it, and even what type of browser they use. And there is no cost whether you have a dinky little site like mine or a monster site with millions of dollars running through it. Very nice, Google. (but how is it that you make money again?)

It is amazing the level of detail GA can give you. For instance, I was wondering if I could increase the main text width of this blog (currently set at 400 pixels, but it makes it difficult to post larger photos or photos with wrap-around text). So, I looked in GA for the last two weeks, and behold: nobody surfs this site with less than 1024 pixels horizontal resolution. So I'm safe to do it, if only I could figure out how. Hee-haw, isn't the Internet fun?

[Addendum: Google Analytics just rolled out a new beta interface. I don't like it so far; it crashes Fire Fox every time I bring the mouse over the thing that changes the date.]

Attract readers. This is arguably the hardest thing to do and there are many, many options at your disposal. Obviously, you could hand out fliers on the street with your web address, but I can't imagine that'd be too effective. In fact, as many people as there are that surf the web on a regular basis, the constant stream of new sites popping up makes it harder and harder to attract eyeballs. There's a reason people pay money to put ads on sites. In a nutshell, since people usually find out about your site from another site, getting linked on other sites is huge.

This is such an important, key idea, let me put it under its own heading:



Wait for it...


Almost there...


Now!

What I Know About Attracting Readers (in short, not much):

The best resource in Google Analytics is the ability to see where your readers come from. For example, my data at right is based on the last two weeks of data (click to see larger). Ignore the 'direct' referrals; that was me when I hadn't properly filtered out my own hits (something I recommend you do to simplify your analysis).

Currently the top methods of finding this blog are:

• Strobist: Strobists are procrastinators at their heart and they tend to surf the web a lot. Almost 60% of my visitors have been referrals from Strobist. I've linked myself in one comment, but I expect most of the traffic is from a little doo-hickey (yes, that is a technical term) that David Hobby sticks on the bottom of his posts that lets readers search Technorati (a blog list/search service) for recent posts that refer to Strobist. Why it gets tagged as a Strobist referral, I'm not sure, but it does. What I do know is:
  
• Strobist readers spend more time here (on average) than anyone else -- they are procrastinating, after all. And they obviously like some of the stuff I like since they average 1.6 pages per visit (which doesn't seem like a lot, but it is much higher than my other sources).
  
• They like to see pictures, and my Anatomy of a Photo series. (Big surprise)
• Moral: Post items that appeal to known audiences. Use those audiences to build your audience.
  
• Blogger/Technorati: I lumped these two together because they are similar in the way they work. Both show links to randomly selected blogs on their home page and bored people click on them. For Blogger, this means I tend to get hits right after I update (because they have a list of recently updated sites on their main page). Technorati is similar, but I haven't found the direct link yet -- I also may be getting hits from searches in Technorati, but I don't have a way to track them.
• Most of the hits from these sites are bounces: they follow the link, take a quick look, and are gone seconds later because they aren't interested.
• I suppose if you had some really engaging content (such as pictures of young starlets demonstrating the need for underwear when out drinking) you'd keep some readers around, but it is a very broad audience.
• Moral: Short of constantly updating posts to get a few extra hits or very attention grabbing images, not much use.
  
• Google (and other search engines): Most people know that Google is a search engine (if you don't, where have you been?). But, many people don't know that your site (including blogs on Blogspot, now owned by Google) will not be entered into the index automatically. Google has special programs (spiders) that surf the web and add sites by following links at existing sites. So if you don't list your site with Google, you won't show up in any searches. This page has a lot of useful information. I recommend adding your site manually at least once to get the ball rolling.
  
• A nice thing about Google Analytics is the ability to see what people search for to get to your site. For example, many people find my site because their 350D is broken or they are looking for lens reviews. Some find my site because they have a rash or saw a hairy cactus :) But, once I know what people are interested in, I can create new content (or adjust current pages) to better satisfy them and keep them coming back.
  
• Google prioritizes pages based on the PageRank algorithm developed at Stanford. The algorithm made some grad students and Stanford (through the patent licensing office) very rich. But, for us, as web designers, the thing to know is the more people link to us, the higher we show up on search results, and so the more hits we get. Often, though, it is hard to get the process started, kind of like the old chicken and egg problem.
• One thing that could help is increasing the use of commonly searched words. For instance, strobist, naked, Britney Spears, nude, or Heros could help you get some hits. Alternatively, very uncommon words that relate to your subject (like western tussock) might get you hits from a very specific demographic. Do you think David Hobby would be angry if I listed him in the same sentence as Paris Hilton? Probably not, since just linking him will help raise his page rank and get him more hits. And possibly the association will provide Miss Hilton with a little more class...
  
• Another important thing is to make sure your site comes up when someone actually tries to find it. After all, many times your readers will forget your web address and use Google (or another search engine) to find it. I'm actually pretty bad about this: my chosen title isn't very unique. I do come up as the first link if you search directly for my title (it wasn't like that last week, but I requested another scan from Google and I guess it worked).
• The more people actually click on your link in search engines, the higher your priority. But that all goes back to having good, useful, and engaging content. Also, the higher your priority, the more often you'll be crawled (scanned), and the fresher the data will be in the search indexes. This is useful if you update often.
  
• Moral: Do whatever you can to get listed and raise your priority in searches. Also, make sure your pages are search engine friendly and you can easily find your page if you search for it.
  
• DPChallenge (and other forums): A great tool for attracting readers with similar interests is an online forum. After all, they read stuff on that specific forum because it interests them and they read stuff because they are bored (probably at work), so why not let them read interesting stuff at your site? Just post a link to one of your articles and let them come to you. For DPC, I've posted a link in my portfolio/bio, and included it in a few posts where I said something relevant here. I haven't gotten much traffic from it, but I expect that will build.
  
• Usually, this works best after you've built a reputation at a site (as in, you are respected and not seen as one of those guys just trying to promote his web site). Then, just start slipping your web address in occasionally, and you'll get your site known to people who care about your content.
• Don't overdo it: forum readers have seen shameless self-promotion before, and if they think you are doing it, they'll ignore you.
  
• Moral: Find forums that interest you, join them, participate in them, and you'll attract readers naturally. Hell, you might even learn something!
• Viral: I don't actually have any referrals from this, but I know it works -- similar to viral marketing. Sometimes, you can post something so mind-blowing, so useful, so freakish, that everyone who looks at it tells their friends and suddenly, overnight, you have a ton of hits. Often this is what will draw new users in and from those eyeballs, you get a bunch of regulars.
• For Strobist, the most viral page is probably the DIY $10 Macro Studio -- that was the first page on Strobist I ever looked at, and it really blew my mind that something so simple and cheap would look so professional. That page sucked me in, as I'm sure it has countless other photographers.
• Viral marketing could also be something super freakish that everyone forwards around. For instance, if you had a picture of something very rare, like a car accident as it was happening, you might get a lot of hits. It could also work with a video on YouTube which mentions your web address, but that would be less direct.
  
• Moral: Controlling viral referrals is difficult, but if you have an idea or picture that you think is remarkable, post it, spread the word a little, and see what happens.
  

Wrap-Up:

Writing a blog is kind of like talking to yourself in a room. At first, you're the only one around and you're pretty much talking to yourself. Although, speaking from experience, that can be fun on its own.

Occasionally someone might stick their head in looking for someone else, listen to a few words, and then move on (Blogger, Technorati). Other times, they'll be looking for someone else that talks like you, but like what they hear so they stick around a little longer and maybe even chat for a bit (Google, Strobist). Or, they could be friends you told about your little room when you were hanging out at the bar, and they stop in to say "Hi" (DPChallenge). Or you might say something mind-blowing that they tell all their friends about you and your little room (viral). You might even impress some of those people with your wit so they stop in regularly and maintain a dialog with you (regulars, none for me yet, AFAIK).

Ultimately, though, what you do with your little room is up to you. If you want to make it a big room with a regular party, go for it! Know that it will take a lot of work, though. If you just want to talk to yourself, well, you're already set up. And if you want to create a small room where you occasionally chat with like-minded individuals (my aim), that will also take work. Lots of work, as I am finding out.

But sometimes work can be fun, just like increasing your warriors experience in a video game.

For now, I'm trying to build my quantity and quality of posts. In a while, maybe a few months time, I might actively try to attract readers. Currently, I'm happy to see them when they stop in, but I'm also happy to talk to myself.

[I've posted a follow-up to this post here].

Model Release and TFCD Agreement

So, I may be taking pictures of my friend's children this weekend next week (because her baby has a dry patch on his face), so I thought I should get the contract ready.

Read the background info first here. I also asked the fine folks at DPChallenge for advice in the thread here.

The general consensus on DPC was that I was actually talking about two separate pieces of paper: a model release and a TFCD (trade for CD) contract. JenniferDavidGA (among others) was nice enough to send me a copy of her forms including a TFCD contract which is the basis for the combined release and contract below. While I want to have both a model release and TFCD contract, I don't want to overwhelm friends. After all, even my friends will get nervous if the conversation goes like this:

"Please sign this...

and this...

and prick your finger with this pin and apply your fingerprint in blood.

Now, why did Billy run away? I need his blood too!"

So, here you go, feel free to apply it to your own needs:

Combined Model Release and Time for CD Agreement

Whereas [my name], Photographer, and __________________________________, Model, have agreed to enter this agreement for the purpose of "time-for-CD" whereby Photographer will provide photography services to Model at no cost to model, and Model will provide modeling services to Photographer at no cost to photographer, both in accordance with the following Definitions and Provisions:

PROVISIONS

Copyright Ownership
Photographer retains sole copyright of all Images produced.

Proofs
Photographer will provide proofs, either digital or printed, of all Images to Model.

Selection of Prints
Model will, at Model's sole discretion, select Images for Model's prints. All prints will be fully retouched and portfolio grade prints.

Number of Prints
Model will receive ______ high resolution digital prints on computer CD-ROM within 30 days.

Reproduction Rights Granted to Model
Photographer grants Model nontransferable and nonexclusive reproduction rights to the Images. Model shall not transfer, license, sell, lease, or otherwise confer either permanently or temporarily any reproduction rights to any Images, to any third party. Images may be reproduced in print or electronically (such as e-mail or on the world wide web).

Reproduction Rights Granted to Photographer
Photographer may only use Images for self-promotion efforts, including, but not limited to: printed portfolio, electronic portfolio (CD or web site), entry into online photo contests, or an electronic web-based journal (blog). In no case will identifying information about Model be posted in a public venue. Photographer will not use license or sell Images for commercial use without contacting Model and negotiating a new contract.

Entire Agreement
This Agreement contains the entire understanding of the Photographer and Model and supersedes and cancels all previous negotiations, agreements, commitments, understandings, and writings in connection with the subject matter of this Agreement. This Agreement may not be released, discharged, abandoned, supplemented, amended, or modified in any manner except by a written instrument duly executed by Photographer and Model and shall not be strictly construed against either party.

THIS IS NOT A CONTRACT OR AGREEMENT FOR WORK FOR HIRE. THE IMAGES ARE NOT THE PRODUCT OF A WORK FOR HIRE.

Photographer:
[my contact info]
Signature: ___________________________ Date _______________


Model:

Name (Print) ____________________________

Address _____________________________________________________

City ________________________ State ____ Zip ____________

Phone _____________________

Signature: ___________________________ Date _______________

If Model is a minor:

I warrant and represent that I am the father/mother/guardian of ______________________, the Model above named.

Signature of Parent/Guardian __________________________

Comments (a.k.a. notes to myself for future revisions):

• I took out a time for prints provision. I can't imaging I'd ever want to do prints instead of a CD.
  
• I took out a copyright and photo statement (Model shall affix Photographer's copyright notice and photo credit to any Images reproduced by Model). I don't feel write asking them to mark up the images with my name -- I don't even have a logo or anything!
• I explicitly added the reproduction rights for the photographer -- this is my 'pay' for the whole deal, and I want to protect it.
  

I Am a Minion of David Hobby!

From Wiktionary:

minion (plural minions):

1. A loyal servant of another, usually more powerful, being.

All great leaders have minions. I should know (about the minion part, not the leader part). David Hobby from Strobist says jump, so I jump.


ANNOUNCEMENT:

Come June 4th, Hobby will be starting Lighting 102 (see the announcement), an interactive off-camera flash tutorial/workshop where you (yes YOU) can learn, take pictures using that new knowledge, and share them with other students on the Strobist Flickr group. I'll be there. I hope. And I finally signed up for Flickr am a member of Flickr (but forgot I signed up).

And now back to the minions...
Look, I'll admit it, I admire Mr. Hobby. Not because of his off-camera flash expertise (although he's pretty damn good at that too). No, I admire Hobby because he built a site in a little over a year that has over a hundred-thousand regular readers and a huge quantity (over 500 articles) of quality content that keep people like me checking the site for an update a few times a day. FYI, those stats are from straight from the horse's mouth: Hobby's announcement above.

Wow. Think about that. 100,000+ people regularly visit his site. If he can get $1 from each regular reader over the course of a year, he can quit his day job. Who says there isn't money in the internet?

Aside from that, think of the power that Hobby wields. Without a doubt, he is responsible for the average price of a used Nikon SB-24 on eBay almost tripling in the past year. If he bought up 10,000 units of a cheap flash (or other flash-related item) with potential, wrote a do-it-yourself page for adapting it for Strobist uses, then sold them on eBay, he could easily turn a nice profit. Would it be worth the trouble of selling his soul? Maybe, maybe not. But the point is, when something is said on Strobist, the Strobist minions listen.

This power can be used for good too, and already has. By closely tying Strobist to Midwest Photo Exchange (MPEX), Mr. Hobby has used the Strobist hoards to create the demand needed to manufacture custom specialty items in bulk (such as the umbrellas). You know what would be really great? Buy up unwired male and female PC connectors for 10 cents apiece and then sell them on MPEX so we can make our own PC cords for specialized uses. I'd much rather pay 50 cents for each connector and put together my own custom cords than pay $6 for one pre-made. Do you hear me David Hobby?


How to get minions (and profit from them) in 4 easy steps:

How did Hobby build his following so quickly and make them so loyal?

I'm sure President Bush would like to know :)

It'd be awesome if Mr. Hobby could actually take a step back from flash and post a bit on Strobist about how he grew Strobist so rapidly and how he monitors its progress. But I'll take a shot at identifying a few important things:

1. Quality Content. People won't come back if they don't learn anything.
2. A Collaborative Atmosphere. While Hobby is the only one running it, he always says we when referring to the site author(s). He also highlights the work of readers which tends to increase the sense of belonging. Minions like to belong.
3. Closely Tied to Flickr. The Flickr group allows more collaboration between the members AND increases the profile of Strobist. 99% of Flickr members have probably seen a good photo with Learn how to light at Strobist. at the bottom of it.
4. Clean Site and Simple Navigation. Both new visitors and old friends can navigate the site easily, and the view on the screen is content-based without many distracting ads. This seems obvious, but it can't be understated.
   

I have a feeling that there is a lot more to it than that, and after updating this blog for a while, I know Strobist is a result of a TON of work.

Yet, at least on the surface, Hobby really hasn't monetized the blog much... or has he? Well, I guarantee you he gets some payment from MPEX -- it would be silly not to. He also has a few ads, and I expect every ad gives him some sort of kickback or affiliate fee. And I'm sure he's reached the point where advertisers contact him to ask for space on the site (and, to his credit, I think he has turned most of them down).

Strobist does not look like a site that was designed to make Hobby money. I sincerely believe Hobby started the site in order to teach, but he's not an idiot, and if you look closely you can see how he's monetized the site. Amazon referals. The MPEX tie-in. Small advertisements. A method of making donations. But all of it done in a way so that his main audience is not alienated (in fact, quite the opposite -- we want to help him). A textbook example of how to build a following and squeeze a little money out of it without making the minions angry.


Back to photography...

But this is a photography blog, what does this have to photography?

Well, more and more, photographers are using their skills to build an online presence. Fred Miranda. Bob Atkins. This does two things: raise their profile (making them more likely to get freelance jobs), and allow them to directly profit off site visitors. Indeed, photography is a hard business, and I think this will become more and more common. Even the little guys who are semi-pro (or semi-amateur) could benefit from knowing how to draw traffic to their site and keep them coming back.

So, Mr. Hobby, can you let us in on your secrets? It would be very interesting for those of us who are interested in building traffic, maintaining traffic, and profiting (even in small ways).

I'm planning a follow up post to this [see it here], describing (the small amount) what I've learned by maintaining this fledgling blog.

I have no minions.

Yet.

My Macro Lens Search

The past few days I've been spending a lot of time scouring eBay for a 50mm lens suitable for reversing for macro photography. Since I've wasted so much time on this, I figured I might as well write up a post to share what I've learned and a few relevant links. A good place to start learning is Flickr's Poor-Man's Macro group.

Basic Theory:

If you take your 50mm lens off your camera, turn it around, and hold it up to the lens mount opening while you snap a picture, you'll get a close-up photo which renders around 1x life size (a 1 cm object will cover 1 cm of your film or sensor). Lambert Smith's Insecta has a great description (with illustrations) of why this works. Wider angle lenses cause greater magnification (but more problems and artifacts in the image).

The more advanced application is to place the reversed lens in front of a lens (normally mounted) with a longer focal length. This allows you to reach 4-5x life size or more, and addition to having full metering and aperture control in the lens attached to the camera (the reversed lens should have a wide-open aperture).

Why I Want a New Lens:

I already have a Canon EF 50mm F/1.8 II and a reversing ring which has produced some decent photos. So, why do I want another lens (incidentally, I literally just won an auction on eBay and now have a lens, more on that a little further down the page).

Well, I have the following problems with the current setup:

1. To set the aperture on the Canon 50mm, I have to put it on the camera the right way, push the depth of field preview button, then take it off (while holding the button), turn it around, and stick it back on. It makes it very difficult to change the aperture on the fly and pretty much ruins any camera positioning I have done.
2. Working with the lens stopped down constantly makes the viewfinder very dark and focus is hit or miss (mostly because I can't see it). Furthermore, if I'm not working with a flash or tripod, camera shake is pretty bad and it is nearly impossible to get a shot.
3. Lets face it, the Canon 50 F/1.8 II is a pretty cheap plastic lens. Awesome optically, but a piece of crap as far as durability. So constantly reversing the thing and mounting it on the camera with the focus mechanism holding up the weight of the lens isn't such a great idea. The focus barrel was pretty lose when I got it, and my accidental bashing of the lens against other things isn't helping.

So, if I get an old manual focus lens for under $40 (with manual aperture control), I can eliminate problem #1, maybe deal with problem #2 (getting focus set, then stopping down before shooting), and avoid breaking my $70 F/1.8 II. But which manual focus lens should I get?

Lens Choices:

When searching for a lens, I wanted to get F/2.0 or faster (mostly because slower 50mm lenses are special purpose), 52mm thread size (since I already have the adapter), quality optics, and manual aperture control. Furthermore, when searching on eBay, I wanted to avoid lenses with fungal damage, large scratches, damage beyond cosmetic to the lens body, or oil leaks. Since many of the lenses that fit this criteria are older than I am, checking condition is worth it. But, I'm willing to take on some risk on the condition of the lens if the price is right. But which lenses should I look for on eBay?

Nikon: Nikon has made manual focus lenses for three quarters of a century and their standard filter size is 52mm. As a side benefit, most of their old lenses still fit on the newer SLR bodies (in manual mode). This is great, and if you have a Nikon body, get a Nikon lens for sure. The down-side is the lenses aren't completely obsolete yet and prices tend to be a bit higher. Generally I look for non-AI lenses because they are older and don't mount on some newer cameras (so they are a bit cheaper).

Nikon 50mm Lens Resources:
Nikonlinks (concise intro)
Malaysian Internet Resources (extremely detailed history)

The specific lenses I looked for were:

• Nippon Kogaku Nikkor-S 50mm F/1.4 non-AI. Approx $35+S/H (or more) on eBay. This is a fast lens, excellent quality, but a bit expensive. Super common. Usually searching for Nikkor-S 1.4 50mm works well (or omit the mm).
• Nippon Kogaku Nikkor-H 50mm F/2 non-AI. Approx $20+S/H on eBay. Slower lens than the 1.4 but a bit more common since it was a kit lens for many cameras. Search for Nikkor-H 2 50mm.

Canon: Canon current EF line was preceded by the FD and FL lines. The FL line is getting a bit rare and never really standardized filter sizes -- neither the FL 50mm F/1.8 nor the FL 50mm F/1.4 take a 52mm filter, which makes them unusable for my needs. If you have a Canon camera, you probably already have the EF 50mm F/1.8 II, so it is worth getting a 52mm reverse mount adapter. The FD line does have a 52mm thread (for the F/1.8) BUT FD lenses have mechanical mechanisms that don't open up the aperture unless it is mounted correctly. It is possible to modify a Canon lens cap to do this though.

Canon 50mm Lens Resources:
FL Lens Guide (at MIR)
FD Lens Guide (at MIR)
FD eBay Price Guide (a bit old)
Another FD Page
Aperture Issues With Reversing an FD Lens

The specific lens I looked for was:

• Canon FD 50mm F/1.8. Approx $10+S/H (or more) on eBay. Very common, very cheap, good optics. The downside is you'll have to rig up the mechanism to allow manual aperture control -- MAKE SURE you get an FD lens cap made by Canon in the auction (third party caps don't work!). Search for FD 50mm 1.8.

Other Brands: I briefly looked into other brands, but none of them had a 52mm filter size.


What I Chose and Why:

At first I was looking for a Nikkor-S F/1.4 but I decided that the 1.4 would be more aperture than I needed (stopped down, the max aperture won't matter) and the weight of that extra glass could stress a second lens if I decided to stack them. Plus, the F/2 was cheaper :)

But, the FD F/1.8 was cheaper still, so I decided to look for an FD F/1.8 too but for a lower price and it had to have the genuine Canon end caps. Personally, I preferred the Nikkor, but I'd settle for an FD to save money if I needed to.

It turned out that I won this auction and got a Nikkor-H 50mm F/2 for $11.37 + $7 S/H an hour ago. Yes, it is highly hypocritical that I bought from someone with one bad image and very little information about the lens. But, I asked him a question about the condition (he responded promptly and it sounded ok), it was clear he didn't know much about cameras (he was only buying car stuff to this point), and it looked like he was selling off the lenses of a dead relative. So, for half the price that the lens was usually going for, it was worth taking a shot ($15 + S/H was my limit I'd pay).

I'll let you know how it goes :)


Update:

Here's a handy eBay search for the 50mm Nikkor lenses. Sadly, eBay has recently updated their editor kits and ruined some of the functionality. So, to really look for a Nikkor-H f/2, plug "Nikkor-H (50mm, 50) (f/2, f2 2)" in the search box and you'll get better results. For the Nikkor-S 50mm f/1.4, try "Nikkor-S (50mm, 50) (f/1.4, f1.4 1.4)".