I had a chance to take some photos with my shy and hesitant teen model, Dawson, a few weeks ago....  I had two goals....Get some cool photos of the cool cat for his yearbook, and test out the Sigma 35 1.4.  I've used the Sigma a few times now and I have been extremely pleased with the results.  I'm not a proponent or opponent of prime lenses; but I am a fan of the clarity and the speed of this lens.  If my 24-70 2.8 was a 1.4, then that lens would probably never be taken off my camera.  

We started past 5:30ish pm, so we were losing sunlight pretty quickly on this shoot, and by the time we were done with the brick wall shots, there wasn't much ambient light.  I had to use a flashlight pointed at Dawson's face to get the lens to focus. 

This is a shout out for the natural-light-only photographers out there, you can still get good shots after the sun goes down.  Get a flash (GASP!) and drag your shutter a bit to get some light in there.  Steady hands definitely help and it's a good way to find out what your limits on keeping a shot steady at different focal lengths.  I probably wouldn't shoot 1/10sec @ 200mm, but you won't know till you've tried it.

ISO 160, 35mm @ f1.4, 1/80 sec.

ISO 640, 85mm f1.8 @ 1/15sec

ISO 800, 35mm f1.8 @ 1/30 sec.

The first and third images were taken with the sigma.   Off camera lighting was with a flash minus any modifier attached...The reason I did this was for hard-edged shadows....it felt appropriate for the look i was after.  The second shot was with an Canon 85 1.8 with the flash positioned behind Dawson.  I tried some shots with some lens flare peeking at the side, but I didn't care much for it...felt too wannabe JJ Abrams...not for me :)  

Gear used for this shoot:  Canon 5D Mark III, Sigma 35mm f1.4 DG HSM Art, Canon 85mm 1.8; a couple of Pocketwizards and Canon Speedlite 600EX.  Whitebalance @ 5500 via Adobe Lightroom. 

Special thanks to my cool, cooperative model :)