Monday, February 8th, 2010
My preference for shallow depth of field is well known, but of course it is not suitable for each and every subject. Since some time I am experimenting with means to transport the specific way in which the camera records to the viewer. Shallow depth of field is, as well as bokeh, a concept unknown in human seeing with the naked eye, as we are constantly accomodating and combining the images of the different focal planes in our visual conception. Combining two such images in a kind of diptychon is – for me – a promising way of enhancing the visual experience.
I hope a grey day in Salzburg, with a subject photographed probably a gazillion times, is a suitable example for this approach. Oh yes, and don’t forget to click on the image to view it large.
Tags:depth of field, grey, salzburg, winter
Posted in Salzburg, bokeh | No Comments »
Thursday, October 29th, 2009
Today I finally held in my hand what I was looking for since re-starting photography: A probably 15 years old second hand Minolta 1.4/85mm lens. Aah – that were the times when all lenses were built completely from metal. That definitely gives a solid feeling! And then that front lens, what an amount of glass! But I didn’t bother for long with admiring the outer qualities, instead I used my lunch break for a walk in the nearest park. That shallow DoF and blurry background is amazing (the shot above was taken stopped down half a f-stop) but what was demanding at least for the first frames is the discrepancy between the viewfinder image and what gets recorded on the sensor: In the viewfinder you simply do not see that shallow DoF and background blur or bokeh. The reason is the “optimisation” of the former ground glass into an array of micro-structures that are much brighter than any groundglass could be, but similarly to a loupe offers a virtual image to the eye. And this image does not obey to even only widely similar optical laws of the rendering on a groundglass. Well, without that artifice the viewfinder would be unbearably dark with the zoom lenses that are the standard now.
I am a happy camper for now, as this lens allows me to bask in low DoF images and, as I hope, those wonderful airy discs of out-of-focus light sources. Additionally I will try those fine portraits where only the pupils are rendered sharply but already nose and ears get enwrapped in soft and flattering unsharpness.
Tags:85mm, background, blur, bokeh, depth of field, DoF, garden, leaf, lens lust, minolta
Posted in bokeh, nature | 8 Comments »
Sunday, September 28th, 2008
i was waiting quite a while for good, warm october weather – we had to have it now, especially as an economic factor for the benefits of the octoberfest and the poor landlords there, who are always on the brink of bankruptcy if there is not a new record in the number of sold hectolitres of beer.
so we had our fine weather and the kids took advantage of it to make flower necklaces of the very last daisies, and i took advantage of this to exercise my venerable 20+ years old 1.7/50mm lens – i am a shallow depth of field freak, i have to admit.
Tags:depth of field, flower necklace
Posted in bokeh | 3 Comments »
