The quest to add an interesting, eye-catching element to a photograph, often leads us photographers to start working with lenses that have a distinctive bokeh. One of the more affordable vintage lenses that gives a distinctive bokeh and is also a perfect portrait focal length, is the Soviet made Helios 40-2 85mm f/1.5 lens (for Canon / for Nikon). The 85mm Helios is also is surprisingly affordable as photography gear goes.
The swirly bokeh is fairly distinctive of the Helios optic. Adding this kind of Read more inside...
Somewhere at the start of the adventure that is photography, a newer photographer will soon realize that having your subject stand out from the background, really gives the photo a near-3-dimensional effect. Your subject just pops out with the background blurred. The question of how to get blurred backgrounds in photos, is easily answered.
There are two ways to blur the background in a photography - In-camera (i.e., optical) vs Photoshop. Doing it in Photoshop is in my opinion, a boring way to spend an afternoon when you could be out Read more inside...
Review: comparison Canon 135mm f/2L vs. Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II
One lens that has a huge loyal fanbase, is the Canon 135mm f/2L USM lens (B&H / Amazon). It has a wide aperture for a medium telephoto lens, and the lens is small and compact. Unassuming. Easy to love.
Then the inevitable question comes up from photographers stepping into getting their first telephoto lens - which is the better choice? How does the Canon 135mm f/2L compare to the Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II zoom?
The advantages to the Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II (B&H / Amazon) is Read more inside...
Pixel peeping is that derogatory phrase used to describe photographers who scrutinize photos at 100% resolution to see any flaws there might be. The idea is that if you do that, you lose sight of the artistic nature of photography. You might become stuck on what is in many ways, an irrelevant part of photography - technical perfection.
I do love sharp images. Being capable of consistently delivering crisp images, are important to me as a photographer. The skills matter. At some point these skills should become second nature.
Yet, the impact a photograph has, Read more inside...
This photo of a street performer in New York was shot with a 50mm lens. That should be fairly obvious from a quick scrutiny - the perspective (which is not wide, and neither tight); and the shallow depth of field. That sort of gives away that a 50mm lens was most likely used for this loosely composed candid portrait.
Now, I have to admit that I have this strange love-disinterest relationship with the 50mm focal length. Not quite love-hate, but more a frustration at times with the 50mm as the main lens to use. It feels like it is either not wide Read more inside...
One of the pieces of photo gear that I have lusted after ever since the first time I saw it, is the Sony Zeiss 135mm f/1.8 ZA lens (B&H / Amazon). That combination of the Zeiss name tag and the sweet f/1.8 aperture on the telephoto lens, predicted this would be a lens to experience. However, since I mostly shoot Nikon (and also have a small Canon system), and this is a Sony mount, it remained an unrequited love.
Then I had a photographer in Germany, Thomas, asked about doing an personal workshop on flash photography Read more inside...
Full-frame vs Crop-sensor comparison : Depth-of-field & Perspective
When the differences between full-frame and crop-sensor cameras are discussed, there is an inevitable question about whether the crop sensor multiplies the focal length. Whether a 50mm lens on a crop-sensor acts like a 75mm lens (on a 1.5x crop sensor) or 80mm lens (on a 1.6x crop sensor).
The answers given on the photography forums are confusing - yes, the focal length effectively increases. No, it doesn't. Two polar opposite answers. The discussion (which tend to devolve into arguments) are convincingly Read more inside...
In previous articles we could see how a fast 85mm can be used for shallow depth-of-field to shoot nearly anywhere by melting away the background. There's another aspect to this - the bokeh of the lens. The bokeh is a reference to how the quality of the background blur is rendered by a lens. It can be smooth, or have "jittery" patterns to the edges of objects, and the highlights.
Do note though that bokeh and shallow depth-of-field are not quite the same thing. While the DoF / choice of aperture does affect the appearance of the bokeh of Read more inside...
Sony has been on fire recently with their new camera releases. The Sony RX100 is arguably the best point&shoot on the market right now. The full-frame Sony A99 DSLR has been getting great reports ... and then there is the new Sony RX1 (affiliate) - full-frame goodness in a compact camera with a fixed 35mm f/2 lens.
And just in anyone has missed the crucial news - Sony cameras use Zeiss lenses. The word "legendary" is usually automatically associated with the word Zeiss.
A quick summary of what makes the Sony RX1 Read more inside...
photo session using various 85mm lenses (model: Jess B.)
A fast 85mm lens is an essential addition to any camera bag, whether an f1.8 or f1.4 or even an f1.2 aperture. With their shallow depth of field, and the pleasant perspective for portraits (when not used with a super-tight composition), these lenses will have your subject just pop from the background.
Jessica and I are busy with a new project - testing various 85mm lenses - specifically for how their bokeh appears in comparison. It is proving a tad more difficult than I had hoped for to show when poor bokeh is truly Read more inside...
