We’re further into the realm of shallow depth-of-field now. Very shallow. A razor-thin slice of reality and a backdrop of soft colors. This image is from Wednesday. I worked late and when I left at about 8pm I had not shot a single image all day, so I really had to do something about it.
What I did was mounting the Nikon 50/1.2. I don’t use this lens very often and if so then mostly for portraits. It’s manual focus only and really hard to focus at times, but since I have discovered that the D200 still measures focus and that I only have to look at the green dot in the viewfinder turning up, it’s much easier. Ahh, I love this camera.
It had rained all day, it was a cold evening and when I passed by Shultz’ bar at Siebensternplatz, nobody sat outside.
I really love this shot. It’s all light (wasn’t that a title sometime?) and color and glow. 50/1.2 at f1.2, ISO 360 and 1/60s, Auto-ISO of course. I have used Capture NX to get a TIFF with colors as shot, and in Photoshop I have rotated the image a bit and cloned a minor distraction out. That’s it.
Roberta Flack has made many good albums, I have them all, arguably the first five or so are the best, and my personal favorite is “Feel Like Makin’ Love”. It’s romantic, flower power, and - without knowing anything about Roberta Flack’s biography - it really feels like the work of someone just fallen deeply in love. “Feelin’ That Glow” is the Song of the Day. No lyrics to be found on the net and no time to write them down from the booklet. Sorry.
There are 4 comments
Ted Byrne (2007-06-02)
I'm on the road tonight in a grim motel room that was abruptly brightened by this image. One of your very best. It is such a fantasy. Yes, Bill is right. Those are gummy chairs. Wonderful idea. Thanks a lot for brightening my night.
Ted
My Images Explained
My Images Stored
Click here to see the one exception to that on my blogsite.
John DeMott (2007-06-04)
This is a great shot Andreas. As Ted says, one of your best. The out of focus areas go so very SOFT so quickly. The colors are beautiful and the overall composition is very well seen.
I'm interested in what the lens does to OOF highlights--a number of them develop a series of concentric circles of varying colors. Is that a CA-like effect? On the chrome of the chairs the effect is very attractive. There is only one place, the fairly large circle under the brightest light, where it is a bit distracting. The f/1.2 looks like a very interesting lens indeed.
andreas (2007-06-05)
Thanks guys. At f1.2 this lens is quite a phenomenon. Normally we worry about how many blades the diaphragm has and if they are curved or not. No reason to worry here. Wide open this lens is basically a tube, and of course a perfectly round one 🙂
Bill (2007-06-02)
I've come back to this image several times. There was something familiar about it, specifically the chairs but I didn't know what it was...until now. Are those gummy chairs? Sure do look like it.
Love the colours, lines and, yes, the shallow def.
💬 Reply 💬