{"id":1756,"date":"2011-04-26T21:08:33","date_gmt":"2011-04-26T12:08:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2011-04-26\/1756"},"modified":"2011-04-26T21:08:33","modified_gmt":"2011-04-26T12:08:33","slug":"exploring-the-sharper-side-of-the-voigtlander-125mm-f2-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2011-04-26\/1756","title":{"rendered":"Exploring the Sharper Side of the Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\nNOTE<\/b>: Images with an icon next to them have been artificially shrunk to better fit your screen; click the icon to restore them, in place, to their regular size.\n<\/div>\n\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>160 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 640 —\nfull exif<\/a><\/span>\nCorona<\/span>\n
Desktop-Background Versions<\/b>\n\n\nStandard: 1024×<\/span>768<\/a>  ·  1440×<\/span>1080<\/a>  ·  1600×<\/span>1200<\/a><\/small>     <\/span>\nWidescreen:  1280×<\/span>800<\/a>  ·  1680×<\/span>1050<\/a>  ·  1920×<\/span>1200<\/a>  ·  2560×<\/span>1600<\/a><\/small><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I've had a number of posts recently about the Cosina Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5<\/a>\nand the ultra-creamy bokeh<\/a> it has in close-up macro shots,\nas featured in\n“Exploring the Edge of Creamy Macro Bokeh with Lily of the Nile<\/a>”,\nand other recent examples\nhere<\/a>,\nhere<\/a>,\nand\nhere<\/a>. All those<\/span> examples were taken in less than ideal conditions,\nwith the camera held by hand while the flower or whatnot jiggled in the breeze. So today<\/span> when I noticed<\/span> some\nnice fluffy dandelions by the river, I thought<\/span> to bring some home to give the Voigtl\u00e4nder a whirl<\/span> with the benefit of a tripod<\/span> and a subject<\/span>\nthat's not moving.<\/p>\n\n

Considering the subject, though, the focus of these falls more on the sharpness\nof the fine hairs rather than the creaminess of the bokeh. The steadiness<\/span> of the tripod (and lack of wind) was most helpful in this regard.<\/p>\n\n

I set the dandelion in a glass and placed them in front of a window,<\/span> propping up a sheet<\/span> of whitish paper for a background.<\/span>..<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>80 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 640 —\nfull exif<\/a><\/span>\nDimply<\/span>\n
Desktop-Background Versions<\/b>\n\n\nStandard: 1024×<\/span>768<\/a>  ·  1440×<\/span>1080<\/a>  ·  1600×<\/span>1200<\/a><\/small>     <\/span>\nWidescreen:  1280×<\/span>800<\/a>  ·  1680×<\/span>1050<\/a>  ·  1920×<\/span>1200<\/a>  ·  2560×<\/span>1600<\/a><\/small><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

Later I grabbed a piece of faded-blackish construction paper from\nAnthony's art-stuff pile and used that as the background, and the results\nseem more striking than the white-background versions, which again follows\nthe “sharpness not creaminess” theme of today's post.<\/p>\n\n

Here's a different variety of dandelion, smaller than the first one, at\nf\/22 where my Voigtl\u00e4nder rarely ventures....<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1.3 sec, f<\/span>\/22, ISO 640 —\nfull exif<\/a><\/span>\nSharpness<\/span>\nthere seems to be some\n
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Each time I set up a shot, I took a<\/span> series of pictures encompassing each\naperture setting of the lens, from f\/2.5 through f\/22, just so that later I\ncan<\/span> get a feel<\/span> for the effect on the depth of field, bokeh, and sharpness. A quick<\/span> glance at the series this one came from makes me feel that probably\nf\/8 is the sharpest, but I need<\/span> to spend more time with it later.<\/p>\n\n

One thing I didn't realize until taking these shots is that this tiny\ndandelion is constructed quite differently than the first and its “dimply” appearance.\nThis one has more of a “mad scientist” vibe going on.\nMaybe one or both aren't even dandelions... I don't<\/span> know.<\/p>\n\n

This particular specimen exhibited the most exquisitely-perfect\nroundness until I started<\/span> to walk with it from the riverbank, at which\npoint the wind took half of it for itself in measured amounts with each\nstep. Some creative composition hides that half of it is gone.<\/p>\n\n

But this lens wants to be used wide open, so it took the following photo of its own volition, from the same position as above...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>80 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 640 —\nfull exif<\/a><\/span>\nBarest Edge of the Cloud<\/span>\nit's instructive to view the bokeh of the closest hairs in the large version\n
Vertical Desktop-Background Versions<\/b>\n\n\n1050×<\/span>1680<\/a>  ·  1200×<\/span>1920<\/a>  ·  1600×<\/span>2560<\/a><\/small><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

Back to the first, larger dandelion...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>160 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 640 —\nfull exif<\/a><\/span>\nBack Edge<\/span>\nnothing's very sharp because it's looking through the puff to focus on the rear edge\n
Vertical Desktop-Background Versions<\/b>\n\n\n1050×<\/span>1680<\/a>  ·  1200×<\/span>1920<\/a>  ·  1600×<\/span>2560<\/a><\/small><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

Here's one from the same position, but with a different<\/span> focus point and aperture, in black & white....<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>25 sec, f<\/span>\/5.6, ISO 640 —\nfull exif<\/a><\/span>\n
Vertical Desktop-Background Versions<\/b>\n\n\n1050×<\/span>1680<\/a>  ·  1200×<\/span>1920<\/a>  ·  1600×<\/span>2560<\/a><\/small><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

I like this one a lot. I wasn't intending to post it in black &\nwhite, but while in Photoshop to make the desktop-background versions, I bumped<\/span> something and accidentally\nswitched to viewing only the blue channel. The result<\/span> had some impact, so I returned<\/span> to Lightroom to redo\nthe photo in black & white, dropping the luminosity on many of the channels to zero or close to it. It really<\/span> accentuates the back-lit nature of the shot.<\/p>\n\n

I don't break out the tripod like this very often, so this was fun and instructive for me. And considering<\/span> that\nmy first post with this lens<\/a> featured some dandelions from the same\nriverbank, it seems appropriate that my first post with this lens and a tripod<\/span> does as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I've had a number of posts recently about the Cosina Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 and the ultra-creamy bokeh it has in close-up macro shots, as featured in \"Exploring the Edge of Creamy Macro Bokeh with Lily of the Nile\", and other recent examples here, here, and here. All those examples were taken in less than ideal conditions, with the camera held by hand while the flower or whatnot jiggled in the breeze. So today when I noticed some nice fluffy dandelions by the river, I thought to bring some home to give the Voigtl\u00e4nder a whirl with the benefit of a [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8,1,6,25],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1756"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1756\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}