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Painting-like "glow" (what MF lenses can do for you) ( image )

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I was using stacked adapters, a Contax/Yashica to 4/3s adapter originally bought to use with my Oly SLRs and then the Panny 4/3s to m4/3s adapter. It was because I couldn't MF very well with my SLRs due to my very rather poor eyesight that I bought the G1 - magnified EVF means I can now see what I'm doing :-)

The C/Y - 4/3s adapter was bought from this seller on ebay - http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/go4dc . It has given me no problems and has done exactly what it is supposed to.

Nick
 
Diane,

This was posted mainly to show the effects you can get, not because it was a good picture - which it isn't :-)

I find it can work especially well for portraits where the softness and "glow" can make the subject stand out, and hide any blemishes, much like using a soft focus filter would work in the old film days.

Thanks for your comments and if you can find a cheap fast MF lens I'd recommend having a play. You can always sell it for little or no loss if you're not happy,

Nick
 
The plant shown in the OP is a Hebe ,possibly 'Marjorie' but there are literally hundreds of varieties - very easy to propagate from tip cuttings !

Is it possible that the pleasing 'glow' comes from finger grease polished clean on the front lens element , such grease can soften an image & add a diffuse glow ?

--
Keith-C
 
Nick, I like the photo, and can see the 'glow' which makes it unusual. It seems to come down to personal taste whether you like this effect. We see lots and lots of photos with sharp areas and lovely bokeh, it's nice to see something different - thank you for sharing this.
 
I believe the effect is due to chromatic aberrations, combind with a general softness with this lens when used wide open, both effects magnified at the close distance I was shooting from (the lens is clean and free from any residual grease).

It gives a similar effect to vaseline or soft focus filters and I think for some subjects the result is pleasing - YMMV of course :-)

Thanks for the info about the plant, it was just something I saw in a garden and at this time of year so little is in flower I thought I'd try to capture something with some signs of life,

Nick
 
Hi Nick,
nick_webster said:


I hope you can see what I meant by "glow" :-)

Modern lenses are generally too good to allow this sort of smearing between areas of high contrast even wide open. I think the effect may be replicable with software but I try and avoid PP where possible :-)
Click to expand...
perhaps a good use for the Soft Focus Art Filter?

Out of cam jpeg...

E-P1 + 20mm f1.7
1/400s f/2.5 at 20.0mm iso200



Out of cam jpeg with Soft Focus Art Filter...

E-P1 + 20mm f1.7
1/400s f/2.5 at 20.0mm iso200



The legacy lens approach would certainly be cheaper than the Lumix 20mm lens... but you can have sharp detail at f1.7 too ;)

Cheers

Brian
--
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Nick,

I now have been working with the OM 50mm f1.4 for a few days and I too have seen what you are trying to show here. It is difficult too describe and I can understand some of the reactions here, but these old lenses do give a different feel to the photos. In another post I commented about it http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1041&message=34300953 . Glow is the better word for it. It does have a paint like effect. I am originally not a photographer but a painter and I love what I am seeing now.

This is not a very interesting photo, but you can see that soft glow effect here which till now I have not gotten with any of my other 7 modern lenses. It is not only the shallow DOF effect

Straight out of the camera only reduced in size. I was shooting Monochrome.



I compared similar photos taken of the same situation with my D90 with the Sigma 30mm f1.4 and the E-P1 with the OM 50mm f1.4. The photos taken with the E-P1/50mm were "dreamier" :-)
nick_webster said:
Out and about today with a G1 and Contax (Zeiss) 50mm f1.4. Just walking to town I saw these flowers ( no idea what they are ). Took a couple of photos and when I got home and looked at them I noticed they had a wonderful "glow" almost as if they were paintings.
Click to expand...
--
Roosje
http://www.flickr.com/photos/roosjeh/
 
Hello again!

thanks for posting this thread, I hadn't really considered Soft Focus such a desirable effect.
nick_webster said:
Diane,

This was posted mainly to show the effects you can get, not because it was a good picture - which it isn't :-)

I find it can work especially well for portraits where the softness and "glow" can make the subject stand out, and hide any blemishes, much like using a soft focus filter would work in the old film days.
Click to expand...
I went back to the last portrait I had, and developed with the Soft Focus Art Filter - effectively what you'd get as an out of camera jpeg.

First, the standard shot :



and then, for comparison - the out of camera jpeg with Soft Focus Art Filter :



It's a nice effect - worth bearing in mind!

Cheers

Brian
--
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Sam Bennett said:
Actually, I think what he's pointing out is completely valid and real. The 20mm f/1.7 is a great example of an approach to optics very different than say, the Voigtlander 40mm f/1.4. Panasonic clearly wanted to make a lens most people would regard as "high quality" - that means it has to be sharp, have good contrast, good bokeh, good control of coma, etc. All four of the qualities I listed have been achieved quite well by Panasonic, whereas my Voigtlander 40mm f/1.4, wide-open displays problems in all four areas - just as the OP's lens does. Is it a good thing? A bad thing? It depends on what you're going for, but the fact is that the older MF glass available has a much broader ranges of "looks" available than the MFT glass being produced. Look at people using C Mount glass if you want to see some real wild stuff.

Panasonic would never produce a lens that had the kind of "interesting" bokeh that people seem to like in these lenses, and that's just fine for most people. But for the rest of us who like a bit of funk every once and a while, they do offer a nice opportunity to break out of the "tack sharp" mindset. I love my 20mm f/1.7, but I also love having the Voigtlander 40mm f/1.4 for times that I tire of the 20mm's unrelenting sharpness. LOL ;)
Click to expand...
Thank you for your smart post. I'm not the OP, but I felt most people who replied didn't understand what he was saying at all. You did understand, I believe.
--
http://flickr.com/photos/iskender
 
Does your G1 do things mine won't ?

Oh wait a minute, the G1 doesn't have them. Seems I'm stuck with playing with MF lenses :-) - plus the "look" is still quite different from just using the filter.

How is your 57mm at 1.2 ? My OM 55 looks even softer and dreamier at 1.2 ( ie rubbish for the majority of shots ) than the Contax at 1.4. The latter is useable wide open if you're careful about subject matter, the OM isn't. Plus it's gone a bit yellow with age so I've been using it for B&W.

Nick
 
I've seen that link - I actually posted it to someone the other day :-)

Light bounce would lower contrast over the whole image I think, not give that "glow" around the lighter parts of the shot. This post http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1041&message=33672631 gives a better explantion, I feel.

Nick

PS I'm getting more interest in this thread now than I did 3 months ago when I first posted it :-)
 
I did some quick comparison photos this afternoon and not in the best light. circumstances, but I see again that paintlike quality in the photo taken with the OM 50mm f1.4

D90 & Nikkor 50mm f1.4



Exposure:0.013 sec (1/80)
Aperture:f/1.4
Focal Length:50 mm
ISO Speed:1250
Exposure Bias:-1/3 EV

E-P1 & OM 50mm f1.4



Exposure:0.013 sec (1/80)
Aperture:f/1.4
Focal Length:50mm
ISO Speed:1000
Exposure Bias:0 EV

--
Roosje
http://www.flickr.com/photos/roosjeh/
 
Different manufacturers have different optical designs to give images a particular look. Nikon has traditionally emphasized sharpness and contrast of their lenses at the expense of the quality of bokeh. As a result, Nikon 50mm lenses (AF-D or MF) in general give sharp and punchy images but its bokeh is harsh. The OM lenses are know to go the opposite — to give an overall softer and less contrasy images thus returning with a smoother bokeh. These OM 50mm lenese thus work best for candid people photography but the Nikon may be getter for landscape and general photography. In conclusion, the difference in the final images is not entirely a "new" vs "old" thing, but a choice of the look that the manufacturers have chosen to deliver.
Roosje said:
I did some quick comparison photos this afternoon and not in the best light. circumstances, but I see again that paintlike quality in the photo taken with the OM 50mm f1.4

D90 & Nikkor 50mm f1.4
Click to expand...
Roosje said:
E-P1 & OM 50mm f1.4

Click to expand...
Roosje said:
--
Roosje
http://www.flickr.com/photos/roosjeh/
Click to expand...
 
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