Poor results with 85mm 1.4

frede · Mar 28, 2007

Somethings I feel like I'm getting to know this lens - sometimes I'm not sure about that. Are these results typical when using the 85mm 1.4 outdoors? To me, this and the other photos in the series seem rather drab and lifeless. Shot at 1/2000 @1.4.

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Frits · Mar 28, 2007

Welcome to the 85 / 1.4 "club" Fred!
By what I can see on this web version, the image looks fine, technically speaking.
I believe that the somewhat drab look comes from the background, or in this case the absence of it. It is in the same color family as your subject and it has no features at all. Shooting with a BG that provides some contrast would make a world of difference. Try it. Even though we like the great bokeh of the OOF features with this lens, you must nevertheless work your BG carefully. I'd love to see such a version because otherwise this is such a lovely portrait.
Just my 2 cents, of course.

natelam · Mar 28, 2007

I don't sense a hint of sarcasm, but in my opinion the glass is great, the lighting in this photo is just tough, I think another example would help. A little fill would have gone a long way and maybe made you think differently about this shot. Lovely though!

i601254 · Mar 28, 2007

The 85 f1.4 is the one lens that spends the most time on my camera. Outstanding results, once I learned how to use it. I get great sharpness, contrast and color from mine.

Czechman01 · Mar 28, 2007

Yea, the lighting here is tough for any lens. A Levels adjustment would help but the blown out areas are lost. Shoot your outdoor "people pictures" in open shade or overcast days.

It's all about the light.

greyflash · Mar 28, 2007

Fred, in looking at your histogram for this image I notice that it is slightly overexposed thus the washed out look. I made one simple change to the image and that was to move the left slider in Levels to the right until it contacted the data. This made an improvement IMO. The 85mm lens is fairly unforgiving but when the exposure and focus are right on it is outstanding. By the way, I like the image of your daughter.

KB9NDF · Mar 28, 2007

Send it to me, and I'll give it a thorough workout for a couple of weeks and then let you know what I may have found out from my investigation.

We'll get to the bottom of this!! :biggrin:

frede · Mar 28, 2007

Frits said:
Welcome to the 85 / 1.4 "club" Fred!
By what I can see on this web version, the image looks fine, technically speaking.
I believe that the somewhat drab look comes from the background, or in this case the absence of it. It is in the same color family as your subject and it has no features at all. Shooting with a BG that provides some contrast would make a world of difference. Try it. Even though we like the great bokeh of the OOF features with this lens, you must nevertheless work your BG carefully. I'd love to see such a version because otherwise this is such a lovely portrait.
Just my 2 cents, of course.

Thanks Frits. I love what you do with the 85/ 1.4. Your comments make very good sense. I will keep contrasting BG in mind when I shoot this lens.

natelam said:
I don't sense a hint of sarcasm, but in my opinion the glass is great, the lighting in this photo is just tough, I think another example would help. A little fill would have gone a long way and maybe made you think differently about this shot. Lovely though!

Thanks Nate - I really like the lens and I have been able to get some great shots with it. Just that I was dissapointed with the shoot. I have to spend some more time with the lens.

i601254 said:
The 85 f1.4 is the one lens that spends the most time on my camera. Outstanding results, once I learned how to use it. I get great sharpness, contrast and color from mine.

Thanks. My results are mixed at this point - mostly good though.

Jetta32696 said:
"Poor results with 85mm 1.4" - that sounds like an oxymoron... :biggrin: To my untrained eye the pic looks great with the exception of the blown highlights in her hair. I would probably move her to a background that would provide a little more contrast - it's almost like she's blending in...

Yea leave it to me right. :frown: Thanks Keith. I have learned a lot from this thread. Now I can't wait to use the lens on another shoot.

greyflash said:
Fred, in looking at your histogram for this image I notice that it is slightly overexposed thus the washed out look. I made one simple change to the image and that was to move the left slider in Levels to the right until it contacted the data. This made an improvement IMO. The 85mm lens is fairly unforgiving but when the exposure and focus are right on it is outstanding. By the way, I like the image of your daughter.

Thanks for your comments and kind words Gordon. Like Frits, I love what you do with the 85/1.4. IMO "fairly unforgiving" is a spot on description of the lens.

KB9NDF said:
Send it to me, and I'll give it a thorough workout for a couple of weeks and then let you know what I may have found out from my investigation.

We'll get to the bottom of this!! :biggrin:

LOL - too funny Rick :biggrin:

frede · Mar 28, 2007

Czechman01 said:
Yea, the lighting here is tough for any lens. A Levels adjustment would help but the blown out areas are lost. Shoot your outdoor "people pictures" in open shade or overcast days.

It's all about the light.

Thanks Woody. I think you are right about the light. My daughters face was kind of turned away from the light if I remember correctly. It was an overcast day - maybe a reflector would have helped too. I am going to see if I can recreate the shot and do some tests.

frede · Mar 30, 2007

Beezle said:
I find the 85 doesn't like low contrast outdoor light such as in your image.

One thing I tried that helped was to extend the hood by about 15mm using black paper. On DX cameras, the stock hood isn't as tight as it could be.

Thanks for your comment and great suggestion - I will definitely keep the low contrast factor in mind from now on.

silver · Mar 31, 2007

I find the colour really picks up around f2,. it's sharp at all fstops but contrast / saturation esp outside try stopping it down a bit perhaps

Sil

frede · Mar 31, 2007

Thanks Sil - I am going to be using the lens a lot over the weekend, so I will keep that in mind.

silver · Mar 31, 2007

it probably depends on the light direction / quality,. with such a large front element it can get a little internal flare even with the hood (which always should be used!)

here's a couple from last year - have exif and not much processing https://www.nikoncafe.com/vforums/showthread.php?t=70324

Sil

cwilt · Apr 1, 2007

Frede,

Like Beezle said, you have to watch the 85/1.4 because it can flare easily in this situation. Hoods are required for fast glass in my opinion.

Another easy fix for this image is to assign it a gamma of 2.5 instead of 2.2 that is sRGB. Do a search for Iliah's post on the power of gamma. He provided a link to a set of profiles from 1.0 to 3.0 for the common color spaces. I use them on a regular basis for many things.

Dayo · Apr 2, 2007

j_b_l said:
Fantastic image...I looked at a 100% crop...spectacular...

Wow John, you really made it sing.

bwphoto · Apr 7, 2007

Fred, are you kidding? The image looks great! Although I have to admit, John's tweaking made it more punchy. I think it was the background that made it bland. If only the background was more colorful like green trees or blue sky or something else that's perhaps a little darker. Have you tried to make it black and white? But make the background darker. I actually like the light on her hair. There's a term for it. I can't believe I forgot it. It's not silhouette.. it's uh.. somebody help...:frown:

BTW, awesome bokeh. Must be the lens :biggrin:

Leo

Commodorefirst · Apr 8, 2007

I think it is a very nice shot, sure it has a bit of blown highlights in the hair, but everything else about this image is nice, very nice,

A few tweaks i tried, just levels and sharpening and a slight desaturation after the levels adjustment.

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Poor results with 85mm 1.4

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