JonPB Offline Upload & Sell: Off
|
p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Lens preferred for black and white? do u differentiate? | |
To my eye, the crucial difference between lenses for color or black & white images is in luminance blooming around highlights. In color, I'm more likely to see how the color of the subject shifts in the glare; with black and white, I'm more likely to see it as an expression of how the light source is "whiter than white." My thought is that, for the glare to be convincing, the subject affected by glare needs to be of consistent chroma, which is easy to achieve with B&W but difficult with real-life subjects rendered in color. In the studio or movie set, it is easier to arrange subjects to accommodate the light. But that's not how I shoot.
This is not even close to the largest difference between lenses, of course. Resolution fall-off, contrast, chromatic aberrations, vignetting, and bokeh rendering all matter. (While greyscale images conceal chromatic effects from attracting attention for rendering contrasting colors, they still render the resulting luminance effects of CA.) However, my taste in all of these things is pretty much consistent between shooting in color or B&W. Luminance blooming, however, is not something I've ever much appreciated in color for my general purpose work, while I do tend to like it in B&W. Which is why I think luminance blooming is something to consider when looking at the difference between lenses between color and B&W.
That said, I'm not much of an expert in this. I haven't shot older lenses extensively over the past few years, and they're the ones that tend toward gregarious glare. One correlation is that they also have other optical attributes of being designed and manufactured in a different era. My inexperience notwithstanding, I still have an opinion on the matter. :-)
On the other hand, the Sony 55/1.8 is by all accounts an excellent optic. It is very crisp and high contrast. If it isn't to your taste, I'd recommend reducing global contrast in your images during post. Your first-glance read of the image will be negative because the mind likes contrast, so take a batch of images, reduce the contrast setting for all of them by a fair amount, then come back to the photos a day or a week later. You'll likely see more textural contrast than you did before, which will draw your eye more into the scene. I find that texture in B&W often serves the same function as color contrast in color images, providing nuance and detail upon second impression and keeping the viewer interested. Personally, I love working in B&W, but I always start with a flat image -- which is not what you'll get with a 55/1.8 OOC from an A7. This will also give you an idea of what it is like working with an older lens, which tend to have lower global contrast from the start, without having to buy anything.
Now I want to go shooting with my pre-SMC Takumar lenses.
Cheers,
Jon
|