Should #1 be inverted? The reason I ask is that her hair is parted to stage right in all but this. The bokeh is excellent! She is part of the image and enhances the frame.
Great job!
Dan
Danpbphoto wrote:
Should #1 be inverted? The reason I ask is that her hair is parted to stage right in all but this. The bokeh is excellent! She is part of the image and enhances the frame.
Great job!
Dan
gheller wrote:
I don't know, I find the bokeh, *quite* harsh and unappealing to the eye...due to the off-brand lens perhaps.
Very nice otherwise.
greg
Bokeh is excellent given the type of background. The background is an artistic choice which can be debated on its own merit. But if you choose this background, the lens renders it well, imho.
AcuteShadows wrote:
Bokeh is excellent given the type of background. The background is an artistic choice which can be debated on its own merit. But if you choose this background, the lens renders it well, imho.
bokeh for #1 and 4 is pleasing because of the darker bg. in the alternating light/dark bg of #2 & #3, the jittery bokeh is beginning to distract my eyes; #3 is most prominent.
AcuteShadows wrote:
Bokeh is excellent given the type of background. The background is an artistic choice which can be debated on its own merit. But if you choose this background, the lens renders it well, imho.
Not really IMO (and I guess in some others as well). I agree that bokeh is subjective, but after using some top lenses (85/1.2, 135/2, 200/2) and seeing what buttery bokeh can be, the harsh bokeh in some of these is not pleasing (again, IMO)
gheller wrote:
Not really IMO (and I guess in some others as well). I agree that bokeh is subjective, but after using some top lenses (85/1.2, 135/2, 200/2) and seeing what buttery bokeh can be, the harsh bokeh in some of these is not pleasing (again, IMO)
greg
Yes, it's subjective. I like the bokeh of my Milvus 85mm more than that of the Nikkor S 85mm, generally. But smooth bokeh with foliage is, in my mind, a contradiction in terms. It doesn't help if you try to smooth out something that is supposed to be harsh, so my general advice would be: just don't do it. Here, the harsh bokeh corresponds to the character of the subject, and there is no way to really let the the background fade away completely - thus it's best to give the bokeh some place in the picture. But this lens may well not be the best choice for a lot of other situations.
tntcorp wrote:
bokeh for #1 and 4 is pleasing because of the darker bg. in the alternating light/dark bg of #2 & #3, the jittery bokeh is beginning to distract my eyes; #3 is most prominent.
other than that, the images are nice.
#3 is the best of the pictures imho, per the reasoning given in my post above. For the others, other lenses may well have better characteristics.
AcuteShadows wrote:
#3 is the best of the pictures imho, per the reasoning given in my post above. For the others, other lenses may well have better characteristics.
uh, no.. imho, bokeh is too nervous and distracting my eyes from the subject, which is contrary to the idead that the bokeh effect should enhance the composition and complement the subject.
tntcorp wrote:
uh, no.. imho, bokeh is too nervous and distracting my eyes from the subject, which is contrary to the idead that the bokeh effect should enhance the composition and complement the subject.
Yes, it is indeed distracting from the subject. But you can see bokeh as complementing the subject in a composition, rather than giving way to the subject. You can, you don't have to. It's also fair to argue that such an approach is inferior to the subject-focused approach. But if you evaluate the photo according to that approach, the bokeh is complementing the subject in a way that is artistically successful, in my opinion.
First image isn't reversed. The shirt pattern on her deltoid is consistent throughout the images. Her hair "part" and hair "quality" are all over the place (not a critique).
Bokeh is curious. I don't know enough to discern exactly what's going on. Face is in reasonable and consistent focus so steadiness and shudder speed seem to be fine?... bokeh, even when it seems distorted, is radially distorted from the image center. Post production effect? or maybe the lens?
The images are, to my eye, a little heavy on contrast and maybe a bit over saturated but that's the artist's call.
Conversation over these images - remarkably enduring.
