I am in search of a normalish lens that has very smooth swirling bokeh.
The only lens I used like this is the 85mm 1.2 (it's not exactly a normal though...)
deepbluejh wrote:
Pretty much all of the super fast 50s will do this.
If the distance is close enough, yes. At larger distance, the blur discs often tend to get diamond shaped at the corners instead, which is not very nice IMO.
To get the most swirl, you'd want the front lens element to be as small as possible for the given wide open aperture. It will then cause vignetting by shading one side of the aperture, giving a cats-eye shaped iris in the corners.
This means that the older and faster the lens, the more likely it is to give this effect, since older lenses often have small front lens elements to keep a small filter size.
kosmoskatten wrote:
I am not too fond of the Rokkor 58/1.2 look, it gives me a head ache looking at the grass behind the little girl. But hey, to each his own.
You're supposed to look at the girl and her little bouquet.
(When you do, the swirly-ness feels much different, IMO.)
kosmoskatten wrote:
I am not too fond of the Rokkor 58/1.2 look, it gives me a head ache looking at the grass behind the little girl. But hey, to each his own.
+1
Looking at the girl with that background is what gives the headache, because it keeps calling attention to itself because it is somewhat unnatural.
As deepbluejh noted, "Pretty much all of the super fast 50s will do this". I agree. Any f1.2 normal (50-ish) lens would have done the same thing if used to take this identical shot. In fact, a 50 would have even busier blur due to the focal length difference.
Your headache (which I seriously question) is due to my technique. I suppose I owe an apology?
The "busy bokeh" of Cogitechs photo is wonderful. It concentrates my eye to the girl, while still leaving a contrasty background.
This is character! You never really know when to expect it, but you can learn to use it. This is also why I sold my Sigma 50/1.4. It was too smooth and perfect.
Here's some serious swirl for you, but from a longer lens. The Nikon Series-E 75-150/3.5 on FF. I really love the rendering, and if you stop down it is incredibly sharp.
Edit: For some reason, Photobucket has chosen to f*ck up older posted pictures by compressing them without asking. That's why you see square artifacts all over the image.
Actually pascal, the Sigma 50mm f1.4 is not a good choice for this. It's known for its exceptionally smooth bokeh, whish is the exact oposite thing "Astragony" is looking for.
I also like swirly bokeh, so based on what I found on Flickr, I got a Helios-44 (M39 chrome)... I've only taken test shots in the backyard. Here's one wide open and at the minimum focusing distance (about 1.6ft).
