Carnival of Flowers - extremes of aperture or not?

The Toowoomba, Qld Carnival of flowers was on a few weeks ago. However today I was driving through for the first time since, and stopped to take a few images. I deliberately chose to work primarily (pun!) with a prime lens - my AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8.

I took some images at f/20 - not quite closed right down (lens goes to f/22), but still likely to get diffraction - I could not notice this, even zoomed to 100% - perhaps just slightly soft and less crisp.

Others I took wide open at f/1.8. The bokeh is strong in effect, but not particularly pleasing to my eye.

Yes, I took a few at f/8 as well. A fairly predictable and pleasing outcome:

Any thoughts, critique, experience to share with this lens or similar?

Later, I changed to my workhorse lens (Tamron 18-200) for a flagpole shot:

5 Likes

Beautiful flowers, thanks for sharing :slight_smile:

I like the first picture, nice overview and it conveys the abundance of color very nicely.
It must have been stunning in real life!
I agree that the f1.8 bokeh isn’t pleasing. perhaps it’ll work with greater distance to the background, but that is not always possible of course.
The f8 picture: again, nice colors, beautiful flowers, but to little separation from the background to my taste.
All this is of course completely subjective and a matter of taste (and intent).

Have fun :slight_smile:

2 Likes

I like the First one very much. I do not care in this case about the bokeh because the background gives a nice frame.

1 Like

Well, I’m a m4/3 shooter, and I don’t own any monster f/0.9 lenses, so I don’t bother with bokeh.

If you want to go down a rabbit-hole, this You-tube channel discusses vintage lenses on modern digital camera. He has some videos that go into great detail on bokeh effects.

Simon’s utak

I’ve experimented with high f-number photos on my camera. Images are sharp enough for my taste. But if there is a speck of dust on the lens it shows up in the image (often in the sky). On a positive note, I’ve learned how to use the retouch module in dt! :grinning:

Edit:
Oh no! I’m getting pulled into the rabbit hole! :joy:

Voightländer 55mm f/1.2 review

1 Like