Experiments 2

[armand]

This time playing with the Samyang 135mm F2, manual focus, on Nikon mount.
This is a very well behaved lens, I like it a lot. It is sharp even at F2 (in the center at least, at that aperture I didn't look anywhere else), good bokeh. For full body small group (4-5 people) portraits the bokeh is better than the Nikon 85mm F1.8 which gets a weird circular pattern of the bokeh at that longer distance.
Manual focus is easier than I expected even at F2.

PS. for some reason I can hold it much steadier than the Nikon lenses; don't know if it's the weight or the lack of IS (paradoxically)

[Bob_B]

I especially like photo #2, but might suggest a little more contrast. Also, did you consider processing the 4th image in bw? I think it would be worth a try. Incidentally, it looks like you have a winner with that Samyang lens. I've considered getting one myself. - Bob

[francois]

I love the last one and also the second one. Try Bob's suggestion for the fourth, color doesn't seem to bring anything to this image.

[RSL]

Hi Armand, The fourth is by far the best, and I don't agree with Bob or Francois. I think color's important in that picture --  especially the color of that kid's hair. Try a quick conversion and you'll see what I mean. I did it and I can tell you that the kid becomes too much like the stump. I do wish you'd shot it at f/8 instead of f/5.6 so the stump were a bit sharper. The broken overcast was a wonderful bonus for this shot.

Very nice.

[BobDavid]

I like the fourth one too. You may want to try cropping it just below the dead tree stump in the pond (or clone out the stump and crop a little higher). That way the viewer will do a double take on whether he is peering down into the clouds or onto a surface of water. You may want to crop out some of the detritus on the conduit--the clutter is distracting.

[tom b]

The illustrator in me has just kicked in. In the fourth image I thought; Photoshop/Edit/Content-Aware Scale.

Cheers,

[brandtb]

3rd image...very nice

[armand]

Thank you.

I saw the fourth image in color and I don't recall if I tried bw at all. I did try to crop under the stump but just wouldn't work; cloning is a good idea , I'll give it a try. I'm not sure what you mean by content-aware scale.

The second photo has already some contrast in it and I tried with more and while it works it's a different photo, I thought the current contrast works better with the limited DOF.

[armand]

Btw, this lens works well also on a Fuji X-T1 with the Metabones speed booster adapter.

[tom b]

Photoshop/Edit/Content-Aware Scale

ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNhHs4Kk580

It helps you get rid of a lot of boring stuff, if you know what I mean.



Cheers,

[armand]

I tried cloning but it's not as good as I was hoping.
I did play with the content aware scaling (thank you for the idea) and I think this version fixes one of the flaws of the original.

[D Fuller]

Photoshop/Edit/Content-Aware Scale

ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNhHs4Kk580

It helps you get rid of a lot of boring stuff, if you know what I mean.



Cheers,

Can't say I agree. This removes some of the visual tension between the boy and the stump. While I'd love to see he stump a bit sharper, I don't think squeezing the shot helps it.

YMMV

[tom b]

"Can't say I agree. This removes some of the visual tension between the boy and the stump. While I'd love to see he stump a bit sharper, I don't think squeezing the shot helps it."

"The illustrator in me has just kicked in. In the fourth image I thought; Photoshop/Edit/Content-Aware Scale."

This was just an example of the difference between an Illustrator and a Photographer. As an Illustrator you are trying
to explain the relationships between things. As a photographer you are mainly trying to tell a visual story. Nothing wrong with either approach, I've just been trained to favour the former.

Cheers,

[armand]

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