THE FOCUS POINT OF IT ALL

[Michael Erlewine]

Well, I recently took images using most of the major ‘sharp’ Hasselblad XCD lenses, old and new, just to see how sharp they are. I made the mistake of not having them all at the base ISO of 50, some were at 400, so that was a waste of time. However, I did clearly get the idea that the XCD 120, the XCD 80, and the XCD 90 were plenty sharp. Actually, all of the Hasselblad XCD lenses are sharp.

Of the bunch, the one with both some character and sharpness was IMO the XCD 80mm f/1.9 lens. And although I used to stack focus for years, with the XCD lenses I believe I will stop doing that and just take single shots at various F-stops. It’s not worth stacking and then working at fixing the artifacts.

The Hasselblad XCD lenses are just so granular and sharp that I’m actually now working in the other direction, trying to introduce more bokeh and no longer worrying about the overall sharpness. All the XCD lenses seem sharp enough. Instead, I find myself working on composition, color, and things like that.

My original interest in focus stacking, many years ago, was to remove the concept of a single point of view by having the whole image in focus and by that free the eye and its ‘Seeing” to just naturally look around rather than be led by the embedded point of view of a single shot.

In the world of dharma and meditation, which I spend a lot of my time in, non-duality and full immersion are valued and important, our being totally immersed without the normal duality of a subject and an object.

Working with the 100 MP Hasselblad and its very sharp lenses where, as mentioned, everything is pretty much in focus without the effort to be so, has kind of ruined focus stacking for me, and thrown me back on considering composition and the invoking of bokeh and blur as a punctuator rather than vice-versa, struggling to find sharpness as I found myself doing with my Nikon system. 

In other words, rather than attempting to universalize sharpness as the delimiter, to make everything or some specific things sharp, offering an abundance of sharpness, seems to free up the eye from being naturally or unconsciously directed by sharpness.

Thanks to the Hasselblad lenses, being lost in a sea of sharpness, immersion in sharpness, at least for me, is very Zen like, with instead the result of invoking and subjecting us to the ordinary.

I quite like being lost in the ordinary and the vibe this introduces. Perhaps this is the result of, as mentioned, many decades of practice in what the Tibetans call Mahamudra, a form of non-meditation.

Also, perhaps my interest in AI graphics such as those from Midjourney AI are because AI just quite naturally plays havoc with the focus point and thus often renders a sense of unreality to images that I intuitively like.

Hasselblad X2D II and the XCD 80mm f/1.9 lens

[degrub]

Nice placement of the roll off on the leaves. The remaining is stunning !

[Rob C]

Cutting to the chase, Michael, what I think you’re really saying is that you believe you had been overthinking photography.

Many of us do that, at one stage or another, and if we are fortunate enough to reach enlightenment without giving in to frustration and simply cutting our losses and cutting out, then photography, taken lightly, can be a reasonable way of passing the time.

It was a pleasing way to earn one's keep, but I know that the greater buzz came simply from the gratification of winning the gig: the validation was a “like” before social media was invented. It was, before the ‘phone inevitably stopped ringing, one hell of an ego trip!

[Eric Brody]

I too have spent many years focus stacking though not to the level you managed with your work Michael. I had, and probably still have, a bit of the yearning for universal sharpness which I developed when using a 4x5 with tilts and shifts. Lately I'm trying to get out of the universal sharpness rut and have also started to use some of my excellent Sony GM's even wide open (oh, the horror!).

I'm getting images I like, spending less time with Helicon and Zerene and having some fun. I think we all go through stages in our work. My goal, since I make no money at it, is to make images that are pleasing to me (and my wife). Though she has said that if I come home with one more waterfall (I'm fortunate to live in the Pacific Northwest), the locks will be changed. :-)

It's supposed to be fun.

[Michael Erlewine]

Well, I see that a number of us are on the same trajectory. I studied APO lenses for decades on the Nikon system. I accumlated over 100 lenses that were APO oriented, macro, or about sharpness. APO has no standard description, so sharpness, microcontrast, and things like that define. And I stillhave about a dozen Large Format lenses that I use on the Cambo Actus Mini with either Nikon traditional or mirrorless, Hasselblad, and others (Sony, etc.) mounts.

However, when I moved to Hasselblad X1D, X2D, and X2D II with its very sharp all-over lenses, I lost my interest in focus stacking, because those Hasselblad lenses already inherently provide enough sharpness that I stopped looking for it because I found it. I have a bunch of XCD lenses, old and newer, and they all resemble each other. No longer much style or IQ differeces, so I have moved on. Hasselblad color is superior to anything I have ever used, and with my Nikon (many hundreds of thousands images for decades) I have had to fiddle with the color on most every image. With Hasselblad I just use "As Shot" or "Auto" and one of those seems fine.

Of course, like many old timers, I struggle with gathering gear rather than using it. I am using it, but I am branching out and am more interested in portraits and just shooting anything with good light, etc. than I was being 'technical' and stacking. I am tired of retouching artifacts with focus stacking. Anyway, it is very much still an adventure. I'm glad I never became a professional photographer. Hard to make a living at it. I am a true amateur and love that.

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Michael - As a 70-something, I enjoyed your post.  I think you are hitting on something important.  While to produce photographs that relate a sense of the feeling we experienced when taking a photograph requires technical competency, too often we chase the latest trend (i.e., focus stacking) while ignoring the purpose of our art.  your photo was a great expression of one of those simple moments in life and spoke to me.  Thank you.