Originally posted by Todd Adamson It's not about lighting, or about the photographer, subject, or the processing, etc. It's about certain lenses offering a superior aesthetic over other lenses, all other parameters being equal. Equally good, I should say. I don't think anyone's claimed that a superior lens can make a technically poor image less crappy.
I think you've defined the two prevailing stances on "pixie dust"; 1) it's in the photographer's eye, 2) it's in the lens. But we've not seen two images that are the same in every way, both excellent photographs, where the one shot with a dusted lens has that "extra something".
This whole thread and exercise seems to indicate to me that pixie dust is completely subjective in nature.
I get your discussion about the relationship between the photographer and the lens, but I think you missed my point. I just got a new Helios 44M (58/2); it's heavy and I hate fighting with the screw mount adapter, and I had to jump through hoops to get it to mount properly and give me infinity focus; the grease in the helical has thickened with age and you can unscrew it trying to focus it. At f2 it has a microscopic DOF that, combined with the thick grease, makes it a BEAR to focus. It flares like mad if there's a light source anywhere NEAR FOV. All of that irritates me. But when I look at the images, I feel like it's worth every second and bit of trouble. So "Love the lens"? NO, but I LOVE the images - even plain old pick-up snapshots like this one:
I'm fairly certain no one will assert that this image has "pixie dust" ( there's no visible bokeh to speak of, after all ) . But this lens grabs *me* because of its sharpness and contrast ( when you control flare
), and I categorically reject the idea that only images with great bokeh are great images, and by correlation, I reject the proposition that only lenses with great bokeh are great lenses.
I think that many of the photographers here - you being one of them; Jay another - by posting these images in this fashion, have convinced me that, whether it exists or not, "pixie dust" is a tempest in a teapot. I think many people use it to justify their LBA... I'm not so proud. I just want all the lenses because I love the mechanics, the hardware - not as much as the product, but nearly as much. And as Jay said, *I* can 'feel' the difference in images after a while of working with a lens - but I think that has more to do with my experience than the final image, as I think it's a rare image that can be identified by lens.