[alexeyga]

Got to do some real shooting with my recently acquired K300/4 and i've just noticed that a few pics shot wide open came out... well... weired... somewhat toy-ish... which can usually be seen on T/S lenses...



Click for the full res. pic

Never mind the CA... I still need to get a really good haze filter... or/and a polarizer...

So?

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Last edited by alexeyga; 06-07-2009 at 08:46 PM.

I see what you mean but I don't have an answer.

[song_hm]

Long focal length, very shallow depth of field, high contrast, all hallmarks T/S effect.

See this.

[WerTicus]

i dont see a problem?
do you mean the front and backgrounds are out of focus? because that is possible to do
I forget the conditions required but it was a photography assignment for my sister once.

I originally thought you could only do that with macro.

[NaClH2O]

It's the lens, I get a similar effect, not as bad if I use the 300 wide open. Since the DOF is so thin I usually stop down a bit. Also as song hm has said the high contrast makes it more prominant. Try dropping contrast a bit in PP. The shot doesn't look over sharpened, but since sharpening is a contrast function, I'd go real easy on the sharpening too, if there was any used.

NaCl(best solution is to stop down a bit)H2O

[asdf]

Is that your first 300 f/4 ?

DOF2

[alexeyga]

Is that your first 300 f/4 ?

DOF2

Yep.... it's my first 300mm at all... And i'm rather surprised with the outcome...

[Termik]

Looks like a normal picture with a 300, wide open. or near wide open. Nothing strange!
You see the same tight DOF here on this picture taken with my DA*300 wide open.

[Lowell Goudge]

one thing I find difficult from time to time, with the 300 F4 is focus confirmation through the camera body. Sometimes, if you rely on this, and your subject has detail rising up to the focus point (i.e. like your shot and the water in front of the subject) you can find yourself getting focus confirmation due to vertical vibration, on the wrong subject,

This is especially true when using any long lens in AF mode also

[Marc Sabatella]

Just curious - what is it exactly we are supposed to be looking for? As others have said, it looks like a pretty ordinary 300mm shot to me, and I'm having a hard to seeing whatever it is you are referring to as akin to what you'd see on a "T/S" ("tilt/shift?") lens. Something to do with distortion? When you say "toy-ish", I at first thought you meant the quality of the the lens, but now I'm thinking maybe you mean there is a sense in which the perspective of the shot somehow seems "off" in a way that the *surfer* look like a toy. In which case, I'd say I do see a little of that, but I would imagine that's inherent the perspective inherent at this the distance and magnification.

Actually the issue of what visual cues create the sense of, say, a picture of a model train *looking* like a model versus a real train, and vice versa, is one I've often been curious about, but never really thought through.

[alexeyga]

Just curious - what is it exactly we are supposed to be looking for? As others have said, it looks like a pretty ordinary 300mm shot to me, and I'm having a hard to seeing whatever it is you are referring to as akin to what you'd see on a "T/S" ("tilt/shift?") lens. Something to do with distortion? When you say "toy-ish", I at first thought you meant the quality of the the lens, but now I'm thinking maybe you mean there is a sense in which the perspective of the shot somehow seems "off" in a way that the *surfer* look like a toy. In which case, I'd say I do see a little of that, but I would imagine that's inherent the perspective inherent at this the distance and magnification.

Actually the issue of what visual cues create the sense of, say, a picture of a model train *looking* like a model versus a real train, and vice versa, is one I've often been curious about, but never really thought through.

Marc, just look at the water and splashes... It looks as if the dude is actually surfing in a bathtub rather than a lake.... In other words there's a certain sense of disproportionality or fakeness...

This one here, was shot at f/11... and looks much more natural to me...

[alexeyga]

one thing I find difficult from time to time, with the 300 F4 is focus confirmation through the camera body. Sometimes, if you rely on this, and your subject has detail rising up to the focus point (i.e. like your shot and the water in front of the subject) you can find yourself getting focus confirmation due to vertical vibration, on the wrong subject,

This is especially true when using any long lens in AF mode also

Actually so far the one thing i've enjoyed about this lens is the fact that it's the MF one... And i'm mostly shooting focused down to infinity (or just shy of it) anyways... Need more practice and more windy days... though when it's blowing, i'm with these guys out there....

Anyways... i think it's just the right combination of things.... aperture wide open+shotting almost facing the sun+highly contrasted subject... just to say that I was somewhat puzzled with some pics...

[F16]

As you mention, it's just a combination of things at play - shallow DOF even for a distance subject, lighting conditions, plainly visible background and foreground subjects (the water), and the bokeh characteristics of the lens all make for an unusual look.

[Marc Sabatella]

Marc, just look at the water and splashes... It looks as if the dude is actually surfing in a bathtub rather than a lake.... In other words there's a certain sense of disproportionality or fakeness...

OK, like I said, I do sort of see that, but as far as I can tell, that really *is* the proper perspective at that distance and magnification. It's jutst that we never normally see this object from that distance that larger - with the naked eye, it's much smaller, giving us different visual cues.

The other shot is a different scene. Which brings me back to my musings about what specifically *causes* the illusion I think we are both seeing.

[reeftool]

Marc, just look at the water and splashes... It looks as if the dude is actually surfing in a bathtub rather than a lake.... In other words there's a certain sense of disproportionality or fakeness...

This one here, was shot at f/11... and looks much more natural to me...

The second photo with the 2 windsurfers gives some proportion to the photo plus the background is nicer at f11. Your shot is focused good, it's just the narrow DOF that gives it that look. I would crop it tighter and maybe some adjustments in PP.