Bokeh, well it isn't a technique but just a description (in combination with a quality definition) for the out of DOF blur quality of a lens. So I mounted the Nikkor 70-200 f2.8 VR -insert mean laughter-, altough you can better put off the VR to get the best bokeh from it.
Took it to town and got many good shots with it, but not fitting the bokeh challenge very well. Many were too busy or had content that interest me but nobody else (no naughty stuff, I said: "but nobody else," remember!).
So when I came back home the sunlight was already coming from a very low angle and just hit the reed panicle while the background was in the shadow.
Because I used the 200mm end and was at the minimum focussing distance I had a hard time keeping it in the viewfinder and even to get a auto or manual focus lock (AF-S rules).
This wasn't the sharpest of the bunch, but of all the shots of this style I took, this gave the best background for the bokeh challenge (others were darker or less balanced). The low amount of sharpness is probably caused by an extreme small dof. Let me get my calculator: 200mm @ 1.5x crop @ f2.8 @ 1.5m focus distance...
Errmmm that is a DOF of a few millimeters..... It turned out quite well then! :)
On this shot the VR was on and as I was standing on the edge of a pool and the 35mm focal length is 300mm it was a smart move. :)
The background is a field of grass with some muddy patches and a few leafs on it. Postprocessing was not much really:
Nikon Capture (DSC_0177.NEF):
- 0.34 EV exposure compensation
- Sharpening to 'low'
- Tone Compensation to 'medium high contrast'
Photoshop 6.0 (DSC_0177.TIF - 8bit)
- Slightly tighter crop, 4:3 fitted it well
- Some digital velvia, setting 3 I think
- Resample to 640x480
- Sharpened in two stages, first 150% on 0.3 radius, step back and sharpened again at 200% on 0.3 radius. Used the history brush on the parts that were oversharpened with 200%
- Used the history brush on a part of the background to restore the unsharpened status
- save for the web
Date: 06.01.2005 at 16:44:40
EV ±0,00 EV
Program: A - Aperture-priority auto
Metering mode: Multisegment
Resolution: -- (RAW)
35mm Focal length: 300 mm
Focus Mode: AF-S
Colorspace: MODE1a
Lens Information: 70,0-200,0 mm/F2,8-2,8
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This is a very cool shot but I don't think the out of focus information in the picture (bokeh) plays shows up enough. I'd like to see more shapes and definition back there. Nice picture anyway.
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