Heavy Guage (title) Tilt-shift Street Silhouette

[Nathan Wright]

Typically I use this lens for audio product photography (my most used macro lens) but the day I purchased it I used it on the way back to my small studio. It is a good lens, but no where near as sharp as my Ai 50/2 Nikkor or 2/100 Makro Planar. It does its job, but not… quite how I want it. It is a far better lens for people and landscapes where absolute sharpness isn't that important.

This was taken to accentuate the dark and light of the city. I'm not interested so much in people's faces. Shapes are what interest me.

 

[Bobby Deal]

Which tilt shift lens are you using? Typically all the Nikon PC lenses are exceptionally sharp but they are all manual focus lenses so they do require good manual focus techniques to get the most out of them. For the type of image you have posted here a tile shift is probably the last lens I would reach in my bag for as this really is not what they were built to do.

 

[Nathan Wright]

The lens is the 2,8/85mm PC ED Perspective lens.

The only thing I shoot with it is macro audio products and jewellery. But the day I bought it (as stated above) I decided to shoot what I shot there. What the Tilt shift does is really isolate a space out there that no other lens I have can do unless I freelens. For that, it is great. But compared to the 2/100 Makro or the 2/50 Nikkor Ai, it is much softer open or closed. It is sharp, but no where near the giants. Very interesting when used for stuff like this, in fact more interesting than me cursing its sharpness from time to time in the studio. Otherwise, great bokeh, nice colours, but not so great against flare (mine is not the nano coat version and thus, I end up having to flag everything, sometimes tracing very complicated lines to make sure flare doesn't enter the camera.

 

[Bobby Deal]

I use the same lens on a regular basis but always on sticks for products and food. I find my copy to be insanely sharp. Perhaps your copy needs to be calibrated. What body are you using it on and are you using a lens hood to help with flare issues? In product photography flare coming back at the lens is not uncommon so I am not surprised you have a need to flag the lens when shooting products if you are using an older copy with uncoated glass especially. Perhaps adding a Matte Box would be a good choice for you

 

[Nathan Wright]

I am using it on a D800 and I use the hood, the same as you do. Mine is the previous copy as I said. But the 2/50 Ai is also not nano coated and it has no problem with flare even without a rubber hood. I like the lens, but it isn't the great performer my other lenses are. I tried many copies and none performed up to the 2/50 or 2/100. It is probably as sharp as my old 2,8/105 AFD Mikro, or a little bit softer. With sharpening it works brilliantly and with focus stacking, I have very little to complain about. But for one shot, no tilt images, it isn't as sharp as either of the lenses I've listed here.

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Nathan - looking at the image I'm liking the way the OOF has created stick figures out of the people on the far sidewalk.

Also the reflection of the lighting on the pavement in the tunnel, really leads the eye into the shot and defines the midground subjects

Almost think there's a square crop from the LHS with that guy in the center of the tunnel opening?

 

[Pete Askew]

What a wonderfully effective shot Nathan. Those reflections and softened light are wonderful.

 

[Mark Albertsen]

Cool shot with great shadow and colour..

 

[Paul Lange]

Cracking image, the mix of colours and dark and light are wonderful.

 

[Brian Moore]

What a lovely image, Nathan,...and the conversation between yourself and @Bobby Deal illuminates how little I know about photography.

• What's "flag the lens"...?
• What's "tracing very complicated lines"...?

Sometimes I know a nice picture when I see it, though! The above is one!