80-200 f2.8 Self Portrait

[scootermcq]

Checking out the new lens, and no one really wanted to be my model....

Anyway, does this look a) Sharp b) how is the defocusing of the background to isolate the subject & c) lighting & exposure?

Camera Nikon D300
Exposure 0.006 sec (1/160)
Aperture f/3.5
Focal Length 155 mm
ISO Speed 100

[RichardTaylor]

At this size it looks sharp.
Exposure looks ok.

I feel the defocussing is only fair (I'm a bit biased as I have a 135mm F2).

How does it look @F2.8 & 200mm?

[MrJones]

looks very sharp at this size and I actually like the bokeh very much.
did you use a reflector to bounce the sun back to your face or is it a flash?

[scootermcq]

Originally Posted by RichardTaylor

I feel the defocussing is only fair (I'm a bit biased as I have a 135mm F2).

How does it look @F2.8 & 200mm?

Not sure.... hard to nail focus on a self portrait at 2.8

Originally Posted by MrJones

looks very sharp at this size and I actually like the bokeh very much.
did you use a reflector to bounce the sun back to your face or is it a flash?

I had a studio strobe in a 48" softbox

Thanks for the feedback gents

[JFSanders]

Yeh, the focus is soft on your eyes but like you said at 2.8 the spot is mighty fine. I don't have a big issue with the defocused areas they aren't creamy circles but they aren't garish blobs or hexagons either. The belt buckle is cool, I have one myself.


Jim

[scootermcq]

Originally Posted by JFSanders

Yeh, the focus is soft on your eyes but like you said at 2.8 the spot is mighty fine. I don't have a big issue with the defocused areas they aren't creamy circles but they aren't garish blobs or hexagons either. The belt buckle is cool, I have one myself.


Jim

Thanks Brother....

[Mark Engelhart]

I have gotten so used to seeing 50mm- f1.4 portraits with the great bohkeh, but what I see with this lens is depth because of the focal angle. It really seperates you from the background well. I just bought a 80-200 f2.8 and haven't had a chance to use it on a portrait shoot yet. Seeing this makes me anxious to try it out.

[Bruce A]

I don't know which 80-200 you have. I have an old 80-200 D push pull. To me it's very sharp with great bokeh - an example at 2.8. at 200mm @400iso: kookaburra_sml | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

I think your port is fine - it's nice and sharp, the out of focus background is extremely smooth and is isolating the suspect very nicely.

[ttosifa]

Nice photo, and as others have said good separation.

There are two things that bother my eyes a little bit. I don't have access to a high resolution version, but it looks like the focus is on your left (camera right) eye. Your right (camera left) eye looks a bit out of focus. If this were mine, I'd prefer your right eye to be in focus, as it is both closer to the camera and more on the 1/3rd line.

Second, and this is hard to describe, the lighting of the subject and the lighting of the background seem to fight each other. The main lighting of the subject comes from camera right, while the main lighting of the background (the sun, I guess) seems to come from camera left. In some sense, the lighting seems to lack "motivation" -- what is the source of lighting on camera right? One might imagine it's from a window lit by interior lighting, but that's not evident from what's in the photo. I guess what I am trying to say is that, IMO, the lighting would appear more natural and consistent if the light on the camera left of you were brighter than that on the camera right. I.e, the shadows on you would fall opposite of what they do now. In that case, the sun would appear to be the main light on both background and subject, and whatever would come from camera right would be fill rather than key.

In any case, note that the nose shadow goes up. You might want to consider raising your box so it goes down.

[scootermcq]

Originally Posted by Bruce A

I don't know which 80-200 you have. I have an old 80-200 D push pull. To me it's very sharp with great bokeh - an example at 2.8. at 200mm @400iso: kookaburra_sml | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

I think your port is fine - it's nice and sharp, the out of focus background is extremely smooth and is isolating the suspect very nicely.

Thanks... It is the Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 AF-D ED (new)

Originally Posted by ttosifa

Nice photo, and as others have said good separation.

There are two things that bother my eyes a little bit. I don't have access to a high resolution version, but it looks like the focus is on your left (camera right) eye. Your right (camera left) eye looks a bit out of focus. If this were mine, I'd prefer your right eye to be in focus, as it is both closer to the camera and more on the 1/3rd line.

Second, and this is hard to describe, the lighting of the subject and the lighting of the background seem to fight each other. The main lighting of the subject comes from camera right, while the main lighting of the background (the sun, I guess) seems to come from camera left. In some sense, the lighting seems to lack "motivation" -- what is the source of lighting on camera right? One might imagine it's from a window lit by interior lighting, but that's not evident from what's in the photo. I guess what I am trying to say is that, IMO, the lighting would appear more natural and consistent if the light on the camera left of you were brighter than that on the camera right. I.e, the shadows on you would fall opposite of what they do now. In that case, the sun would appear to be the main light on both background and subject, and whatever would come from camera right would be fill rather than key.

In any case, note that the nose shadow goes up. You might want to consider raising your box so it goes down.

Not that anyone wants to see a 100% crop of my mug, but here it is....



Yes, it was lit camera right with a 48" softbox. The light was place perpendicular to earth and the top of the softbox was 3 or 4 inches above head level and went down to mid calf. Good observation about the nose shadow, I should have gone slightly higher and angled down. You can see the catch lights are below the pupil, not at the 2:00 position. Focus is a little hard when you are dealing with inches of area in focus and you are doing a self portrait. That was why I chose the settings I did versus really defocusing the background. Almost impossible to get good focus on a self portrait at 2.8 & 200mm. I also appreciate the feedback on lighting "flow". I was trying to keep the lighting short, and that made me fight what was already there. I should have simply turned my face in the other direction and used fill.