Washington, DC's own Paperhaus playing to a hometown crowd at the French Embassy. This was shot on the new Sony Zeiss Distagon T* FE 35mm f/1.4 ZA lens, which I'm trying out. It's gotten rave reviews, but I haven't been blown away by it yet. I may just need to give it time and find my way with it, so I'll reserve judgment for now. Shutter: 1/100, f/1.4, ISO: 500.
Back to the Helios 85mm for this one. Shutter: 1/100, f/2.8 or so, ISO: 1600.
Everyone loves a good street photo. Even viewers who have no interest in the artsy or experimental will, when seeing the right street shot, feel the vicarious thrill of being in the vibrancy of city life. And many photographers love going out and taking them.
But I'm not one of those photographers, because street photography, at least how it's thought of lately, could also be accurately called "Stranger Photography." I'm totally a fan of it when others do it, and it's perfectly legal to do here in America and most other countries, but I just don't have the right constitution for it. I'm cowardly when it comes to the idea of getting caught taking a stranger's photo on the sly, and then getting confronted about it. People do occasionally freak out in those situations, and who knows what dark motivations they might ascribe to me taking their photo.
In my opinion the best way to handle such a confrontation would be to say, "Nothing personal. I'm just out trying to capture city life, and photographing as many people as I can." I'd also offer to delete the photo as a courtesy, but there's no obligation to do that.
All that said, I will take a stranger's photo if the context makes me very confident that they'd enjoy having it taken. Last Friday night I was walking down U Street here in DC when when two women started dancing to a singing, bicycle-riding street preacher. I felt pretty sure that none of them would mind a photographer's attention...
Zeiss 55mm f/1.8, wide open on the Sony a7ii.
Now and then a stranger will stop me and ask me to take their photo. Those people always make for great subjects, because they're never lacking confidence...
This just happened to be the corner where he stopped me, but I like the combo of warm foreground light and cool background light so much that I would return there for portraiture work.
Any city will also have its local celebrities of one sort or another, and they're usually enthusiastic subjects. The other day I was in DC's Meridian Hill Park, and George Whitlow was there with one of his bicycles that he's modified to blast music. He spends his free time spreading funk and soul music through DC.
He was cranking up Michael Jackson for the whole park to hear.
But other than those situations, I don't take photos of strangers' faces. That's just my personal choice - like I said, I'm still a fan of when others do it. For now I'll content myself with shots like the following, where I might catch a bit of the face over the shoulder.
Ilford 125 ISO film, Canon 7Ne SLR, and Canon 50mm f/1.2 lens, probably at f/1.2 or thereabouts. This on the Potomac River, with the Kennedy Center in the background.
The Helios 40-2 85mm (actually 85.18 mm) portrait lens is very much a cult item. A new one from Russia runs for about $450 and vintage Soviet copies will often run over $300. Photographers have even started taking them off of the Soviet night-vision devices that utilized stripped-down versions of them, even though those are locked into wide-open f/1.5 aperture.
Everyone who isn't trying to sell you one is in agreement that there's nothing great about its image quality. It's also not very convenient to shoot with. It's quite large for an 85mm, and it's absurdly heavy at over two pounds -- almost twice the weight of the Sony camera body I hooked it up to.
So why is there a market for it? Because of its very unique, weird, swirly bokeh. Click here (all links open in a new window) for a great example from the lens's flickr pool. If you've got just the right background - usually branches and leaves with abundant light - then the out-of-focus light will melt and funnel around the center. Another typical example. Even when you don't have the perfect background for that effect, you'll still get unique results. Not usually pleasing in my opinion, but unique.
I gave the lens a try for concert photography. I've never seen anyone else use it for that, but I figured it's not an all-bad fit. The fast f/1.5 is good for a concert's low light, and I like using portrait lenses for concerts. You usually won't be able to fit the whole band in your shot, but a lot of concert photography is ultimately one or two-subject portrait photography anyway.
I took it to a small-venue show and decided to shoot exclusively at f/1.5. Obviously focusing at that setting was a challenge, especially since the focus ring has a fairly long throw. And even when you do get it in focus, it's soft at f/1.5...
Upcoming Washington, DC band Nox. The focus was't quite perfect on the eye and face, but the lens's softness worked well with the backlighting here, giving a bit of a dreamy halo. Shutter: 1/60, f/1.5, ISO: 1600.
Puff Pieces. This was as good as I was able to get from the lens in terms of image quality performance, and I thought it was pretty decent for a wide-open shot. Nice color and respectable sharpness - other than the lens flare circle below the spotlight and a few hints of lens's bokeh style, it looks like a shot you'd expect from pricier modern Canon or Nikon glass. Shutter: 1/60, f/1.5, ISO 500.
Chain and the Gang, one of my favorite bands to see live. Nice little lens flare center right, and as well as some interesting flaring far left. Shutter: 1/50, f/1.5, ISO: 1000.
Ian Svenonius is a tremendous frontman. Shutter: 1/50, f/1.5, ISO: 1000.
Favorite shot of the night. I like the subtlety of the light coming off the wall behind them. And all three of them look so sincerely happy and unaffected, like they forgot they were onstage in front of an audience. Shutter 1/50, f/1.5, ISO: 1000.
This native Sony lens by Zeiss is about as ace as you can get when it comes to performance, with sharpness that was literally off DP Review's chart. But I've found that some photos that would've been full of life on quirkier and lower quality lenses end up boring on this Zeiss. Steve Huff once referred to this lens as being a bit sterile, and I totally agree.
The result is that, just like with any other lens, you have to learn what works for it. The 55mm f/1.8 doesn't seem content with the standard or straightforward. It likes to have its boundaries pushed, or to at least be used for the kind of shots that will allow for more creative editing.
I took the lens to Chicago last weekend along with my a7ii...
Both this and the next one were at f/4.
At full crop every thread of the bulb's filament is impressively sharp.
Pleasantly surprised with this shot from a restaurant's patio looking through a window at the bartender. f/1.8, 1/60th shutter, ISO 160.
Had the content been different, this is the kind of photo that I might've called dull in terms of lens performance, but your gear's shortcomings don't matter quite so much when you find two dogs wearing doggles and Cubs shirts in a Vespa sidecar.
The Zeiss really excels at picking up every detail in shots like this. f/4, 1/2500th shutter, ISO 50.
Chad Clark of the band Beauty Pill, in concert May 2, 2015. Taken with the Industar-22 50mm f/3.5 lens.
He nearly died of viral heart infection a few years back, and some of the pieces of gear you see around his waist are batteries and monitors connected to his heart.
I liked this shot because he looked pensive and a bit sad, but it's deceptive since that wasn't his vibe at all. I think maybe he was just looking down to tap one his guitar pedals.