June Portraits

[Tin Can]

I notice you have changed your pic text twice

All good

Well, it's a given that my daughter's a keeper, but lenses should never get too comfortable here. Still, that Vesta is very nice.
Lots of photos to take with it until I really get the hang of it, but it's a good start!

[Ari]

Thanks, David.

[Mark Sawyer]

Beautiful, haunting image, Ari! Vesta found a good home.

One thing I have to get used to is the sharp area of focus is in the middle of the image, and I never shoot portraits with the face in the middle.

Remember, you have front rise/fall on the 2D to move the sharp center up and down a little, but watch for vignetting!

[Ari]

Beautiful, haunting image, Ari! Vesta found a good home.



Remember, you have front rise/fall on the 2D to move the sharp center up and down a little, but watch for vignetting!

Thank you, Mark. Great lens, I'm pretty thrilled to have it.
And front rise is next on my list of tricks to employ, thanks for the suggestion.

[paulbarden]

Remember, you have front rise/fall on the 2D to move the sharp center up and down a little, but watch for vignetting!

+1
This will give you a bit of freedom when making portraits, which tend to require the face be 2/3 from the bottom of frame. Show us more!

[Ari]

Working on it, Paul!

My ground glass has lines in the middle of the horizontal and vertical plane, giving me the impression that rise and fall don't move the focus zone, so pardon my confusion: does using a petzval mean that the eyes always have to be right in the middle of the frame?

[Mark Sawyer]

My rule of thumb is keep the whole face in the area of sharp focus. That area is usually fairly good size, but as the face is often just a little high, just a little movement might help. But I'm often on a studio camera with no rise or fall, and it's not much of an issue except with really fast lenses pushed to their coverage limits. That's where a little slower lens with adequate coverage like the f/5 Vesta is your friend!

I bigger issue with closer portraits is the depth of field is still small, and the curved field of focus works against the forward protrusion of the nose. And no movement corrects for that.

BTW, one thing that isn't played with much on Petzvals is shutting them down to f/8 or f/11. Still just gorgeous images...

[Ari]

Thanks, Mark.
Not an easy thing to get used to, especially if you're used to putting the head in the top third of the frame.

[Corran]

Meagan at Amicalola Falls
Korona/Deardorff 8x20, Unknown 30" French-made brass lens, Ilford HP5+, HC-110 dil. H, 10 minute developing time

[vphill]

Kristy seated.

f11 2/3 @ 1/30 sec.
Wehman 8x10
Schneider 300mm f5.6 Apo-Symmar L
Ilford HP5