Suggest a 12" (300mm) lens for portrait work on 8x10?

[Ari]

Thanks, Drew.
Earlier I ran a non-scientific test of the 300L with CatLabs film, and I like what it does with the background/OOF at about 5-6 feet away.

[Peter De Smidt]

That's a nicely neutral background blur. Personally, I don't like attention-getting background blurs, ala swirlies, blobs, strainer aperture shapes..... Occasionally, they can be effective, but mostly, imo, they aren't.

[Bernice Loui]

Nice image Ari.

More of why Tessar lenses have their place in the world of LF image making. This is one of the reasons why the LF lenses are split into large aperture Ektars and smaller aperture APO artars with the taking aperture split about f16. Taking aperture of f4.5 to about f16 (max) with the Ektars or Xenar, then taking aperture f16 and smaller with APO artar and similar.

Sample image made with the 300mm Xenar at f4.5. Focus is at the lamp on post.



Bernice

Thanks, Drew.
Earlier I ran a non-scientific test of the 300L with CatLabs film, and I like what it does with the background/OOF at about 5-6 feet away.

[Ari]

Thanks, Bernice. I like the OOF in the Xenar shot, a different kind than what the Fuji gives.
Agreed on the taking apertures. Don't think I've ever used smaller than f/16 for a portrait, most of the time the lens is one stop down from maximum aperture.
Partly out of necessity to get an ok shutter speed in case of movement, but these kinds of lenses really shine when shot close to wide open.