AGM62 105mm Lens and Fog 27 November 2020

My first foray into the absorption of practice-based research was to use a new piece of equipment – vintage Nikkor 105mm manual lens. I had borrowed this from a photographer friend, who recommended I try it. This would be quite a challenge as it would involve manual focusing. I usually have to resort to auto focusing – being short sighted, I’ve discovered that this helps in making sure the key aspects are not intentionally blurry.

I had to run an errand on the other side of the park that morning, so thought it an ideal opportunity to try this lens. I wanted to use it as it would give the effect of having the tree in focus and the background blurred.

The park was exceedingly foggy that morning – these conditions would also give an opportunity to be creative. I had set the camera at F2.5 and hoped I would get some positive results.

All of the following images are a selection of low-res JPGs taken directly from the RAW file and no colour adjustments have been made.

Hawthorns

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

To test the lens and capture the conditions, I also took these images.

Other Trees

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The main difference in using this lens is the distance between myself and the subject. With the 35mm and 24-70mm, it was easy to get closer to each tree. With the 105mm, I had to remember to move further away from the tree to get it into frame.

As for the blurred background effect, this is the image in which it most profound. Unfortunately, the tree itself isn’t in focus and the image is quite noisy.

• 

With regards to the other trees, I made this particular edit. One difference is the crop, which was at a 4:5 ratio. This was an aspect I was contemplating and will be looking further into how different ratios effect the resulting image. I’ve also made minor adjustments to the contrast, highlights, shadows and whites.

• 

After using this lens, I realised that I would need lesson in how to get the best from this very good piece of kit. I also realised that I’m best suited using a lens with automatic focus in these kind of conditions.