Portrait of a Newborn - Nikon D700
Introduction
In the winter 1995, a portrait lens was released from Nikon that maintains it’s legendary status decades on. Koichi Oshita was the lead optical engineer on this project which began as far back as 1992. Mr Oshita set about creating a lens he would deem to have perfect optical rendering characteristics for portraiture. There is no doubt that this project was a complete labor of love.
Paying particular attention to the rendering characteristics of the great lenses, and learning about how to best balance aberrations were top of his list. (Remember I have spoken about lens design previously here. Everything is essentially a horse - trade in the optical world). It was for this lens that Mr Oshita invented a new focusing system - the Internal Focus method which maintained sharpness and bokeh in perfect balance to render beautiful portraiture and ultimately give us the lens that for many; has defined the most important moments in our lives. It will come as no surprise that this is the lens I use for portraiture, from newborns’ to adults, from posed work to reportage and especially for weddings. It doesn’t matter that the lens sounds a little like R2D2 when focusing sometimes, or that their are newer, more modern options; none of this matters in the face of the gorgeousity made flesh lens that is the Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 AF-D IF Prime lens.
Straight out of Hollywood, D810
Cinematic
Personally, I love to capture people and children in a cinematic style. I pretend I am my own Director of Photography in a Hollywood Blockbuster, charged with making my model look amazing, and iconic. I’ve always loved using fast aperture lenses because it allows me to most closely match this style. It also gives me the largest advantage in low light, and it gives me options outdoors in bright sunlight to capture pictures in any conditions that look the part and that people will pay for. I learned to shoot using off camera flash to begin with and I am not averse to using it; however I don’t pretend to use it for anything other than very posed studio type work, which is not my area these days. To capture people that aren’t models in their absolute best light (literally), the most obvious clue of my prescence would be a flash going off repeatedly. People act different around a camera and I want to discourage that. I want to blend in. I use aperture to do this. I look for light where possible; for subject, shape and form, and ultimately timing.
Don’t for a second mistake a lens like this to be about obliterating the backgrounds in photographs. Context is so important to a successful picture (depending on the closeness to the subject of course), and the more experienced shooter comes to learn that eventually. Even considering the background out of focus elements (bokeh), I am placing my subject in a suitable place around the blur. Just look at any cinema. Most of the time there is seperation of the subject to the background. This is done by light, the focal plane depth and, the background itself and it’s own contrast. Most of the time in films the director includes the subtle background. Otherwise you simply have subjects’ detatched from their surroundings; which rarely tells a good story. The major plus points of this particular lens; are that it keeps contrast a little lower than modern lenses at it’s largest apertures, which better matches the rendering I like from cinema. It still has access to greater contrast, on stopping down, e.g. at apertures such as f/2 and beyond. It is the best of both worlds in this regard.
The Bride
Imaging characteristics and lens capabilities
This lens is built like a piece of military equipment. It’s never skipped a beat in the around fourteen years I have owned it. I will admit I do baby lenses, so mine still looks as new. Speaking about the nitty-gritty…The 85/1.4d has fairly controlled spherical aberration for the standard of it’s time, however it is obviously not as well corrected as modern lenses are in that regard. It does not really produce a ‘glowly’ scene, even shot wide open. (This can be both good and bad. If you want out of control glow, switch down to the 50mm f/1.4D prime lens). The 85 has high level’s of coma and chromatic aberration by modern standards. The higher coma, is actually advantageous for bokeh qualities though and is by design here. The lens has basically zero distortion, at just -0.6%. Not noticeable to the human eye I find. Just what we would want for compositional options when shooting. I love how old primes are like this. I generally dislike the modern reliance on computer corrections later. (I know why they do it; but I still dislike it). CA needs correcting in post, however it’s not difficult to do. It can be suppressed as usual by stopping down in contra-light. Also noteworthy are the low levels of close-range aberration fluctuation and the deft correction for field curvature, astigmatism and chromatic aberration of magnification. The lens is sharp at f/1.4, sharp enough for how I like my portraits. The below portrait of the girl at a wedding; is shot with a Nikon D800 at f/2.8:
Girl at Wedding - Nikon D800
From a different time - the 85mm f/1.4D prime lens
When shooting wide open, the lens has a bright central region with a fair amount of vignette. This only aids the purpose of the lens I find. There is a slight peripheral flaring which I also like. At such large apertures, contrast is much lower than modern designs, however this is what gives this lens it’s unique rendering characteristics. When stopping down to around f/2, contrast greatly improves everywhere, except the far corners - again this is advantageous by design. To obtain much sharper periphery with this lens, you will need to stop down considerably. That said, do not fear. Even at f/1.4 I do off axis compositions all the time and I love the results obtained with this lens. Skintones look gorgeous with this lens, and it teams up beautifully with my 135 f/2 DC nikkor. If you are sharpness obsessed and this is all you can think about; then this lens is probably not for you. That said, it is my opinion that very few prime lenses made in the modern age aren’t sharp enough for portraiture and I’ve shot with a lot of lenses. We just don’t want to see the lines on people’s faces. We want to suppress a bit of detail, I don’t want to spend hours PP’ing out wrinkles, it’s such a bore to do…Most of the time our own eyes don’t see these small flaws in people’s faces; but a photograph can bring that ugliness out and we obviously, do not want that because it’s not how we see people at all. This is why my lenses are selected based on look, not sharpness. It matches my intention for the end result.
A Boy and his Puppy - When front and rear bokeh just look gorgeous (as well as the subjects)
With a lens as old as this, you might feel I am stuck in the past. Perhaps I am! However, the only thing that matters is I feel at one with this lens. I’ve spoke before about my dichotomy between landscape and portraiture / weddings. I use completely different lenses, because I have completely different goals. We should never confuse these lens types! That said, I am in the slightly unusual situation wherby I am using modern, class leading zooms for landscape photography, and by those standards, ancient prime lenses for portrait with a range of optical flaws. (In my opinion, advantageous to portrait photography). These principals still govern modern prime lens design. Computer aided lens design allows a lens maker to test many different configurations quickly. Many lenses have sharpened up; however something has been lost in the process to the overall look. I am not advocating that you should follow my way; however if you get where I am coming from, you will probably understand this lens a lot better.
Father and Son, Nikon D800
Can you tell why I am still shooting with this lens, more than a decade after buying? It goes without saying, that none of this lens selection stuff matters if you aren’t doing the basics. Light, subject, composition. Watching your edges, having a clear subject, waiting for the decisive moment. However, if you can nail that, well: this might just be your lens if you like this type of photography as much as I do. I cut my teeth on weddings and watching people, whilst being a part time landscape photographer too. I am someone that derives immense pleasure in capturing a photograph that will last as a treasured memory of a moment for someone, a family, a wedding party, for a lifetime.
Brenizer Method, or Bokeh Panorama
Bokeh Panorama
The Brenizer Method, or Bokeh Panorama is a fantastic technique which can garner a very unique picture. This lens is particularly suited to this due to it’s moderate telephoto length, extremely fast aperture and ultra low distortion. This picture was constructed from about sixteen individual frames. Focus was taken off the central subject, then locked whilst the other frames were taken. This gives a wide field of view, but an extremely shallow depth of field. This gives the picture a three-dimensional quality. To give you an idea; one frame just about encompassed my son and no more.
Getting Ready
Versatility
This lens can be applied to a wide range of subjects and I find on a modern DSLR like the D800 and beyond, focus is great. I have used it on a FTZii adapter on my Z 8 but it is difficult to nail MF and concentrate on the decisive moment. I suggest keeping it with the D800 and upward level of DSLR’s. It will focus fast and accurately on those. Have a look through the gallery below for some other shots through the years of using it. I will add more to this later when I get a chance to flick through my archive more. Thank you Mr Koichi Oshita.
NB - To see my wedding work, which has a large percentage of pictures made with the Nikon 85mm f/1.4D prime lens, click here.
