Category Archives: Tair-11a

Newspaper? Recropped?

Newspaper – recrop, originally uploaded by jezza323.

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I received a suggestion that perhaps a cropping of my previously posted photograph “Newspaper?” would improve the result. If you would like to know how I produced this photograph, please read the original article.

What Do They Know?

Initially I thought “No way, are you kidding? It’s perfect!” as someone often does when considering their own work. After a short amount of consideration, I opened Lightroom and made this crop. Though I remained unconvinced I thought I would publish the recrop anyway.

Maybe They Were Right

Now that it comes down to a comparison, I do believe I prefer this crop to the original. I think it highlights the point of focus and the out of focus effect of the image more than the original. I think this crop also shows more clearly what the subject of the photograph is.

What About You?

So which do you prefer? This one? Or the original? And why?

All You Can Eat

All You Can Eat, originally uploaded by jezza323.

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Saturday Morning Photography

So here is another Tair-11a brenizer method shot from my Saturday morning pre-rain wander down University Av. I spotted this little sign and phone off a side street and decided it was interesting. I wanted to get this in 1 shot, but some objects in the foreground meant I had to get closer, which turned it into yet another Brenizer method photograph.

Failure

It actually took me 3 goes to get this shot right. It really has been a while since I have been out shooting. This image is made up of 12 photographs, all taken at f2.8 with my Tair-11a 135mm lens on my Pentax K200D body. I made sure the body was in manual mode, this is to ensure an even exposure across the panorama image. I set the manual aperture on the lens to f2.8, for minimum depth of field, then set the exposure to suit the part of the scene which I was most interested in (the phone in this case). Finally I started shooting the panorama images required. For some strange reason on my first attempt I forgot to focus the image properly, it must have looked ok through the viewfinder, but as I was walking away I did a quick check on the camera screen, and promptly returned for a 2nd attempt.

Fail Again

The 2nd attempt failed because I was rushing, and the shutter speed was too slow, meaning I had a bit of blur from my shaky hands messing up the images. Again I noticed this as I went to walk away whilst checking the image on the camera.

Success

Finally on the 3rd attempt, I adjusted the ISO up from 100 to 200, giving me a faster shutter speed. I slowly and carefully shot the panorama, keeping my hands steady and relaxed. This time I checked the shots before I started walking away, and was finally happy with the results.

Processing

For processing I used Lightroom to export the original RAW files to TIFF format, which I then stitched using Autopano Giga, and then made a few minor levels adjusts and cropped the image after re-importing into the Lightroom library. Enjoy!

Newspaper?

Newspaper?, originally uploaded by jezza323.

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I managed to beat the rain out and about in Toronto this morning. Its been a while since I been out just to take photos. Its good to be back on the horse!

This is a Brenizer panorama I took of some newspaper and magazine stands near St Patrick Subway Station in downtown Toronto. This one was 93 separate shots, all taken with my Pentax K200D and Tair-11a 135mm f2.8 lens. I set the camera to Manual, dialed in the correct exposure and then started shooting.

I imported the RAW files into Lightroom from the SD card. Next I exported the images as TIFF files to a separate folder (to make the stitching process quicker, I exported the TIFFs to only 1280×1280 max size), which I then ran Autopano over to generate the final panorama. Finally I imported the panorama back into Lightroom, made a final crop, distortion and level adjustment. The image is still slightly distorted, but this comes from the projection of the panorama, and I wasnt quite able to get it spot on.

If you like this shot, check out my Tair-11a lens review and my post about the Brenizer Method / Bokeh Panorama technique.

What?

 

What?, originally uploaded by jezza323.

In the spirit of continuing the candid trend, this is an interesting candid I got recently. Again this was shot using the K200D and the Tair-11a. For this one I had pre-focused on the walkway area between 2 buildings on either side of the alley. Then just waited for someone interesting to walk through (ok maybe I just took shots of everyone that walked through…). I noticed this guy’s awesome face pulling skills later when I was reviewing.

If you like this shot, have a read of my Tair-11a Lens Review or have a look at my other Tair-11a shots

Sax-a-ma-phone

 

Sax-a-ma-phone, originally uploaded by jezza323.

Here is another Tair-11a candid shot. This is a very well known busker in Brisbane. He is mostly blind, and used to have a very old guide dog as his companion. Unfortunately the guide dog isnt around anymore, but he still busks in the Queen St mall.

If you like this shot, have a read of my Tair-11a Lens Review or have a look at my other Tair-11a shots

Nice Socks…

 

Nice Socks…, originally uploaded by jezza323.

Thats the end of the best photos from my honeymoon, so we are now back to Brisbane, this time taking some street shots with the Tair-11a 135mm f2.8 lens.

This guy caught my attention from across the street with his amazing fashion sense. Unfortunately the car in the background is a bit distracting, but a whole bunch of people walked in front of me right after I took this.

If you like this shot, have a read of my Tair-11a Lens Review or have a look at my other Tair-11a shots

Tair-11a Lens Review

Its about time I went and wrote a proper review for this lens, it is 1 of my favourite lenses to get out and use. I have been a bit slack in the getting out and using it department of late though.

Brenizer Ball
Sculpture shot using the Brenizer Method

The Specs

So the lens, the Tair-11a lens is a 135mm f2.8 – f22.0 aperture prime lens, available in M42 mount (this is the mount you will want if you would like to use it on a DSLR – you can get an M42 adapter for all the major DSLRs). The lens uses the older preset style of aperture control (which is completely manual of course) which is located at the front of the lens, instead of the rear of the lens like a more modern lens. The lens is manual focus, and the focus on my copy is VERY smooth, a real pleasure to use, however different copies will vary with amount of use. Things wear out over time people! It has a small built in sliding hood, but a longer screw in hood would probably help prevent flare and increase contrast a little. The minimum focus distance is a fairly long 1.2m, so you wont be doing any macro work, but as a portrait lens, it works beautifully. There are some more detailed specs on the Zenit website, including this great cut away image of the lens.

The Feel

It is a big heavy lens, feels good in the hand, but you will want to chuck a battery grip on your DSLR if you have one. With the battery grip on the body the lens/body combo is much more balanced, without the battery grip the whole lot wants to tip forwards out of your hand a little, and holding it can become a chore after a while. The metal body has some nice solid grooves machined into it, which make it very easy to hold and focus with.

Queen St Mall Brisbane
Shot showing the colours from the Tair-11a lens

In Use

At 135mm focal length this lens is a 200mm equivalent FOV on a 1.5x crop body (such as my Pentax) so its not something you will want to be using if you are right up close to the action. The lens is ultra sharp, even the pixel peepers will be happy with this one (provided you nail the focus of course ;-) ). The colours are that lovely old single coated type, kind of similar to an old colour film shot (I’m a fan as you can tell). The single coating does however mean it is very prone to lens flare, so always be careful shooting towards a light source and use a hood (as I mentioned a little earlier) if possible. The real winner for this lens, is the bokeh. The Tair-11a boasts 20 aperture blades, giving a nearly perfectly round aperture at all openings, you can get some really great out of focus blur in your shots, and when you are shooting 135mm at f2.8, the DOF can get quite narrow, so there will be plenty of out of focus stuff to see. You can see the rest of my Tair-11a shots here on the blog.

Bird on Stairs
Bird and Stair