Frederik is a photographer, blogger and youtuber living in Denmark in the Copenhagen region. Outdoor photography is the preference, but Frederik can also be found doing flash photography applied to product shoots and stills.
Photo work: Forty photographers on process and practice, edited by Sasha Wolf
This book is as academic as they come! That is my review in short! If you are curious to look over the shoulders of 40 acclaimed photographers (like Andrew Moore or Paul Graham) and understand their process and workflow, then this is the book to read!
All 40 have been given the same questionnaire of 12 questions like “Do you create with presentation in mind, be that a gallery show or a book?”. The book is simply the documentation of 40 answers to these 12 questions.
This is not your beginners book about photography, nor the advanced book about photography, rather it is an look into the minds and workflows of some highly creative people. I could as well have been a book about painters – the questions and their answers are that agnostic to photography.
So only if you have a keen interest in this highly specialized area can I recommend this book – otherwise I would stay clear of the 255 pages of process and insights.
When light travels though the lens, the aperture blades can reduce the diameter of the hole the light travels through. Most lenses can close down the aperture to a very, very small area – the size of a pinhead or even smaller.
When light has to travel through such a small hole it simply changes slightly. This can get very technical, but the effect is that your images appear soft, i.e. as if out of focus – even when you have focused perfectly.
Photographers debate exactly when the effect sets in and how large the effect is. Macro photographers often shoot at crazy high f-stop numbers (closed down apertures) and seem to be doing fine, and in many find that the effect of diffraction is exaggerated.
The best you can do is to notice if your lens/camera combination gives diffraction – I think you should start to worry about this from around F/16 and onwards.
When your DSLR focuses, it typically does so by opening the aperture up as much as possible to allow all the available light to flow to the auto focus system. So if for example you are shooting with a f/1.8 lens at f/8, the camera will open up to f/1.8 to focus and then shift down to f/8 to take the picture.
Some lenses, especially lenses that can go very wide, i.e. a low f-stop number, suffer from focus shift, which means that the lens moves the focal plane as a consequence of changing the aperture.
This is nothing short of a catastrophe for an auto focus system, as the camera gets the focus sharp at f/1.8, but then when the image is taken at f/8 the subject is no longer in tac sharp focus.
There are a few ways to mitigate focus shift, as you can of course shoot at the maximum aperture – then the focus aperture and the shoot aperture is one and the same. You can also shoot in live view on your DSLR, as it the uses a different focus system than when not shooting in live view mode. The best option of course is to get a lens that does not suffer from focus shift!
The Photography Storytelling Workshop by Finn Beales
This is not your average photography book – far from. Finn Beales apparently has landed some VERY big accounts (Apple, Land Rover, Audi, Cartier, etc) and in this book he shares how to pitch for a photography job, plan, deliver and maintain a good long lasting relationship with the client.
The book opens with a chapter about storytelling and how you make a series of pictures tie together to tell a story, with a clear red thread throughout the images – the last image holding the hand of the first one. It continues into how to pitch for a job, win it, plan it, execute the shoot day, edit and finally deliver. I learned a lot about how to manage such process (including the shoot day(s)) as a project and how much planning that is required.
There is a very good section in the book about what colors work together and why – and illustrated with specific examples to underline the points made. Finn coins this as creating a mood board. This was an eye opener for me. I have not come across a photo book where the use of color is addressed in this way and I can tell that this section of the book is one that I will re-visit over and over again.
Finn also has a section about which focal lengths he uses for what kind of shots and I really felt that this part of the book was like looking over the shoulder of a successful commercial photographer. I really found this part extraordinary, and as a result it re-ignited my love for the 50mm prime as a universal tool in my camera bag!
There also are some chapters about editing your photos, but here I felt that I did not learn that much new. However, Finn also addresses how to do data management of your photo files, and here there are lots of tips and tricks that I think you will find useful.
So all in all I found this book both interesting and useful, but if you are new to photography, this would NOT be the book I’d start with. There are better options from Joel Sartore and Michael Freeman. However, if:
storytelling with pictures
project management of your shoots
use of colors to create moods
creating and maintaining client accounts
processing and storing your images
are subjects of interest to you, then this book is definitely worth it. 176 pages with lots of illustrations and examples and exercises. And there is more to be found on his website.
I must admit that I was a bit disappointed when I opened the parcel the book came in, only to find a relatively small and not all that thick book. I had expected a big and heavy book – the bold name “bible” had created some expectations that the appearance of the book could not match.
However, as they say, don’t judge a book by it’s cover, or as in this case: by the size and weight of it. It really is comprehensive. I can understand why Michael Freeman has named this “The Photography Bible” because he really covers a lot of aspects of photography and manages to do so in a condensed way. The main blocks from the table of content are: Exposure, Light and lightning, Composition and Post Processing – distributed across 330 pages with lots of examples and so called challenges.
Challenges are exercises for you as a reader to take on to complete a chapter or an knowledge area. And the author in the foreword recommends that you follow the structure of the book from front to back and don’t just dip in here and there. I can see that great care has been made to present the subjects in a particular order and wrap it with an exercises (challenges) to enhance your learning, so I support the advice to read the book from front to back in its full and take up the challenges presented.
I can really recommend this book if you are after one of the most complete books about the basics of photography. And more than that – it is one of the few books that I have seen talk about soft and hard light, chiaroscuro lightning and not just aperture, depth of field and the like (which of course is also included). It also covers composition to a great extend – a subject that in itself could fill an entire book. So, in short, a great book if you are after a rather complete book about the basics of photography. But not a book that I would read from front to back, I more use it more as a reference when I want to study a subject in detail.
Review of the book Understanding Exposure by Bryan F. Peterson.
Book review
Understanding exposure by Bryan F. Peterson
The title of this book is well chosen as it is all about exposure. So for a beginner to photography I would not recommend this as a general introduction to photography, but if you have been shooting for some time and want to take a deep dive into the nuts and bolts of exposure, this is the book.
One of the things that I learned from this book is not to be afraid of closed down apertures. Bryans range for “normality” was way into my range of extreme apertures, so I have really had to work with my own convictions here. Another takeaway is how much you can do with the white balance on your camera – here I think the book (just look at the cover) gave me some insights that gave me appetite to try a different mode than auto white balance on my camera.
Bryan has several mottos, of which “you keep shooting” is one. I think he here refers to the fact that experience and persistence is key to becoming a better photographer. Another motto is “shoot the adjective, not the noun” and here asks us to look not only at the subject but also what works with the subject, for example background or the way light is shaped on its way through a fence.
I can recommend this book – not as your first buy – but certainly as one of your more advanced books. I did not find this to be an easy read, but certainly a rewarding one, if you really dig in. If you don’t feel like buying this book, try following Bryan on Instagram – he really gives some good insights to “behind the scenes” for the images he posts.
The title is very precise when it comes to this book: photo basics. It is an introduction to the basics of photography, but a very good one, probably one of the best I have read. It strikes a very good balance between covering all aspects of the basics without diving into too much detail. However, this does not imply that it is only a book about basics – there is information for both the beginner and more advanced photographer, but it is also a condensed reading, so you may want to revisit some sections several times.
The book is divided into two parts: the basics and practicing the basics, with these two parts evenly split across the 254 pages. The book is packed with beautiful photos, and there are tips and challenges for both the beginner and the more advanced photographers.
Joel’s motto is “if it is not working for you, it is working against you” – an advice related to what you decide to put in your frame. I find that what Joel has put in this book is all working for me as a photographer, and hence I can recommend this book wholeheartedly. If I was new to photography and could only buy one book, this would be the one.
Short not-too-technical definition of the circle of confusion.
Lets say that a dot in reality is represented by a dot in your picture. Your eyes and brain in combination will form an opinion about how well the picture shows the dot, and if it is in focus or not. The shape and the size of the dot is the deciding factor.
Here is the thing: Your evaluation is not binary! In other words, you don’t make a “flip a switch” assessment, rather you accept some minor deviations in the way the dot is shown in your image. Sometimes the dot is spot on (he-he) and other times it is a bit oval or a bit larger that the real thing.
The interval in which you accept the dot to be sharp is known as the circle of confusion. Don’t ask me how this term came about, but the point is that accept small variations and still think of it as sharp.
It is the circle of confusion that gives us depth of field! The fact that minor variations in how the dot in reality is represented in the picture, gives us some wiggle room before and after the focus plane and this is exactly the DoF. Without a circle of confusion there would be no DoF!
Light diffuser defined and a few examples to illustrate the use.
A light diffuser is anything that spreads out the light to cover a larger area or space than it would otherwise. The point is to make the light source bigger relative to the subject – the bigger the light source is relative to the subject, the softer the light is.
If you shoot with flash sitting on your camera, a way to diffuse the light is simply to point the flash upwards or sideways, away from your subject, and let it bounce on the ceiling or wall, so these are now your light source and not the flash itself. You can also get a little white cap to put on your flash that in itself enlarges the area of the flash light, in case you don’t want to loose so much power in the light as you do when you bounce it against a wall.
If you are outdoor shooting at noon on a cloudless day, the sun makes very hard light, i.e. the transition from light to dark happens very suddenly and you only have extremely light and extremely dark and very few shades in between. If you diffuse the light from the sun by hanging a big white sheet between the sun and your subject, you will find that this diffuses the light greatly as the light source is now the entire sheet rather than a very, very small dot very far away (also known as the sun!).
Welcome to yet another lens review of yet another 50mm! I bought this lens used over at MPB.com for 139 EUR in September 2021. My reason for buying this lens despite the fact that I have the AF-D version, is that I am ever so slowly preparing to move to the Nikon mirrorless camera series, and the AF-S lens here will give me AF focus on the Z-mount as the motor is built into the lens body.
Build and appearance
The first that stuck me when unboxing the lens was how light it is – around 180 grams and hence 40 grams or so lighter than the AF-D version. On the other hand the G-lens is both taller and wider than the AF-D version. The lens is built in China and has a filter diameter of 58mm. Needless to say, there is no vibration reduction.
50mm AF-S lens to the left, 50mm AF-D lens to the right.
A nice deep lens hood is supplied with the lens and on top of this the front of the glass sits rather deep in the lens, which keeps it well protected from scratches and the like. The deep position in combination with the lens hood should effectively counter flare.
The lens hood is supplied with the lens.
There is no aperture ring – aperture has to be controlled from the camera body. Other than the focus ring, there only is a M/A to M switch, that allows you to switch between auto focus and manual focus, with manual override of the former as soon as you touch the focus ring. The lens mount is all metal as we like it, and there even is a small rubber gasket to dust seal the lens/camera interface (the lens is not weather sealed). There is a simple distance scale for both meters and feet, but the depth of field mark is only made for f/16.
Sharpness and contrast
Looking at the MTF chart that Nikon has provided, the center sharpness should be quite good, and decline towards the edges in a rather constant manner (blue line). Contrast on the other hand (red line) is a better story:
MTF chart from Nikon
This is of course only fully open as Nikon only reports the MTF charts for their lenses this way – as indicated by the f=1.8 bottom right of the graph.
I have done a bit of not-too-scientific testing with my Nikon D750 in base ISO, at 2 meters distance with manual focus, on a tripod tripod in aperture priority mode, and it confirms the above graph also for not-so-wide apertures. Contrast is very good but if you want sharpness in the corners, you have to stop down the lens to around f/5.6 or even a bit more before it compares to the center sharpness.
The “real world” image below is probably very difficult to see in details, but the corner sharpness for the same motive shot at 1.8 and 5.0 (right) yields very different results in quality: the left image is less sharp and along the middle stem you can also see a purple line on the right hand side, created by chromatic aberration. Mind you that this is zoomed in 300%, and most will never need to go into that level of detail or even see that there is a difference between the two images at normal zoom. But I did it here to illustrate the point that the lens is significantly softer and has more aberration in the corners wide open than stopped down.
A screen shot from Lightroom – the entire image top left, and to the right a zoomed in version with 1.8 left and 5.6 right.
Chromatic Aberrations
This lens will yield chromatic aberrations, especially wide open and especially in the corners. It is however, pretty well controlled and I have so far been able to remove it in Lightroom.
Purple and green aberrations along the pillars….
However, I did have to use the manual sliders to get the CA eliminated fully:
Autofocus
One of my reasons for staying clear of the 1.4 version of the 50mm AF-S lens is that it – other than being softer than this one – is reported to have a surprisingly slow auto focus, so slow that the AF-D version beats it! I am happy to say that the 1.8 version here has a fast AF as you would expect, maybe not sufficiently silent for videographers, but for most other uses I think you will love the fast and silent performance.
Also notice that this lens will give you auto focus on entry level cameras like the Nikon D5600 and it will also work fine on a mirrorless camera with an Nikon FTZ adapter.
Focus shift
My simple test of this lens where I focus manually at f/1.8, take a picture and then stop down to f/8 and take yet a picture, shows no focus shift between the two images. This is good news as the lens will focus well on a DSLR with a contrast detect focus system.
Focus breathing
The short of the long of it when it comes to focus breathing is: yes. And to such an extend that I think videographers should look elsewhere. Most others I think would not care and probably would not even notice.
Flare
Normally I test flare by taking my iPhone and shooting some light from the torch sideways into the lens, i.e. from a bit outside the angle of view. Due to the construction of the lens where the front of the glass is immersed, this has not been possible. So I instead used my iPhone to see if I could provoke some flare, and at f/1.8 I succeeded:
A bit of flare just to the left of the iPhone (green dot)
However, I find this to be pretty well controlled. You can see the coating of the glass makes the flare appear green and very dampened. Mind you however, that my reference point is how Nikkor vintage lenses produce flare, so my reference point may be a bit skewed.
Sun stars
This lens comes with rounded aperture blades and 7 of them. Normally I am not a big fan of rounded blades as it gives odd looking sun stars. But Nikon has somehow managed to find a good compromise here so the sun stars do look quite ok if you ask me. It is of course a matter of taste.
The 7 blades gives 14 peaks in the sun star here, made by the iPhone torch
Bokeh
The bokeh when the lens is fully open at f/1.8 is a bit to the oval side, which always surprises me as the lens is a round as round can be. However, this is what I get when shooting my coffee with a few lightbulbs in the background:
Bokeh at f/1.8
When I stop down the lens to f/2.2, I get completely round and beautiful bokeh:
Bokeh at f/2.2
I have absolutely no complaints here and think that Nikon – as so often before -have done a great job here.
Conclusion and recommendation
This is a very good lens taking the price point of 239 EUR used into consideration. But its performance in terms of corner sharpness may be something for you to consider, especially if you want to use this as a fast lens.
If you want a technically much more perfect lens to use on Z-mount cameras, I have seen the Nikkor Z 50mm f/1.8 S used over at MPB.com for 479 EUR, i.e. double the price. But then you get one of the best affordable 50mm lenses made so far – the reviews I have read of this lens are really praising it’s performance.
If built in AF motor is not that important to you, the 1.4 AF-D version could be a more budget friendly alternative at 194 EUR. It is also a faster lens, and the AF performance (other than being more noisy) will be at par with the reviewed lens for most Nikon DSLRs. But mind you that this option does not give auto focus on Nikon entry level DSLRs like the 3×00 and 5×00, nor on a Nikon Z mount camera with the FTZ adapter.
What about?
There are a few things that I do not cover in a review, that you may have missed, so I mention it here:
Color rendition is not covered, simply because it is subjective and difficult to test systematically. I will say that if you in general like the way Nikon glass renders colors, this lens will not disappoint you.
Distortion is not covered – this can for most modern lenses be corrected in post processing so this is less of an issue if you ask me. Of course annoying if you are a real estate photographer, but it really is easy to fix in post.
